( (rrntrr5 mat - Her Majesty's Theatre has opened with a
Mir prospect of a successful season. In noticing, last week, Mr. Lumley's preparations, we remarked that his company was a very powerful one I), th for opera -and ballet ; and his first night has hOwn that he adheres 1 '' .pteetice of beginning in good earnest, instead Of "rubbing on" witliflebeap, shabby, make-shift company (as Laporte -Med to do) till Easter Pl'hisinore liberal policy has no doubt found its reward,- for it has greatly inn-Waved the &lied of the audience at the opening. •Earnierly,' if the'eritertamments were poor, so were the houses;' the theatre was shunned by time leaders of fashion as -well as by the lovers of art Now the case is different : on Tuesday night the performanoes.were wortixy :of7this great theatre, and were witnessed by an audience .which would, have beau called .brilliopt .and fashionable
even in the middle of May, .
A good deal of interest. was excited by the announcement of an opera of great bygone celebrity,. but unknown to the .yeiurger generation of the present day—the Medea Carlo to of Mayer, the Most eminent of the composers who flourished in /tidy immediately' before the advent of Ros- sini. Mayer was what may be salledan Italiaidied German, who com- bined the' forms 'and phrases Of tho Italian faeledy of his time with the harmony and instrumentation: of :the German *heel. His music is always pure, rich, and grateful to the tsar; but it tech -those higher qua- lities which are the attributes of -Igetriue-,--irrventidn, passion, and dra- matic power. ,Henco be was most.simeessfid in light and pleasing sub- jects; and Medea never 'would hav,a,been , the opera by .which he is now chiefly remembered had it not been Saritjitm assumption of the principal character by Pasta, • Wheniadc it at 'Mice Ilite most terrible. and the most pathetic representation, probably, that emir.; was witnessed on the mu- sical stage. But, when unaided by thd ereatire,,Power of the Per- former, Mayer's-music fall's far short of 'the grind :and gloomy charac- ter of a drama which *mild have' demanded the poWera of a Beethoven or a Weber. . • Medea was first performed in England, by:Pasta, some five-and-twenty years ago, and has never till now been attempted in this country by any one else. It has now been taken by the youthful Parodi, the friend and
pupil of the great prima donna ; who, discovering in her something of kindred spirit, has assisted in the cultivation of her talent, and watches over her progress with maternal affection and care. Notwithstanding the, eclat of her debfitlist season in London, Mademoiselle Parodi, we under- stand, instead of nresecuting her careerfor emolturienc-as Most debuttirdee would have done, shared the retirement of her intl.:sr:Hi:MS friend, and en- joyed the advantage of her continued instructions. She has chosenthe wiser course ; for her advancement, as manifested on Tueaday night, was the theme of universal remark.
Mademoiselle Parodi, however, must still be regarded' as in a state of probation—as a student of art, rather than a matured artist Nor is this disparaging her, but only doing her justice. It is a:mistake to suppose that the height of talent and of fame is reached, at a step on the stage, or . anywhere else. All great performers have served a long apprenticeship in laborious obscurity—witness Siddons, Kean, and Pasta herself ; but their "toils obscure" have been forgotten in their subsequent celebrity. Mademoiselle Parodi is still very young, and her rise has been quite ra- pid enough to encourage her perseverance. It is a disadvantage to her that her name has been kept in such constant connexion With that of Pasta. It leads the public to look on her as a follower•-or 'imitator of Pasta, and to judge of her by what Pasta did or is imagined' to have done : - and this, too, must act unfavourably upon herself, by rendering it- more difficult to shake off the trammels of the school and follow the impulses of her own genius. But that is what she must do_ before she can -achieve greatness. Gifted as few have been with the adyruitages of form, vpee feeling, and energy—and trained in the highest school of art—it yet remains for her to turn all her attainments to their true actiu•nt, by making art subservient to nature. In acting, she must no longer think of herself—of the lessons she has received or the effects she is producing; there must be no calculated bursts, no studied 'gestures, no statuesque - poses. She must throw herself, heart and soul, into her part—she must- think and feel as thebeing she personates ; and, with her taste •and habits formed by instaMetion and example, the appropriate tones •and • gestures will come of themselves. She must, in short, thus get rid of the
artificial air apparent even in her most successful efforts. • the vocal branch of her art she has perhaps less to learn. Her voice has improved in strength, sweetness, and flexibility, her intonation in certainty, her execution in facility, boldness, and refinement. She was ,repeatedly cheered by bursts of genuine applause.
The other characters have nothing remarkable in theinseives, nor was there anything remarkable in their performance. Miehelli, a new tenor, was a very feeble Giaeone. Calzolari, as Egeo, sang .extremely well, and gained great applause in an introduced air of Dordietti. Belletti, as Creonte, had little to do, but his unerring tones told Well in the conceited music. There were some fine choruses, well sung ; and-the orehestri did justice to Mayer's instrumentation. In the new ballet, which is called Lee Metamorpholea, Mr. Lumley bas, been more than usually fortunate. Some time:ago=porhapa_liefairs taught by the failure of Lallah Bookh—he ma& the Valna,lirt diary:my , that a short piece, quite filled up with dancing, and without the..panto, mimic development of the grand ballet., is the right sort of thing for the English public. lea Metamorphoses- is not a mere divertissement, for it has a story—to wit, the cure of a German student from necromantic-ten- dencies, by a waggish elf, with- a 'virtuous purpose. It is not a grind ballet; in the first place for the very' intelligible reason that it isot long, and in the second place, because the story bears no proportion tethe dancing. The tableaux are only two in number- -but- nevertheless great contrasts are produced. The fin* tableau:represents the -Auden:tie_ apart; ment, fitted up in a necromantic style; and here we bave.'a alsimber of elfin pleasantries, which oscillate between-the comical: aii4;theAercible. The second exhibits a bal masque,' with 41 the extravsgstit /n#eties of costume proper to the Parisian entertainments of this 9 Carlotta Grisi—the sentimental, poitleal•Crirtotte=uka in this new piece. For a sprite to play tricks ivith.k" anon in ballet, that we accept the praetice anit' reality. But the variety of character which - tbedniil1aaTI4ai gives a distinctive feature to the position,:laint•alsorilicifteIdiege inimetio talents in which she so greatly exeels' - As a flatasiii portioiratibri of a Will-o'-the-wisp, and as one of those symbols of frivolity c aliethi if:NW she exhibits all the qualities of an illustrative dancer : as alilayfritruilie full of tricks and wiles, she goes even more deeply intutbe art OP inavi? dual representation.
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