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

PERIODICLLS.

- -- ---
Le Follet. Simpkin and Mar3hsll—The Notionll
Maaazine.—The Art Journal. Virtue and Co--The Ircbi
of Scotland Magazin,. and It.oieut. liall and Virtue.

CROSDY-H kLL was put up br sale on Wednesdoky
at the Auction Mart, and bott3ht in at 3,0110/.

Sunk 6,1857.

usir.

ITER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Vi.nois opera of Nebueodonosor was produced in
)lilan in 184'2. Its success was immense. It was
followed by the Lombardi, Ernani, Giovanna
11%4re°, the Due Foscari, Attila, and Alzira, with
amazing rapidity; but of these works only Ernani
and the Due Foscari may be stated to survive.
Lombardi, altered and adapted for the French
Grand Opera, could not be saved even by Duprez's
musical anti histrionic genius. Since the productions
cited above, Verdi has, like Rossini and Donizetti
and Meyerbeer, modified his style ; and to this
transformation we are indebted for the masterpieces
Rigoktto and the Trovatore, for Luisa Miller and
La Traviata are trivialities compared with the two
former lyric gems. nbiteco in its original form—
that is, with Solera's libretto—is essentially a
religious dramatic oratorio ; the facts are drawn
from Holy Writ, like Rossini's Nosh. In the first
act there is the siege of Jerusalem, the sacking of
the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, amidst the remon-
i,trances of Zechariah the High Priest and the
Levites. In the second act 'is the conversion of
Fenena, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, to the
Jewish faith, and return of the Bing, who has left
ber Regent, and who impiously calls upon his
subjects to worship her as a god, and who is
punished for his blasphemous pretensions by being
deprived of his intellect. In his idiotic state the
slave Abigail (an elder daughter of Nebuchadnezzar)
plots the death of the neophyte Fenena, because the
latter is beloved by Idaspe, once Abigail's lover.
Fenena's execution is prevented by the return of
the King's reason, after his repentance and his
conversion ; the finale being 9 thanksgiving to the
true God of the Hebrews, " Immenso Jehova."

Whatever objections may be very properly enter•
tained in this country against the treatment of scrip-
tural subjects on the stage, it cannot be denied that
we lose by our conscientious scruples two fine works;
for the Mosi of Rossini, both under the title of
Peter the Hermit, produced so many years since at
the King's Theatre, and of Zora, when brought out
at the Royal Italian Opera, and Verdi's Nabucco,
when done at her Majesty's Theatre in 1846, under
the title of Nino, and at the Royal Italian Opera in
1830, under the designation of Anato, have both
proved signally financial failures. The religious
link in the chain of communication between the
opera and the oratorio being broken by the inter-
polation of antagonistic paganism, the scores of
boll composers are weakened, and in many points
nullified. Between the two works there is, however,
an immeasureable distance. The Mosi is a grand
conception, in every respect worthy of the genius of
Rossini. Nabucco is the dawn of a dramatic intel-
lect, which has gradually ripened into the maturity of
a lyric genius. No ordinary mind conceived the score
of the Nabucco; poor as the forms may be, the
ideas are rich in inspiration. Given, that the
choral portions are in many instances, from their
unisonous artifices, puerile; admitted, that the or-
chestration is too often boisterous and common-
place ; acknowledged, that the incessant indulgence
in the criard school for the leading vocalists is repul-
sive; still not the less do the fancy, imagination,
impulse, and energy of the composer predominate
over all defects and drawbacks, and the vivid per-
ception of dramatic colouring so frequently shown
proved that Verdi was an exceptional and original
'writer for the operatic stage. No amount of abuse
and vituperation both in France, Germany, and
England could stop his progressive career. To
glance over the criticisms of 1845 and 1846 in the
London journal; is not a little curious now in 1857,
when the) affiches of the two Italian Opera-houses
scarcely exhibit the name of any other composer but
Verdi. Singularly enough, he has even triumphed
over the opposition of leading singers ; for, as his
works imperatively exact artistes of great power of
physical endurance as well as of histrionic abilities,
no new composer ever met with more strenuous
resistance than Verdi, and many prime donne and
" tender tenors " were in the habit of having inserted
in their engagements clauses that they should not
be called upon to sing in his operas. Certainly, in
his later productions, he has attended more to the
pure art of vocalisation, but lie still clings to his
theory of obtaining violent contrasts in declamatory
phrases on the extreme notes of the register. This
absence of scale passages causes too often fatigue in
listening to such a vicious and monotonous style.
Finished vocalists will become more and more rare
should his operas maintain a permanent ascendancy.
The advent of another Rossini or Bellini +could of
course effect a reaction. En attendant, opera fre-
quenters must have excitement, and Verdi is super-
abundant in his supply of sensations, for no one of
his works can be heard without some thrilling
moments.

THE PttESS.

Nabucco, under the title of Nino, was
first beard in London in 1846, the cast
at that time including Fornasari (an artist
who, like single speech Hamilton, was famed for one
part only, viz., Bclisario) as Nino; Botelli, the
High Priest; Corelli, Idaspe; Mlle. Corbari, Fenena ;
and Mlle. Sanchioli, Abigail. In 1847, the cast in-
&uded Coletti as Nino, M. Boucbe as the High
Priest, and Mlle. Fagiani as Fenena. In 1848, there
were Signora Abbadia as Abigail, Mlle. Vera as
Fenena, Signor Cuzzoni as Idaspe, and Belletti as
the High Priest. This last cast was the coup-de-
grace to Nino; it disappeared from the bills until
last Tuesday, when we had Mlle. Spezia as Abigail,
Mlle. Ramos as Fenena, Charles Braham as Idaspe,
Vialetti as the High Priest, and Signor Corsi as
Nino. At the Royal Italian Opera in 1850, it was
superbly mounted under the title of Anato, with
Ronconi as Nabucco ( Anato Nino), Tamberlik as
Idaspe (Dario), Tagliafico, Rodiaro (the High
Priest), Mlle. Castellan Abigail, and Mlle. Vera
Fenena. The sublime acting of Ronconi, and the
general strength in the cast, with a magnificent
ensemble, could not save the work, which fell as at
the other house, under the absurdity of the libretto.
How, then, could it be expected that with seedy
scenery, dingy decorations, and cosmopolite cos-
tumes, superadded to a curious cast and an ineffi-
cient and imperfect ensemble, Nino would command
the sympathies of the house, coupled with all the
absurd monstrosities of the poem, in which Isis is
made a male god by the High Priest, scriptural
words being mixed up in confusion dire with pro-
fanely Pagan attributes? Corsi, who made his first
appearance in England, had indeed uphill work,
besides the cold under which he laboured ; hut he is
not the less a genuine artist, who will be more and
more appreciated as he is known. He has not much
voice, but his style is unexceptionable, and his acting
unaffected and dramatic. He was hideously dressed,
ant', as his figure is short and corpulent, there was
at first a mistaken estimation of his undeniably dra-
matic powers. Charles Braham was the concen-
trated essence of stick-ism, and he had a lady-love
equally as remarkable as a nonentity ; the two com-
bined rendered the love-scenes a mere burlesque, and
their singing was of too insignificant a character to
be a set-off to the acting. Vialetti, without being
equal either to Taglisfico or to Belletti, made some
good vocal points; but his dramatic action—either
pointing and shaking his finger at the pit, or raising
his forefinger extended above his head perpetually—
requires amendment. Mlle. Spezia has taken her
revenge for her shortcomings in the Traviata and in
the Trocatore. She is the best Abigail who has yet
been heard in this country. Free from the grotesque
exaggeration of Sanchioli, she is infinitely more
energetic than Castellan ; and the screamy passages
Verdi has so liberally assigned to Abigail were deli-
vered by Spezia with unshrinking vigour. The
choral combinations were coarsely accomplished ;
the gem of the opera, the "Va pensiero," that deli.
thus melody which the captive Hebrews sing by
the " Euphrates' stream," lacked colouring ; and
Bonetti failed to realise the varied dramatic por-
traiture in which Verdi so eminently excels. If,
therefore, Nino should be no more heard of, this
season, let it be recorded, at least, that it will not be
the fault of either Spezia or Corsi, who were quite
up to the mark ; but the failure must be ascribed to
an ineffective rendering of the ensemble, to marked
neglect in the »title en scene, and, above all, to the
ridiculous changes in the libretto, whereby the
antagonistic elements intended by the composer are
rendered absurd and unintelligible.