The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-22 00:00:00

struction of the old house. Grisi was Valentina; Mario, Raoul; Zelger, Marcel ; Marie, Margurite of Navarre; DidiPe, the Page ; Tagliafico, the Count de Nevera ; and Polonini, St. Bris. Formes was announced in the part of Marcel, but in consequence of his non-arrival, Zelger took the part, which he bad often taken before. The opera, as thus represented, is exceedingly well known to musical people, yet there was a freshness about this per formance which gave it an appearance of novelty, though the novelty lay in the accessories and adven titious circumstances rather than in the performance itself. It lay in the newness of the theatre, and the interest and excitement attending the opening ; it lay in the novel aspect of the stage with its scenery, decorations, and every object belonging to the spec. tacle, which was more beautiful and magnificent than anything ever witnessed on the boards of the old theatre ; and it lay in the length of time which had elapsed since the opera had been performed by this com pany, it having hen laid aside during their exile to the Lyceum. But it lay also in the splendid efforts of Grisi and Mario, who acted and sang as they had not done for years before. In her aspect, her voice, her simplicity, and resistless pathos, Grisi was all she ever was. Mario, too, whose voice and general powers have often been remarked as varying and uncertain, showed to his usual advantage. The scene of love and despair, which closes the third act, made as deep an impression as the first time it was witnessed. The other performers were heard to more than usual advantage. Marai's soprsno was more clear and brilliant, and Didiee's contralti fuller and richer than we ever heard them before ; partly owing, no doubt, to the favourable qualities of the house. Zelger's Marcel was an excellent perfor mance, and gave us lithe or no cause to regret the absence of Formes. Mr. Costa was loudly cheered as he took his ac customed place in the orchestra, and all our old acquaintances were warmly welcomed as they pre sented themselves. At the end of the performance a rather untoward circumstance occurred. When the curtain rose again, after the end of the third act, the company were assembled on the stage, and began to sing " God save the Queen." The denizens of the upper regions interrupted the performance by calling loudly for the fourth act. The clamour con tinuing, Mr. Harris came forward, and having with difficulty obtained a bearing, explained that, in con sequence of the length of time necessarily consumed on this first night in setting the scenes between the acts, it was now past midnight, and the fourth act could not be given. This did not satisfy the mal contents, who hissed and yelled during the whole time the National Anthem was sung. The curtain at length fell, and they, as well as the rest of the audience, departed peaceably. THE FOURTH CONCERT OF THE VOCAL ASSOCIATION took place at St. James's-hall yesterday evening ; the programe offered more variety than any of the preceding ones. The instrumental pieces were Bash's chaconne for the violin, with Mendelsson's pistoforte accompaniment, played in a most aliallerlymanner by Herr Joachim and Mr. Benedict ; Mendelssohn's duet in B flat for pianoforte and violoncello, neatly, but rather tamely, executed by Miss Susan Goddard and Mr. H. Chipp ; and Bach's organ prelude and fugue in G major, magnificently played by Mr. Best. The solo vocalists were Mme. Borchardt, Mme. Amadei, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, Herr Deck, and last, but not least, Herr Pischek, who sung an air from Mozart's Seraglio, a German ballad by Schumann, and that everlasting " Standard Bearer, which, for a wonder, escaped its usual encore. The Orpheus Glee Union were also en gaged, and gave several part-songs by Hantel, Men. delssohn, and Reichardt; and the members of the Vocal Association for their part contributed some motets, madrigals, and part-songs by Hauptmann, Abt, Marenzio, and liiicken. The ball was very full, and the concert, which was not too long, was alto. gether one of the best of the series. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—The combined attrac tions of Titiens, Alboni, and Giuglini has secured for the Trovatore a run of unchequered success. On every occasion on which the opera has been given the . house has p resen t e d an as pect of extraordinary brilliancy, increased by the repeated presence of the Queen and Court. This must, however, give place to Luisa Muller, now in active rehearsal, and in which Piccolomini is to appear. A rich attraction is offered by Mrs. Anderson at her grand concert on Friday morning, the 28th inst. To the united attrac tions of Titions, Alboni, Piccolomini, Giuglini,l3elart, and the other artistes of Her Majesty's Theatre, are added Mine. Clara Novello, the violinist Joachim, and much distinguished talent, vocal and instru nleutal. iL THE PRESS, MAY 22, 1858. tint 4 rts ROYAL ACADEMY. (Fourth Notice.) WE have not yet mentioned Mr. Paton's picture of "The Bluidy Tryste"—a picture which contains so much that is good and so much that is faulty that to give a general opinion of it in a few words is not easy. It has one fault which is frequently found in paintings of the Pre-Rapbaelite school. Though the detail is painted with great care and minuteness, the general effect is unnatural and unreal. But the story is impressive and the design striking. The lady turns away with violent show of grief from the body of the knight whom she has stabbed ; the knight, lying on the turf, gazes with dead eyes upon the lady. Though the figures are on a small scale, not only are the heads and hands painted with great delicacy, but the very textures of the draperies— velvet, silk, and cloth—are most accurately distin guished ; and the turf and the flowers, the broken rocks and the running water, and the little adder in the corner, have all been studied from nature with most patient labour. And yet look at them all together, and the result is most untrue. It seems as if the artist bad collected all his models together—his figures, and dresses, and rocks, and turf, and flowers —and painted from them in his studio with the very light and shadow which he found upon them there. There is the clear sky of a summer-day, but neither sun-light nor sun-shadow. Nor is the story perfectly well told : without the quotation in the catalogue we should hardly know whether the knight were dead or not; his face is not paler or more ghastly than the lady's. His hands, too, are white and unstained : does not a man when stabbed strike his hand at once upon the wound Yet there is a passionate feeling about the picture, which, combined with the very dexterous execution, obtains for it a great deal of admiration in spite of all its faults. The pictures of the two Landseers, of Mr. Elmore, and Mr. Pickersgill we have already mentioned by name. They are all in the well-known manners of their respective authors, but scarcely of average merit; any detailed notice of them seems unneces sary. Mr. Phillip and Mr. Lewis, on the other hand, though they still occupy themselves upon their favourite subjects, both contribute so largely and display so much vigour that they claim more than ordinary attention. The subjects chosen by these two artists belong nearly to the same class, though no two modes of treatment can be more utterly unlike. Tbeir pictures are little more than studies ; action is very sparingly introduced. Mr. Lewis still attaches himself to the East. In the mosques, the harems, the kibab.shops, the turbans, and shawls, and pipes. and coffee-cups he finds all the light form and gay colour in which he delights ; the clear atmosphere and quiet, sleepy life suit him exactly, and he makes from these materials such pictures as no one else can. He has no occasion to hunt for striking effects, much less to invent anything of the kind ; the truth of his works gives them greater force than can be produced by any artificial means. We cannot say that in Mr. Phillip's pictures action is altogether wanting, but it is not the main thing. He does not paint the whole truth like Mr. Lewis, and so he requires bolder forms and richer colour, and these he finds in Spain. Ladies with fan and man tilla, dark faces and darker hair, gentlemen with beard and cloak, beggars with their coloured blankets and mules with their gay trappings—these are the picturesque figures which serve to display his pecu liar power. And when he paints a prisoner kissing his child, or a woman begging of a priest, as last year ; or the death of a contrabandista, as this year, though the appropriate feeling and expression are not wanting, yet the bold execution of these pic turesque figures is still the principal merit of the picture. Both of these artists, as we have said, are in more than usual force this year. Mr. Phillip seems to have been stimulated by his new rank of A.R.A., and Mr. Lewis shows that he has not resigned the presidency of the Water-colour Society with any idle intentions. The latter exhibits five pic tures, the former no less than seven. Mr. Poole still occupies his accustomed place ; his function as an artist seems to resemble that of the helot whose business was to in dulge in vice for the warning and edifica tion of the Spartan youth. It is well that vice should sometimes be visibly hideous—that all idolatry should not be dignified with beauty. We want holy crocodiles and consecrated cats to serve as an antidote. The example of a man who has wilfully abandoned the truth, and been visited, as theologians say, with judicial blindness, and give* over to a reprobate mind, is valuable in other matters beside theology. Artists have been seduced by all kinds of meretricious beauty, and misled by all kinds of false lights; but it seems to have been reserved for Mr. Poole to assert a profound conviction that the grandest and most beautiful thing in this world is a yellow fog. This demon of fog holds him in abject slavery ; he is never allowed a moment's liberty. Two years ago he painted William Tell and his fellow-conspirators in a fog at midnight ; last year, a fog in the sixteenth century, enveloping a field conventicle on a Scotch moor; and this year he produces a still more ancient fog, with figures of Lear and Cordelia. And all the! pay that Mr. Poole gets from this hard taskmaster is a half-concealment of his sins against form and colour. We would not have his pictures excluded from the Academy on any account ; he does his work well. Mr. Richmond has attempted a subject beyond his powers in the "Agony in the Garden." He has just been elected an Associate in recognition of his merit as a portrait-painter : and it was not unnatural that his promotion should stimulate him to attempt higher things. We can only regret that he should not be conscious of his own failure. Mr. Thomas's picture of the presenta- tion of the Crimean medals on May the 18th, 1855, painted by the Queen's command, contrasts very favourably with Mr. Ward's unfortunate productions. He has overcome the difficulties of the subject with great skill, relieving the formality of the scene as far as was possible, and availing himself of the mistiness of the spring morning to give an appearance of greater extent to the parade-ground, and of greater dignity to the surrounding buildings than in reality they possess. Mr. Egley's scene from "Le Malade Imaginaire" is very carefully painted, and the ex pression of some of the figures is forcible, but it seems to us that painters should not illustrate any books but such as are universally known ; these French plays are read and admired by a certain class, but we doubt if they ate familiar to one person in twenty who visit the Academy. " The Gaoler's Daughter," and " Flora Macdonald's Farewell to Charles Edward," by Mr. Calderon, are works of promise ; not showing much strength, but tender and gentle, without feebleness. " The Last Trial of Madame Palissy," by Mr. W. J. Grant, is a pretty picture, but not well considered. The enthusiastio potter, in the course of his experiments, reduced his family to great distress, and finally persuaded his wife to throw even her wedding-ring into his crucible. This is the subject which Mr. Grant has chosen, but be seems to have a dislike to distress, and carefully excludes every appearance of it from his picture. His delicate feelings will only allow a pensive look to be thrown over the face of Madame Palissy ; star vation is too vulgar a thing to be painted, and, besides, is not pretty. Mr. Grant should indulge his taste by representing such things as are agree able to it, not by misrepresenting such as are not. Mr. Stone's " Missing Boat " is a scene on the beach at Calais ; sailors and sailors' wives looking through the storm for friends and husbands. It is commendable as an earnest attempt on Mr. Stone's part to leave off repeating himself ; but, looking at it upon its own merits, we have not much to say in its favour. The figures seem scattered about the canvas without the slightest attempt at grouping, and are all enfeebled by his old habit of cleaning and refining. The feeling and force of the subject are all refined away. Why paint people braving a storm, if the storm is not allowed to wet their clothes, or even disturb their hair? A DIOP.AMA OF THE INDIAN MUTINY has been painted by M. Gompertz, with the assistance of other artists, and is now being exhibited at St. James's-hall. The siege and capture of Delhi, the execution of the mutineers at Peshawur, the massacre at Cavrnpore, the insurrection at Lahore, and the evacuation of Lucknow, are the principal scenes represented. Each view is said to have been painted from an authentic sketch, with the excep tion of the massacre, which is, of course, a mere work of fancy. The idea is not a bad one, but as a work of art the diorama is rather inferior ; the view of Delhi by Mr. C. Marshall is by far the best of the series. A descripture lecture is delivered by a Mr. Rignoldi in a style of elocution not much to be com mended ; it is plain and straightforward enough for the most part, but a few passages of rather foolish declamation might as well be omitted. The Indian diorama is followed by a oil* of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusakeii3i which, M. Gompertz tells us, "though not in any way aceineeted with the Indian subject, represents a pleaetef the most pro-- found interest in connection with the c being the crypt of the church which has over the spot where the Cross of our found." ,„. 491 holy crocodiles and consecrated cats to serve Cbristian era, is been erected tr Saviour was imsosAl