Muir.
Though the " run " of the pantomimes is not yet over, yet it is so much slackened that it has become necessary to give greater attraction to the other portions of the theatrical bills of fare. At the Royal Eng- lish Opera, Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. Harrison, who have been taking their ease since the beginning of the Christmas holidays, have returned to their work. They reappeared on Wednesday in The Crown Dia- monds, one of the strongest pieces of their repertory. Miss Pyne had much need of repose, and has profited by it; for everbody remarked her renovated health and vigour. La Caterina is the very best of her parts, and she acted and sang it with even more than her usual spirit and bril- liancy. The fair Louisa is the interpreter, par excellence, of Auber's music. In it she has no competitor among ourselves, and no superior even on the boards of the Opera Comique ; and we have often wondered, therefore, why she has not appeared in a greater number of Auber's de- lightful pieces, especially in two of the best of them, L'Ambassadrice and Le Domino Noir. Both of them, moreover, are well suited to the means of the theatre, and their production would be attended with the most brilliant success. They are foreign, to be sure ; but that we hold to be no objection. We would give due weight to the just claims of "native talent," but not to the es:slush:on from the 'English stage of works which (we regret to say) the utmost amount of our present native talent is unable to compete with. Two new works of home growth are "underlined " on the bills of the theatre : Mr. Henry Leslie's operetta on the subject of Dick Turpin, and Mr. Vincent Wallace's Lurline, which has been long expected. We hope they will do credit to our native school of art.
The only musical entertainment of any note during the week was the Monday Popular Concert. It resembled the previous concerts of the series in the purely classical style of the music, the excellence of the per- formance, the magnitude of the audience, and the discriminating warmth of the applause. The most notable feature was the masterly pianoforte performances of Herr Pauer, who, in a fine sonata of Hummel and a trio of Haydn (in which he was accompanied by Sainton and Piatti), showed that he has no superior among the pianists of the day.
The Glasgow Musical Festival has been held this week. On the first evening, Tuesday, Elijah was performed in the City Hall to a crowded and fashionable audience. The instrumental orchestra and chorus were above five hundred strong. The principal singers were Madame Clara Novello, Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Lockey, Miss Witham, Mr. Winn, and Mr. Weiss ; and the organ part was sustained by Mr. Henry Smart. The performance is described as excellent in every respect. On the subsequent days the performances (the accounts of which have not yet reached us) consisted of Mr. C Horsley's now oratorio, Gideon, composed expressly for this festival, and The Messiah.
Music appears to have revived at Milan, under the altered political circumstances of that most musical city. The company at the Scala is said to be stronger than it has been for many years, and the theatre is flourishing. At the Camino Theatre a new opera, entitled Maria Tudor, and founded on Victor Hugo's drama of that name, was produced a few days ago with brilliant success. The composer is a Russian—Maestro Kachperoff.
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