The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-10 00:00:00

M. .TULLIENS CONCERTS.

M. Jullien's concert season—the first, let us hope,
of ► long series—is ooming to an end. Her Majesty's Theatre
is to be surrendered, we believe, to English opera, or rather
to the inevitable Faust in English drag, after Christmas. M.
Jullien has good reason to congratulate himself on the remit
of his spirited appeal to the sympathies and recollections of
the Idndliest sod most grateful musical public in Europe. Hs
has sot with ► welcome due at once to his own high merits,
and to the name he bears so worthily and so well. The success
of his concerts has steadily increased, sad he may now be
said to have fairly asserted his hereditary right to the post
of the most popular musical conductor in England. The
English public have not forgotten the father's many years
of faithful and devoted service, and they would have been
willing to take the son on trust. Happily this reversionary
goodwill has been fully justified by the character and
conduct of the reversioner. M. Jullien emulates his father's
example with dutiful fidelity, whether in the choice of his
materi►ls aid the employment of his resources, or in his
determination to win, by no unworthy concessions, the
favour of his audience to the works of the great masters,
without affecting to disdain the universal love of dancing
airs and humming tunes. It has, we are persuaded, been •
peculiar gratification tothe public to see once mores veritable
Jullien riding the whirlwind and directing the storm of a
splendid orchestra, with all the hereditary vigour and
skill of his race. Last evening our national virtue
of gratitude was appealed to by the annotineenient

that the concert was for the benefit of Madam* Janie°,
widow of the late, and stepmother of the present, M. Janke.
This generous and graceful mark of respect to a most
estimable lady (who it isnot unknown was for many years
theivigiknt and able guardian of her husband's interests,
sad to whose good taste the public were unconsciously
indebted for the brilliant results of much anxious and us-
applauded labour) was heartily responded to, we are glad
to record, by a crowded and distinguished
audi-
eace, filling the theatre from roof to floor, overflowing
the stage, and lending to the boxes quite an Opera season
look. The programme for the evening was choice sad varied ;
the first part beginning with the picturesque and dramatic
overture to Zampa, and closing with the " Englieb quadrille,"
a startling reminiscence of the old "Jallieu " era now no
happily revived. Signor Sivori in a Souvenir de Norma
showed how divinely a bsrbitoa can be made to sing in
the hands of a magician ; and Madlle. Volpini, the ideal of
a singer at popular concerts, warbled her arch sad
pretty Page's air, "Sager Vorreste," from Un Ballo in
I Maarten', with a petulant sweetness Irresistibly charming.
The second part of the concert began with the grand Wee-
time from Faust, which, like the opera itself,
grows in favour the more it is heard and
known. Y. Jullien's arrangement, which includes
a portion of the dance music from the Watpuiyit Night,
unperformed in the opera, is on the whole a happy one.
Perhaps, if we were disposed to be hypercritical, we should
hint a doubt whether the gem of the opera—the lovely
dnstt of Faust and Marguerite is the garden scene—had not
suffered somewhat from its setting, and become a little dim.
On the other hand, the beauties of the enticing and
entrancing waltz, of Sieber' gentle song in the garden scene,
and above all of the soldiers' maroh, are brought out with
admirable clearness and force. Signor Sivori, after giving
Paganini's variations on the exquisite old air of "Nei 'co,
pin" with ► delhkey, a richneee and an impassioned warmth of
tone, a fantastic grace and yet a sureness of hand end bow
almost if not absolutely unrivalled, was recalled by the en-
thusiastic applause of the audience, and played the
"Carnival de Venise" with infinite humour and fancy,
to the delight of the audience, limbed and intent upon
the playing with all their eyes and ears. Mdlle.
Volpini then gang Arditi's new bolero " Leggero
Invisible," with bewitching abandon, and was compelled to
answer for her sins of witchcraft by executing a ragout of
that doomed Scottish ballad, " Coming through the rye."
Of the rest of the concert we cannot speak, for the singular,
yet simple reason that we did not stay to hear it ; but the
audience seemed to be resolved to make a night of it at her
Majesty's Theatre.