The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-24 00:00:00

MAY 24, 1856. " Christian state will be victorious—the truly Evan gelical Church will triumph ;" and he propounds t he principle—" Toleration for all, even for the in " tolerant, bat not for the intolerance of such as are "exclusive on principle." With thin very general idea of the principle of the volume ( which consists of ten letters to a friend), we must leave it to those who are interested in the ecclesiastical politics of Germany, and who have requisite knowledge and learning to fathom them in the profound philosophi cal exposition of this eminent Prussian savant. A Cyclopedia of Geography, Descriptive and Physical. By James Bryce, M.A. London and Glasgow : Griffin and Co. A PRUSSWORTHY contribution to our stock of educa tional works on geography. To the ordinary features of a cazeteer is united a great mass of extrinsic in formation in the shape of statistics, of language, and of antiquities : The distances, taken from the best recent maps, are given direct, unless when otherwise mentioned, as by rail way or river; and these, as well as the heights , are ex pressed in the English measures. The revenues of the minas S•ates. and the values of imports and exports, have been generally reduoed to sterling money To facilitate redactions which may he necessary, a table of the principal foreign moneys is subjoined The popula tions ere given from the latest census, the several dates being stated nnder each country. The admirable digests of the returns for Great Britain and the United States, espe cially the former, have furnished many facts of great social interest. The pronunciation is marked in Italic letters, inclosed in a parenthesis—the ancient and native names in Italics, inclosed in brackets. When we add that the whole of this compact digest of geography and history is published at the price of 125., we 01 , 11 have said enough to recommend it to the attention of our readers. Literary Addresses. Delivered at Various Popular Institutions. Third Series. London and Glas gow : Griffin and Co. Tur compositions contained in this volume are most of them good of their kind, though marked by a prize essay sort of tone likely to detract from their useful ness. The list of names in the present volume com prises. among others, Mr. Levan], the Duke of Ar gyll, Lord Eglinton, and Mr. Warren. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-MAY 22. BOOKS. The Attaché in Madrid ; or Sketches of the Court of Isabella 11. Sampson Low and Co. The Pleasures of Home. A Poem. In Two Parts. Rev. John Anderson. Hall and Virtue. Shakespeare's England; or, Sketches of our Social History in the Reign of Elizabeth. Loncrtnans. A Catechism of Music. Boaworth and Harrison. The Seasons of the Church, What thew Teach. Mozlev. Ismeer ;or Smyrna and its British Hospital in 1855. By a Lady. Madden. Revised Enolish Version of the Holy Scriptures. Ameri can Wide Union Trtihner and Co.—The israelitish AuthoTship of the Sinailic inscriptions. Bentley—Plan of Construction and Ventilation of Hospitals. Bentley—Re cruiting in the United Slates. Wilson. WATERS OF THE DEAD SEA.—Anxious to test the accounts of travellers touching the buoyancy of its waters, I disrobed myself, and plunging in, was soon engaged in springing rather than swimming over its blue wavelets. At each stroke that I made, my head, arms, and entire shoulders, down nearly to my waist, rose above the surface ; nor was I able to keep my feet while in motion under water, so that my progress was rendered slow in the extreme. I even found that without taking the trouble to turn on my back, if I merely desisted from striking out, I remai ied motion less on the surface, my head and shoulders well above water ; whilst on turning to look far my feet, found that they also were tumble to remain below, and were s ti c k ing up b e hi n d. So long as I remained in the water I found it most cool and refreshing: though immediately on gaining the land it seemed as if I had emerged from an oil tub ; and on attempting to dry myself with a towel, I was obliged, after a most violent rubbing, to give it un in despair, and to put on my clothes, notwithstanding the clammy moisture which oozed from every pore, and which I found impossible to rectify by rubbing. This unpleasant dampness lasted for two or three days, in fact until I was able to bathe in fresh water on my return to Jerusalem. Kennard's Eastern Ex periences. WEIGHT OF BEES.—It IS not often that insects have been weighed; but Reanmur's curiosity was excited to know the weight of bees; and he found that 338 weighed an ounce, and 5,376 a pound. According to John Hunter, an ale-house pint con tains 2,160 workers.— Kirby and Spence's Ento mology. THE PRESS. US iC. THE TWO OPERA HOUSES. OPERA optimism is in full operation. The fre quenters of both houses are astounded, after hearing the opinions openly promulgated between the acts and at the end of a performance, to read in the ac counts published in the " best public instructors " of the following morning, criticisms of a totally opposite tendency. Everything is coukur de rose, and the cackling goose becomes a majestic swan. For in stance, at the Lyceum, Mario's debut in Lucrezia was a fiasco, but it has been recorded as his greatest triumph. On the Saturday following, when he really surpassed himself, and sang as only Mario can sing when he is in voice, his success was passed sub silentio. Again, at Her Majesty's Theatre, Alboni's appearance last Tuesday as Amina has been recorded as an enormous hit, whereas, in sober truth, it was a sad mistake, the transposition of the .music of the somnambulist being fatal to her success. But then the " Ah, non giunge," will he exclaimed by your• optomists, as if an opera was to depend on a rondo finale. Alboni's departure from the contralto. register parts is most ill-advised. It can be but " touch and go" with her soprano notes. She has no sustaining power with them, and she, very unfairly to her• col leagues in the cast, coolly throws over the concerted pieces. How different this course of action from the artistic absorption of Jenny Lind, Viardot, and Grisi, who never spare themselves, but conscientiously ad here to their parts in the composer's score. Salviani, the new tenor at Her Majesty's Theatre, was not in his place as the Count in Il Barbiere, but he will be useful in the " robust " parts. The ensemble of Verdi's Rigoletto, on Thursday night, at the Lyceum, with Bosio, Ronconi, and Mario, is worthy of a future notice. Great curiosity exists to hear Piccolomini, the new prima donna, who is to make her first appearance in Verdi's Traviata, at Her Majesty's Theatre, to night. Next Saturday, Albertini will make her debut in the Trovatore, with Alboni as the Gipsey. The new ballet, Manola, is extremely pretty, and offers an excellent opportunity for the most charming pas de quatre. Mlles. Bellon and Pierron have fully established their position, and bid fair to achieve a high reputation. Their style of dancing combines the most perfect grace with re markable tours de pied, which bring down unmis takable applause. CONCERTS OF THE WEEK. FOR the first time in England Jenny Lind Gold schmidt and Pauline Garcia Viardot were associated at Benedict s concert, in Exeter hall, last Wednesday, night, in a duet by Meyerbeer, " La Mere Grande." It was a curious coincidence that these two great vocalists should first sing together the work of a composer to whom they are both so highly indebted for their proud positions. To Meyerbeer Jenny Lind owes almost everything, for he it was who first recognised her vocal abilities, and who procured her the engagement at Berlin where in Alice she pro duced, as in London, such a profound sensation. To Meverbeer Viardot is indebted for the creation of Fides, a character which Grisi, Alboni, and others have as hopelessly attempted to approach the original representative, as much as Jenny Lind signally failed to rival Grisi in Norma, and as much as Alboni has just utterly failed to reach the excellence of Jenny Lind's Arnim'. Like the great painters, every singer has his or her speciali'y, and it is in the variety of schools that the individuality of artists is stamped. Jenny Lind and Viardot in Berlin were rival stars, and great was the discussion, some eleven or twelve years since, of the connoisseurs as to their respective claims. If the former has the physical advantages of quality in the wondrous notes of the upper octave, and of power of sustaining and prolonging sounds, the latter has the artistic superiority of intellectual interpretation of a composer's conception. Jenny Lind could not accom plish the unparalleled tour de force once achieved in Berlin by Viardot, that of doubling the parts of Alice and the Princess in Meyerbeer's Robert is Diable, on the same evening. Viardot could not im part such an irresistible charm to the Styrian melo • dies as Lind did oa Wednesday, and the latter could not attain the grandeur of musical declamation which Viardot displayed in Handel's " Verdi prati." In the delightful duo, in which Jenny Lind was the vivacious young lady, and Viardot the vigi lant grandmamma, the hearer was reminded of the romance, " A deux voix," in the Prophite, between Fides and Berta. Could not these two artistes be included in the cast of that opera' Their combinations in the cadenzas were the perfection of the art of vocalisation, and the blending of the two voices was beautiful, the notation being just in the best portions of the register of each singer. Unfortunately for the exclamations of en core at the close, there was a desperate rush to escape from the scandalously scanty modes of egress provided by the Exeter hall proprietary, which seems disposed to wait for a catastrophe before it will amend the entrances and exits. The torrents of rain which fell towards the close of the concert will cause the ladies to remember with bitterness how dearly their evening's pleasure had been purchased at Exeter-hall, the crowded state of which was almost unprecedented on the occasion. Benedict's professional and private qualities entitled him to the distinction, but his own compositions were cruelly treated by hie German tenor and basso, as principals, and by the undisciplined chorus and band. The scheme also was not well balanced ; it partook too much of the character of the defunct Ancient Concerts' programmes, admirable ones for their purpose, but not adapted for a miscellaneous auditory. The two pianoforte pupils of Benedict are clever players, but not clever enough for his annual concerts, and Gold schmidt was scarcely superior to the pupils. The Bach concerto, consequently, with its classic con struction and antique imagery, did not tell. The Piatti display in the extracts from Molique's vio loncello concerto, exquisitely executed, was too long ; and the Papageno violin solo, marvelously rendered by Ernst, was too late. Benedict, as a race against time—for Exeter hall concerts must not run towards the small hours —was obliged to cut the concert short by a desperate rush into the concluding overture, amidst which were the ravings of the company for carriages, as a kind of obligato outside. The Crystal Palace concerts, with the Royal Italian Opera singers, and Costa's band and chorus, have been a great success in an artistic point of view, con trary to previous experience of the effect of music under a glass roof. It may be recollected that Mme. Clara Novello's singing and the National Anthem, under Costa's direction, were the only grand results ever known before the Italian concerts. Now the vocalists are heard to infinite advantage, and the triumph in acoustics has been solely owing to the ingenious contrivances for the arrangement of the arena by Mr. Gye. It' he be as successful with the new theatre he is about to erect, an immense diffi culty in the theory of construction of edifices for the effective transmission of sound will have been re- moved. The visitors to the Crystal Palace concerts will do well to try the capabilities for hearing, under Mr. Gye's novel arrangement, of the locality placed at his disposal by the directors. Mario's voice—and no better test than a tenor's organ in a large build ing can be found—penetrated the most remote por tions of the concert hall. The concert which took place yesterday was most brilliantly attended and was highly successful. The Amateur Musical Society gave their ninth concert last Monday, under the direction of Mr. Henry Leslie. Ten seasons have proved the vitality of the society, and, it may be added, its utility. Fashion able players will have more sympathy with profes• sional executants when the difficulties of the scores of the great masters become familiarly known. Just as Benedict has abandoned the monster con cert, which ho so perpetuated, after the retirement of Bochsa and Mori, Mr. Bodda, the baritone, has com menced these gigantic schemes ; one of which was given at Exeter•hall last Monday, with a list of singers and solo instrumentalists sufficient for half a dozen ordinary concerts. The Puzzis are the most indefatigable of bene ficiaires. First in the season is Mme. Puzzi, with a " Soirée d'lnvitation," at a guinea per chair. Then comes a "Matinee d'lntroduction," at the same figure. Next in rotation is the grand morning con cert of Mine. Puzzi ; and finally, to close the fatigues of the severe campaign, is the "Benefit of Signor Puzzi," at her Majesty's Thestre, when open, or any other theatre when the former was closed. The artistes who " assist " on all these occasions ought to get up a testimonial, for the largesses thus annually vouchsafed by the Puzzis. Mr. W. H. Holmes's pianoforte concerts are honourably distinguished by the introduction of the latest compositions of foreign masters, thus affording amateurs a guide as to the present state of art on the Continent. Mrs. John Macfarren's annual matinees of pianoforte music display care and good taste in the programmer. Mr. Blagrove, the violinist, has revived his quartet concern. M. Charles Halle and M. Billet are giving pianoforte recitals ; and Mr. G. A. Osborne, the composer and pianist, brought out his annual concert last night. Of the new artistic importations it is scarcely pos sible to keep a record. There are Mme. Mattman, the pianiste from Paris ; Herren Leopold and Moritz Ganz, violin and violoncello, from Berlin; Signor Andreoli, pianist; Signor Sighicelli, violinist; Signor Brara, violoncellist; Signor Monari, baritone; Mlle. Krell, vocallist ; Pirchek, the famed baritone from Stuttgardt; M. Jules de Glimes, composer; Mlle. Pels Leusden, vocalist; Oberthur, the harpist; Mme. Falconi, prima donna assoluta, d:c. If the list of