The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

made upon it in Vienna had perhaps detracted some-
what from the melody it would otherwise have
brought to London ; but it possesses great power,
and a most perfect intonation. We ha•-e never
heard any soprano who rendered a part wit greater
distinctness than Mlle. Titiens does that of Valentine.
Every note and syllable was clearly brought out
without any slurring or indistinctness: and even
when the voice was most taxed—perhaps strained—
we could follow it, note by note, with grateful plea-
sure. But we must not omit to mention the dra-
matic power in action displayed on this occasion.
The parting scene with Raoul at the conclusion of
the third act, when the guns announce the commence.
ment of the massacre, was genuine tragic
acting; and the " studies " with which the loving
woman was depicted as she raised herself above
Giuglini kneeling at her feet, and then falling
into his arms, with his head clasped between her
hands, were as perfect and artistic renderings of the
grand passion as we remember for a long time to
have witnessed. It was a combination of the ten-
derness of Miss Faucit as Pauline and the passion
which the present generation can recal—alas ! with
what regret—on the boards of St. James's Theatre,
in Rachel

We have given up so much space to these remarks
upon the debutante that we have no room to criticise
the other artists at the present moment. We can-
not, however, help saying that greater care and power
ought to bb exhibited in the choruses. Their poverty
of voice on Tuesday was truly lamentable—espe-
cially in the " Rataplan," which was unmistakeably
hissed. _ _

At the tag of a dramatic notice the scene-painter
often gets a line, and no more. Something more is
due to Mr. Charles Marshall, who has laboured
most successfully to make the revival of The Hugue.
ludo scenically attractive. The Renaissance chamber
in the Castle de Nevers, and the beautiful discovery
of Paris by night at the close of the opera, when the
massacre is consummated, are rendered with a
fidelity of detail and a poetry of feeling that we think
merits very high commendation.

THE TONIC SOL-FA ASSOCIATION is probably known
by name to most Londoners, and, indeed, to the
inhabitants of most large towns in England and
Scotland; its frequent advertisements and occa-
sional " demonstrations" could hardly fail to effect as
much as this. Most of these may know it to be a
sort of singing society; but few persons, we imagine,
not in some way connected with its operations, have
any clear idea of how it differs from numberless
other singing societies. If the project for a phonetic
system of orthography, which achieved some little
notoriety a few years ago, has not been altogether
forgotten, it may serve to give to non-musical per-
sons a tolerably clear idea of what these differences
are. The promoters of that scheme urged that if
every English word were spelt precisely as it is pro-
nounced, the labour of learning to read would be
very much diminished, and numbers of the unedu-
cated poor would quickly accomplish the task, when
relieved from difficulties which are to them
almost insuperable. The reply to this argument
was plain. The letters which form a word fre-
quently convey to ns its history ; and if the pro-
posed plan were completely carried out, the form of
words being lost, their origin would quickly be for-
gotten, their meaning would become almost arbi-
trary, and the language almost barbaric. But if the
plan were only partially adopted, there would be two
methods existing side by side, and a child who, to
save trouble, had been taught in the short and easy
way, would find as he grew older that learned men
would not write in this dialect for the ignorant, and
that the old system must be acquired after all. The
new musical notation adopted by the Tonic Sol-fa
Association is open to very nearly the same objections.
It is a short and easy way of learning a little
music, but a most laborious and cumbrous way
of learning music thoroughly. If it be suited to
simple vocal music, it does not adapt itself to a more
elaborate style, and for instrumental music it is
entirely unfitted ; so that any one who has begun
on the new plan, if he would go further, must pro-
ceed to the old, and furnish an example of the
proverb, that lazy folks give themselves most
trouble in the end. The object of the new notation
IS to diminish the difficulty of learning to sing at
sight : let it be distinctly remembered that this is its
one and only object. It is asserted (without contra-
diction) that every note and every interval must be
grasped by the mind before it can be produced by
the voice. The same thing is, of course, not true in
instrumental music ; each note is there produced by
a mechanic process, and the mind need have no
previous knowledge of it. Secondly, that the mind
I')usiderS each note of the scale according to its rsla-