'Auk an te Pram,
Ma. Gm commenced his seventeenth season on Tuesday with a splendid performance of his last and all but greatest revival, Diasaniello. With the capabilities of his theatre, and the enor- mous resources at his command, modern grand opera is clearly the line in which he can easily defy rivalry, not only in London, but throughout Europe, and Masaniello, perhaps, shows off these advantages to the best possible effect. The spectacle may not be BO pompous and imposing as that of Le Prophke; but cer- tainly nothing ever put on the stage can surpass the "Market Scene for diversified gaiety of colour and animation. Startling, too, as is the rapidity with which the market, the "tarantella," the repulse of the soldiery by a shower of vegetable missiles, and the celebrated prayer, succeed each other, the transitions are as admimblr managed on the stage as they are by Auber in the
score or by Costa in the orchestra. The performance was in most respects much the same as those of last season. Signor Naudin, a rising tenor who appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre last season with some success, is substituted for Signor Mario in the part of the hero. No serious fault is to be found with Signor Naudin's performance, but certainly if Mario gave up the part, one would have thought Tamberlik his natural successor. Madlle. Salvioni's impersonation of the mute heroine, Fenella, is as admirable as ever. Carefully avoiding the besetting temptation of the character, the tendency to rely too much on pantomimic action as the exclusive means for the expression of the various emotions, Madame Salvioni carefully confines herself to supple- menting the task of the orchestra, and with exquisite art carries out, without exaggeration, everything implied in Auber's music. Altogether, unless any one of Mr. Gye's promised revivals has a very decided success, Masaniello will be still the great feature ot the coming season, as it was of the latter half of last.
At the other theatres, Easter has been marked by the pro-
duction of rather less than the usual number of burlesques and extravaganzas. Mr. Byron, in spite of the shortness of the breathing time allowed him since the pantomime season, has produced two or three fresh specimens of his powers of analysis and synthesis of words in every distorted combination of syllables in which the sharpest ear can detect any possible resemblance to the Queen's English. Mr. Burnand, too, has produced a classical burlesque—Ads and Galatea—at the Olympic, which though extremely well put on the stage, and cleverly acted, is written in the same style of astounding verbal tours de force. Really, the principle that a pun is laughable on account of its very bad- ness is presumed upon to far too great an extent nowadays. Thomas Hood only attempted one pun for every two lines throughout his incomparable comic ballads, and Messrs. Byron and Burnand are certainly not equal to a pun a line throughout every burlesque they write. A. dozen puns in which there was the slightest connection, incongruous or otherwise, between the subjects of each pun, would more than compensate for the loss of hundreds of such as crowd All Baba at the Strand, or Effie Deans at the St. James's. it really requires a very small extension of the system to expect one to laugh because any two words with the barest possible association of ideas begin and end with the same letter. Indeed, ordinary rhymes, if they are only bad enough, must be accounted puns at this rate. Mr. Burnand is the less hardened sinner of the two authors whom I have named, and the Olympic burlesque con- sequently contains a larger proportion of wit, as distinguished from mere punning.
A clever adaptation from the French, by Mr. H. Wigan, has
obtained a considerable amount of success during a run of a fortnight or three weeks at the Olympic. Taming the Truant is the title, and the plot consists in the complete cure of a husband of a desire for romantic adventure by his wife, aided by a widow, whose experience has been gained by watching similar symptoms in her deceased husband. The piece turns, as all of its kind do, upon all sorts of complicated love-making, jealousy, cross purposes, disguises and hiding behind curtains, and contains a good deal of practical fun of not too broad a kind. The dialogue, much of which is extremely witty, is clearly translated direct from the original Le Papillon, and its general tone is to inculcate, with characteristic French levity of sarcasm, the startling notion that there is nothing inherently impossible, after all, in the idea that men may sometimes be happy with their Wives. The piece is very well acted ; Mr. Neville, as the husband ; Miss Latimer, as the wife ; Mr. H. Wigan, as a blundering, moon-struck, elderly cousin, being all well suited. Miss Hughes, as the widow who manages all the intrigue of the story, was ex- tremely clever, though her excessive laughter on the least occasion is slightly objectionable. There only remains one thing to be said about Taming the Truant. When a piece is adapted from the French, and when Fiend' ideas, habits, and style of conversation are so thoroughly retained in the adaptation, it would surely be better to retain the French characters too. The English names of the characters constantly give an air of unreality to what would seem nature itself if laid in a French scene.
The Monday Popular Concerts are to be resumed on Monday next, Mr. Charles Halld's benefit being announced for that evening, M. Vieuxtemps being expressly engaged for the occasion. As might be supposed, the greater portion of the instrumental programme is selected from the works of Beethoven.
Miss Banks and Miss Eyles are to be the vocalists. AMATEUR.
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