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After a season protracia: t!:511linkiailatie ieiigtii; die ,floyai
Opera closed its doors on Wednesday night. On that find the two pre:, ceding evenings performances were given at reduced prices; a new and not
very commendable practice, adopted of late at both the Italian theatres. While the value of the entertainment has been depreciated, its quality like- wise has been lowered. jt has always happened that some important members of the company have departed and their places have been filled
in a makeshift way, while money is further saved by other piaci:di:1gs and parings, particularly in the orchestra and chorus. This week, at Covent Garden, Madame Castellan and Formes were absent ; and on the con- cluding night the place of the former in the Huguenots was supplied by Mademoiselle Zerr, (who sang her part in German !) and the latter was replaced by Marini. The chorus was reduced to half its usual strength ; and the whole affair had a penurious aspect, little conducive to the dig- nity of the opera stage. While this petty economy has marked the end of the season, its course has shown an ill-judged and wasteful expenditure. The company has been encumbered with various performers, each of them rejoicing in the title of prima donna or primo tenore, quite superfluous in that character, and too proud to compromise their dignity by making themselves useful. We can understand the denominations, in an Italian theatre, of "prima don- na assoluta" and "altra prima donna" ; the one holding a decided su- premacy of rank, and the other occupying a lower but not a subordinate walk,—a distinction well illustrated by the relative positions of Grisi and Castellan. But when there is is whole bevy of " altre prime donne," all holding their heads equally high, and all refusing to be second to any- body, what is to be done ? They must either be paid for doing nothing, or employed in things which could have been done better without them. In regard, again, to male performers, there may be two of the same class, and of equal or nearly equal rank, but qualified to fill a different range of characters, and therefore both necessary ; as in the ease of Mario and Tamberlik. But additional tenors, unless they consent to take secondary parts, are expensive superfluities. When performers, therefore, whether male or female, come to be engaged, the management must consider, not merely what have been their pretensions abroad, but whether their holding the same pretensions here would be consistent with their usefulness. With Grist as "prima donna assoluta," and four or five " altre prime donne "—Castellan, Jullienne, Zerr, Bosio—the theatre had not a fitting Adai.sa to Grisi's Norma. And as to the men, there were Herr Anders and Signor Negrini, tenors, and Monsieur Gueymard and Signor Bartolini, baritones, who were either stuck into parts belonging to Mario, Tamber- lik, or Formes, by way of finding them something to do, or did nothing at all. We are pretty sure that few if any of these performers would have boggled at good offers on account of a stipulation that they should make themselves useful : if they did, the theatre would be better without them.
The occurrences of the season, at this house as well as the other, have been very uninteresting; and, excepting the curiosity excited by the Wagner ease in the Court of Chancery, we do not remember a season when the Italian opera occupied so small a share of public attention, or was so little heird of as a topic in society. The crop of novelties was
scanty in the extreme; it consisted only of Donizetti's Martini, Spohr's _Faust, and Jullien's _Pietro il Grande. Of these the Faust only is worthy of notice ; but it was not successful, sustaining with difficulty only four representations,—because the charms of its music, like that of the Zauher- fate, are thrown away upon a worthless subject. Two operas were re- vived—reproduced, that is, after having been laid aside for several years. These were Otello and Anna Bolena ; both coldly received, and performed only once ; and no wonder, for they are both heavy works. These were all the things that had any pretension to novelty; the rest consisted of the usual repertoire. The most successful pieces have been the Huguenots and the Prophets; the one performed ten, the other eight times : among the least successful was Don Giovanni! it was performed only once, Ron- coni having failed in the principal character. It does not appear to us that art has of late been in a progressive state at either operahouse. Covent Garden has introduced the fashion of bring- ing French and German operas on the Italian stage, and Her Majesty's Theatre has been constrained to follow it, because it has met with ac- ceptation from the public. Perhaps, in the present decay or rather ex- tinction of the Italian school of composition, this may be the best thing that can be done. We need not gainsay it; though it may be questioned whether much might not be done by a judicious revival of masterpieces of an older day, got up and performed with all possible care, completeness, and splendour. Greatly as we admire the genius of Meyerbeer, we can- not but think that there is much in his gorgeous operas that is a sacrifice to a vitiated taste, and tends to vitiate it still further. His music un- deniably injures the vocal organs of those who sing it, while the ear of the public is indurated by overstrained vocalization striving with a storm of instrumental noise. Fashion, however, whether good or bad, is prover- bially fleeting. Possibly the public ear may become weary of the violent effects and glaring colours of the modern opera stage, and again desire the soft, graceful, and expressive melody, with the delicacy and refinement of execution, which once characterized the music of Italy, and by which it was enabled to "enchant the world."
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