THE NEW ITALIAN OPERA-HOUSE.
According to a statement put forth this week, Covent Garden is much more available as a great lyric theatre than might be supposed. The Morn-. ing Chronicle, a journal that favours the schismatic opera company, an- nounces that the present interior is to be entirely removed, and to be enlarged; preparations to that end having begun with daybreak on Tuesday.
" The new proprietors have selected the plans of Benedict Albano,. Esq., civil engineer; and these plans have been duly submitted to and received the approval of the Official Referees under the Metropolitan Buildings Act. Many erroneous notions existing as to the size of Covent Garden Theatre, it may be as well to mention, that it will be the largest in Europe, after the great theatres in Italy • which in point of space rank first. In the original design, the architect seems to have taken especial pains to construct the smallest possible interior within the largest exterior space occupied by any London theatre. The room now lost in useless passages and endless corridors is inconceivable; and when visiters here- after gaze upon the vast interior now in course of construction, they will indeed be amazed; for although, when completed, there will be accommodation for five hundred persons more than the largest theatre in London now holds, and if requi- site the number could be carried to one thousand, there will be increased comfort and convenience. Thus, the private boxes and stalls, although exceeding in num- ber those in any other house, are to be each enlarged in point of space for the occupants. The private boxes will be, in fact, wider and more lofty than any allowance previously made for those receptacles of beauty and fashion. The grand staircase at the front entrance will remain, and that of the Royal entrance in Hart Street; but two new stone staircases are to be built, extending from the pit floor to the upper tier of boxes. Every point connected with facility of ingress, and, what is of more importance, rapidity of egress, has been carefully provided for, and all the accesses and approaches to the audience portion of the theatre will be fire-proof.
" The interior is to be divided into stalls and a commodious pit, as regards the ground-floor, with separate entrances to go in and out, so that there will be no opposing streams. There will be a tier of pit boxes, above which will be the Royal and grand tier of doable boxes around the semicircle. Above will be successive tiers of private boxes, with an extensive amphitheatre of reserved seats occupying one circle. There is to be a capacious gallery, the entrance to which will be solely from the Covent Garden Piazza. The Hart Street entrance and court-yard will be reserved entirely for Royalty; the holders of the property-boxes—of which (and fortunately for the proprietors) there are only five---entering at the façade.
" Here a most valuable improvement will lie made. Doors will be opened in the Northern and Southern wings; the former, next to Long Acre, will lead to the box-office, and the latter will be exclusively apportioned to the pit visitors. Every entrance, excepting for the Royal Family and the gallery, will be in front of the theatre in Bow Street. But a more important innovation for the comfort of the subscribers to the boxes and stalls is to be made. With the sanction of the proper authorities, a tram-road for carriages will be constructed; and the coachmen driving in at the Southern side of the facade will set the company down under the portico, and then drive out at the Northern side. The immense advantage of this admirable plan may be imagined, when it is recollected that sow the carriages have to stop at the pavement, whilst the visiters, between two files of people, have to cross the path, ascend the steps of the façade, and cross some yards of the portico elevation before the entrance-doors are attained. The elevated steps are to be removed, and the space thus acquired assigned for the be- nefit of the foot-passengers. " The locality for saloons, waiting-rooms, and passages, affords every conve- nience for accommodation; and the demolition has supplied the opportunity of in- troducing a new system of ventilation. The principle of lighting the theatre to the best advantage, it is anticipated with confidence, will be vastly improved; the experiments for that purpose having been begun on Tuesday night. The plans exhibit extraordinary care in the precautions for seeing and hearing to the best advantage. The architectural proportions of the interior have been tested so as to insure for the occupants of the most remote side-boxes the certainty of com- manding a complete view of the stage.
"Mr. Costa, the musical director and conductor, has expressed his entire ap- proval of the construction of the orchestra, which is to enclose his formidable band of eighty-four instrumentalists. The principles of acoustics have been a constant subject of study and investigation on the part of Mr. Albano.
The stage, in depth, height, and breadth, has been always unrivalled; and will afford ample space for the mounting of operas on the unprecedented scale proposed by the managers as also for the attractions of the ballet—for there is to be a ballet, despite of the contrary statements of our contemporaries. The terpsi- chorean arrangements and engagements have in fact long occupied the attention of the proprietors; but they prudently kept their plans secret until they had se- cured the services of the most eminent European danseuses and of the most ex- perienced ballet-masters; whose names will be published in due course. We are authorized to assure our readers, that under no pretext will divertissements be given between the acts of operas, and that the ballets are not to be of interminable length and duration. The main principle of this lyrical undertaking is music, and the promotion of high art is intended; but the public will not be deprived of the opportunity of witnessing the greatest dancers who embody the poetry of motion."
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