No man ever wrote the history of his losses in
the same amiable temper that Mr. EBERS has done in his Seven Years of' the King's Theatre. This good-humoured work is a very agreeable collec-
tion of anecdotes of the Opera and its management during several seasons while under Mr. EBERS'S direction ; and though the money sunk seems to have been enormous, he details the particulars of his annual loss of five thousand pounds with the gaiety which might have been expected as the result of a balance entirely the other way. The King's Theatre and the Court of Chancery are inseparably
connected : Mr. EBERS therefore duly begins with the history of that baneful liaison. We learn all about Taylor and Waters and Waters and Taylor, and Waters and Chambers and Chambers and all the rest of the parties : nevertheless, with all this history, we are unable to explain the advertisement we observed in the Times
of Wednesday morning, that the legal estate of the theatre still remains vested in the Executors of William Taylor, Esq., deceased, principal proprietor at the time of his death. Is the ghost of Wil- liam Taylor risen to play off one of his old hoaxes, and to throw everything into confusion, and to perplex every body with whom he was connected, as was his wont while in the flesh ? We had supposed, from Mr. EBERS'S account, that the property was sold under an order of the Court of Chancery in 1816, and that it now lay solely in the assignees of Mr. Chambers. Mr. Taylor had the art of entangling and ravelling in so surprising a degree, that it is not impossible that when the knot is tied Mr. Chambers may be found to have the wrong end of the string. Mr. EBERS says of Taylor, that "it was impossible to do anything for him. It seemed his delight to involve himself, and as much as it was pos- sible to perplex others. He quarrelled with every body, ridiculed every body, and hoaxed every body. In 1807, his interest in the theatre had been seized under a legal process ; and for many years he had never lived out of the rules of the Bench. How can you conduct the management of the King's Theatre,' I said to him one day, perpetually in durance as you are ? " My dear fellow,' he replied, how could I possibly conduct it if I were at liberty ? I should be eaten up, Sir, devoured. Here comes a dancer—Mr. Taylor, I want such a dress : another—I want such an ornament : one singer demands to sing in a part not allotted to him, another to have an addition to his appointments. No—let me be shut up, and they go to Masterson (Taylor's Secretary): he, they are aware, cannot go beyond his line ; but if they get at me—pshaw ! no man at large can manage that theatre; and in faith,' added he, 'no man that undertakes it ought to go at large.'" " Mr. Taylor," continues Mr. EBERS, " was as little regardful of the rules of the King's Bench as of any other rules which stood in the way of his inclination. He would frequently, whilst living in them, steal off into the country, and spend days in fishing—an amusement of which he was very fond." (Fishing in hot water, we presume.) " I remember his having by some means got hold of a considerable sum of money, which he laid out in a county af- fording opportunities for his favourite pursuit. Here he went and lived, and drank, and fished, till at the end of two or three months the officers of the law hooked him, and reconveyecl him to his ac- customed habitation. He actually went down to Hull on one occasion, at the time of an election, and stood for the borough, but was not returned. He was absent for some weeks on this expedition."
Waters had made a large fortune in New South Wales : he now, poor man! dwells in Calais. Mr. Chambers is a bank- rupt, and Mr. Ebers is ruined. How Mr. Taylor lived hao been seen: Mr. G-oold, a gentleman of family- and fortune, whd bought a great part of Mr. Taylor's property in the theatre, an- whose executor Waters was, died in a few years after his cons nexion with this house of anxiety and vexation. The contrast between Waters and Taylor, whom chance threw together, is very amusing "Waters was a pietist, and piqued himself on the decorum of his conduct ; Taylor was as disregardful of forms as the .other was mindful of them. Waters would attend to no business on the Sabbath ; Taylor had reasons for preferring that to any other day. Nothing could be effected by bringing them together, for Taylor grew passionate and scurrilous, and the breach became wider."
During Mr. Ebers's management, the receipts were considerable, the support warm and effective : why then did he lose ? The first year of his engagement, the receipts amounted to thirty-two thousand pounds and upwards. This appears a sum ample enough to spend upon a theatre open for about half the year twice a week. Nevertheless, the expenses amounted to upwards of thirty-nine thousand pounds : the ballet alone cost ten thousand six hundred pounds. In the second year, the receipts amounted to forty-one thousand five hundred and eight pounds ; but then the - expenditure was forty-six thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
i
It s very clear that the aristocracy neither can nor will pay for this ' fashionable pleasure ; the plan, therefore, is to find some disinterested individual to suffer for them. They are willing to flatter him by their condescension : they preside over his com- mittees, and direct what performers he is to engage, and commu- nicate to him the manner in which he may spend- his money most to their satisfaction. Mr. EBERS had the honour to spend his first forty thousand pounds under the direction of five individuals of high rank and fine taste ; and he is far too courteous a person to complain. It is, however, but justice to say, that on more than one occasion several noblemen have come forward to purchase the theatre, and take the responsibility on themselves : this, it is said, has been prevented by the legal involvements of the house. Pecuniary loss is not the only vexation a manager of the Opera has to endure. The sweet creatures of whom Mr. EBERS gives such charming descriptions, were always quarrelling either with their parts or with one another : they were as difficult to be caught as birds ; and when caged, sometimes they would, and sometimes they would not sing. Then, they never would pay the expenses of their benefit ; and it was often with the greatest difficulty that they could be made to accept immense sums of money to stay in the country at all. "In December," says Mr. Ebers, " I con- cluded an agreement with Madame Anatole, who had become a great favourite during the previous season, for eight hundred and twenty-five pounds for three months, to commence in the middle of the season ; her husband consenting to this sacrifice, as he called it, on account of the greater sati sjiiction of living in London during this period than at any other part of the season." Oh the coxcomb !—how was a manager to avoid braining a ballet-master of such insufferable conceit ? Camporese, the accomplished singer, had a salary of fifteen hundred and fifty pounds the season : she proposed retiring to Rome ; induced, however, to remain one season more, she consented to receive nineteen hundred pounds for her sacrifice. What with sacrifices of this kind and sacrifices of other kinds, the harvest of these singers must make up alto- gether a particularly agreeable store for the evening of life—to be spent at Naples, where it costs a beggar one penny per day to live comfortably ; or elsewhere. Mr. Waters, in a pamphlet he pub- lished, gives the total amount received by Catalani in one year, 1807, from the Opera, concerts, &c., as sixteen thousand and seven hundred pounds : a first-rate ballet-dancer receives twelve hun- dred pounds sometimes, only for a couple of months ; and the most ludicrous part of the matter is, that the French Government makes a great fuss about parting with them, and all sorts of nego- tiations go on before the Administration will let us have a set of dancers, though we are willing to load them with treasure. It is a pity that there is no summary mode of bringing these refractory people to a sense of their proper condition anebehaviour. Poor Mr. EBERS complains that he was sometimes obliged to dis- appoint the public through their caprice, and often obliged to comply with extravagant demands lest these disappointments should occur. In a dispute which Toni raised, because what he conceived his part had been given to Begrez, Ebers had what he calls a taste of management. -He, Ebers, the Pay-all of the piece, appointed Mr. Ayrton as director; a most judicious choice, it
would seem. Mr. Ayrton assigned the part of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni to Begrez: this inflamed the wrath of Torn, who flew to Mr. Ebers's noble and honorary Committee for redress. The Committee insisted that Torn should have the part. Mr. Ayrton, with a manly firmness, refused to permit interference in the performance of his duties. The Committee threatened : Toni stormed ; Begrez maintained his post ; while poor Ebers went about paying and praying to every body : at last his intercessions worked upon Begrez, who resigned his engagement ; Mr. Ayrton would not retain his situation ; Toni sung, and the Committee picked their teeth.
It was with no small delight that we fell upon a passage in Mr. CRAUFURD'S Mission Sianz and Cochin China, which informs us
how opera-dancers and singers ought to be dealt with. "While," says the envoy, " we were entering the court-yard of the Minis- ter's house, we saw a company of comedians who had been exhi- biting as upon the first occasion. It seems that they were not per- fect in their parts, or at least did not satisfy the taste of the great man. They were accordingly undergoing the universal panacea for all breaches of moral, social, and political obligation—for all
errors of omission and commission—that is to say, THE BAMBOO. The first object that caught our attention was the hero of the piece lying prone on the ground, and receiving punishment in his fall dramatic costume. The inferior characters, in due course, received their share also, as we afterwards ascertained, from hearing their cries while we sat with the Minister." p. 277. Camporese was prima donna absoluta, and she would permit no rival near the throne; Ronzi de Begins was thus kept out of ,parts in which she would, have gratified the public, and a fierce jealousy reigned in the breasts of the two queens. Tanteene irw One day at rehearsal, as Camporese commenced in her character of Agia, the quartette beginning with the words " Mi mance voce," Ronzi said, in a whisper loud enough to be heard, " E vero !" This was the signal for a scene : Mr. EBERS describes it as being short of the violent extremities asserted by rumour. When Cinti came, the pair of them set to work to deprive her of any part whatever ; and she was only allowed to sing in Rosina because they both felt secure that she would break down. They were dis- appointed. " Imagine the Director," says Ebers, entering to the
Alanager—' Sir, Mr. A. 13. won't go on with the rehearsal.' Not • :e
-eo on with the rehearsal—indeed ! why not?' ' He says you ought to do so and so for him ; and he refuses to go on till it is done.'" (Oh for the BAMBOO!) "While this is in discussion, behold an ambassador from the other performers. The singers, Sir, say they can't wait at the theatre all day : if the arrangement with Mr. A. B. is not settled, they must go home." What is the refuge ? ' " tries El3ERS : the BAMBOO, we exclaim—he, poor fellow, tamely gives in, lest the public should be disappointed. Mr. EBERS'S work is written in a very agreeable style, and will doubtless become a favourite book. His portraits of the singers and principal actresses and dancers will be thought an attractive part of it.
The work of Mr. CRAUFURD, which has supplied us with the remedy for dramatic peccadilloes, has afforded us much instruc- tion and more entertainment ; but we must defer the communica- tion of any part of it for the present week, beyond saying, that it is one of those portly quarto, richly embellished, splendidly printed, and thoroughly well-appointed half-official works which used to come alone from the fabrique of Mr. Murray ; and which go to form a part of all complete libraries as a matter of course. We read some time ago an octavo volume respecting the same mission by Mr. Finlayson, the naturalist of the expedition, who died before his book appeared. Finlayson was, we believe, protected and educated by Dr. Somerville ; and everything that we saw in his Journal reflected credit upon his patron : but, if we remember right, there prevailed a somewhat unfriendly spirit in the work to- wards the head of the mission—though why or wherefore, we see nothing to indicate in Mr. CRAUFURD'S quarto. On the contrary, this gentleman speaks of his " poor friend, Mr. Finlayson," with respect ; and moreover informs us, that he early in the mission caught a disorder of which he ultimately died; and which, in the course of the voyage, prevented him from duly exercising his va- luable talents.
Previous page
