THEATRES AND MUSIC.
The performance of Il Matrinionio Segreto at Her Majesty's :1 hentrn,.-mtsell Thursday, was for the benefit of Lablache; who sustained the-dfuiracter in which he made his debut on the same boards nineteen years age. During these nineteen years Lablaohe has not been absent from England for a single season; a circumstance unprecedented in the annals of our Italian stage, from the days of Nicolini downwards. Tamburini and Grisi come nearest him in this respect; but they neither arrived so early, nor have held their places so uninterruptedly. So long resident, he has almost be- come naturalized among us; has acquired English habits and feelings; and, in return, is regarded by the public with a degree of favour which 'ap- proaches to affection. He came to England with the reputation of the first buffo of the day; a character which was unanimously conceded to him from his very first appearance, though his claim to the laurels of the buskin was not so readily granted. But he has long since convinced the world of the versatility as well as the greatness of his dramatic genius; and any- body conversant with the opera can at once enumerate a range of parts in which he shines in the grand, the terrible, and the pathetic—in the purest comedy and the broadest farce. In the vocal branch of his art Lablache has no superior. His voice is of limited compass, but its best notes are of unrivalled power and beauty. In concerted music they are like the rich diapason tones of a great organ, while they have the fine quality of never being overpowering, but blend with and cherish, as it were, the other parts of the harmony. His declamation is eminently clear and true to nature; and no sue has ever illustrated more beautifully the powers of music as a dramatic language. None of his efforts are happier than his personation of Geroninso, the deaf old merchant. His infirmity is visible iu every look, tone, and gesture; his testy irritability when unable to make out what is said to him, his hasty impetuosity of temper and affectionate heart, form one of the most true and lifelike pictures that are to be found on the stage. The old man's paroxysm of grief and anger, when ho finds himself deceived by his favourite child, is a little touch of domestic tra- gedy, full of reality and pathos.
The other parts were well acted. Parodi's conception of the cha- racter of the young wife, depressed with the load of her secret and its pro- bable consequences, soft and timid, but showing sparks of spirit when goaded by insult and ill-usage, was good, and well worked out. Her sing- ing also was good; though her voice lacks of the fulness and flexibility necessary for the long flowing periods of Cimarosa's melo-ly. The same thing was the case with Calzolari, who was unable to sing the " Pula the spunti in ciel l'aurora " (the great air of the opera) with the sustained smoothness which it requires. Alboni was the best representative we have seen of Ficlalma, the maiden aunt. She was quaint and humorous, with less exaggeration than Malibrau ; and the richness of her voice gave a new charm to the fine concerted music in which she bore a part. Giuliani did ample justice to the character of Elisetta. The goodness of the ensemble made the performance very animated and agreeable.
The opera was followed by a pretty new ballet, called La Prima Balk- rine. We have long been convinced that, as far as the present taste is concerned, a divertissement with something of a story to give it a feature, is more likely to succeed than what is called a "grand ballet." The mere divertissement, which just sets forth the niceties of an imaginary ball-room or of an Arcadian festival, is too insignificant, too much without idea, to represent a regular department of operatic entertain- ment; while the " grand ballet," with a complicated story, almost always requires a quantity of non-dancing business, which to an English audience is insufferably tedious. Now and then, indeed, a subject can be got in which the chief heroine has a talent for dancing as her chief characteristic and can also support a long story. The supernatural heroines, such as the Sylphide and her successors, together with the amphibious Giselle and the playful Esmeralda, are iu this predicament. But fairy subjects are so far exhausted, that every new ballet which treats of one seems like a repetition of something that has gone before; while other subject% in which dancing can be made to appear an essential ingredient are so rare, that to find them under any circumstances is a piece of extra- ordinary good luck. Hence a manager is driven to choose between a long tale in dumb-show, in which dancing appears but as an accident, or a neat divertissement, in which a very little story will go a great way, and which terminates before people have time to reflect whether it be new or not. The latter is unquestionably the best. La Prima Ballerina is a very good specimen of the ballet-divertissement. A celebrated danseuse, intended for the Taglioni, is stopped by brigands; but finds them to be brigands of so much taste, that with a few " pas " she is able to purchase a release. Here is an anecdote that may be almost entirely told by dancing; and the reminiscences of Taglioni, whose chief pas are imitated by Rosati, give to the dancing itself a peculiar significance. Romantic groups of brigands aro not new, but the arrangement of them in this ballet is striking and effective.
It would perhaps have been more judicious had a shorter argument of the ballet been distributed in the theatre. In two or three lines we have actually told the whole story; but this story spread over two or three pages tends to raise expectations too high.
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