311usir.
Music has this week been employed (as it often is) in ministering to a valuable public object. The London Mechanics' Institution, the offspring of the late benevolent Dr. Birkbeck and Lord Brougham, and the pro- totype and model of all the establishments of this kind in the kingdom, has (as is well known) been contending with difficulties which have cramped its labours and impaired its usefulness. To overcome these diffi- culties great efforts have lately been made ; and with the aid of very liberal support from the public, they are in a fair way of being surmounted. The purchase of the landlord's interest in the buildings of the Institution _has been completed, and Lord Brougham and his co-trustee are relieved from their personal liability for a rent of nearly 2501. per annum for a hundred years to come. But this object has been in part accomplished by burdening the ..property with a mortgage, which yet remains to be cleared off ; a purpose which it is hoped, with the help of the contribu- tions of public-spirited persons, will speedily be realized. Meanwhile it appears, froman interesting report now put forth by the Institution, that it is pursuing its labours with renewed activity. It has now about 350 regular subscribers, besides several hundred persons who attend classes in mathematics, 'English grammar, drawing. and other branches of education. In short, this important Institution is now (in the words of the Report) "in an improving condition." One of the contributions towards its funds has been made by the London Glee and Madrigal Union, a society- of which honourable men- tion has frequently been made in our columns. They volunteered a performance, which was given in the theatre of the Institution on Mon- day evening, and attracted a large assemblage. The singers were Miss Wells, Miss Eyles, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Land, and Mr. Lawler—a glee-party such as London has not possessed since the Billingtons, Vaughan, and Bartlemans, who charmed the public ear in the days " when George the Third was King." They sang a superb selection of the finest Glees, Madrigals, and part-songs; and the interest of the performance (as on former occasions) was enhanced by the remarks and anecdotes with which the vocal pieces were illustrated by Mr. Oliphant, whose interludes (as we may call them), full of curious matter conveyed in the pleasantest manner possible, were highly relished by the audience. The whole entertainment was received with an enthu- siasm sueh as we have seldom witnessed.
The organ newly erected in St. Thomas's Church, Portman Squire, was opened last 'Saturday afternoon by Mr. Willing, the eminent or- ganist of the Fotmdling Hosiiitid,.Wholdayed an admirable selection of -music to a crowded audience chiefly consisting of the members of the con- gregation. The organ is the work of Mr. liedgeland, a young organ builder of great merit and rising reputation. It is a .very fine instru- ment, combining power and beauty in a remarkable degree ; and we need scarcely edges Mr. Willing's merits are well known) that he dis- played its various qualities with masterly skill and judgment. "St. Thomas Church is -a new building of considerable magnitude, plain and simple in its ornaments, but in excellent architectural taste. A young singer, Mademoiselle Marie Sax (no relative of the ingenious inventor of the brass instruments which go by his name) has just ap- peared at the Theatre Lyrique in the character of the Countess Alumviva in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, and has made a great sensation. It is said that she was a singer at the Cafes on the Boulevards—that her talent was discovered by Madame Ugalde, in consequence of whose recommendation she was taken in hand by the manager of the Theatre Lyrique. She is described as having a beautiful, fresh voice, and as being altogether a young person of the highest promise.
Johanna Wagner (now Madame Dachmann) maintains her position of prima donna of the Berlin lyric stage. Among the principal roles of her present repertoire is Lady Macbeth, in Taubert's opera; a character in which she shows herself a tragedian of the very highest order. This great performer, during the whole time of her sojourn in this country, was in a false position. First, she was kept from the stage by the long and obstinate Chancery suit between Mr. Gye and Mr. Lumley; and when at last she did appear, she was confined to pieces of the modern Italian school—things foreign to the education, habits, and tastes of a thorough German artist.
At the Paris Grand Opera Robert is Diable. last week, had its 418th representation. Meyerbeer has returned to Paris, and _Ls Pardon de Ploerinel has been resumed at the Opera Comique. Except Rossini, no dramatic composer has ever engrossed the musical stage of Europe so en- tirely as Meyerbeer is doing now The rebuilding of the Grand Opera, or Academie Imperials de Musique, has been decided on. This theatre, beautiful as it is, has always been regarded as only temporary, and now, it seems, does not meet the mag- nificent ideas of the Emperor. The site of the new building is to be on the Boulevard, adjoining the Rue de k Paix. "It is to be completed," . says the Gazette Musicale, "in eighteen months."
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