Critical Reception
The Era praised the production and the music for their unusual refinement, but found the libretto inadequate: "Messrs. Stephens and Yardley … have aimed at decorum, and succeeded in hitting dulness." The paper went so far as to write of "the vapid, wishy-washy, flatulent quality of the stuff they have manufactured between them." Nonetheless, the music, the staging and the performances adequately compensated, and made it "a capital evening's entertainment." Other critics, including that of The Theatre, were more favourably disposed towards the libretto, and in agreement with The Era about the excellence of the music, the production and the performers. The Graphic wrote, "A company equally strong for the representation of pieces of this class has rarely if ever been assembled. ... A prettier spectacle to behold, from the opening rustic ballet down to the marvellous scenic changes of the escape from Newgate, is certainly nowhere to be seen."
Read more about this topic: Little Jack Sheppard
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reception:
“Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest.... It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to think in terms of emotions and sensations.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)