The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

La Favorita

La Figlia del Reggimento 4 11 Trovatore 7
L'Eliair d'Amore Nabucco (Nino) 1
Lucia di Lammermoor 8 MOZART.
RuSSINI. Il Don Giovanni 13
II Barbiere 2 Le Nozze di Figaro 3
La Cenerentola 2 BELLIXI.
La Sonnambula 1
I Puritani 5
The above return would give sixty-one perfor-
mances (including the two morning ones on the Ist
and 29th of June), but to these must be added the
Piccolomini and Giuglini benefits on the 6th and
Ilhh of July, at which no entire work was presented,
a pot-pourri being substituted on both occasions of
operatic odds and ends. If we add Mrs. Anderson's
morning concert on the 18th of May, and Benedict's
three musical "festivals" of the 10th and 24th of
June, and the Bth of July, the theatre will have been
opened sixty-five times. This return shows that the
opera season is becoming more and more limited.
Neither Mr. Lumley nor Mr. Gye ventured to com-
mence operations before Easter, and both directors
cut off the month of August, taking care to terminate
their subscription nights by the end of July, and the
former could only keep his company together by a
diminution in prices. The two directors turn the
autumn months to account by expeditions into the
provinces; and the inference to be drawn from this
line of policy is, that, in order to meet the enormous
expenses of their establishments during the regular
London season, they must calculate on contingent
receipts before its ancient conclusion.
As regards Mr. Lumley's doings during 1857, the
list of operas given above supplies its own explana-
tion. It has been essentially a Piccolomini and
Giuglini season. His programme foreshadowed his
intention, special reference being made to Picco
lomini ; and the only novelty promised, if novelty it
can be called, being the revival of Mozart's Don
Giovanni. The engagements were evidently made
with the determination that no really great singer
should be in the field to disturb Piccotomini's popu-
larity, and, so far, good judgment was shown ; for
Ortolani, with a disagreeable voice in quality, and a
very imperfect execution, and Spezia, with a
fatigued organ, and possessing but moderate dra-
matic ability, have not in the slightest degree com-
promised the fame of the representative of La Tra-
viata. But what of Alboni, it may be urged in
reply? Alboni was here last season, and, although
one of the greatest of vocalists, has never "drawn
money "—to use the theatrical term—by herself.
When she sang as contralto with Grisi and Mario at
the Royal Italian Opera, it was another thing alto-
gether; but alone, especially in the mode in which
Mr. Lumley has taken good care to present her, she
is not attractive. She sang this year Rosina twice,
Amina once, and Cenerentola twice. On two occa-
sions II Barbiere was cut down to an act, and on
another she had to sing the last act of the Sonnam-
bula. We might sympathise with such a truly
magnificent singer on this treatment,if we were not so
strongly convinced of the great mistake she has
made in this country, at all events, of abandoning
her contralto parts. Perhaps, as she is about to
resume them to "oblige" Mr. Beale, Alboni may, at
a future season, enchant her former admirers by a
esumption of her former grand parts. Piccolomini

has not advanced this year in artistio reputation,
although we are assured her attraction has increased
in a financial point of view. Her new parts have
been Lucia, Zerlina, Susanna, and Adina ; and her
acting in Zerlina was accepted without reserve as a
compensation for its musical deficiencies. '['he new
tenor Giuglini carried off the honours in the Lucia;
and Susanna and Adina, even Mlle. Piccolomini's
most ardent admirers admit, were mistakes. It
will be seen that the Traviata was given ten times,
and this fact is about the true indicator of her real
position at present. With her natural gifts she has
a future before her, but her tendency to exaggera-
tion has been lately on the increase. Giuglini, the
new tenor, achieved a great triumph. He has been
an invaluable acquisition. His last acts in the Lucia,
Puritani, Favorite, and Trovatore have firmly fixed
him as a favourite, and have accounted for the ex-
aggerated eulogiums which have been so injudiciously
showered on him. His great defects are a dragging
of the time, and a want of power and intensity. He
sings charmingly in bits, but is apt to weary through.
out a long opera. Next to Giuglini, but superior in
sentiment, and more accomplished in execution, is
the new Spanish tenor, Belart. If the latter will
study, he may take hereafter the lead. Bottardi was
a failure. Reichardt is not adapted for Italian
opera; and Charles Braham is only fit to be a
chamber singer. Vialetti, the new basso, did good
service. His intonation is defective, and his style is
French, but he Droved one of the best importations.
Corsi has never had a real chance. If he had made
his debut in the Due Foseari, the public would have
recognised a thoroughly dramatic artist. The
Ballet presented a piquante danseuse in Mlle. Poe-
chini, and the returns of Rosati and Marie Taglioni
were, of course, warmly welcomed—the latter is
gaining ground vastly. Mlle. Salvioni was a debu-
tante. Mme. Perea Nene was not relished in her
new quarters; what was admired at Mr.Buckstone's
did not pass muster at Mr. Lumley's.
On the whole, the signs of the times this season
at Her Majesty's Theatre are not bright and pro-
mising. We are not at all misled by apparent
triumphs ; and the mere fact that the balance is on
the right side of the exchequer is no guarantee for
the future. After the disastrous fire at Govent-
garden Theatre there was a fine prospect opened to
retrieve the fallen fortunes of Her Majesty's Theatre.
The policy was a palpable one. It should have an
earnest endeavour to approach, if not to equal, the
magnificent performances which rendered the Royal
Italian Opera a theatre of European reputation. On
such a basis everybody would have rallied round the
old Haymarket establishment; but the mistake of
former years has been repeated. Instead of directing
all energy and attention to the stage, and presenting
an unexceptionable ensemble, it has been evident
:hat reliance has been principally placed on external
sources of influence, and connoisseurs have been
expected to shut their eyes and ears, and disbelieve,
in fact, the. evidence of their senses. This game has
been tried ; it answered for a time, but it was
eventually played out; and, unless a change take
place, it will be more speedily exhausted than it was
in past days. The director who speculates on the
permanent ignorance of the public in lyric art is sure
to fail egregiously in the long run.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.
OUR summary of the season is in type, but, owing
to a press of matter, is unavoidably postponed until
next Saturday's issue.

Obituarg.

BISHOP BLOMFIELD, late Bishop of London, died
at Fulham on Wednesday evening. The late bishop
was born in 1780. Having been educated at Trinity
College, Cambridge, he was third wrangler and
senior medallist in 1808, and subsequently a Fellow
of his college. After taking order: he became suc-
cessively Archdeacon of Colchester and Rector of St.
Botolph, Bishopsgate, and was co. secrated Bishop
of Chester in 1824, from which see e was translated
to that of London in 1828. He was known to the
world of letters by editions of ".2E.co)tus and
" Callimachus ;" he was also author of a " Manual
of Family Prayers ;" "Lectures on the Acts of the
Apostles ;" " Sermons at St. Botolph, Bishopsgate,"
kc. He was one of the original supporters of the New
Poor Law, and had a principal hand in establishing
the Ecclesiastical Commission. Bishop Blomfleld
was one of the prelates who protested against the
elevation of the present Bishop of Hereford, and as
a member of the Privy Council dissented from the
judgment delivered by Lord Redesdale in the Gorham
case. He resigned his see last September, receiving
a pension of 6,000/. a year.
THE COUNTESS (DOWAGER) OF STAIR died OR
Sunday last, at Oxenford Castle, near Edinburgh.
The decased countess was third daughter of Adam,
first Viscount Duncan, the renowned admiral, by
Henrietta, second daughter of the Right Hon.
Robert Dundas. Her ladyship was born in 1783,
and married in June, 1825, the late Earl of Stair
(then Sir John Dalrymple), who died in 1853.

LADY BELLEW died ou Monday at Barmeath, county
Louth, the residence of the Right Hon. Lord Bellew.
She was in her 57th year.
Dn. THOMAS DICK, LL.D., F.R.A.S., the well-known
author of " The Christian Philosopher," and other
kindred works, expired at Broughty Ferry, near
Dundee, on Wednesday week, in the 83rd year of his
age.

A BANQUET AT FISHMONGERS'-HALL was given on
Saturday last by the worshipful company. Among
the distinguished company present were Lords
Brougham and John Russell, Mr. Vernon Smith,
General Williams, &c. &c. After the usual loyal
toasts had been drunk, Mr. Vernon Smith, replying
for "Her Majesty's Ministers," said that her
Majesty's present Ministers now found themselves
amid difficulties which were not of their own making,
but which had arisen from a frantic and sudden out-
break in that part of our dominions in which it was
least expected :
But what were Ministers made for, if it were not to
meet difficulties? And the present was truly the great
emergency. For one hundred sears we had governed the
great empire of India by moral force; but the sword,
which we had partly passed into the hands of the natives,
had suddenly snapped in our grasp. It did so happen
that in India itself, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya,
nobody had anticipated the present outbreak. For him•
self, be felt that the task imposed upon him was one of no
ordinary character, but he remembered that he had been
brought up at the feet of Henry Brougham and John
Russell, and he had a reasonable confidence as to the
result.

Lord Brougham, in replying for the Lords, com-
mented upon the friendly feeling of the French for
us, and, alluding to their electoral system, said he
thought we might advantageously take a lesson from
out neighbours :
When last in that country he had uniformly found that,
if a worthy and distinguished candidate were defeated in
one department, other places immediately offered him a
seat; but that, unhappily, was not the case in England.
He had again and again seen with sorrow anti shame able
and useful members of Parliament, who had accidentally
offended their constituents, obliged to remain for three or
four years out of the house, while no constituency ten-
dered them a seat.
Lord John Russell, later in the evening, replied to
this :
With respect to our general system of carrying on
elections, although he regretted that so distinguished a
man as the Vice-President of the Board of Trade should
have been the victim of popular excess, and although he
was not enthusiast enough to wish ha had been the
victim himself, stilt he would rather see these excesses
of free election than the mode which his noble friend
(Lord Brougham) so much eulogised in France. He
knew that we had had a great deal of turmoil and a great
deal of dirt-throwing in London and in different parts of
the country, but he considered that to be part of the
freedom of our system. He did not think you could have
free election without a good deal of abuse, and he woul I
rather have our complete freedom, accompanied by a little
abuse, than be liable to be denounced by a prefect of the
Thames as unfit to sit in Parliament. But this was a
matter of opinion; and, if his noble friend's frequent re-
sidence in France made him favour more the institu-
tions of that country, he was not going to find fault. He
knew, however, that an eminent man in France (M. Mon-
talembertl had written a book of great eloquence in
praise of English institutions. His (Lord John Russell's)
taste, and he was sure he might add the Prime Warden's,
lay in the same direction, and led them on the whole to
prefer the English mode of election to that which had
attracted the admiration of his noble friend. He was
Oat to think that the settlement of the House of Hanover
had contributed to produce that freedom of election and
that general publicity which were the keystones of our
popular government. He believed that in the contrariety
of opinions was to be found the safety of religious liberty,
and he was proud to know that the nation was kept fully
informed of all that interested its concerns, and believed
that, being so situated, this country was more capable of
great efforts. which require I men and money, than other
nations which were kept in total ignorance.