The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

Annett, in his seventy-fourth year, adapts his Fra
Diavolo to the Italian lyric stage ; and adaptation in
this instance means, nut the mere fitting of Italian
words, translated from the French, to the notes in
the original score, but it signifies the setting of the
original lively dialogue of Scribe, or, in other words,
composing a vast quantity of matter spoken at the
Opera Comique. That Auber in his latest task
should introduce some of his former pieces, extracted
from his popular works, into the Tuscan version,
cannot be well objected to. It is the fate of all com-
posers, more or less, whose productions travel from
one musical town to another. Even in the removal
of Don Giovanni from Prague to Vienna, Mozart
had to face the exigencies of leading singers. What
a pity that Auber, who was once a com-
mercial clerk in London, could not have been
induced to revisit this metropolis ! How de-
lighted would he have been to have witnessed the
magnificent performance under Costa's baton of his
imperishable opera, the sparkling and animated Fra
Diavolo. It was a red-letter day for the Royal
Italian Opera ; it, was one of those superb interpre-
tations which have rendered the fame of this lyric
establishment, European, and one, be it recorded,
not dependent on "star" singers alone for its im-
mense success, for individually the cast has been
stronger in many localities we could cite, but a
triumph achieved for its unparalleled ensemble,
comprising in this word the combined labours and
exertions of the conductor, the chorus, the band,
the chief vocalists, the scenic artists, and the arranger
of the stage business. The procession of the
peasants across the practicable road leading to the
mountains, with the dancing " Piffsrini," the sunny
Italian landscape in the distance, was a triumph
of pictorial art worthy of Poussin, whose jocund and
hilarious groups were recalled to the mind, so
picturesque and exhilarating were the arrangements.
The popularity of Fra Diavolo in this country has
been as great as in France and Germany. It was
first produced in Paris in 18.44 and the next year
Rophino Lacy adapted it for Covent-garden Theatre,
the cast including the names of Miss Homer, Miss
Inverarity ; the great l3raham, the late Scotch tenor,
Wilson, the late George Penson, dec. It had an
immense run. Wilson, who was the original Lorenzo,
subsequently gained no little fame as the brigand
hero, and Sims Reeves in these times has earned the
highest distinction in the same part. Every note of
the musin is therefore familiar to English ears, but
the general rendering never approached that of
Tharsday night at the Lyceum. Mme. Bosio was
the Zerlina, Ronconi and Mlle. Marai the English
lord and lady, Neri-Baraldi the lover Lorenzo,
Polonini the innkeeper father, Afatteo, Tagliafico and
Zelger the two subaltern robbers, and Gardoni the
brigand chief, Fra Diavolo, who appears as the
Marquis in the first act. The dramatic
honours of the night were unquestionably carried off
by Ronconi, Tagliatico, and Zelger, who in their
three respective assumptions tar distanced any of
their predecessors we have ever seen. Ronconi's
travelling Englishman—one of those silly weak
mortals, in such odd costumes, and with such ex
centric manners—was a finished sketch. Travellers
will well recollect such an original in their migra-
tions. There was no exaggeration in the delinea•
Lion. It was no caricature. It was a reality which
forcibly recalled curious associations in travelling
days. Scribe has chosen to make the character a
lord, but it is of course no type of that order, but
one too often met with amongst British wanderers.
Anything more powerful than Ronconi's grotesque
jealousy has rarely been seen. It was thrilling even
in its comicalities, and just in fact as it had attained
the terrible, in the scene in which Fra Diavolo
leads him to suspect the lady's infidelity, an acci-
dental gaze as it were in a looking-glass showing
the hair and whiskers in paper, converted the
excitement at the climax of rage into au irre-
sistible scream of laughter. The make up of
the two underling robbers was perfect. Salvator
Rosa would have hugged the two artists for their
conception of costume. The byplay throughout, free
from the vulgarity too often witnessed, was admi-
rable ; not a point was lost either by Tagliafico or
Zelger. The exhibition of fanatic devotion with wild
ferocity was curious to follow ; it was Italian to the
life. Gardoni made the most dainty and dandy

683

brigand imaginable. Could he but have seen
Chollet, the original Fra Diavolo! The singing of
Gardoni was always charming, and the same com-
mentary may be made as to that of Bosio, who, how-
ever, might infuse more animation into the interest.
ing Lerlina, although the part is not that of a prima
donna assoluta. The attention of all the principals
to the concerted pieces must be praised emphati-
cally. Bosio and Marai in the trio in the bed-
chamber scene, and the former in the quintet in the
first act, deserve especial mention. The addi-
tions to the opera consist of a trio for the three
robbers, of such animation and entrain, as to secure
a rapturous redemand for Gardoni, Tagliafico, and
Zelger. In the second act Mine. Bosio, emitting the
original andante, introduced the florid air from the
Serment that Doras Gras used to sing everywhere
at concerts some years since. It was brilliantly
vocalised by Bosio. There was a buffa aria enter-
polated for Ronconi, and a duo for Bosio and NI eri-
Baraldi in the last act. Auber has instrumented the
new music in his most piquant style. He has a
speciality of his own in scoring. In 1813 his
first opera, the Sijour lifilitaire, was produced
at the " Feydeau" in Paris. Since that year his
works have occupied both the Grand Opera and the
Opera Comique. His masterpiece, La Afuette de
Portici kMasaniello), was brought out in 1828,
the celebrated prayer in which being taken
from one of his masses. He has been
a most prolific comuoser, although, strange
to state, he never had any real liking for
composition. Like all great composers, his school
has undergone a change. In his ear:y days, he was
bitten by the Rossinian influence—even his Fra
Diavolo overture, in the opening movement, betrays
his liking for the Swan of Pesaro. How this over-
ture was rattled through by Costa's orchestra, it is
needless to add; never was anything more perfect
than the pianissimos of the violins and the stringed
passages. Fra Diavolo will remain one of the per-
manent works of the Royal Italian Opera repertoire ;
it is a gem of the French comic-opera school, fertile
in ideas, melodious in imagery, racy in the instrumen-
tation, and animated in the concerted combinations.

THE ITALIAN DRAMA—MADAME RISTORI.
THE German language is the only one which can
render the conceptions of Shakespeare with anything
like an approximation to their original force and
meaning. The French versions of the plays of our
immortal poet have been singularly feeble as well as
absurd. What Dumus -did with Hamlet, every
Parisian playgoer well knows—such a burlesque in
the adaptation as well as the acting was inconceiv-
able. Chelard's translation of Macbeth contains
some irresistibly ludicrous as°ociations. Only
imagine the child's exhortation from the cauldron:—
Monsieur Macbeth ! Monsieur Macbeth ! Monsieur
Macbeth !
Prenez garde de Monsieur Macduff!

Macbetto and Macduffo sound oddly, and Signor
Carcano, the translator, has evidently been often
perplexed with our peculiar idioms in his four-act
version of our five.act tragedy. The actors them.
selves seemed conscious of being in a false position,
comprehending only the action, but ignorant of the
author's subtle meanings and sublime aspirations.
But even with a tortured text, and inefficient sup-
porters, the genius of Ristmi soared triumphantly.
With the will to do, the faculty to comprehend, and
the physical attributes to present, a Lady Macbeth
has startled the Shakesperians by its striking
originality in the creation of the part, and by its
remarkable force in carrying out the conception. The
four great points in her performance are her in-
fluences on the mind which is, " willing to wound but
afraid to strike," the horrors of the murder scene,
the assumed courage at the banquet, and the re-
morse in the sleep-walking scene. £he veteran
frequenters of the drama in its palmy days
declare the sonnambulisun to be unrivalled. Its
effect on the audience is certainly thrilling, and Lady
Macbeth will be cited as one of Ristori's finest
assumptions. " The heart is sorely charged," ex-
claims the doctor ; and the truth of his diagnosis is
indeed proved by the symptoms displayed by this
extraordinary actress. It is a terrible picture—one
that is seen but rarely on the mimic boards. Being
" in earnest " is the essential element of her acting,
like that of the Kean.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—Marie Taglioni lab
arrived in London, and will appear on Tuesday next.
THE DEATH OF THE MAID OF SARAGOSSA is
announced to have occurred at Ceuta. According to
a note to " Childe lIarold," Agostina Zaragoza as
in her twenty-second year when the siege occurred,
so that she must have been about seventy at her
death. The Spanish papers merely say that she
was very young at the time of the siege. She held
the rank of ensign in the Spanish army, and wore
several decorations, the reward of her exploits in the
War of Independence. She was buried at Ceuta
with military honours.

MI

HER MAJESTY AT ALDERSHOTT.
Hnn MAjesty the Queen, accompanied by her royal
guests, and attended by the Court and a bril.
Lint staff, paid a state visit to the Camp at
Aldershott on Wednesday. The day was fine and

cool, and some thousands of visitors were present
on the occasion. The royal cortege left town at nine
o'clock, and arrived at Farnborough about ten.
Her Majesty at once entered her carr►age and drove

to the camp.
Along the whole line of route her Majesty was
most warmly welcomed, and the cheers from the
spectators announced her arrival almost before the
field batteries saluted. Her Majesty drove to
the pavilion, where she changed her ordinary
morning attire for a riding costume, and at eleven
o'clock the illustrious visitors rode down to the long
valley where the troops had been formed up for in-
spection. Her Majesty was mounted on a superb
bay charger, and wore her scarlet riding habit with a
military sash and open riding hat with a small plume
of red and white feathers. Prince Frederick of
Prussia, in the uniform of a Colonel of Prussian
Dragoons, rode on the right of her Majesty. His
Royal Highness the Prince Consort, in a Field
Marshal's uniform, the Duke of Cambridge, the
Princess Charlotte of Belgium, and the Prince of
Hohenzollern, were on the left. The Princess Royal
and Princess Alice followed in a pony carriage.
The troops, drawn up in a line of contiguous
columns, which stretched across almost the entire
length of the long valley from east to west, amounted
to in all less than 9,000 men and 30 guns. Two troops
of Horse Artillery formed the extreme right, and ex-
tending from that point to the opposite end of the
line were the Ist Dragoon Guards, 9th Enniskillens,
7th and 15th Hussars, a field battery, a detachment
of Sappers and Miners, Ist Battalion of Coldstream
Guards, the 51th, 66th, and 22nd Regiments, a field
battery, 15th and 00th Regiments, Ist Battalion of
Rifle Brigade, a field battery, the 20th and 97th
Regiments, and the 3rd Battalion of the Rifle
Brigade. In rear of the men the waggons of the
military and pontoon trains were drawn up in double
lines. After rapidly inspecting the line, the Queen
toqk up her position on a hill at the foot of Caesar's
Camp, and the evolutions representing the manoeuvres
by which a sudden attack is met, and a superir r
force kept in check during a retreat. The infantry
first moved across the plain, supported on the left by
the heavy cavalry, while the light cavalry and horse
artillery were pushed far in advance to recon-
noitre :

After an interval of espectation, the light cavalry could
be discerned in dark uneven masses on the bills far south of
Fitruham irood, slowly retreating along the high ground
and watching the imaginary foe beneath. The Rifles were
(Impeached to their support, and, breaking into skirmishing
order, advanced and occupied the borders of the wood of
Farnham. Immediately after the action began with an
irregular dropping fire, which swelled gradually into a con-
tinued rattle. The Rifles dodged from bush to bush, crowd-
i 4; behind the trees and mounds, lining the hedges, always
oa the move, but never slackening their fire for a single
instant. The Horse Artillery, with the heavy cavalry on the
ettreme lett, supported them with a smart cannonade ; but
the help was apparently unavailing, as, atter a fierce defence
of an orchard and farmhouse, the retreat was sounded, and
the Rifles fell slowly back. They stole across the open
ground in twos and threes, turning every now and then to
tire, until they gained the shelter of the light cavalry,
when the cumemblie was sounded, and the whole regiment
drawing together, retreated in double time. The light
cavalry manirovred to cover the movement, and in this
they were supported by the troops of Horse Artillery,
which commenced the cannonade in hot earnest. The re.
siitance, though most gallant, was supposed to be of no
effect. The Artillery were ordered to limber up and retire,
and the whole force commenced &rapid retreat. This was
one of the most brilliant and animating movements of the
day. The heavy rumble of the field batteries as they
moved off, the rapid movements of the cavalry, and, above
all, the ceaseless din of trumpets and hoarse cries which
rang from rank to rank, with all the hurry and confusion
that seemed to pervade the force, gave to the whole scene
the aspect of a veritable field of battle. The Horse
Artillery were the last to retire. They emerged from the
low plantations, pressing their horses to the utmost, and
thundering across the plain with a rush apparently as resist-
less as the sweep of destiny. As they fell back the regiments
of infantry formed massive squares upon the common,
through the intervals of which the mounted troops re•
treated, and formed upon the flanks of the squares to cover
their retreat in turn. In this manner the greater portion
of the plains of Aldershott were traversed, the Court and
stiff moving from height to height, and having a full view
of every movement that took place. The infantry were de-
ployed into line, and opened file firing, and a field battery
at each end of the brigades contributed to swell the den ;
but the retreat nevertheless went on as rapidly as ever,
so the spectators were left to suppose the advance of
the enemy was overwhelming. The cavalry and Horse
Artillery made a last desperate eff•irt to retrieve the for-
tunes of the day, and advanced to the point in two mag-
nificent lines, with the guns on either flank. After one
or two preparatory wheels over the ground, as a hawk
might turn before he stooped upon his prey, the 7th and
15th Hussars formed line and halted. The trumpets
sounded the advance, and with a dull jingling sound the
line moved on faster and faster, till the charge rang out