The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-26 00:00:00

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IAIRE'MAJESTY'S THEATRE. It
It Troveslbre Wittteproduced here on Tuesday, and
drew one 'Wills lirgest audiences of the season.
Notwithstanding the acknowledged flimsiness of
Verdi's music, it has established itself with most un-
mistakeable popularity in this country. Here se
find many of the unfathomable mysteries of musical
fascination. Hundreds, who care not to listen to
masterpieces of dramatic music, such as Don
Giovanni, are ready to testily on every opportunity
their greater admiration of 11 Trovatore, &e. Did
our limited space permit, it would not, we think, be
an unprofitable task to inquire into this preference
of the meretricious to the genuine in music. That
the standard of musical measurement is false, we
cannot for a moment admit. That taste which grows
up under laws of harmony as immutable as those
which govern the universe cannot err, except in
individual cases. By its decision these facts are
established beyond rational dispute—viz., that
Mozart's music is real, sound at core, and certain to
pass triumphantly through the severest ordeal that
criticism can subject it to ; that Verdi's works are
unreal, unsound, dressed up to attract illegitimate
attention, and destitute of nearly all the requirements
of good music, ; lastly, that the latter afford far
greater pleasure to the British public than the
former. True it is that there are not many found
ready to defend or even admit this preference; but
their acts show that it prevails. They learn, or
perhaps feel, that their taste is not legitimate; but,
like many persons who dare not repudiate virtue,
they like to indulge themselves with forbidden fruit.
We may return to this subject on a future occasion.
Touching the performance, we may safely assert that
it loses nothing by repetition. Mlle. Titleus did not
appear to be in quite so good voice as usual, but her
acting was admirable. Mme. Alboni and Signor
Giuglini were perhaps never heard to greater
advantage. The latter was encored in "Ah ! si, ben
mio," and in the delicious " D'amor sell' ali roses "
prison song. If this opera were equal throughout
to the fourth act, it would place Verdi in a very
different position as a composer from that which he
now occupies. Nothing can exceed the tender
richness of the music in the first scene, in which
" Warner ali " occurs. This plaintive soon,
followed by the mournful " Miserere d'an Alma,"
and Leonora's Quel suon, quelle preci solemni,"
with the repetitions, forms an ensemble which is
quite irresistible ' • and from this point to the end of
the act we find a continuation of musical and
histrionic pathos almost sufficient to account for the
fascination that, as has been above mentioned, this
opera exercises over the public. The second scene
of the act (within the prison) between Manrico and
his supposed mother, was rendered by Mme. Alboni
and Signor Giuglini with inexpressible truthfulness
and painful tenderness. There two rich voices blend
together with extraordinary unison.
We are glad to hear that Mlle. Titiens has had
her conga prolonged, and that we may hope for the
benefit of her great talents during another fortnight.

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia was again produced on
Thursday last. Want of space has prevented us from
noticing it before. Always excepting the coldness
which ever clouds Mme. Bosio's acting, we know not
how, by the substitution of any living artistes for
any of those at present composing it, we could
improve the cast of this opera. Mario was in excel-
lent voice, and sang with his accustomed tenderness
and effect. We think, however, that the well-known
tendency of this accomplished tenor to vary the
music of the part allotted to him was, on Thursday,
pushed to its utmost limit. Appogiature are decided
embellishments, when discreetly introduced ; but
when every second or third bar is interlarded with
them, the effect they are intended to, and would,
otherwise, produce, is altogether destroyed. No
defect, perhaps, grows more rapidly on a shirr pos-
sessing a flexible voice than this ; and good taste,
paradoxical as it may seem to be to say so, which
in the listener forbids this practice, seems in the
singer to encourage it. Signor Ronconi, whose
acting in the part of Lord Rocburg we had occasion
to find fault with last week, is, it must be admitted
(and we gladly do homage to his talents), a first rate
Figaro. His irrepressible passion for the jocose
has, in this character, full scope for indulgence. The
only fault we find with him i that be imports the
manners of a barber into the charegter of an English
nobleman. No incickaiderable ' 'tons of the Bar-
biere, are omitted at, Covent Q 'en—why Ire know
not.; lid, without hikiing swan e seventhnscene of
the second act (or, as they have it stalls open} house,
the third scene of third act), one is quite at loss to
account for the repulse which Count Almaviva
meets with, at the hands of Rosins, in the following
scene. Just forty years have passed away since
Barbiere was first introduced to a London audience,
at Her Majesty's Theatre; forty-two since it was