All the critics did not decry the opera. Writing of _I Masnadieri_ the _Illustrated London News_ said of it:--"The story is in many respects a horrible one; it represents passions and crimes which, if they are unhappily not untrue to human nature, are yet better excluded from theatrical representation, and cannot be considered as within the scope of the tragic art; with all this, however, for the groundwork of an opera it is exceedingly effective, and admirably suited to the character of Verdi's music, which is here dramatic in the extreme, and somewhat excels the masterpieces of Meyerbeer and other composers of the German "Romantic School" of music.... The opera was highly successful. The talented _maestro_, on appearing in the orchestra to conduct his clever work, was received with three rounds of applause. He was called before the curtain after the first and third acts, and at the conclusion of the opera amidst the most vehement applause. The house was crowded to excess, and was honoured by the presence of Her Majesty and Prince Albert, the Queen-Dowager, and the Duchess of Cambridge."[27]
_I Masnadieri_ gave the leaders of public musical taste another chance--a legitimate opportunity which they did not fail to embrace. The opera was one of those decided failures which occur betimes in every walk of art, very often giving the lie direct to the maker's estimate of his work. Gounod, for instance, used constantly to express, and has done so within our hearing, that _Mireille_ was his best opera. Yet the public has set its seal upon _Faust_, a work that has brought more money to impresarial coffers than any other opera that could be instanced. Who has heard _Mireille_, compared with the thousands who have listened to the beautiful and picturesque music of _Faust_, elevating in its very loveliness? _I Masnadieri_, to quote the _Athenæum_, "at all events, must increase Signor Verdi's discredit with every one who has an ear. We take it to be the worst opera which has been given in our time at Her Majesty's Theatre.... There is not one grand concerted piece--a condition hard upon a composer whose only originality has been shown in his concerted music.... The performance must be recorded as the failure of a work which richly deserved to fail, in spite of much noisy applause."[28] "Since our last," continued the _Athenæum_ in a subsequent notice, "_I Masnadieri_ has been played and sang twice. Surely the question of our good (or bad) taste in rejecting _Il Maestro_ as an authority is finally settled, and the field is left open for an Italian composer. Signor Verdi has left England."