The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-09 00:00:00

AUGUST 9, 1856. the most valuable timber; with unbounded water supply, and incredible facilities for land and water carriage; with every advantage in the purchase or possession of land, a square league costing for purchase 1201., or 21. a year rental—the country is held by a race who occupy it only in spots few and far between, and who neither cultivate the land, care for trade, nor seek to develop its immense re sources. Since the overthrow of Rosas, and the opening up of the Parana and Uruguay (for which we are entirely indebted to the fore sight of Sir W. G. Ouseley in '45, and the energy and persistence of Sir Charles Hutham in '62), a great opportunity im given to specu lative enterprise in Paraguay and up the country generally. English and other mer. chants are already settling in Assumption and Corrientes, trade will arise, the Governments are favorably disposed to us, immigration and colonisation it is hoped will follow, and one of the finest countries in the world be rescued from its unoccupied neglect. The letters abound iu the usual anecdotes of travel and in remarks upon the manners and customs of the primitive Castilians who at present inhabit the upper country of the Parana. Many woodcuts, from sketches on the spot, also accompany the book; and we can thoroughly recommend it, so far as it goes, as one of the most accurate and truthful vo lumes published upon South America. uth. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. REVIEW OF THE SEASON. "Now or never" must have been Mr. Lumley's ex clamation,when the news of the destruction of Covent garden Theatre by fire reached him in Paris by telegraph on the morning of the sth of March. He lost no time, and made an astonishing effort, for his prospectus was out on the 24th of April; and on Saturday, the 10th of May, after being closed for three years, the ancient Haymarket Italian Opera house was reopened. His activity must have been prodigious; for the difficulties to be overcome of all kinds were overwhelming. He conquered every im pediment valiantly, and collected on the whole a company which, although experimental on the whole, contained some artistic celebrities ; amongst whom may be cited, of course, Alboni, Mme. Albertini, Mlle. Piccolomini, and Mlle. Johanna Wagner, Bene ventano, Belletti, Baucarde, and Calzolari. His spe culative singers were Mme. Amadei, Signor Salviani, Signor Z icconi, and Mr. Charles Braham—all un equivocal failures. Zuceoni was afterwards replaced by a clever, although anything but great, artist in Signor Rossi. The campaign, calculating this night's representation (Saturday), exhibits the annexed returns : No. or REPRE. OPERAS. COMPOSERS. SENTATIONII. Cenerentola Rossini .. 3 Il Barbiere Ditto .... 4 Tancredi Ditto .... 2 Lucrezia Borgia Donizetti 3 La Figlia Ditto .... 7 Don Pasquale Ditto .... 4 I Capuletti Bellini.... 5 Sonnambula Ditto .... I Trovatore Verdi .... 2 Traviuta Ditto .... 15 46 The above tabular statement at once gives the tone to the performances. It has been a Piccolomini season. The debutante has played more than half the number of representations, and she has extin guished the accomplished Alboni, the emphatic Wagner, and the artistic Albertini. In a weak opei a, with an abominable libretto, Piccolomini, with very little voice, with an indifferent style and no execu tion, has completely captivated the opera frequenters, who have been utterly insensible to her defects, and have accepted a pretty piquant style of acting, with la beaute du diable youthfulness, in place of those high vocal and dramatic capabilities which are usually expected from a prima donna at a great lyric theatre. Night after night La Traviata drew fashionable crowds, whilst Alboni's lovely voice and inimitable execution, and Wagner's large dramatic style, left the receipts on the off nights next to nothing. Sober criticism is dumbfounded at this result. Here is the broad fact. The Spectator of last week and the Time: of Thursday—which journals contributed as much as anything to the Picculomini triumph by the notices of her performances—have been suddenly seized with virtuous indignation. The Tunes now calls the constunptive-coughing death THE PRESS. scene of the Traviata the " apotheosis of prostitu: Lion." THE PRESS stood alone in this view of the disgusting drama when it was first produced. The diurnal musical critics never made the discovery, but the editorial writers, when it is too late, whoa the scandal and the mischief have been perpetrated, come out vigorously. The licence to Alfieri's Myrrha has been refused to Ristori. The licence to the Dame aux Camelia. was rejected for the English translation, but the Italian version ha 4 been ap proved by the authorities and been accepted by the subscribers at Her Majesty's Theatre. To conclude, the doings of the brief season are not provocative of much comment. It was a state of transition, and the director had to work against time; many sins of omission and commission may, therefore, be passed over ; but Mr. Lumley must not forget the rock on which be split in former days, namely, in looking too much to the audience portion of his noble theatre, and not paying sufficient at tention to bis stage. If he will attend to the effi ciency of the ensemble therein, the preferable site of the house cannot fail to tell; but if success is to be achieved solely on the star system, sustained by clacquism, and by puffing publicity, it requires no prophet to foretell the future. POYAL ITALIAN OPERA. REVIEW OF THY SEASON. THE closing scene of the famed Govent•garden Theatre was a disgusting bal masque, given by the wily Wizard of the North, and a fire which consumed the whole of the interior of the house, together with the costly scenery, appointments, and musical library, the collection of nine seasons of the Royal Italian Opera, under various managements. The morning of March 5 looked like the expiring glare of the lyric light of other days. For a moment it seemed as if there would be an end of those magni ficent performances which had rendered London the possessor of the finest Opera in the world ; but Mr. Gye's energies were not to be defeated by the cata strophe, the origin of which, to the public, will always remain a profound mystery, whilst the initiated few could only mutter their dark suspicions. On the 15th of April following the sad event, the Lyceum was opened with Verdi's Trovatore, her Majesty and a long list of fashionable subscribers being present on the occasion. In little more than a month the theatre had been fitted up with private boxes and stalls, and the services of the entire company had been retained, the artists, both vocal and orchestral, in skin concessions as to their salaries, highly honour. able to them all. But the arena was small, although the subscription was large, and there was little room for the miscellaneous public, large receipts under the old regime being cut off. To meet this difficulty the happy notion was conceived of farming the corn pany to the Crystal Palace Company for twelve weekly concerts, and to this source of additional revenue was superadded the engagement of the great Italian tragedienne, Ristori. These combinations, promptly and skilfully made, have produced their fruits—one of the most successful seasons the Royal Italian Opera undertaking has yet experienced. The tenth year, in fact, in place of being a loss to the directors, as was feared, has proved most prosperous, and a surplus is left for the erection of the new theatre, which, it is given out, will assuredly not be postponed later than the season 1858, and it is not quite out of the bounds of possibility for 1857. To make sure, however, of a locality, Mr. Gye has taken Drury-lane Theatre, first, for his winter per formances in conjunction with M. Jullien, and, secondly, for the ordinary Italian Opera campaign at the usual period, namely, at Easter, 1857. That sound discretion was exercised in re sorting to the Lyceum in the first instance, there can be now no doubt. But the subscribers and public, as well as the artists, will be glad to be emancipated from its narrow precincts. The theatre is not well adapted for sound, and the smallness of the pit left no room for the applauding operatic amateurs ; and by these the organised claque is not referred to, for Mr. Gye has honourably followed the example of the original founders of the Rnyal Italian Opera in dis pensing with the services of these handy gentry with their premeditated impromptus of bouquets and wreaths. Applause is unquestionably a powerful incentive to artistic exertion. There are many ar tists who cannot play or sing if not cheered by their admirers, but the approbation which is so bestowed per order has become an intolerable nuisance. A smart critic, a foreigner, remarked the other day, in discussing the abilities of Mr. Lumley and Mr. Gye, " the director of Her Majesty's Theatre makes the most of a little talent, whilst the director of the Royal Italian Opera makes the least of a great talent." There is truth in this observation. Excess in " working the oracle " to make a sensation is no doubt a bore, but apathy in not turning to account undoubted ability is also a great mistake. Without specifying names, there are artists who have sung 765 this year at the Lyceum who would have been great prize in Mr. Lumley's hands. Between outrageous puffery and judicious publicity there is a wide differ ence. Mr. Costa has not repeated his enormous effort of 1847, the opening season, when he mounted seventeen works. In 1858 the number was only ten, the pledges in the prospectus unfulfilled being Ros sini's Otello and Gazza Ladra, Cimurosa's Matrimonio Segretto, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Lucia, Verdi's Traviata, and Beethoven's Fid&lio. Ll:hi:Lobe's ab sence from illness is sufficient excuse for some of these omissions. The non-production of the Traviata was a great boon; the music, except in the last act, is feeble, and it was quite enough to have ccughing instead of singing from one prima donna in a con sumption. The account will therefore stand thus as regards the labours of the season : O. OF REM. SZNTATIONS. OPERAS. COMPOSERS. Trovatore Rigoletto Ditto .... 8 Elisir d'Amore Donizetti. 7 Lnerezia Borgia Ditto .... 6 Favorita Ditto .... 5 II Barbiere Rossini .. 4 Comt Ory Ditto .... 4 Norma Bellini .. 4 Furitani Ditto .... 3 Don Giovanni Mozart .. 2 52 The above list, as will be seen, is without a novelly, but some changes in the casts, and some debuts, are worthy of notice. Tamberlik having left for Rio Janeiro in May, Mario took his post in the Trova tore, in which Mme. Bosio followed subsequently Mme. Ney as Leonora. In the Puritani Grisi re sumed the juvenile Elvira, and Gardoni succeeded Mario as Arturo. This variation, of course, settled the Puritani as a draw. A new tenor, Neri-Baraldi, one of infinite promise, sung one night only in Nemorino. Mme. Devries pleased at the Crystal Palace Concerts, and displeased as Donna Anna, which, being one of Grisi's greatest characters, she gave up. These are eccentricities, the key to which can only b 3 found in the secrets of the coulisses. Apart from artistic caprices and management errors, everybody has admitted that the majority of the per formers this year were worthy of the Royal Italian Opera fame. Perhaps no greater treat was found than in the Comt Ory—albeit, not one of the most generally attractive works in the repertoire. In the singing there was little to remark; Gri,i and Mario were much the same as heretofore, having their grand moments, in which they are unapproachable, and their little contrarieties. Bosio has taken a de cided step in advance, and Mme. Didee is improving. Ronconi remains the unaltered tragic and comic artist, his Don Giovanni failure not disturbing his fame. The ballet has been null and nil, although with Cerito, now the first of danseuses. The reten tion of Beverley as scenic artist, and of Mr. Harris for the mise•en-scent, is sufficient to mention to prove that the stage business has been attended to. The loss of the grand operas has been felt; for, after all, the speciality of the Royal Italian Opera, and one on which its glory has been earned, is in the noble works of Meyerbeer. The opportunity will here after be afforded to remount them, and when the period arrives it will be for Mr. Costa to communi cate with the composer as to certain restorations, and to amend the " cuts" which were originally made in the hurry of production. Some rumours are afloat of changes in the company for next year, but the names will not affect in any way the effi ciency of the ensemble, which is so properly regarded as the chief characteristics of a Royal Italian Opera representation. gloneg Slarket anb Qztg 4ntelligtrat. FEIDAT EVENING. THE return of the Bank of England for the week ending the 2nd inst. shows the following changN compared with that for the week preceding : Increase in Circulation .. Decrease in Public Deposits Decrease in Other Deposits Decrease in Government Securities Increase in Other Securities Increase in Bullion .. 44,088 Increase in Rest Increase in Reserve 15,458 Bullion in Both Departments Circulation, including Bank Post ___, Bills Considering that the Bank has not been purchasing gold for the last three weeks, this comparison shows the present return to be one of a favorable character on the whole. The position of the Bank is strengthened in as much as, while the Reserve and Bullion esch show a small increase, its own liabilities to depositors and bill holders have been largely diminished, whilst its accommodation to trade in the shape of discounts and advances has greatly extended. These discounts and advances show the magnitude of the demand for money. It is probable that an equal amount