The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

MUSICAL DOINGS.

Tins has been a busy week for the amateurs ; but
the important items may be confined to three facts—
first, the appearance of Professor Sterndale Bennett
as conductor of the ancient Philharmonic Society ;
secondly, the first performance in this country of
the celebrated German pianist, Mme. Schumann,
better known as Clara Wieck ; and, thirdly, the pro-
duction of a new oratorio, Jepthah and his Daughter,
at St. Martin's-hall. The position which Mr.
Bennett holds as the first of English composers se-
cured him the baton as the successor of Costa and
Wagner. As a conductor Mr. Bennett's experience
is most limited, and he has yet to win his spurs ; for,
making every allowance for nervousness on Monday
night, the general execution of the orchestral music
must be pronounced to have been coarse. The ob-
jections which have been made to the times in
which Mr. Bennett took the various pieces, as no
two conductors can precisely agree in their readings of
scores, can have very little weight; but the colouring
of a symphonic movement or of an overture is the
real test of the directing power, and the heaviness
which prevailed must be taken as an index that
public feeling had not been fixed by Mr. Bennett.
Perhaps experience may make a change ; but it may
be safely assumed the most efficienticonductor will be
the master who has had a life's experience of an
orchestra's swing, as well as the thorough knowledge
of the styles and meanings of composers. Mr.
Alfred Mellon amongst English professors seems to
be the only one who has acquired anything like
Costa's clearness and de,;ision of beat. Mme.
Schumann's magnificent performances of Beethoven's
concerto in E flat, and of Mendelssohn's 17 variations
serieuses, last Monday ; and of Mendelssohn's diffi-
cult sonata in D minor (Op. 29). his "Spring
song," in A, his presto in C, from the " Songs
Without Words," and of her unfortunate husband's
(Schumann, the composer and writer, has lost his
reason) fantastic fantasia, "Evening," at the
Musical Union, last Tuesday, created almost un-
paralleled sensation, as had been confidently antici-
pated by those who had heard her playing in
Germany. She is one of the greatest of living
pianists, having a special style of her own—an un-
mistakeable manner to distinguish her from the
herd of ordinary performers. It is not merely
manual mechanism, marvellous as it is ; but it is in
the equality and brilliancy of touch, the intellectual
interpretation, the enthusiasm, as it wire, of expres-
sion, which mark the execution of Mme. Schumann.
The effects she produces appear effortless ; the
hands appear to glide over the keys invisibly, and
yet the volume of tone is immense when necessary.
Mine. Schumann w'll be the lion of the season. The
composer of the new oratorio is Herr Carl Reinthaler,
a professor in the Cologne Acade:ny of Music, who
has studied in Italy. The work is not the emanation
of a musician of genius; but it has some exceedingly
clever attributes, an essential one being its utter
freedom from the mistiness and ugliness of the
" Music of the Future." The oratorio is German in
structure, but it is Italian in feeling. The educated
aid well- trained musician is more palpable than the
inspired composer. Herr Reinthaler's first work will
certainly provoke curiosity as to his career. Mr.
Thomas, the basso, sang the music of the father,
and Mme. Clara Ncvello that of the daughter. She
was encored in a clever aria, " Blessed shall thou
be." Mr. Montem Smith gave the tencr music, and
Miss Palmer, the rising contralto, had also a part;
but the soprano and the bass absorb the principal
music, the choral portion being greatly developed.
Mr. Hullah deserves praise for introducing the work.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—The reopening of the
above establishment is announced for Tuesday the
lith of May, with Signora Alboni (now the Countess
Pepoli) as the prima donna. Mme. Albertini, an
English woman, married to Baucarde, the French
tenor, is to make her debut in the Trovatore, Alboni
to be Azucena. Mlle. Marietta Piccolomini, the
niece of a cardinal, who has been creating such a
sensation latterly in Italy, will appear in Verdi's
Traviata. As tenors, the names of Calzolari and
Baucarde are specified ; and a new singer, a pupil of
Manuel Garcia, a Signor Salviani, will sing for the
first time in England. Salviani was in the medical
rrofession, and wrote the scientific portion of
Gercias singing-book. He has sung in America,
and made some impres-ion at the Pergola in Flo-
rence, in illeyerbeer's Prophete. Signor BenevaD-

380

tano, a barytone, who has sung in America; Signor
Zacconi, a basso hullo ; Signor Vitro, another basso;
Siznora Finoli, and Sign ra Ruzza, all new to the
country. Fur the balict, the production of Le
Corsaire, wh►ch has been so successful in Park
with Rosati, is the principal point of attraction.
Various persons have been mentioned as musical
director and conductor, and as Mr. Lutnley arrived
in town on Wednesday, the name will no doubt soon
be made known.

ate pram.
ADELPHI THEATRE.

THE new play, Like and Unlike, betrays its origin by
the compact neatness of its plot. The story is one
of mistaken identity, very cleverly worked out. A
certain Harry Mowbray (Mr. Webster ; and who can
play a " Harry " so well ass he ?), a young gentleman
with a strong predilection for nature, truth, sincerity,
and so forth, discovers the qualities which he adores
in a poor and industrious seamstress, Lisette (Mme.
Celeste), whose principal employer is a notorious
opera•dancer, and, strange to say, the exact image
of the virtuous needlewoman. On the very morning
of Mowbray's in irria.ge with Lisette, his cousin
Arthur ( hr. Selby), and Paul Potter (Mr. Wright),
a Manchester warehouseman, afflicted with a jealous
temper, and a taste for opera-dancers, both ad-
mirers of the actress, and who has both fur some
time entertained the strongest suspicions of the
identity of the seamstress and the dansense, bring
their doubts to the test of reality in Mowbray's
house, and unanimously declare their conviction that
Lisette is no other than the worthless heroine of a
hundred amours. Lisette in vain protests that she
is " herself alone ;" Mowbray's faith in her has been
cruelly shaken, the marriage is broken off, and she
leaves Paris. The second act finds her (or the
actress, who shall say which ?) at Bade❑ Baden, a
heartless, reckless woman of the world, the wile of a
rich German baron, whom she boasts of having
" hooked " at the gaming-table. Her old acquaint
antes, Potter and Arthur, appear at the house at
which she is staying, and from them she learns that
Mowbray has followed Lisette from Paris : she
easily procures an invitation for him to a masked
ball at the house. Mowbray arrives before the
other guests, and encounters Lisette once more.
Stung to the quick by his first violent denunciations,
and persisting still in the utter untruth of the alle-
gations of his friends against her, she refuses all his
subsequent efforts at a reconciliation, and resolutely
breaks with him for ever. More than ever puzzled,
Mowbray resolves on obtaining a full solution of the
mystery which, in his mind, still obscures the indi-
viduality of Lisette, whom he has never ceased to
love. He tears the mask from the Countess in the
midst of her guests, and uncovers a face which
seems to be that of Lisette : in the struggle which
follows this outrage, he accidentally wounds the
Countess, who is carried off the stage by her
attendants, when, after a moment of suspense, the
real Lisette, in the simple dress in which he first
remembers her, walks calmly in and demands an
explanation of the cause of the uproar. She flies to
the assistance of her wounded mistress, and discovers
in the Countess her " long lost sister." The mys-
tery is, of course, explained; the wound is disco-
vered to be a mere scratch; the real Lisette falls
into Harry's arms ; the German baron puts off his
jealousy to a more convenient opportunity; and the
curtain falls on the happiness of everybody.
The play is remarkably well acted, every part
being admirably suited to the peculiar talents of the
actor to whom it is assigned. In no kind of cha-
racter is Mr. Webster so effective as in that of the
honest, hearty, and somewhat rough lover, who is
changed by disappointment into the self contained
misanthrope; and his tairsts of feeling, whether of
pathos or of indignation, have in the present instance
a touch of real nature about them which reconciles
us to the rather inflated language of his part. In
that scene, especially, where Mowbray first upbraids
Lisette for her supposed deception, and then, shaken
in his suspicion by her strong assertion of her inno-
cence, recals the memory of their old affection, and
pleads in vain for a reconciliation, the acting of both
Mr. Webster and of Mme. Celeste is highly effec-
tive, without the least exaggeration. Indeed, both
as Lisette and the Countess, Mme. Celeste achieves
a complete success. Mr. Selby, as one of the long-
coated "swells," whom Mr. Leech has immortalised
in Punch, and Mr. Wright, as the nervously-jealous
warehouseman, with his short sentences and his long
stick, create much amusement ; not that they have,
either of them, anything especially brilliant to say,
but at the Adelphi, and elsewhere occasionally, au
oddly-shaped hat makes as much merriment as a
quaint simile, and antics from a favorite go as far as
antitheses. Mr. Paul Bedford, in the bulky German
baron, with exactly three sentences, which recur at
intervals of about five minutes, and possess not one
atom of sense or point, is provided with a character
exactly suited in every respect to his dimensions.
The scenery is tasteful and appropriate.