THE THEATRES.
Balfe's new opera, The Maid of Honour, produced with great success on Monday at Drury Lane, is calculated by its own merits to raise the re- putation of its composer, while the manner in which it is got up and per- formed does great credit to M. Jullien's new establishment.
The subject of the drama--done into " libretto " by the indefatigable playwright Mr. Fitzball—is taken from a popular French ballet, already fa- miliar to Drury Lane playgoers under the title of Lady Henriette. The plot turns upon the adventures of two frolicsome damsels, maids of honour to Queen Elizabeth: taking it into their heads to visit Greenwich fair in the disguise of servant-girls, they are hired by a couple of yeomen; and one youth falls so desperately in love with his maid, that, when he finds her "a lady of high degree " and quite beyond his sphere, he fairly loses his wits; however, he is restored by the Queen's consent to the mar- riage. The story is well dramatized. The tone of the piece is lively and sunshiny, agreeably and not too darkly shaded by touches of the senti- mental and the pathetic. Unlike the generality of English operas, it is not overloaded by a superfluity of characters and complication of incidents; much resembling the clever comic operas 'written by Scribe for Auber: and its musical treatment, moreover, is very much in the style of that most gay and brilliant composer. Taking the drama and the music together, we are inclined to think that this opera will have a permanent and European success beyond that of any of Mr. Balfe's previous productions.
To say the truth, we had long since come to the belief that Balfe had written himself out, and that nothing more was to be expected from him than a continuation of changes rung upon worn-out ideas—ideas, too, less his own property than that of the popular foreign composers of the day. But this work has given us new hopes of his future career. He has la- boured carefully and conscientiously, availed himself of his own powers, and shown a mastery of the higher resources of his art for which musicians have not hitherto given him credit. In this opera he has in a great mea- sure (though not entirely) avoided that melange of Italian tinsel with Eng- lish ballad vulgarity which his former pieces exhibit; that mixture of Doni- zetti flourishes with the I` Marble halls" and "Remember me's " especially favoured by the gods of Drury. There are, to be sure, passages of mere noise and remplissage, and trite ballads, dressed up, ad captandum vulgus, with cornet-a-piston accompaniments; but these, instead of being the rule, as in The Bohemian Girl and The Bondman, are now the exceptions to the general character of the work. No part of the dialogue is simply spoken; but talking in recitative, which is always heavy and tiresome in English, is avoided by the substitution of busy concerted pieces, the use of recita- tive being confined, as it ought to be, to occasional phrases. It is in these concerted pieces that Mr. Balfe especially shines: they are carried on with unflagging vivacity, fall of graceful turns and ingenious contrivance, and accompanied by a most brilliant and elegant instrumentation, though sometimes degenerating into noise, the prevailing vice of the day. - The music, by its strain and colouring, constantly calls up old English associations. The madrigal, sung by the Queen's ladies at the opening of the piece, is, without plagiarism, a charming reminiscence of the Eliza- bethan age; and the capital scene representing the humours of .a Green- wich statute fair, with its merry choruses and dances, is full of English character. Another quality, rare in modern operas, is the care bestowed upon theMusical adaptation of the words: we have never heard in English concerted scenes the dialogue go so trippingly and intelligibly. The airs are more unequal than the concerted pieces. The first air sung by Reeves, " Behold the happy home," is a simple English melody that might have been written by Shield; and the ballad sung in the same scene by Miss Birch, " It was the Red Cross Knight," is quaint and antique, but graceful withal. The recurrence of this strain in certain situations of interest has a happy dramatic effect. There is a delicious air sung by Miss Miran, in the character of Orpheus in the masque performed before the Queen- " Dulcet music! power enchanting "—which, to our taste, is the gem of the opera. Miss Birch's air, " Sweet rose," and her final rondo, enable her to make a brilliant display of voice and execution. Some other airs are more in Balfe's old style. One of them unluckily fell to the share of Mr. Whitworth; and its want of capability materially injured his success.
Miss Birch bad, and deserved, a triumphant reception. Her late adven- ture at Paris (where she was to have appeared at the Academie Royale, but took fright and ran away, in consequence of overhearing at rehearsal some uncivil people laughing at her pronunciation) seems to have done her good. Indistinct articulation has hitherto been her fault as a concert-singer; but on this occasion her utterance was both clear and emphatic, and her act- ing, on the whole, very respectable: her singing was admirable in respect to voice and execution, and she is improved in finish and style. Mr. Reeves sang even better than in the Bride of Lammermoor; but did not ant so well—perhaps because he had no great model to copy from. Miss Miran (a sister, it is said, of Miss Laura Addison of Sadler's Wells) has a full-toned contralto voice, and a good method: she is, besides, a very pre- possessing person, and promises much both as an actress and a singer. Mrs. Weiss was a stately representative of Queen Bess: she has a fine so- prano voice, and will be a valuable performer. Mr. Whitworth was timid and nervous—needlessly so after his previous success. Mr. Weiss, as the basso comico of the piece, sang well; but his humour was ponderous.
In respect to the orchestra, chorus, and everything belonging to spec- tacle, the piece is superbly got up; and the spirited manager was not for- gotten in the distribution of the applause.
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