THE BALLET.-
he the absence of any musical novelty challenging notice at the Italian Opera, house, the return of Cerito has infused new life into the ballet: the genial sense of delight, that beams like sunshine in the looks of the fair Neapolitan and animates her every movement, flings a glowing warmth over the scene. The spell is now complete; the most listless looker-on at surprising feats offigility islascinated by an indefinable charm: sympathies are aivakeneff for the artificial creations of the ballet by the dramatic feeling of the per- former. The effect of this influence was never more strikingly apparetft than on Thursday, the night of Cerito's first appearance this season. The dancing was more than commonly -varied. First, a new divertissement, La Bacchante, in which Lucille Grahn personated the Bacchie nymph, quaffing the juice that Perrot pressed from the grape into her cup, and ex- hibiting the exhilarating influence of the vinous draught in its most at- tractive shape. Rapid and brilliant are the steps and astonishing the whirling bounds with which she traverses the stage, pursued by Perrot, who with eyes fixed on her face follows, with seeming unconsciousness, every movement. His very soul seems entranced by her beauty, and his limbs move with a flowing ease and elasticity--a striking contras; to the rigid angularity of action and cold fixed. smile of the form he hovers round. Afterwards came the Danseuses Viennoises, and performed one of their prettiest feats of trained dexterity—the " Pas du Miroir." Two little crea- tures with kirtles of foliage and wreaths of roses pull aside the curtains be- fore a mimic mirror of immense size; and, seeing their reflections, begin to deck themselves and dance before it: joined by others, they execute in rapid succession a number of figures, some of them intricate-' their shadows represented by doubles on the other side of the gauze plane. ,The prq- °Won with which the moving forms are reflected by the living and sub- stantial shadows is extraordinary, and attests the docility of the children, as well as the efficiency of their trainer, Madame Weiss. The novelty and liveliness of all this is attractive as a variety; and most amusing it is to sep the juvenile troop breaking up and forming new combinations like atoms in a kaleidoscope: but there it ends. The spectacle is scarcely appropriate to a stage like that of our Italian Opera, where the highest art, musical an4 choregraphic, is assembled; for this is not art, but discipline of numbers: the children are mere living puppets. The moral objection that has been taken to this exhibition would apply to all cases of children appearing on the stage. It is certainly not the best school of health, morals, or art; but, if report speak s true, the condition from which most of these girls Matte been taken was not less rife with temptations of other kinds than is that on which they figure: publicity has its securities as well as its dangers. But to return to the ballet. After these entertainments, came La Viaan- dare; Cerito playing the sutler-girl, and her husband, St. Leon, the postil- lion her lover. The rapturous welcome of the favourite apart, the mons burst with which the Vivandiere welcomed her lover's arrival, and the shade of sadness that fell on her face when he departed, withlhe suls- sequent emotions that varied its expression and influenced her movements, made the house sensible that a fresh and natural impulse had been given to the conventions of the ballet—in a word, interest was excited. Then the exquisite grace and apparent ease with which the most astonishing diffi- culties are achieved, as ifin very sport—consummate skill assuming an air of rustic playfulness and enjoyment—are the triumph of art. That pret- tiest and most piquant of Polkas, because the truest and most character- istic—the Redowa—was danced by Cerito and St. Leon with all the dra- matic expression, that the coquettish dance requires, and.a graceful buoy ancy quite theirown.
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