The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

other I wanted to ask you about ; you can't help me to it, can you ? " "I'm afraid not, my Lady. Was it anything about sporting matters ? " " No, no ; but now that you remind me, all that information you gave me about Glaucus was wrong, he came in ' a bad third.' My Lord laughed at me for losing my money on him, and said he was the worst horse of the lot." " Very sorry to differ with his lordship," said Spicer, deferentially, " but he was the favourite up to Tuesday evening, when Scott declared that he'd win with Rig the Illarket. I then tried to get four to one on Flycatcher, to square your book, but the stable was nobbled." " Did you ever hear such jargon, my dear ?" said Lady Lackington. " Yon don't understand one syllable of it, I'm certain." Spicer smirked and made a slight approach to a bow, as though even this reference to him would serve for an in troduction ; but Lady Grace met the advance with a haughty stare and a look, that sail, as plainly as any words, " At your peril, sir ! " " Well, one thing is certain!" said Lady Lackington, " nothing that you predicted turned out afterwards. Glaucus was beaten, and I lost my three hundred pounds —only fancy, dearest, three hundred pounds, with which one could do so many things! I wanted it in fifty ways, and 1 never contemplated leaving it. with the legs at New market." " Not the legs, I assure you, my Lady—not the legs. I made your book with Colonel Stamford and Gore Middle ton-.. " As if I cared who won it ! " said she, haughtily. " I never knew that you tempted fortune in this fashion ! " said Lady Grace, languidly. "Ido so very rarely, my dear. I think Mining Shares are better, or Guatemala State Bonds. I realised very handsomely indeed upon them two years ago. To be sure it was Dunn that gave me the hint: he dined with us at the Hotel de Windsor, and I asked him to pay a small sum for me to Hore's people, and when I counted the money out to him, he said,' Why not buy in some of those Guanatualo share s ; they'll be up to —,'—l forget what he said—' be a month. Let Storr wait, and you'll pay him in full.' And he was quite right, as I told you. I realistd about eight hundred pounds on my venture." " If Glaucus had won, my Lady—" " Don't tell me what I should have gained," broke she in. "It only provokes one the more, arid above all, Spicer, no more information. I detest ' information.' And now, what was it I had to say to you ; really your memory would seem to be failing you completely. What could it be ?" " It couldn't be that roan filly—" "Of course it couldn't. I really must endeavour to persuade you that my thoughts occasionally stray beyond the stable. By the way, you sold those grey carriage horses for nothing. You always told me they were the handsomest pair in London, and yet you say I'm ex ceeding lucky to get one hundred and eighty pounds for them." "You forget, my Lady, that Ploomfield was a roarer—" "Nell, you really are in a tormenting mood this morn ing, Spicer. Just bethink you, now, if there's anything more you have to say, disagreeable and unpleasant, and say it at once; you have made Lady Grace quite ill—" " No, only tired!" sighed her friend, with a melancholy smile. "Now I remember," cried Lady Lackington, "it was about that house at Florence. I don't think we shall pass any time there, but in case we should, I should like that 7.apponi palace, with the large terrace on the Arno, and there must be no one on the ground floor, mind that ; and I'll not give more than I gave formerly—perhaps not so much. But, above all, remember, that if we decide to go on to Rome, that I'm not bound to it in the least, and be must new-carpet that large drawing-room, and I must have the little boudoir hung in blue, with muslin over it, not pink. Pink is odious, except in a dressing.room. You will yourself look to the stables; they require considerable alteration, and there's something about the dining room— what was it?—Lord Lackington will remember it. But perhaps I have given you as many directions as your head will bear." " I almost think so too, my Lady," muttered he with a halt dogged look. "And be sure, Spicer, that w. have that cook—Antoine —if we should want him. Don't let him take a place till we decide where we shall stop." " You are aware that he insists on a hundred and fifty francs a month, and his wine." " I should like to know what good you are, if T am to negotiate with these creatures myself !" said she haughtily. " I must say, Lady Grace will suspect that I have rather overrated your little talents, Spicer." And LAdy Grace gave a smile that might mean any amount of approval or depreciation required. " I shall not want that saddle now, and you must make that man take it back again." " hut I fear, my Lady—" " There, don't be tiresome ! What is that odious bell ? Oh, it's the dinner of these creatures. You dine at the table d'hote, I think, so pray don't let us keep yon. You can drop in to-morrow. Let me see, about two, or half past. Good by—good by." PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED—JULY 9. BOOKS. Webster's Universal Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary ()! the English Language. Warde and Locke The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. Edited by Peter Cunningham Vol. 111. Bentley The Autobiography of Elizabeth Davis, a Balaklava Nurse. Two Vols. Hurst and Blackett A July Holiday in Saxony, Bohemia, and Silesia. Walter White. Chapman and Hall Durrack's . Latin Lesson•book. Houlaton Lectures on the British Poets. Henry Reed. J. F. Shaw • THE PRESS, •JULY 11,1857. Life in China. Rev. W. C. Milne, M.A. Romledge Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England. John Lord Campbell, LLD., F.R.S.E. Vol VII. Murray I.7nprotected Females in Norway. Routledge PERIODICALS. The Irish Quarterly Review. W. B. Kelly—The Church of England Quarterly Review. Partridge and Cu. giusit. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. Annett, in his seventy-fourth year, adapts his Fra Diavolo to the Italian lyric stage ; and adaptation in this instance means, nut the mere fitting of Italian words, translated from the French, to the notes in the original score, but it signifies the setting of the original lively dialogue of Scribe, or, in other words, composing a vast quantity of matter spoken at the Opera Comique. That Auber in his latest task should introduce some of his former pieces, extracted from his popular works, into the Tuscan version, cannot be well objected to. It is the fate of all com posers, more or less, whose productions travel from one musical town to another. Even in the removal of Don Giovanni from Prague to Vienna, Mozart had to face the exigencies of leading singers. What a pity that Auber, who was once a com mercial clerk in London, could not have been induced to revisit this metropolis ! How de lighted would he have been to have witnessed the magnificent performance under Costa's baton of his imperishable opera, the sparkling and animated Fra Diavolo. It was a red-letter day for the Royal Italian Opera ; it, was one of those superb interpre tations which have rendered the fame of this lyric establishment, European, and one, be it recorded, not dependent on "star" singers alone for its im mense success, for individually the cast has been stronger in many localities we could cite, but a triumph achieved for its unparalleled ensemble, comprising in this word the combined labours and exertions of the conductor, the chorus, the band, the chief vocalists, the scenic artists, and the arranger of the stage business. The procession of the peasants across the practicable road leading to the mountains, with the dancing " Piffsrini," the sunny Italian landscape in the distance, was a triumph of pictorial art worthy of Poussin, whose jocund and hilarious groups were recalled to the mind, so picturesque and exhilarating were the arrangements. The popularity of Fra Diavolo in this country has been as great as in France and Germany. It was first produced in Paris in 18 . 44 and the next year Rophino Lacy adapted it for Covent-garden Theatre, the cast including the names of Miss Homer, Miss Inverarity ; the great l3raham, the late Scotch tenor, Wilson, the late George Penson, dec. It had an immense run. Wilson, who was the original Lorenzo, subsequently gained no little fame as the brigand hero, and Sims Reeves in these times has earned the highest distinction in the same part. Every note of the musin is therefore familiar to English ears, but the general rendering never approached that of Tharsday night at the Lyceum. Mme. Bosio was the Zerlina, Ronconi and Mlle. Marai the English lord and lady, Neri-Baraldi the lover Lorenzo, Polonini the innkeeper father, Afatteo, Tagliafico and Zelger the two subaltern robbers, and Gardoni the brigand chief, Fra Diavolo, who appears as the Marquis in the first act. The dramatic honours of the night were unquestionably carried off by Ronconi, Tagliatico, and Zelger, who in their three respective assumptions tar distanced any of their predecessors we have ever seen. Ronconi's travelling Englishman —one of those silly weak mortals, in such odd costumes, and with such ex centric manners—was a finished sketch. Travellers will well recollect such an original in their migra tions. There was no exaggeration in the delinea• Lion. It was no caricature. It was a reality which forcibly recalled curious associations in travelling days. Scribe has chosen to make the character a lord, but it is of course no type of that order, but one too often met with amongst British wanderers. Anything more powerful than Ronconi's grotesque jealousy has rarely been seen. It was th r illi ng even in its comicalities, and just in fact as it had attained the terrible, in the scene in which Fra Diavolo leads him to suspect the lady's infidelity, an acci dental gaze as it were in a looki ng - g l ass s h ow i ng the hair and whiskers in paper, converted the excitement at the climax of rage into au irre sistible scream of laughter. The make up of the two underling robbers was perfect. Salvator Rosa would have hugged the two artists for their conception of costume. The byplay throughout, free from the vulgarity too often witnessed, was admi rable ; not a point was lost either by Tagliafico or Zelger. The exhibition of fanatic devotion with wild ferocity was curious to follow ; it was Italian to the life. Gardoni made the most dainty and dandy 683 brigand imaginable. Could he but have seen Chollet, the original Fra Diavolo! The singing of Gardoni was always charming, and the same com mentary may be made as to that of Bosio, who, how ever, might infuse more animation into the interest. ing Lerlina, although the part is not that of a prima donna assoluta. The attention of all the principals to the concerted pieces must be praised emphati cally. Bosio and Marai in the trio in the bed chamber scene, and the former in the quintet in the first act, deserve especial mention. The addi tions to the opera consist of a trio for the three robbers, of such animation and entrain, as to secure a rapturous redemand for Gardoni, Tagliafico, and Zelger. In the second act Mine. Bosio, emitting the original andante, introduced the florid air from the Serment that Doras Gras used to sing everywhere at concerts some years since. It was brilliantly vocalised by Bosio. There was a buffa aria enter polated for Ronconi, and a duo for Bosio and NI eri- Baraldi in the last act. Auber has instrumented the new music in his most piquant style. He has a speciality of his own in scoring. In 1813 his first opera, the Sijour lifilitaire, was produced at the " Feydeau" in Paris. Since that year his works have occupied both the Grand Opera and the Opera Comique. His masterpiece, La Afuette de Portici kMasaniello), was brought out in 1828, the celebrated prayer in which being taken from one of his masses. He has been a most prolific comuoser, although, strange to state, he never had any real liking for composition. Like all great composers, his school has undergone a change. In his ear:y days, he was bitten by the Rossinian influence—even his Fra Diavolo overture, in the opening movement, betrays his liking for the Swan of Pesaro. How this over ture was rattled through by Costa's orchestra, it is needless to add; never was anything more perfect than the pianissimos of the violins and the stringed passages. Fra Diavolo will remain one of the per manent works of the Royal Italian Opera repertoire ; it is a gem of the French comic-opera school, fertile in ideas, melodious in imagery, racy in the instrumen tation, and animated in the concerted combinations. THE ITALIAN DRAMA—MADAME RISTORI. THE German language is the only one which can render the conceptions of Shakespeare with anything like an approximation to their original force and meaning. The French versions of the plays of our immortal poet have been singularly feeble as well as absurd. What Dumus -did with Hamlet, every Parisian playgoer well knows—such a burlesque in the adaptation as well as the acting was inconceiv able. Chelard's translation of Macbeth contains some irresistibly ludicrous as°ociations. Only imagine the child's exhortation from the cauldron:— Monsieur Macbeth ! Monsieur Macbeth ! Monsieur Macbeth ! Prenez garde de Monsieur Macduff! Macbetto and Macduffo sound oddly, and Signor Carcano, the translator, has evide n tly b een o f ten perplexed with our peculiar idioms in his four-act version of our five.act tragedy. The actors them. selves seemed conscious of being in a false position, comprehending only the action, but ignorant of the author's subtle meanings and sublime aspirations. But even with a tortured text, and inefficient sup porters, the genius of Ristmi soared triumphantly. With the will to do, the faculty to comprehend, and the physical attributes to present, a Lady Macbeth has startled the Shakesperians by its striking originality in the creation of the part, and by its remarkable force in carrying out the conception. The four great points in her performance are her in fluences on the mind which is, " willing to wound but afraid to strike," the horrors of the murder scene, the assumed courage at the banquet, and the re morse in the sleep-walking scene. £he veteran frequenters of the drama in its palmy days declare the sonnambulisun to be unrivalled. Its effect on the audience is certainly thrilling, and Lady Macbeth will be cited as one of Ristori's finest assumptions. " The heart is sorely charged," ex claims the doctor ; and the truth of his diagnosis is indeed proved by the symptoms displayed by this extraordinary actress. It is a terrible picture —one that is seen but rarely on the mimic boards. Being " in earnest " is the essential element of her acting, like that of the Kean. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—Marie Taglioni lab arrived in London, and will appear on Tuesday next. THE DEATH OF THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA is announced to have occurred at Ceuta. According to a note to " Childe lIarold," Agostina Zaragoza as in her twenty-second year when the siege occurred, so that she must have been about seventy at her death. The Spanish papers merely say that she was very young at the time of the siege. She held the rank of ensign in the Spanish army, and wore several decorations, the reward of her exploits in the War of Independence. She was buried at Ceuta with military honours.