The Press. — London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

endeavouring to bring our mind into closer com munion with his. Those forced and quaint expres sions which in the reviewer's opinion supply pre sumptive evidence of error, are precious to us as the throes which mark the birth of some of his grandest conceptions; and phrases which for a time 5,3111 black and impenetrable as a storm-cloud, open, after long watching, and pour upon the mind a stream of Heaven's own light. It is a noble, intellectual exer cise, and as healthful as noble, to endeavour to sound the depths of his mind in those passages which are of doubtful accuracy; and though, it is true, conjec ture may often mislead us. yet we are disposed to think that when a restoration of the text is made, the reading carries with it irresistible evidence of its truth. In fact, as a general princ'ple, it holds good that we can more easily mistake error for truth than truth for error : A substitute shines brightly as a King Until a King be by; and then his state Empties itself, as cloth an inland brook Into the main of waters. Is not this true of all substitutes for sense, as of the substitutes for power? We fancy that the Edinburgh reviewer has but a very imperfect acquaintance with what conjectural emendation has done for the text of Shakespeare. It seems incredible that he should speak of it so con temptuously as he does, had he ever tracked its labours. He gives in one part of his article a some what exaggerated account of the corruption of the first folio from a foreign contemporary:— Glaring typographical errors abound—verse is printed as prose, anti prose as verse—the punctuation throughout seems to have been wade at haphazard—words are omitted, mistaken, and transposed—and sometimes the types appear to have been jumbled together into what bears barely the semblance of a word. Now, what but " conjectural emendation " has re placed that foul text by the text we possess at present? and, comparing one with the other, is it just to dis honour, as this Edinburgh reviewer does, the skill and sagacity which have worked so successfully ? Htusit. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. THREE Italian composers have tried their hands at the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet— namely, Zingarelli, Vaccai, and Bellini, but neither of these has been successful in producing a great work. It is only when it has been found necessary to display the dramatic powers of some singer whose voice partakes of the two qualities of a soprano and contralto that a Romeo has been seen to fret a short hour on lyric boards. Pasta is within the recollection of the elder race of opera frequenters. Grandolphi, perhaps, is forgotten. Malibran's Romeo is of later date; and that of her gifted sister, Viardot, in 1818, amateurs will not easily banish from the memory. The several Romeo: just referred to have been generally com pounded from the three operas of Ztngarelli, Vaccai, and Bellini. But in later days even the "Ombra adorata " of Zingarelli has disappeared, and the mixture has been confined to the first two acts of Bellini's insipid production and to the more intensy, but scarcely sufficiently powerful, last act of Vaccai. In Germany, Viardot, with the double dose, gained great glory; but at the Royal Italian Opera, in 1848, not even her genius could per-uade the public to swallow the concoction, although sae had Mme. Castellan as Juliet and Marini as Capellio, Mei being the Tobaldo, and one more unen durable than even Reichardt. at Her Majesty's. Will the Romeo of Johanna Wagner, in the resuscitated " Bellini entire," suffice to render the Italian out pourings of the Veronese lovers acceptable here ? Or can Wagner achieve what Viardot failed to do? It may be doubted whether the Hanoverian prima donna, with all her dramatic powers, can render Bellini's Capuletti popular. Mlle. Wagner has a tali, commanding figure, is most graceful in her carriage, and in male attire walks the stage with firmness and dignity. Her features are prominent, with full Saxon eyes and hair. Her voice is naturally most extraordinary in its compass, having all the higher soprano notes and the deep-toned contralto ones; but the former are hard and harsh, and the latter, although very deep and full, are not rich. In declamatory recitative she is most successful ; her execution is imperfect, and her intonation precarious. Her voice must originally have been magnificent; but, whether from want of proper training, or from having strained it of late years by over-exertion, it shows symptoms of fatigue. Still Mlle. Wagner can only be properly regarded from the German point of View. She is not Italian born, nor has she received an Italian mu-ical education. She is essentially a German both in voice and style. The ultra expression given to the notes by drawling them out 1 1 II S. to an inordinate extent (a fault,by the way, of Sehny Liud) fatigues the ear, at least the English ear, now so habituated to the chasm and graces of the Italian school of vocalisation. In acting, if Mlle. Wagner must yield the pahn as Romeo to Pasta, Malibran, and Viardot, for genuine tragic power, the character is still adapted histrionically for her dramatic talents. Her conception lacks the grandeur of Pasta, the intensity of Malibran, and the intellec tuality and impulse of Viardot; butthe will of Wagner is strong, and her physical means undeniable. The tomb scene was the strongest evidence of her ability. Her deep despair, the awakening to hope when Juliet's voice is heard from the bier, and the final climax of disappointment and desolation were fine points in Wagner's delineation. Mr. Lumley's clever diplomacy has at length succeeded in securing a really first-rate prima donna for the grand and noble parts in operas. His policy in the endeavour to engage Wagner is quite justified ; but if such strange freaks and fancies by opera managers did not come so often under notice, amateurs may be well astounded at Mr. Gye's pertinacity in seeking to have " .Johanna Wagner" in his troupe whilst he had two such artistes at command as Orisi and Viardot. The amount of money squandered in litigation on Wagner, was a perfect waste of the time and resources of a great lyric establishment. Of the remainder of the cast of I Capuletti ed i Mmtecchi, it is sufficient to record that Reichardt, the Tybalt, is a German tenor; Mlle. Jenny Bauer, the Juliet, an Englishwoman born, with a German voice both in training and timbre ; Signor Beneven tano, the Capulet, is au Italian; and Signor Bouche, the Friar Lawrence, is a Frenchman. No olla podrida, mixed on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, has ever been compounded of more heterogeneous materials than Bellini's dainty dish at Her Majesty's Theatre. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. NOTHING complimentary can be written of the pre sent cast of Don Giovanni at the Lyceum. With Grisi and Mine. Ney in the company, why Mine. Rosa Devries, a Belgian by birth, who has sung in Italian opera in the United States, should have been selected for Donna Anna, is universally asked; but there can be no reasonable reply found in the sing ing of Mme. Devries, and still less in her acting. She possesses a fine voice, but that alone will not constitute a Mozartian Donna Anna. Itonconi's Don Giovanni is the only part in which he has ever failed, but failure it is beyond a doubt. Gardoni is not the successor to Taniberlik and Mario in Don Ottavio. Mlle. Marai's Elvira is beyond her powers, clever as she is. There remains, then, Tagliafico's Commen datore, Polonim's Masetto, Herr Forrnes's Leporello, and Mme. Bosio's Zerlina, besides the unrivalled band and chorus under Costa's direction, as a set off against the other deficiencies. Graziani is not a good actor certainly, but he sings Don Giovanni with more than ordinary ability, and he has the voice for the part. With Grisi and Mario in their original parts, and Mine. Devries as Elvira, then the attraction would be worthy of the Royal Italian Opera. Formes, by the way, is popular in Germany as Don Giovanni. Why not try here? Tagliafico's Leporello is admi rable, although it would be a matter of regret to lose his fine singing as the Statue. The system of ex changing parts amongst principal singers is effec tively carried out on the French lyric stage, and might be advantageously adopted here. There has long been a talk of Mario's assumption of the Don. Garcia, Donzelli, and Braham, the great tenors, have been popular as Don Giovanni. CONCERN OF THE WEEK. There was more than ordinary ability and promise manifested by the pupils of the Royal Academy of Music at their fourth concert last Tuesday, in Ten terdenstreet. In composition mote specimens might have been desired than the overture by Macfarren's pupil, Mr. J. B. Turner, but the executive displays were in more than one instance very gratitying. Four of Manuel Gercia's pupils—Miss Forster, Miss Spitler, Miss Whyte, and Miss Shepherd ; three of Sighor Schira's pupils—Miss Bignall, Miss Lucia Fosbrooke, and Miss Janette Whitehead; Miss Scott, a pupil of Mr. W. H. Holmes, on the piano forte ; Master Isaac, a pupil of Mr. Henry Blagrove, on the violin ; must have afforded as much gratifica tion to their masters as to their friends. The ma drigal by Ford, "Since first I saw your face," was sung with good intonation and with much precision by the full choir, as also Lord Mornini;tou's ever fresh and blooming " Here in cool grot." As the Academy has now received a large addition to its funds by the success of the Grand Fancy-dress Ball, and the Earl of Westmorland is again a resident in London, it is to be hoped that renewed activity will attend the direction of the Royal Academy of Music. From the growing disposition manifested in the Legislature to promote the cultivation of the fine arts, a grant for the Academy, and, above all, for a National Opera, may not be despaired of. It is not creditable to the good taste of the amateurs of this country to know that euch composers as Sterudale Bennett, Balfe, Henry Smart, Edward Loder, Yin- I 1 AT, cent Wallace, — " - Vrank IVlacfarr en Holmes Laurent, Tully, F. Romer, Hatton, A. Dv!. Ganntlett, Miss Macirone, Casing, Bache, Brinley Richards, &c., are compelled to be merely teachers, or to work exclusively for the music publishers. As for singers there are enough to form two flrst•rate companies for English opera. To have three Italian opera-houses in London at this time, with far supe rior talent for the lyric stage in our own market, so far as regards two out of the three speculations, is really " too bad.' The remarks just made apply with peculiar force to the annual morning concert of Mrs. Anderson at Her Majesty's Theatre, last Monday. Next to Alboni's unrivalled " Non piu mesta," which was really the great vocal triumph, that of Mme. Clara Novella, without a shadow of a shade of doubt, in Mozart's" Deh vieni " was the best bit of singing. On the part of the men, that of Charles Braham in Doni zetti's" La mialetizea," was the best performance, the son of the veteran tenor so lately deceased having re, turned from Lisbon wonderfully improved in style and voice. In the same concert there were two other En. glish vocalists, namely, Mmes. Albertini and Jenny Bauer. No trace of Saturday's Romeo could have been found in the stiff, formal Mlle. Johanna Wagner, as she stood to sing in the ultra-Germanic style, Schubert's " Wanderer;" and neither in the piquatite Piccolo mini was it easy to imagine that she had created such a sensation as an actress in the last act of La Traviata. As for the "combination" of the three tenors, Salviani, Calzolari, and Reichardt, and the three basses, Zucconi, Beneventano, and Belletti, nothing good can be recorded, the latter, however, doing admirable service as usual in the Barbiere duo with Alboni. Mrs. Anderson's performance of her "Cheva de Bataille," Rummel's concerto in A minor was brilliant and effective. The reception given to her was worthy of her great professional talents, and was a recognition, at the same time, of her private merits. Her nephew, Mr. Cusins, played a Traviata fantasia for the pianoforte, Mr. Richardson a flute solo, and Herr Renieyni a violin solo by Paganini. At the second of Mr. Hullah's Orchestral Concerts at St. Martin's-hall, last Monday, Miss Palmer, a contralto who is last rising into lame, distinguished herself in an air from Handel's Arminius. On Wed• nesday night Rossini's Stabat Mater and Men delssohn's Hymn of Praise we:e given under Mr. Hullah's direction, Mme. Clara Novelin, Miss Dolby, Miss Sherrington (a promising debutante), Miss Banks, and Mr. Thomas being the vocalists. On the same afternoon the second of the concerts of the Vocal Union took place at the Hanover square Rooms. Here we have a true English spe ciality, glees and madrigals being executed to per- fection by Miss Marian Moss, Mr. Foster, Mr. W. Cooper, Mr. Montem Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Winn, and Mr. Thomas, Mr. Lindsay Sloper being the accompanyist. Hatton's setting of L , ngfelloWs un complimentai y song, "I know a maiden fair to see," commanded an encore. At the Reunion des Arts, in Harley-street, a com plimentary soirée was given to Mmo. Schumann o❑ Wednesday, her husband's works principally figur ing in the programme. It might have been termed a German soiree, the executants being Mlle. Krail, Herr Vun der Osten, Herr Deichmann, Herr Haus mann, and Herr Goffrie. l'he concluding programme of Dr. Wylde's New Philharmonic Concerts at the Hauover-square Rooms on Wednesday night attracted a large audi tory, Mine. Guldschmidt singing three times. The performance by Mrs. J. Robinson, of Dublin, of Men delssohn's pianoforte concerto in D minor was warmly applauded, as it deserved to be. The lady is a pianists of first-rate quality,—sentiment, taste, and delicacy, being her peculiar attributes. The selection from Dr. Wylde's Paradise Lost made no impression, except that of heaviness. The subject is essentially unmusical, or, at all events, it requires a venius kindred to that of Milton to set suuh a theme. lo follow the week's doings would be an impossi bility. Grand Concerts, Soirees, and Matinees, have been given daily by the following artistes in turn, — Mlle. u'Herbel the infant pianiste, Mr. and Mrs. Donald King, Miss Emma Busby, Herr Silas the composer and pianist, Miss Sherrington, Miss Maci rone the composer, Miss Mantling, Mr. Henry Blagrove the violinist, Signor Bianchi, Mr. Aguilar the pianist and composer, Mlle. C. Valentine, besides " Recitals" by Mme Schumann and Mr. Chalks Halle, and a dish of Welsh music byMr. Ellis Roberts the harpist. The sixth of the Crystal Palace Royal Italian Opera Concerts took place yesterday. DEATH OF MR. HENRY HILL.—The most cele brated tenor player this country ever produced died last Saturday of bronchitis. Mr. Henry Hill was for many years the first viola at the Royal Italian Opera, at the Philharmonic Society, at the Sacred Harmonic Society, at the Musical Union, and at the piincipal musical festivals. In conjunction with the late Mr. Alsager, Mr. Hill was one of tha principal founders of U I