Zlitatrti tua 134tsir.
The most popular of Balfe's operas has been produced, in Italian, at Her Majesty's Theatre, under the title of La Zingara. Its first perform- ance, last Saturday, had a very favourable reception, and it has been repeated every opera night this week. The production at this time of a novelty which must have cost a good deal of trouble and some expense, would seem to argue Mr. Lumley's intention not to bring his cheap performances to a close just yet ; and we may expect a very brief interval between their close and the opening of the regular season. That he may tot commit the commercial mistake of having two prices for similar goods, we presume that he is exerting himself to make a difference in quality of the two sets of entertainments corresponding to the differ- ence in their prices. Rumours are current of important additions about to be made to the company ; and in particular, a new soprano and tenor are talked of, who are supposed to be stars of the first magnitude. As to Balfe's Bohemian Girl, it calls for little remark. That it is well calculated to please the general ear has been shown, not only by its treat run in the old Bunn days at Drury Lane, but by its reception both an Italy and Germany. It has not the characteristic features of any school or nationality, but is a melange of all—a kind of musical lingua franca, made up of the familiar words and phrases of various languages. It is very clever withal—lively and agreeable, with pretty melodies and showy effects; something like the music of Auber, but without Auber's individuality of style and high artistic finish. The performance at Her Majesty's Theatre is on the whole very good. Piccolomini looks the gipsy girl nicely, but is (as she has become of late) too elaborate in her by-play. She sings the well-known " marble halls " song—an effusion of simple tenderness—with all the " wreathed smiles," gestures, and blandishments which Zerlina brings into play to pacify her lout of a lover. Giuglini makes an immense deal of the part of Thaddeus; acting with grace and spirit, and singing the airs as they were never sung be- fore. Belletti, too, in the character of the old Count, shows the con- summate artist both in his acting and singing ; and the subordinate parts of Devilshoof and the Gipsy Queen are better performed by Vialetti and Mademoiselle Sannier than they have ever been on the English stage. With all this, nevertheless, the piece moves heavily in many places, owing in a great measure to the substitution of recitative for the original English dialogue ; and, on the whole, the opera " went better" at Drury Lane.
The concerts of the Musical Union have begun for the season under the direction of Mr. Ella ; concerts where we hear the chamber instru- mental music of the great masters better performed than anywhere else in London. The first took place at the Hanover Square Rooms on Tues- day evening. The " executants " (as Mr. Ella calls them) were Sainton, Goffrie, the two Blagroves, and Piatti, for the quintet of stringed instru- ments, and Feuer for the pianoforte. The great performance of the evening was Mozart's celebrated quintet in G minor ; a combination of grace, loveliness, and feeling, with profound counterpoint, which has never been rivalled even by Beethoven himself. Schumann's quintet in E flat, of which the pianoforte is the-principal instrument,—a highly ori- ginal and masterly work,—displayed to great advantage the vigorous style and brilliant execution of Passer; and a quartet of Mayseder, in which the first violin part has the effect of a solo, was equally favourable to Sainton. These concerts are a great resort of amateurs, and the room was full of musical faces.
PARISIAN THEATRICALS.
The Odeon, situated on the less fashionable bank of the Seine, but en- dowed with the same legal privileges as the Theatre Francais, has long been regarded as the nursery of those young dramatists who set out With a " legitimate" tendency. Melodrama is not utterly excluded from its boards, but its new stock usually consists of works in verse written by gentlemen who rather represent adhesion to the traditions of the past than compliance with the tastes of the present. A literary charac- ter always cleaves to the Odeon, and at the head of the names connected with it stands that of M. Ponsard. Hence the pieces produced at this out-of-the-way establishment are invariably treated with respect by the critics ; though, with rare exceptions, their success makes small impres- sion on the great bulk of Parisians.
In 1814, La Cigile, a pretty little classical comedy in verse, as Greek as anything of French origin can be, was produced at the Odeon. Its author, M. Emile Augier, now an acknowledged dramatist of the highest class, and moreover an Academician, was then a young man of promise at the very commencement of his career. His subsequent triumphs at the Theatre Francais and the Gymnase have not made him forget the intel- lectual nursery on the other side of the water ; and he has accordingly favoured the Odeon with a new five-act comedy in verse entitled La Jeunesse. This title would lead one to expect a dramatic picture of youthful follies and extravagancies ; but, on the contrary, M. Augier has essayed tb depict a nobleminded young man, who, born into a money- worshiping age and trained by a worldly mother, keeps his heart in the right place to the end, and is ultimately rewarded for his preference of a woman he sincerely loves to a lady who is only a brilliant match. Even the worldly mother is made at last to appreciate the calm pleasures of a rural life, when she is informed that land offers a good investment for capital.
M. Auber's celebrated work La Blonde was revived at the Opera- Comique on Wednesday.
The Professorship of Declamation held at the Conservatoire by Made- moiselle Rachel has been given to Mademoiselle Augustine Broban. The aggregate receipts of the places of public amusement during the month of January last amounted to 1,489,275f. 35c.; being an increase of 179,438f. 40c. on the receipts of December.
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