The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 17, 1858.

Miss Stabbach, Mrs. Weiss, Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims
Reeves, Herr Deck, and Mr. Weiss ; the instru•
mentalists, Miss Arabella Goddard, Mr. Benedia, Mr.
Lindsay Sloper, Herr Molique, M. Deichmann, and
Herr Ries ; and Mr. Best, the organist. If the intention
was to attract a crowd of people by a long list of
well-known names, the device certainly succeeded.
But having brought together a number of artists, it
was necessary to find employment for them, and so
the programme was principally made up of a number
of vocal and instrumental solos, very interesting no
doubt to the few hundreds in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the orchestra, but scarcely audible to
any one else. In fact, when the second part of the
concert began with Maurer's ooncertante for four
violins numbers of persons were utterly unconscious
that anything was going on. We wonder how long
people will persuade themselves that they do hear
music at these gatherings, and that they do
enjoy it.

A SMALL. PARTY OF SWEDISH SINGERS have been
giving a series of concerts during the past week in
the lower room at St. James's•hall. They are nine
in number, and all of the masculine gender, forming
a sort of small glee•union similar to two or three which
we have in London. They sing their national songs,
and appear in different varieties of their national
costume, no two being dressed alike. It is always a
disadvantage of these small choirs that tie individual
voices are too much heard, and each member is
liable to be criticized as if he were a solo•singer. We
are not surprised that listening to these Swedes
sing!), we find the voices produced in a manner
somewhat barbaric ; but in the countrymen of Jenny
Lind it is disappointing to find that the voices
themselves are scarcely of average quality. Never-
theless they keep well together; their intonation is
good, and the light and shadows are marked with a
vigour which borders on exaggeration. The national
music of Sweden is spirited and characteristic, and
has a singularly clear and well-defined rhythm. A
few instrumental solos by Mr. Eben and Mlle. Sophie
Humler served to vary the programmes. Mr. Eben's
fiute•playing is more showy than real; very preten-
tious, but very ragged and unfinished. Mlle. Sophie
Homier, although announced as "the extraordinary
performer upon the violin," is really possessed of
considerable talent. But she has left school too soon ;
her tone, though frequently brilliant, is Rometimes
unendurably harsh ; and her intonation by no means
uniformly correct. Her style, however, is bold and
masculine, and she phrases with a breadth and
decision very unusual in a female violinist. If she
be content patiently to pursue her studies, she has
it in her power to become an artist of no mean
rank. Even at present her performance is striking,
and her reception might almost be called enthusias-
tic ; though, no doubt, partly due to her youthful
and prepossessing appearance.

BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL.—The arrange.
ments for the triennial. inusieal festival at Birming-
ham—the largest of the provincial musical gather.
ings—are nearly completed, and August the 31st and
September the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd are the days fixed
for the meeting. As usual, engagements have been
made with the leading vocalists now in England.
The principal sopranos are Mme. Clara Novello,
Mlle. Victoire Balfe, and Mme. Castellan ; contraltos,
Mme. Alboni, Miss Dolby, and Mme. Viardot Garcia ;
tenors, Signor Tamberlik, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr.
Montem Smith ; bases, Signor Ronconi, Mr. Weiss,
and Signor Belletti. Mr. Costa is the conductor and
Mr. Stimpson the organist. The oratorios to be
given on the four mornines are :—Tuesday (31st of
August), Mendelssohn's Elijah; Wednesday (Ist of
September), Costa's Eli; Thursday (2nd), Handel's
Messiah ; and Friday (3rd), a new oratorio by Leslie,
entitled Judith, Mendelssohn's Lauda Sion, and
Beethoven's service in C. Evening concerts will be
given on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On
the Tuesday evening will be given Handel's Adis and
Galatea. On Wednesday evening, Mendelssohn's
cantata, "To the Sons of Art ;" and on Thurs-
day the serenata composed by Mr. Costa for the
Princess Royal's marriage, besides overtures and
selections from operas on each evening. There is to
be a " lull dress " ball on Friday evening to wind up
the week's enjoyments. The surplus, if any, goes
as usual to the funds of the General Hospital at
Birmingham.

LEEDS MUSICAL FE STIVA T..—This follows close
upon the great gathering at Birmingham, being fixed
for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,
September 7,8, 9, and 10. The arrangements are
as follows :—Principal performers, Mme. Clara No-
vello, Mrs. Sunderland, Mme. Weiss, Mlle. Piccolo-
mini, Miss Dolby, Miss Palmer, Mme. Alboni, Mr.
Sims Reeves, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, Signor Giuglini,
Mr. Weiss, Mr. Winn, Mr. Santley, Signor Ressi, and
Signor Vialetti. Solo pianiste—Miss Arabella God.
third. Organists—Mr. Henry Smart and Mr. Wm.
Spark. Choral master—Mr. R. S. Burton. Con-
ductor—Professor W. Sterndale Bennett, Mu. Doc.,

Cantab. The band, consisting of 100 performers
will include the members of the London Pilau!
monic Orchestra, and several local instrumentalists.
The chorus has been chiefly selected from the prin-
cipal towns in the West Riding. Morning perfor-
mances—Tuesday, Elijah; Wednesday, alkyd"
Seasons ; Thursday, Bach's Passions-Musik, Beet-
hoven's Mount of Olives, and Rossini's Stabat Mater ;
Friday, Messiah. There will be grand miscellaneous
concerts on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday, and Professor Bennett's new cantata,
"May Queen," will be performed. The concerts
will take place in the new Town-hall, and any profits
that may be realized will be added to the funds of
the General Infirmary at Leeds.

iskt grams.

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.

MME. RISTORI'S engagement terminates on Monday
next, when she will appear for her " benefit " at the
Royal Italian Opera-house, Covent-garden, in Elisa-
betta Regina d'lnghilterra, two representations of
which during the past week (the last on Wednes-
day) call for remark. As to the play itself, by
Giacornette, we have to endure two unusually long
and heavy acts, before and for the sake of three
shorter and very interesting ones. The story corn.
mences at that period of the reign of Elizabeth when
this country was menaced by the most formidable
preparations for invasion that have ever been made
in any age—preparations so gigantic, that had not
this country been protected by the hand of God,
who caused the great " Armada " to be swallowed up
by the ocean before it could reach these shores, they
would have rendered the issue of the undertaking by
no means doubtful. The chief aim of the author
seems to have been to depict in elaborate detail the
weaknesses of this great Queen's character, and for
this purpose he selects a series of incidents—some
well authenticated, others more than doubtful—at an
eventful period of her life for his foreground, and
draws upon his imagination (which must have been
marvellously imbued with the character of Eliza-
beth, as recorded by her contemporaries) for the
materials with which to form his background. The
characters, also, of those who filled high places in
the State nave evidently been most carefully and
successfully studied. It is to be regretted that this
play, which was brought out for the first time in
England only last week, was not earlier introduced
to the public. With a repertory including Elisa-
betta, Medea, Phedre, Octavio-, and others of great
merit, "the Italian Dramatic Company" might, we
think, with much advantage to histrionic taste, not to
say public morals, have spared their London audience
four representations (one-third of the whole num-
ber) of that trashy, penny-theatre production,
Adrienne Lecourreur. Although wo have seen Mme.
Ristori perform in many pieces more calculated than
Elisabetta to display her great tragic talents, we
know of none in which her powers as an
actress, generally, have so large a field. In
no part that she has filled are the difficulties
of the actor greater, or more triumphantly overcome.
The ever varying emotions of the capricious, self-
willed, vain, impulsive, arrogant, and cruel Virgin
Queen, task every energy, absorb every appliance of
art, and require an amount of self-abstraction that
would seem to be utterly incompatible with the con-
stant recollection of the presence of an exacting and
influential audience. Yet Mme. Ristori surmounted
every obstacle to a perfect rendering of the part,
with the most consummate skill. Her ever-apparent
weakness shows itself in the representation of the
sentimental, as applied to the tender passion ; but,
in Elisabetta, this very weakness comes to her aid,
enabling her, without . ffort, or departure from her
natural bearing, to depict, with the greatest truthful-
ness, the frigid reception accorded to a declaration
of love, from " it solo nomo che ho veramente amato."
The passage, par excellence, of the whole play, as
given on Wednesday, was the last words addressed
by the Queen to the Spanish Ambassador (last scene
of act 2), when he inquires who will have the courage
to wield the sword of Henry VIII. "Io !" exclaims
she, in a voice of thunder, "e di dite a Filippo 11.,
che Elisabetta ne scaglio lunge da se la guaina,"
hurling the scabbard away from her, " Quando queste
due nazioni, come due atleti giganti sincontreranno
sull 'Oceano, it mondo ne tremera ; e dope. lo scontro,
una di queste, pari al Basso che it fancinllo lands
nell 'acqua, spariri nei gorghi sanguigni. . . .
0 Inghilterra, 0 Spagna, . . . 0 Elisabetta o
Filippo. . . . pel re inio padre lo ginro!" The
effect produced by Mine. Ristori's delivery of these
terrible words is beyond the power of description.
The audience was as if electrified, and long and loud
was the applause that followed.
With the exception of this last-mentioned passage,
there is scarcely anything, in the two first acts, that
deserves particular notice, or that tends to relieve
the weariness which, notwithstanding much clever
and appropriate colloquy, they produce. The re-
mainder of the play, however, amply compensates

of the audience, and the parts belonging
well sustained, especially that of the Earl
by Sig. Majeroni. This artist, who
done justice to his part, previous to
act iii. (the reception, by her Majesty,
destruction of the Spanish Armada and
of Cadiz, of the Earl of Howard, the
.ssex, and Sir Francis Drake), seemed
inspired with energy, when his capri-
tarch, having conferred honours on his
, tells him she shall defer his reward, on
of some pretended disobedience of orders.
of indignation with which he assails her,
which he casts at his more favoured col-
the vehemence with which he throws his
at the feet of the newly made Duke
'ham, his bearing when struck by the
l again, when he breaks his sword, and
pieces on to the ground before her, and
• ordered to the Tower, his utterance of
morire, la mia testa sara una di piu the
_lla Giustizia vi presenters nell'ora della
mord !" show him to be an actor possessed of
• than ordinary power. The latter portion
abounds with instances wherein the con-
, feelings of Elizabeth are seen engaged, as
wont, in fierce strife. Most eminent amongst
struggle between her pride and her love
and this struggle, which is wrought out
striking ability by the author, was admirably
' by Mme. Ristori. To do justice to it
its of the highest order—and it was done
The last act brings before us the illness,
, and death of, perhaps, the greatest of
and the most contemptible of women. The
6 passions strong in death" were here depicted
wonderful reality. The curtain drops, for the
on the death-scene of Majesty, deprived of
usually painful and tragic in such scenes,
ttempt inspired by the littleness that such a
_ must inevitably assume when stripped of
:terns' and earthly strength. We shall return
abject of Mme. Ristori's performance in our
tber.

ROYAL CREMORNE GARDENS.
propose ; Dieu dispose," is a trite French
which one of the most recent public
&fictitious is to be found in the gigantic
aristocratic failure of the 9th inst. This was the day
for the select fête at Cremorne; this was
of which the programme led to so much
idence between the many who thought it
should be excluded from their favourite
amusement, and the editors of journals, who
Ipposed to be the redressers of all arievances;
the day on which that class of her Majesty's
whose only acquaintanceship with aristo-
arises from visions of powdered flunkies
carriages adorned with glittering coronets,
be more forcibly reminded of the existence
tperior human species by the closed gates of
billing-ahead resort ; this was the day whereon
been determined that the turf and gravel
that plebeian place of assemblage should be
honoured exclusively by the tread o's 3,000 ladies and
leman, all pm sang, or related to or recognized
classe d'ilite ; this was the day on which
which is no respecter of persons, unmindful
great preparations that had been making for
itertainment of those who are " clothed in
and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every
thought fit to deluge this metropolis with a
rain for some twenty.four hours.
ever there was a perfect example of perseverance
eking pleasure under difficulties, we have it
Considering the multitude of wearying amuse-
and occupations of the day, including a
festival at the Crystal Palace, it is more than
ling that upwards of two-thirds of the tickets
for this fete were delivered at the entrance-
- those who seemed resolved to enjoy them-
. all risks. That we, and others whose brtsi-
. is to chronicle the events of the day, should
,c the danger of drowning on such an occasion, is
matter for surprise. Duty takes men into more
7erons, but scarcely into more uncomfortable,
But that 2,000 ladies and gentlemen, the
the earth, should be found in this metropolis
sacrifice personal comfort, brilliant toilettes,
more available engagements, just for the
• " of the thing—past to be able to say that,
of the risks to health and life, and of every
obstacle that the elements could beset them
11ty had been to Crentorm (an assertion true
f in the letter, for being crowded together in
building on the premises, like sheep in a pen,
' room to turn round, can hardly deserve the
Aption of being at the Cremorne fete of the 9th
)—that 2,000 ladies and gentlemen should have
found ready, willing, and determined to do all
we say, is one of those things which, as our
Ibours hay) it, " Pour croire, it fast voir."
Napoleon may well indulge in extravagant
rejoicings that he has completed the great

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