paucity of talent; the company was per-al anxiety at the marriage of his child, fect and fully equal to perform with ability whom he can hardly bear to part with, and success any of these operas. The were performed as Farren alone can perlist contained 'Il Bravo,' 'Le Due Illustre form it. Harley's Trappanti was perfect; Rivale,' 'Gemma di Vergy,' 'I Briganti,' and Mrs. Nisbett, as Hypolyta, was most 'I Capuletti e Montecchi,' 'La Vestale,' effective. Mr. and Mrs. W. Lacy, and 'Chi la Dura la Vince,' and 'La Clemenza Mrs. Orger, acquitted themselves creditdi Tito.' The season commenced with ably; and the scenic appointments and Viardot Garcia and Mario, to these follow- Spanish costumes, contributed not a little ed the unrivalled Grisi, Persiani, Rubini, to the success of this charming comedy. and Lablache, aided by Tamburini, Signor Mr. Mark Lemon's new five-act comedy Bassani, and Mdlle. Lowe. The latter of 'What will the World say?' has been made her débût about the middle of the received with the most flattering marks of season, and was eminently successful as success owing to the inimitable acting of La Straniera, Elvira, and Elena; her act- Mr. Farren and the beauty of the scenery ing is of the highest order, but her upper and costumes, for the plot is ill-constructnotes have not sufficient power to fill the ed, and the characters with the exception Italian Opera House. To speak of the of Captain Tarradiddle (Farren), are mere other talented artistes engaged would be shadows; a want of vigorous detail, as superfluous, their merits are known to the well as exciting incident is apparent throughout, but judiciously compressed The ballet department has been most into three acts there is little doubt but this The

world.

efficiently managed. Mdlle. Cerito more farce would become a favourite. than compensated for the absence of Fan- chief incidents are these:-Warner (Mr. ny Elssler. When she appeared in Lon- Bartley), a merchant and money-lender, don she was unknown to fame; she has learns that his daughter, Lucy de Vere risen by her own merits to the highest state (Miss Cooper), who was left at Paris in of public favour; her charming buoyancy, the care of her aunt, has been married her smiling happy expression of counte- clandestinely to the Hon. Chas. Norwold nance aroused the admiring audiences to (J. Vining), the eldest son of a nobleman, loud bursts of applause. Late in the season and had engaged herself as governess in the delightful Taglioni reappeared, nor his father's family, until the impudence of must we pass over Mdlle. Guy Stephan, a vulgar footman led to the discovery of who has succeeded in establishing her- her marriage, when she and her husband self as an especial favourite at Her Majes- (the son) are discarded from Lord Norty's Theatre. wold's dwelling. Warner has a ward,

COVENT GARDEN. - Three important Miss Marian Mayley, (Mrs. W. Lacy,) events have occurred during the past who is excessively vain, and intends marmonth, to cheer the drooping spirits of rying any one who will make her, her ladythe public. A delightful change in the ship, but she has seen Mr. Pye Hilary (Mr. weather gladdens the heart of the agri- Charles Matthews), a young barrister, at culturist. The dismissal of an im- the opera, and subsequently meets him in becile administration has given general the park, and permits him to call on her satisfaction; and the re-opening of this at her house with a favourite canary, charming theatre, graced with the smil- which her maid reported had flown away. ing faces of Mrs. Charles Matthews Mr. Pye Hilary has met with a half-pay and Mrs. Nisbett, are sufficient to re-captain, Tarradiddle (Farren), whose comstore the most morose to good hu-pany he is bound to endure, and who bemour. The company is the same as last comes his confidant. Warner enters the year, with the exception of the tragic per- room while Mr. Hilary and his friend the formers, Miss E. Tree, Moore, Anderson, captain are returning the truant canary, and Mrs. Warner; Keeley is the only ir- and bows them out of his house in consereparable loss. The first novelty of the quence of his taking Tarradiddle to be a season was the revival of Cibber's 'She swindler. Hilary subsequently meets the would and She would not,' which has been merchant, who is in search of his daughreceived with very warm and hearty ap- ter and her husband, and explains who he plause. Farren, as the fond old father, is, and by assisting Warner in his search Don Manuel, invested the character with he is admitted into favour. Mr. Hilary a truth and fulness, that brought down finds the son and daughter in the abode frequent plaudits; his reception of the of Captain Tarradiddle, who has thrown impostor, and his alternate joy and parent. off his military coat and smokes his German pipe, while his wife (Mrs. Humby), is engaged in her domestic duties (ironing). The merchant, Warner, has now to curb the proud Lord Norwold and his extravagant lady (Mrs. Glover), the latter is secured by threatening exposure of the money he has lent on her jewels, and the proud lord is informed that Warner is his elder brother, supposed dead, which is

wears the mask of study. Mrs. Stirling, Miss P. Horton, and Miss Charles, are the leaders of the sport, and are delighted with three young officers, who are quartered in the neighbourhood, and who, hearing that one young lady has fifty thousand pounds, and having little to do, write love-letters to them. The officers, B. Webster, F. Vining, and J. Webster,

confirmed by the possession of a family introduce themselves in the disguise of bracelet. The son and daughter are then masters, and proceed to instruct their recognised, and the barrister is permitted pupils, not in writing, dancing, or geograto wed the merchant's fair ward. There phy, but in making love, during the abis a considerable share of farcical fun, and sence of the school-mistress, who is sent several 'cute remarks which call forth loud out of the way by a fictitious letter from applause. Mr. Bartley, Mr. Charles Ma- the Earl of Aldgate; on her return an thews and Mrs. Glover contributed great- outcry is raised, but the officers escape ly towards the success of the piece; Mrs. W. Lacy did not please us, Mrs. Nisbett would have been more successful in the character.

A new ballet of action, entitled 'Hans of Iceland,' has been well received; the scenery is (as it ever is at this theatre) very beautiful. A new comic opera, by Rooke, is in the hands of the fair lessee, and will be speedily produced.

HAYMARKET THEATRE. -The public are much indebted to Mr. Webster for the revival of those beautiful tragedies, which opened the eyes of the world to the matchless talent of the great tragedian, Macready. Virginius' and 'William Tell'

by a window, and return shortly afterwards in their uniform, to inquire if the depredators have been secured. They are then ordered off to Cornwall by their Major, and the farce ends somewhat confusedly. Mrs. W. Clifford, as Mrs. Grosdenap, is the very model of a demure stately school-mistress. Miss Charles, as the sentimental young lady, contrasted well with the lively Mrs. Stirling and Miss Horton. Massinger's play of the 'City Madam,' reduced to three acts, has been produced under the title of 'Riches;' but the extravagant incidents in the plot were sufficient to mar all the fine acting which Macready, as Luke, displayed. The con

S. Troughton, entitled 'Nina Sforza, will be produced as soon as Miss Helen Fawcit shall have recovered from her present indisposition.

have been produced, and afford a strong trast in the character is too great to apinstance of the perfection to which the pear natural, and 'Bichee' has been judidramatic art may be brought. To enu-ciously laid aside. A new tragedy, by J. merate all the beauties of the great actor's performance in these two plays, would be a task of great dificulty, abounding, as it does, with the most perfect touches of nature. Miss Helen Faucit's Virginia was a faultless piece of acting, and James Wallack's Icilius is deserving of much praise, although the part is not suited to his peculiar talent. King Lear,' 'King John, 'Henry the Eighth,' and several other Shakspearian plays, are in preparation. The best hit this season, with the exception of Foreign Affairs,' in which Mademoiselle Celeste performs the Count

DRURY-LANE. - The concerts D'Eté are now drawing to a close, after a very successful career. The musical novelties have been the overture to Auber's 'Diamans dela Couronne,' Jullien's Irish Quadrilles, and Strauss's 'Bouquet des Dames.' The introduction of Living Statues, now called 'Tableaux vivans, however creditable they are to the taste of Mr. F. Gye, jun., should not, in our opinion, be mixed

Louis, is the new farce, by Mr. Bernard, up with the musical entertainment; they of 'The Boarding School,' conveying a should form part of the amusements of the keen satire on the mode of education and evening, between the first and second internal arrangement of many of these parts of the programme. 'La Quadrille establishments. The young ladies' school de Vénus, introducing five tableaux viis first seen in formal procession; next vantes, by living artists, represented, first, the play-ground is shown, where romping the Birth of Venus; then, Venus attired and mischief are the order of the day; by the Graces; thirdly, Mars and Venus; and next we are introduced to the school- fourthly, Vulcan forging the Arrows of room, where knowledge is administered Cupid; and concluding with the Judgin homeopathic doses, and each facement of Paris. These tableaux, which are grouped after the models of the antique | cretic friends imagine that the sublime statuary, are not merely classically con- and beautiful in language consists in wrapceived, but well executed, the illusion ping up a mean thought, like a dry mumapparently producing a pleasing and satis- my, in endless swathes of metaphor? Do factory effect upon the audience. The they believe that the feelings and emosubjects have been now changed to Her- tions of the heart are best expressed by cules and Cacus, Belisarius, Murder of verbose figures and inflated bombast? If the Innocents, the Gladiator, and the Bath they do, they deceive themselves egregiof Apollo. ously. The language of nature is deep,

Mr. Macready has already secured a but clear; its loftiness is the elevation of powerful company for Drury-Lane, both mind, and not of sound. The author in tragedy and in opera. For the former, Anderson, Moore, Vandenhoff, Phelps, F. Vining, Wallack, Miss Helen Faucit, Mrs. Warner, &c. &c.; and for the opera, Miss Romer, Miss P. Horton, Miss Poole, H. Phillips, Giubilei, Wilson, Allen, Templeton, &c. Mr. and Mrs. Keeley are also engaged. The chorus will be well selected, and under the able direction of Mr. Land. Mr. and Mrs Wood are also talked of.

seems also to be strangely deficient in the technicalities of the stage, and we think his forte is poetry rather than the drama. The tragedy has been considerably curtailed, and has been performed to scanty audiences. The after pieces which have been produced are a disgrace to the committee of the Dramatic Authors' Society. So much for the vaunted test!

The English Opera House opens under the able management of M. Laurent, with

ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE. The Syncre- a Promenade Concert, on 30th September, tics, or rather, the Dramatic Authors' So- and will be conducted by the celebrated ciety, induced Mr. Stephens to engage Musard. The picturesque conducteur has a tragic company at his own expense, for laid aside the baton; at this house we the purpose of testing, on the stage, the shall only see, in the conductor, the muactable qualities of his Martinuzzi, taken from his dramatic poem of the 'HungaSTRAND THEATRE. - This pretty little rian Daughter,' convinced that Mr. Web- theatre has been the most attractive, and ster and Madame Vestris had acted un- most deservedly successful minor theatre justly in declining this piece. The tra- in London. The excellence of the pieces,

gedy has been effectively performed by Phelps, Mrs. Warner, Elton, and Miss Maywood; and the result has been, a verdict in favour of the able and discriminating managers of Covent Garden and the Haymarket.

sician.

the well-selected talent of the performers, and the able management of Mr. H. Hall, have secured a rarity at this period of the year, viz. crowded houses. The Devil and Dr. Faustus,' the 'Frolics of the Fairies,' and 'Aldgate Pump,' have proved to

،

'Martinuzzi' is founded on an import- be of endless attraction; but the acces. ant passage in the history of Hungary, sion of Mr. Keeley to the company effectdiversified by certain incidents of an ima-ed the reproduction of Selby's 'Lady and ginative character, but still sufficiently Gentleman in a peculiar predicament,' close to actual fact as to create no dis- and a new farce, in two acts, by the aucrepancy in the story, and no falsification thor of 'Aldgate Pump,' entitled, 'The of what is required by rigid veracity. Bump of Benevolence, which forms a It has been justly remarked that the powerful satire on the science of phrenoconduct of the piece is all through strik- logy. Mrs. Keeley, as Barbara, kept the ingly faulty; the most attentive observer house in continual laughter. Mr. Keeley,

as Grey, a country lad, had little to do. Mrs. Keeley has been very successful in Punch. Her imitations are excellent.

THE QUEEN'S THEATRE has been redecorated, and the entrance has been much

would be unable to collect anything like a clear idea of the plot until the fourth act. Up to this time the characters walk about in strong agonies of remorse, ha tred, love, and jealousy, without deigning to afford the audience any clue to the improved. A new drama, entitled The causes or objects of their soul-tearing Red Mantle, has been successful, owing passions; or if they do betimes attempt to the good scenery. Mr. Stirling's to tell us what it is all about,' they make Rubber of Life has been produced; but their communications in such turgid and the most attractive performance has been

6

entangled similes, that their explanations only tend to make the mystery still more profound. Do Mr. Stephens and his Syn

Barnaby Rudge. Several novelties are
said to be in preparation.
ADELPHI THEATRE. - Mr. Yates is pre-

paring for the ensuing campaign. The shelves, because similar in expression, while it

theatre opens on the 4th instant (October), with new pieces, and several additions to the company from the provincial theatres

have been made.

would have brought no increase to our thoughts. It might have looked as good as Massinger, because his forms were imitated, but it would

The Operatic Society, under the management of a committee, consisting of Mr. R. Hughes, J. H. Tully, F. N. Crouch, them, for while they spoke from their own

T. H. Severn, G. Purdy, and several other distinguished amateurs, intend performing once a week during the winter, at one of the minor theatres. We trust this laudable undertaking, to establish a national opera, may succeed.

Sir George Smart, who is ever ready in the cause of humanity, has been the means of obtaining £430 for the family of

the late Mr. William.

The Norwich Musical Festival next year will be unusually brilliant, Spohr having engaged to compose a new oratorio, the Fall of Babylon, which is to be pro

duced for the time at that Festival:

the words will be selected by Professor Taylor, of whose superior judgment there can be but one opinion.

Mr. and Mrs. Wood, and Mr. Brough, a bassist, have arrived in this country, and are engaged to appear at Liverpool on 5th October.

The Gloucester Festival must be considered as a decided failure, the receipts amounting only to £532, for the four days' performance at the Cathedral.

have been inferior to a very humble work, Greene's Friar Bungay, because the freshness would not be there; the very act of imitating early dramatists shows that we are not akin to sources, we are inquiring how other people imitate an age, the more unlike it we are in express our thoughts. The more we mind, though we have attained a formal resemblance. We want a drama that shall spring from present thoughts, from present views, that shall reflect ourselves in some manner, though the scene be not laid in present times:-that in a word shall strike home. In the present state thize, but is there really a deep chord struck? of our drama we may admire, we may sympa

Have we characters that shall absorb ourselves as the heroes of Calderon with their Castilian honour would have absorbed a courtier of Philip IV.? or, to go to a modern continental work, have we a work that shall go to the core as the ' of Oehlenschlaeger would to the heart of an artist. The drama may remain

،

Corregio

poetical, ingenious, a demonstration of a cultivated mind, but till it really springs from the present as from an independent basis, it will be no symbol of advance in the history of humanity."

The Musical Antiquarian Society have published two more highly interesting works, "The First Set of Madrigals Composed by John Wilbye in the Sixteenth Century," and Dido and Æneas, an opera composed by Henry Purcell in 1675,

The rapid decline of the Drama has been commented on by numerous writers; when only nineteen years of age, who as more particularly in the "Monthly Re- a boy in the Chapel Royal, and afterwards view," and by the Syncretic Society: as the organist of Westminster Abbey, but it is seldom we meet with any re- derived his early impressions and his mamarks so true, so forcible, and yet so lu- turer knowledge of his art from the cid, as the following:

"If we look round among our dramatists we shall find men of poetry, men of feeling, men of

Church. To the employment of music on the stage he must have been almost a stranger; for although his celebrated contemdramatic composer, yet the construction porary Lock had been employed

as a

wit, men of taste, men of the highest education, but we do not find a drama really striking the root into the soil of the present century, and of such a work as Dido and Æneas must bringing forth fruit in consequence, as in the early have been to Purcell a novel and an exages of the drama of every country. In general, perimental labour. At the time of its apthe writers of our age rather shun the modern pearance in 1675, the opera of Italy was complexion; the most feeling and poetical of in its infancy; and, judging from the spethem all chooses to speak in the language of cimens of it which have reached us ante

Elizabeth; one, who is not appreciated as he

deserves to be, aims at the time of the second cedent to the appearance of Dido and Charles and Anne. Had the play of George Eneas, its author could have derived little Stephens, produced at the Lyceum, been con- assistance from these, even if he had been structed with more tact, had it been pruned of able to examine them. The opera, which some of its disfiguring metaphors, and had it previously existed only in manuscript, is in consequence been perfectly and deservedly edited by Mr. Macfarren, who has supsuccessful, he would doubtless have imagined a point had been gained. No such thing: the plied the divisions into acts and scenes, drama would have been, after all, but a clever as well as descriptions of the scenes, and imitation of earlier writers, but an addition to other stage directions.

scores in the same strain already on our book- Wilbye's Madrigals have been carefully

of the pupil's ultimate proficiency will depend upon the communication of the first principles by an experienced master; for most amateurs are destroyed in the outset,

edited by Mr. Turle, who states that the present edition has been scored from the original set, substituting such clefs asare now used for those which have become obsolete, and adopting the G clef through- by not pursuing a regular plan of study,

out for the treble voices. This plan is to be followed in all the subsequent publications of the Society.

and eradicating the natural defects of their voices."

The Motett Society has been established for the purpose of reprinting selections of STANDARD CHURCH MUSIC; the difficulty of obtaining sacred music has long been felt by the public, who will now have an opportunity of obtaining these reprints at a cheap rate, by a subscription of one guinea to the Society.

One of the handsomest presents for this period of the year is the new musical annual, nearly ready for publication, by Jeffreys and Nelson. "The Queen's Boudoir" for 1842, will contain some beautiful illustrations in the Arabesque style, and a large collection of original music and poetry. If the work is equal to the one published last year, it is deserving of a very extensive sale.

The first, and till now the sole edition of Wilbye's first set of Madrigals, was published in 1598; and, according to the universal practice, in six separate books. The process of reducing these to score is a tedious and laborious one. Bars were unknown, and our ancestors delighted in an accumulation of clefs; three being used for the treble voice, and, as far as appears, merely according to the whim of the composer; two for the bass; the usual C clefs for the altos and tenor; and sometimes, in the five and six-part Madrigals, others for the quintus and sextus parts. In every way the notation is as bewildering to modern eyes as possible. The few copies that remain of the old sets are, to the multitude, like books In 'Twelfth Night,' in the scene where written in short-hand, which skill and the Clown, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and practice only can render legible. Even Sir Toby Belch, act 2, scene the 3d, are the most practised eyes would despair of singing catches, or rather fragments of being able to use them for singing. Then catches, there is one "To whom drinke the keys in which they are printed are thou, Sir Knave?" The whole of this often not the keys in which they were in- will be found in a curious old musical tended to be sung. Sometimes a whole work entitled, "Pammelia Musicks Misset will be printed in the same key. cellanie, or mixed varietie of pleasant These, by examining and comparing the Roundelayes and delightful Catches, of several parts of each, have to be trans- 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 parts. London, 1609, posed into keys suited to the compass of page 7." Malone supposes Shakspeare their respective voices. The madrigal wrote Twelfth Night in the year 1614, if then assumes its perfect state and form, so, this old work may be considered as and out of the apparent chaos arises a containing the original catch; it begins, composition symmetrical in all its parts

and fair in all its proportions.

"A Treatise on the Art of Singing in the Italian and English Styles, with Examples, &c.," by F. W. Horncastle.-R. Mills. This work is one of the most excellent on the art of singing extant, and the author justly remarks :

"Now God be with old Simeon."

'A hint to Singers.'-In one of the Harleian MSS. is related an anecdote of Mr. Joseph Dring, a young gentleman of Hart Hall, who sang a song articulately, 'ore patulo,' (wide-mouthed), and all in octaves,' so very strongly, and yet without much straining, that he equalled, if not excelled, the loudest organ. He per

"There is as much philosophy in singing well, as in cultivating successfully any formed this in the lower part of his throat, of the arts: because the exercise of judg- and it came on him at first upon 'overment, acuteness, perseverance, and watch- straining his voice.' Many musical peoful observation, is quite as necessary to a ple can remember Richard Randall, a chovocalist who aims at excellence, as to the rus singer at the old Ancient Concerts, natural philosopher or the man of science. who boasted that he broke a pane of glass "The human voice has many peculiari- in the hall of Trinity College, Cambridge, ties greatly dependent upon the tempera- by the concussion of his harsh-stentorian ment of the individual; therefore much voice!