Excerpt from Martha, or the Fair at Richmond: A Comic Romantic Opera in Four Acts

The history of Flotow's. Martha, the ever popular, as it has come to. Be called in England, is full of incident, but does not appear ever to have been correctly set down in all its details. The hand-books disagree hopelessly as to t-itles, dates and performers. Who sang_ the role of Lz'ozzc/ at the first perform? Ance of the opera in Vienna? The lexicons say herr'ander; the widow of the composer, who wrote his biography ten years after his death, says Erl. The latter was a popular singer at the, Court Opera Ill 1847, at the zenith of his career and the height of his powers; the former was still a novice on the stage and ten years Erl's junior. I have, therefore, accepted the statement of the widow.of the composer, although she did not become his wife until twenty-one years after the original production of the opera and may not' have written from original information. Who sang the part of Nancy when the opera was given for the first time in its Italian garb in Paris? The Dictionnaire des Operas, by Clement and Larousse, says it. Was Madame nantier-didiee; Flotow's biog rapher says it was Marietta Alboni. One book gives the title of the French ballet which provided Flotow with his story as Lady Henriette, ou 1a Foire de Richmond; another as Lady Harriette, ou 1a Servante de Greenwich. So among the German titles oi-the opera we find Marth'a, oder der Markt zu Richmond, and also Martha, oder der M'zigdemarkt zu Richmond; yet Martha is a German opera, and its correct title ought not to have caused bewilderment.

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