The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-27 00:00:00

DRURY LANE.

THE management has added another branch to their
polyglot establishment by the production, with Eng
lish words, of Fra Diavolo, sung by Mr. and Mrs.
S. Reeves, Mr. and Mrs. Weiss, and Mr. Leffler.
The experiment was very successful, and confirms
our opinion that an English operatic company, judi-
ciously managed, would always command sufficient
attraction to remunerate a theatrical speculator.
Mr. Sims Reeves, though no great favourite of
ours, is by far the best tenor at Drury Lane, and it is
to be hoped for the sake of that establishment that he
will be more frequently employed. On Tuesday last
Don Juan was given in German, with a host of new
candidates for fame in London. The performance
was very indifferent. Mine. Riiderdorf (Donna Anna),
M. Pasque (Don Juan), and M. Reichart (Don Otta-
vio) were wholly unequal to their parts; and Mme.
Caradori, Mlle. Biiry, and M. Formes, who sustained
respectably the respective parts of Elvina, Zerlina,
and Leporello, could not, by their unassisted efforts,
carry through such an opera as this. Still, at the fall
of the curtain the audience were in a transport of de-
light—all Covent Garden was poured forth in the shape
of nosegays, and a highly comic scene took place, in
which the ghost of the Commendatore (Mr. Hamilton
Braham) was seen scrambling on the stage gathering
up fragments of flowers with an energy worthy of a
better cause. It would be well if the management
carried their new dress regulations into effect upon
her Majesty's servants who take part in the perform-
ance, as well as upon her Majesty's subjects who pay
to witness it. The spectacle of the second flute in a
light-coloured shooting-jacket, which might have
been seen on Thursday night, is not a sight calcu-
lated to inspire confidence in the respectability of the
company.
PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.

THE programme of the sixth concert, on Monday
last, was as follows :

PART I.—Sinfonia in G minor, Mozart—Aria, Sig. Clanton!,
Stradella—Concerto, Violin, Mr. Saiuton, Meudelssohn—Aria,
"Dove souo," Madame Clara Novell°, Mozart—Overture (Obe-
ron), Weber.
PART ll.—Sinfonia Eroica, Beethoven—Duet, " Forsake me
not," Madame Clara Novello and Signor Gardonl, Spohr—Over-
Lure (Der Alchymist), Spohr.

Had the directors possessed sufficient moral courage
to confine the second part to the Eroica sym-
phony alone this concert would have been perfect,
though, as it was, we could scarcely have desired a
better selection or a more satisfactory execution.
The said Eroica, notwithstanding that its per-
formance occupied fifty minutes, was listened to with
the deepest interest and most reverential attention ;
and Mozart's symphony, whose phrases are as fami-
liar to us as household words, impressed its hearers,
as of yore, with the wonderful fancy and invention of
the writer, and with the extraordinary effect which a
great master can produce without availing himself
of the clarinets or of the usual complement of brass
instruments which constitute the heavy ordnance of
a musical composer. Mr. Sainton played Mendels-
sohn's concerto with all that power and energy which
are so essentially distinctive of his style. He was
loudly and deservedly applauded; but we confess
that we have heard this concerto rendered more to
our liking. The vocal was, as usual, the least satis-
factory portion of the programme. Stradella's song,
charmingly given by Signor Gardoni, is but a poor
affair ; and Mme. Clara Novello sang " Dove sono"
in time and tune—nothing more. It is understood
that her Majesty will honour the next concert with
her presence.