The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 17, 1858. Miss Stabbach, Mrs. Weiss, Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims Reeves, Herr Deck, and Mr. Weiss ; the instru• mentalists, Miss Arabella Goddard, Mr. Benedia, Mr. Lindsay Sloper, Herr Molique, M. Deichmann, and Herr Ries ; and Mr. Best, the organist. If the intention was to attract a crowd of people by a long list of well-known names, the device certainly succeeded. But having brought together a number of artists, it was necessary to find employment for them, and so the programme was principally made up of a number of vocal and instrumental solos, very interesting no doubt to the few hundreds in the immediate neigh bourhood of the orchestra, but scarcely audible to any one else. In fact, when the second part of the concert began with Maurer's ooncertante for four violins numbers of persons were utterly unconscious that anything was going on. We wonder how long people will persuade themselves that they do hear music at these gatherings, and that they do enjoy it. A SMALL. PARTY OF SWEDISH SINGERS have been giving a series of concerts during the past week in the lower room at St. James's•hall. They are nine in number, and all of the masculine gender, forming a sort of small glee•union similar to two or three which we have in London. They sing their national songs, and appear in different varieties of their national costume, no two being dressed alike. It is always a disadvantage of these small choirs that tie individual voices are too much heard, and each member is liable to be criticized as if he were a solo•singer. We are not surprised that listening to these Swedes sing!) , we find the voices produced in a manner somewhat barbaric ; but in the countrymen of Jenny Lind it is disappointing to find that the voices themselves are scarcely of average quality. Never theless they keep well together; their intonation is good, and the light and shadows are marked with a vigour which borders on exaggeration. The national music of Sweden is spirited and characteristic, and has a singularly clear and well-defined rhythm. A few instrumental solos by Mr. Eben and Mlle. Sophie Humler served to vary the programmes. Mr. Eben's fiute•playing is more showy than real; very preten tious, but very ragged and unfinished. Mlle. Sophie Homier, although announced as "the extraordinary performer upon the violin," is really possessed of considerable talent. But she has left school too soon ; her tone, though frequently brilliant, is Rometimes unendurably harsh ; and her intonation by no means uniformly correct. Her style, however, is bold and masculine, and she phrases with a breadth and decision very unusual in a female violinist. If she be content patiently to pursue her studies, she has it in her power to become an artist of no mean rank. Even at present her performance is striking, and her reception might almost be called enthusias tic ; though, no doubt, partly due to her youthful and prepossessing appearance. BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL.—The arrange. ments for the triennial. inusieal festival at Birming ham—the largest of the provincial musical gather. ings—are nearly completed, and August the 31st and September the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd are the days fixed for the meeting. As usual, engagements have been made with the leading vocalists now in England. The principal sopranos are Mme. Clara Novello, Mlle. Victoire Balfe, and Mme. Castellan ; contraltos, Mme. Alboni, Miss Dolby, and Mme. Viardot Garcia ; tenors, Signor Tamberlik, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Montem Smith ; bases, Signor Ronconi, Mr. Weiss, and Signor Belletti. Mr. Costa is the conductor and Mr. Stimpson the organist. The oratorios to be given on the four mornines are :—Tuesday (31st of August), Mendelssohn's Elijah; Wednesday (Ist of September), Costa's Eli; Thursday (2nd), Handel's Messiah ; and Friday (3rd), a new oratorio by Leslie, entitled Judith, Mendelssohn's Lauda Sion, and Beethoven's service in C. Evening concerts will be given on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On the Tuesday evening will be given Handel's Adis and Galatea. On Wednesday evening, Mendelssohn's cantata, "To the Sons of Art ;" and on Thurs day the serenata composed by Mr. Costa for the Princess Royal's marriage, besides overtures and selections from operas on each evening. There is to be a " lull dress " ball on Friday evening to wind up the week's enjoyments. The surplus, if any, goes as usual to the funds of the General Hospital at Birmingham. LEEDS MUSICAL FE STIVA T..—This follows close upon the great gathering at Birmingham, being fixed for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, September 7,8, 9, and 10. The arrangements are as follows :—Principal performers, Mme. Clara No vello, Mrs. Sunderland, Mme. Weiss, Mlle. Piccolo mini, Miss Dolby, Miss Palmer, Mme. Alboni, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, Signor Giuglini, Mr. Weiss, Mr. Winn, Mr. Santley, Signor Ressi, and Signor Vialetti. Solo pianiste—Miss Arabella God. third. Organists—Mr. Henry Smart and Mr. Wm. Spark. Choral master—Mr. R. S. Burton. Con ductor—Professor W. Sterndale Bennett, Mu. Doc., Cantab. The band, consisting of 100 performers will include the members of the London Pi l a u ! monic Orchestra, and several local instrumentali sts. The chorus has been chiefly se lected from th e prin cipal towns in the West Riding. Morning perfor mances—Tuesday, Elijah; Wednesday, a lky d" Seasons ; Thursday, Bach's Passions-Musik, Beet hoven's Mount of Olives, and Rossini's Stabat Mater ; Friday, Messiah. There will be grand miscellaneous concerts on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and Professor Bennett's new cantata, "May Queen," will be performed. The concerts will take place in the new Town-hall, and any profits that may be realized will be added to the funds of the General Infirmary at Leeds. iskt grams. ST. JAMES'S THEATRE. MME. RISTORI'S engagement terminates on Monday next, when she will appear for her " benefit " at the Royal Italian Opera-house, Covent-garden, in Elisa betta Regina d'lnghilterra, two representations of which during the past week (the last on Wednes day) call for remark. As to the play itself, by Giacornette, we have to endure two unusually long and heavy acts, before and for the sake of three shorter and very interesting ones. The story corn. mences at that period of the reign of Elizabeth when this country was menaced by the most formidable preparations for invasion that have ever been made in any age—preparations so gigantic, that had not this country been protected by the hand of God, who caused the great " Armada " to be swallowed up by the ocean before it could reach these shores, they would have rendered the issue of the undertaking by no means doubtful. The chief aim of the author seems to have been to depict in elaborate detail the weaknesses of this great Queen's character, and for this purpose he selects a series of incidents—some well authenticated, others more than doubtful—at an eventful period of her life for his foreground, and draws upon his imagination (which must have been marvellously imbued with the character of Eliza beth, as recorded by her contemporaries) for the materials with which to form his background. The characters, also, of those who filled high places in the State nave evidently been most carefully and successfully studied. It is to be regretted that this play, which was brought out for the first time in England only last week, was not earlier introduced to the public. With a repertory including Elisa betta, Medea, Phedre, Octavio-, and others of great merit, "the Italian Dramatic Company" might, we think, with much advantage to histrionic taste, not to say public morals, have spared their London audience four representations (one-third of the whole num ber) of that trashy, penny-theatre production, Adrienne Lecourreur. Although wo have seen Mme. Ristori perform in many pieces more calculated than Elisabetta to display her great tragic talents, we know of none in which her powers as an actress, generally, have so large a field. In no part that she has filled are the difficulties of the actor greater, or more triumphantly overcome. The ever varying emotions of the capricious, self willed, vain, impulsive, arrogant, and cruel Virgin Queen, task every energy, absorb every appliance of art, and require an amount of self-abstraction that would seem to be utterly incompatible with the con stant recollection of the presence of an exacting and influential audience. Yet Mme. Ristori surmounted every obstacle to a perfect rendering of the part, with the most consummate skill. Her ever-apparent weakness shows itself in the representation of the sentimental, as applied to the tender passion ; but, in Elisabetta, this very weakness comes to her aid, enabling her, without . ffort, or departure from her natural bearing, to depict, with the greatest truthful ness, the frigid reception accorded to a declaration of love, from " it solo nomo che ho veramente amato." The passage, par excellence, of the whole play, as given on Wednesday, was the last words addressed by the Queen to the Spanish Ambassador (last scene of act 2), when he inquires who will have the courage to wield the sword of Henry VIII. "Io !" exclaims she, in a voice of thunder, "e di dite a Filippo 11., che Elisabetta ne scaglio lunge da se la guaina," hurling the scabbard away from her, " Quando queste due nazioni, come due atleti giganti sincontreranno sull 'Oceano, it mondo ne tremera ; e dope. lo scontro, una di queste, pari al Basso che it fancinllo lands nell 'acqua, spariri nei gorghi sanguigni. . . . 0 Inghilterra, 0 Spagna, . . . 0 Elisabetta o Filippo. . . . pel re inio padre lo ginro!" The effect produced by Mine. Ristori's delivery of these terrible words is beyond the power of description. The audience was as if electrified, and long and loud was the applause that followed. With the exception of this last-mentioned passage, there is scarcely anything, in the two first acts, that deserves particular notice, or that tends to relieve the weariness which, notwithstanding much clever and appropriate colloquy, they produce. The re mainder of the play, however, amply compensates the following brief extract, which points to a general truth of the greatest importance, and now but too often forgotten :- The changes which Dr. Vaughan has introduced into his narrative to make it more palatable, imply that he thinks the modern public grown childish, and its taste decidedly sickly. But though the style which he adopts is sanc tioned by the example of many able writers, we n.lst pro- test against the attempt to allure the lovers of amusement by turning history into a novel or a legend. It is unsafe to tamper with truth even in trifles, and it is worse than useless to conceal the ignorance of facts by the invention of details. We object to a graphic sketch of the house in which, after all, it is highly improbable that Wycliffe should have been born, and of the convents where it is " pleasing to believe " he was educated. We cannot lend our belief to fanciful descriptions of the external aspect of the university when the Reformer entered it, or the interior of the " hall " where he lectured—of the emotions, the faces, the attitudes, of the pupils who admired, or the seniors who condemned his innovating spirit. It is • natural mistake to impute to the actors in great events the feelings with which we ourselves look back upon them, but when Wycliffe first began his lectures as a Professor of Theology we must not attribute to him a foreknowledge of the great results be was preparing, nor the confidence of ultimate triumph, still less the reckless indifference or morbid discontent with which a modern lecturer proceeds to undermine the foundations of society. The essay upon India and the Indian Re volt is eloquent and striking. The writer laments the estrangement, which has gradually increased since 1793, between the English and the natives. He repudiates the idea that the latter can be governed only by force. And he calls attention to the injudic►ous system of edu cation that prevails in the native colleges. Ile is of opinion that we ought to strive to introduce the English language, and to practise a fuller recognition of the Christian religion. He de votes several pages to the tenure of land, and bears an explicit testimony to Lord Ellen borough's ability. Such is a brief analysis of this remarkable paper, which, in common with the remaining contents, we shall reconsider at another time. Ilitsic. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. Lucia di Lammermoor was produced here on Thurs day for the first time this season : we wish it had come sooner. The cast is so well known that we will not fatigue our readers by much comment upon the performers. Mlle. Piccolomini, though scarcely equal to the part of Lucia. is so painstaking, so con scientious (musically speaking), and—within the limits of her capabilities —so truthful and finished, that we gladly blind ourselves to some little imper fections which a comparison of her Lucia with that of other and greater artists must undeniably dis close. " Regnava nel silenzio (act i. scene 4), "Ardon gl'incensi " (act iii. scene 3), and the solo parts of the following scene, were perhaps never better rendered by any one. Signor Giuglini ex• seeded ail his former performances as Edgardo, and, whether in solo or concerted parts, was always every thing that could be wished. With reference to the two delicious airs, " Fra poco a me" and " Tn cbe a Dio," his singing could not be. surpassed. We re joice to observe in this justly popular artist a very decided improvement in histrionic ability. He has evidently taken much pains to this end, and his suc cessful exertions deserve commendation. The duet, " Vetvanno a te," was exquisitely sung by him and Mlle. Piccolomini. At the close of the last scene he was saluted with a shower of bouquets and wreaths (satin ribbons, and all, as taken off the heads of some fair admirers) that required him to return three times to carry them away. We cannot concur in the taste which thus invades a privilege that has always been considered specially to belong to the gentler sex. Signor Belletti, as Enrico, and Signor Vialetti, as Raimond, were open to nothing but the most favourable criticism. The " Crttda funesta " of the former was worthy of this artist's high merit. Signor Mercurialt, as Arturo, afforded, as usual, more pain than pleasure. We would desire to avoid anything like ill-natured remarks ; but in duty to, and on behalf of, the public, we must express the hope that. this gentleman's engagement at Her Majesty's Theatre will terminate with the present season. If we are to have three Operas again next season, he may find a more suitable position at Drury-lane Theatre. CRYSTAL. PALACE.—Yesterday there was another monster concert. This time Mr. Benedict was the conductor, and the chorus was composed principally of the members of the Vocal Association. The per. formers, who numbered something over a thousand, were placed in the great Handel orchestra ; and the audience entirely filled the centre transept and the surrounding galleries, and even overflowed into the nave. The vocalists were Mme. Gassier, Miss Pyne, 682