The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

we ought not to despair yet of hearing the revival of
some of Gluck's operas, whenever a director shall be
found who for once will risk profit for glory. Fine
music, well executed, may suit only the " few " ; but,
after all, it is not the " many " who give the repute.
tion of a lyric establishment. Next to Alboni was
the signal triumph of the new Spanish tenor, Signor
Belart, who was rapturously encored in Vaccai's
variations on an air from his opera Pietro it Grande.
As we surmised, Belart took the house fairly by
storm by his wonderful execution. He does, how-
ever, still more astonishing things in his Spanish
airs. Benedict performed with Lindsay Sloper the
duet of Moscheles for two pianofortes, " Hommaga
a Handel," in a masterly manner. The chorus of
students, and the ballad, " 'Tis sad thus to fall,"
sung by Charles Braham, from Benedict's charming
opera, The Gipsy's Warning, and his overture, Der
Minnesinger, were also in the scheme. Piccolomini's
version of Balfe's ballad, " I dreamt that I dwelt in
marble halls, like Giuglini's "Adelaide " of the
former concert, was a failure. Is it not surprising
to find the repertoire of the Italian singers so
limited ?—the least thing out of the beaten track and
they fail—a strong evidence of bad musical training.
Amongst the soloists were Piatti and Pezze in a
duo for two violoncellos, a double-bass solo by
Bottesini, a violin solo by Bazzini, and Mendelssohn's
pianoforte concerto in C minor, admirably played by
Miss Arabella Goddard.

TIC► VOCAL UNION.—At the Hanover• square
Rooms, on Wednesday morning, Miss Marian Moss,
Mr. Foster, the celebrated alto, Mr. Wilbye Cooper,
Mr. Montem Smith, Mr. Winn, and Mr. Thomas,
commenced a series of concerts for glees and
madrigals. Miss Dolby also sang airs by Balfe and
Hullah.
MR. HULLAH'S CONCERTS.—St. Martin's-hall was
crowded on Wednesday evening for the concluding
concert. The chief vocalists were Miss Banks, Mile.
Maria de Villan, Miss Dolby, Miss Palmer, and Mr.
Sims Reeves.
THE TONIC SOL-FA ASSOCIATION.—On Wednesday
evening, at Exeter-hall. there was a juvenile choral
meeting, the Rev. W. W. Whittemore, Rector of St.
James's, Aldgate, occupying the chair. There were
upwards of 1,000 voices in the choir, composed of
children belonging to various metropolitan schools.
HER MAJESTY has commanded a private repre-
sentation of Mr. Wilkie Collins's drama, The Frozen
I Deep. It will be given on Saturday week at the
Gallery of Illustration, the characters being sustained
by the original corps of amateur ladies and gentle-
' men who played in it at Tavistock.house.

THE ITALIAN DRAMA—MADAME RISTORI.
THE dramatic amateur must be in the late autumn
of his days who can recollect a powerful piece of
acting by a Miss Taylor (the original Jeanie Deans
in Tom Dibdin's popular version of Sir W. Scott's
" Heart of Midlothian "), at the Surrey Theatre, in
a play called The Italian Wife, which, under the
title of Fazio, was produced at Covent-garden
Theatre in 1816, with the famed Miss O'Neil as
Bianca, Charles Kemblc as Fazio, Blanchard as the
miser Bartolo, and Mrs. Faucit as the Marchesa
Aldabella. The tragedy was written by Dr. Milman,
the present Dean of St. Paul's, a divine who has
honourably distinguished himself in every branch of
literature. Fazio has been and is a much-abused
play, and yet it maintains its position on the boards.
Whenever there is a new aspirant for histrionic
honours, Bianca is generally selected as a prominent
part to attain distinction. Miss Somerville, Miss
Fanny Kemble, and Mrs. Charles Kean have all
gained glory in its assumption. Miss Cushman,
the great Ameican actress, always produced a p-o•
digious sensa.rion in depicting the jealous wife,
provoked to accuse her husband of murder, in order
to tear him from the arms of a rival. Miss Glynn
at the Sadler's-wells Theatre in 1853 took the Isling
tonians by storm as the Florentine dame. Fazio
was also translated for the famed Mdlle. Mars, and
at the suggestion of Mr. A. Harris, we believe, the
stage-manager at the Lyceum, Signor F. Dall'
Ongaro, with the reverend author's express banction,
adapted the tragedy for Ristori, who made her first
appearance in the character of Bianca on Wednes-
day night. If, as it was bruited, the worthy dean
was present, be must have been as excited as the
remainder of the audience at one of the most
powerful dramatic displays ever witnessed on any
stage. There is something graceful in the conduct
of Ristori, after her triumphs in the plays of the
poets of her own sunny land, in acknowledging her
cordial reception in this country by creating a part in
a tragedy by an English author. Art reciprocity is
the order of the day, and who can say whether
Ristori's success may not eventually lead to a restora-
tion of the British drama—a restoration not based
exclusively on sbcw and spectacle, but one appealing

635

to the intellectual appreciation of a dramatio public ?
The fact cited above as regards the vitality of
Dr. Milman's Fazio shows that adverse criticism has
been erroneous in its estimate of the play. That it
has defects of construction are palpable. The two
prison scenes are too much; one would have sufficed,
after Bianca's vain appeal to .41dabella to save her
condemned husband. The conversation of the
courtiers might be omitted, and the scenes with
Aldabella, the less of whom is seen the better, might
have been abbreviated. But with even an ordinary
actress in Bianca, the situations are telling(; and
it is felt that the poet in making the wife the
accuser of her husband, however deplorable
her ignorance of Tuscan law as regards mur-
der and robbery, was illustrated by human
nature. Ristcri imparts an irresistible charm
to Bianca in the earlier scenes ; the signs of dawn-
ing jealousy are indicated with exquisite skill.
In the palace of Fazio, the change that has come
over him is keenly watched ; and the maddening
question put to the domestic whether her husband
had passed the night at Aldabella's house, told
how such an outrage would be fearfully revenged.
The scene of accusation opens the way to the subse-
quent development of despondency and despair.
From this moment Ristori rose with every point
until the climax was attained in the scene of execu-
tion, and in the final scene, where Bianca's heart
breaks under the effects of remorse and sorrow. As
iu all her previous delineations, the play of the fea-
tures marked the phases of passion with a truthful-
ness beyond all description, unless every passage was
to be referred to in detail. The whole performance
bore the impress of the highest genius. Never was
an auditory mom moved.

THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.
AT the last meeting of the Geographical Society an
interesting paper was read by Mr. A. W. Twyford
upon the recent expedition to discover the sources of
the Nile. The cxpedition, framed under French and
Egyptian influence, left Paris in August, 1850. Mr.
Twyford was the only Englishman accompanying
the Count de l'Escayrac and suite, and the whole
party reached Cairo by the '27th September following.
After three weeks' preparation, Mr. Twyford, on the
19th of October, started in charge of the flotilla,
consisting of two steamers and eight boats, manned
by sixty men. Upon reaching the first cataract, it
was found, after several trials, impossible to carry
over the larger steamer of the two, owing to the
lateness of the season and the falling of the Nile.
" I am persuaded," said Mr. Twyford at the Geogra-
phical Society, "that in the months of July and
August it would be comparatively easy to pass any
vessel not drawing more than ten feet over the first
cataract." It had been reported, but without the
slightest foundation, that this steamer was lost by
Mr. Twyford on this occasion. The waters of the
Nile were falling rapidly, and, in spite of every effort
of six hundred men driven in from the conotry
around to pull on the tow-ropes, the steamer emit!
not stem the current, and was driven on the ro •Its.
After undergoing great peril and the most arduous
labours for three days, Mr. Twyford was compelled
to leave the vessel behind at Assouan, though the
rest of the flotilla was passed over in safety. At the
second cataract, the water, rushing down a suc-
cession of rapids at the rate of some twenty knots
an hour, presented almost insuperable difficulties
for so large a vessel as a steamer, but the skill,
courage, and indomitable perseverance of Mr.
Twyford overcame every obstacle, and after eleven
days and nights of the most intense anxieties,
and by the help of 3,500 men, driven in from the
villages, the flotilla was got safely over by the
15th December, and started at once for Dongola.
On their way, four cataracts, more of less dangerous,
at Ambercole, Tangour, Dal, and Hamek, were
surmounted by great exertions, and on the 4th Jan.,
Pongola was at length reached, and here the
expedition stopped to refit. Mr. Twyford on the
28th started for Meroe, but on reaching Amber-
cole he received a despatch from his Highness the
Viceroy, under whose especial patronage the expedi-
tion had been prepared, ordering a return and
informing him that the whole affair was about to be
broken up. The reasons for so sudden a whim on
the part of the Viceroy are well known. No one
officer of the expedition but Mr. Twyford had left
Cairo from September to January. An enoous
sum of money had been squandered, and rm
the
Viceroy, indignant at such proceedings, broke up the
expedition. The skill and courage displayed by
this young Englishman undertaking so serious a
responsibility, and without the assistance or advice
of a single colleague, carrying out of his own accord
in the most successful manner the duties allotted to
him, while the test of the officers of the expedition
were enjoying themselves at Cairo, is a " great fact,"
e.nd one considerably to the credit of Mr. Twyford.

~~
A-.
~~

. G 36

rtlant.

THE I►IURDER OF MR. LITTLE.

A WAN has at length been arrested, charged with
having committed this horrible crime. He is a
painter, James Spollen, in the employment of the
Midland Railway Company ; and he was w rested on
Wednesday morning, accused by his wife of having
murdered and robbed Mr. Little on the. night of the
19th November. We quote the Dublin Freeman :

She asserts that on the night of the 19th of November
her husband returned to his residence about eight o'clock,
bringing with him a bucket Rill of gold and silver, which
he told tier was Mr. Little's money, stating, at the same
time, that he had killed him, and that she saw him burn a
pocketbook. and take off his cravat and throw it into the
fire. She also says that his clothes were dabbled over
with blood-stains, which he covered with paint, and that
be fully related to her the manner in which he effected
the murder and robbery, and how he made his escape
along the roof of the terminus. She further stated that
she assisted her husband in concealing the money, and
that she would point out the two places in which it had
been deposited. With reference to the hammer and razor
found in the canal by the police, she says that the hammer
belonged to Spolien, but she had not then seen the razor
found. She says that her husband was greatly excited on
the day the razor was found, and adds that after the
murder he put it into a case prior to his throwing it into
the canal. The reasons assigned by Mrs. Spollen for
giving this information to the police o•ere a strange feeling
of fear and dread she had of her husband, and also
from intense anxiety of mind and from conscientious
motives.
On the places indicated by Mrs. Spollen being
searched, 1991. es., in parcels of notes, gold, silver, and
copper, were found. PO/. of the money lay concealed
near the cattle platform iu a space about six feet
wide and twenty feet deep, covered with stones and
gravel ; while the remaining 67/. ss. were hidden
just inside a small aperture at the bottom of the
privy, through which a running stream passes at a
depth of twenty-five feet. The clothes be wore on
the night will be chemically examined in order to
test the presence of blood. The arrest of his son
has also taken place, and it is now hoped that this
horrible mystery will be cleared up. When charged
at the police station with the crime, the wife of the
prisoner was present and appeared to be sadly
affected. She said, addressing him—" Confess your
guilt, you unfortunate man; what I have done was
to save your soul, and that yon may repent of your
crime." On the charge being read for him he only
said, " I deny it." He was then led back to his cell.
Mrs. Spollen is in charge of the police.

L LAUGHABLE SCENE occurred in the Rolls Court
last week. A well-known eccentric applicant ap-
pealed to the Master respecting a certain judgment
in the case of "Young v. Hassard." The Master re-
fused to hear him, and after much discussion and
improper behaviour on the part of Mr. Ha'sard,
ordered two constables to take him into custody :

They came forward to the place where he was standing.
He apparently entered into parley with them, but while
they were expostulating with him, and before they had
laid hands on him, he made a sudden dive under the table
and disappeared amid the laughter of all the spectators.
Qa liassard's sudden disappearance the business of the
watt bad been resumed. and Mr. Hughes, Q.C., was
addressing the court, until he was obliged to throw down
his brief convulsed with laughter. The hero of a hundred
legal battles dying along, still under the table, from the
policeman who was in pursuit of him, had seized the
eminent Queen's counsel by the legs. On this circnm•
istsnee becoming known, the bar, the spectators, and even
the ordinarily immovable gravity of the learned judge,
were overcome. Nor were the sounds that issued from
wilder we table of a character that tended to diminish the
ladieronsuess of the scene. Kicks and plunges might be
heard, taingled with such exclamations as these sounding
through the wood, like the conversation of Gallagher, the
ventriloquist, with the people in the street :—" Let me go"
—" that's not fair "—" this isn't justice "—" I'm getting
no fair play."

At length he was fairly caught and carried away
,captive to cool his ardour at the station•house.

AT A WESTING OP THE ARCNDEL SOCIETY, held at
10,Charles•street, Berkeley-square,on Thursday, Mr.
Layard gave an interesting description of his re-
searches for frescoes during the autumn of '55 and '56
in the towns of Urbino, Siena. and Perugia, where the
most interesting remains of the art of the 13th, 14th,
and 15th centuries are now rapidly falling into decay.
Mr. Layard told the story of his excursion, illustrated
by reference to his tracings, hung round the walls,
and to the drawings of Mrs. Burr, who accompanied
him, thus enabling his auditors at once to appreciate
the beauty of these frescoes as complete composi-
tions, or parts of a whole system of ornamentation,
while single figures and details were shown by the
tracings

Persons in authority could not comprehend a man's
giAng himself such trouble in climbing up ladders, and
coking into cellars, and risking kicks from cavalry horses,
to bring away a few tracings from mere ram di
Giotto stuff. At &ego San Sepolcro Mr. Lazard found
a..)me of the finest frescoes of Pietro dell Francesca, lauded

THE

RESS.

by Vasari "as too beautiful and too excellent for the
time," from which Raphael acquired his finest ideas of
chiaroscuro, in a room now filled with pledges of the Monte
di Pieta of the district. To this room there were five keys,
one for each director of the Monte di Pieta, and these five
gentlemen happening to be at loggerheads, it may he con•
ceived that some diplomacy was necessary to obtain the
five keys. And then there was the room to clear of corn,
wool, cloth, oil•jars, and lamps; and then the windows
having been bricked up candles had to be brought in, till
at length was discovered, traced, and recorded in a faithful
drawing, one of the most impressive representations
of our Lord's resurrection. By the tracing of the solemn
figure of the Saviour stepping from the sarcophagus,
and by help of Mrs. Burr's drawing, the audience could
appreciate the power of the painter's conception—the grey
dawn between the twilight tree•trunks and beyond the
summits of the darkling hills, the soldiers quietly sleeping
round the tomb, and the figure of the Redeemer, white and
wan, with the banner of the cross in his wasted hand, rising,
with a still serene majesty, from the arms of death.
Another and scarcely inferior fresco of the same painter
was shown, representing that sleep of Constantine in
which the victorious cross was revealed to him in a dream
—the very fresco so praised by Vasari in his life of the
painter, as having given an impulse to the art by its light
and shade. While Mr. Layard was tracing this fresco the
workmen were breaking through the wall above it, and a
brick falling struck away half the head of the page who is
watching the Emperor. When Mr. Layard remonstrated
—" Half his face gone?" was the reply, " Per Ram ! then
we will paint him another!" Mr. Layard described how
when, by Mr. Kirkup's efforts, the contemporary portrait
of Dante, by Giotto, was brought to light on the wall of
the Bergen°, at Florence, it was discovered that a nail hail
been driven right into the eye of the poet. So the Grand
Duke employed a painter to paint in a new eye; and then
the old face was repainted to harn-onise it with the new
eve; and then, 83 the red of Dante's hood and green of
his dress were the colours of Italian unity, the obnoxious
tricolour was replaced by a harmless chocolate. Mr.
Layard found the chapel of St. Cecilia, at Bologna, used as
a cavalry stable, and the frescoes of Francis and Costa
destroyed as high as the soldiers could reach. One of the
finest frescoes of Fra Bartolommeo is in a cart•shed at
Florence.

We cannot follow Mr. Layard through his long enume-
ration of works of equal interest now rapidly perish-
ing ; but at Spello are the masterpieces of Pintu-
ricchio, the contemporary of Perugino, and friend of
Raphael ; at Cagli, in Urbino, is the finest fresco of
Giovanni Santi, the father of Raphael, representing
a Madonna and sa'nts, in which the portrait of the
young Raphael himself is introduced as one of the
angels; in Gubbio is an exquisite Madonna, with
harping angels, by Ottaviano Nelli, which fills a gap
in the history of Umbrian art: while at Arezzo,
Panicale, Siena, Milan, and Sarono are many master-
pieces neglected and rotting. Mr. Layard concluded
his address by an appeal to the Arundel Society to
arrest, so far as this can be done by careful copies,
the annihilation of these grand works. So important
are these publications considered in their hearings
upon art, that the Government take one hundred
copies for the use of the Schools of Design. With
this the society will present to its subscribers a
chromolithograph of the Arena Chapel at Padua,
from a drawing by Mrs. Burr, and two of the wood
engravings from those frescoes in continuation of the
series already so far advanced. Mr. RuAin ad-
dressed the meeting after Mr. Layard had concluded,
and gave eloquent confirmation to all Mr. Layard
had said of the progress of destruction among the
great mural monuments of Italian art. The pro-
ceedings then terminated. The meeting was fully
attended by a very fashionable audience.