The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 18, 1862.

MUSICAL ARRANORYINTS.

The great orchestra erecting under the eastern
dome is rapidly approaching completion. Excepting only
the Haodel Festival orchestra at the Crystal Palace, it is
by far the largest ever built in this country. It will meow
modal,* upwards of 2,000 performers. Projecting 60 feet
under the dome, Waxiest:ls the whole width thereof, rising
above the gallery to a considerable height in front of the
' under pert of the round stained glees window over the
eastern entrance. The lower 13 rows of this great staging
will be occupied by the instrumental portion of the orches-
tra, the upper 26 rows by the chorus. Exclusive of tie
side portions in the galleries, the width of the orchestra isl3s
feet. The instrumentalists employed on this occasion will be
about four hundred In number, including all the leading
profaisors, and =ay amateurs of talent. There will be
196 violins and violas, 90 violoncello' and double bassos,
with about 112 wind instruments, drums, ke. The lists
of performers have been carefully revised by Mr. COll4ll,
and there is no question that it will be one of the finest
bands ever brought together. The chorus will comprise
shout five hundred voices to each of the four parts. Besides
the chorus of the Sacred Harmonic Society, a considerable
number will be brought from various provincial choral
societies, cathedral choirs, &c., throughout the country.
Birmingham and the Midland districts, Bradford and
the Yorkshire districts, Liverpool, Manchester, Canter-
bury, Cambridge, Ely, Norwich, Oxford, Gloucester, Lin-
coln, Nottiogbam, Bristol, Hertford, Chester, Edinburgh,
Exeter, Wells, Windsor, Newomtle, Glasgow, Peterborough,
Winchester, Aberdeen, Dublin, dm, will all contribute
their grata, it having been an object of special interest to
the cormoimioners to give a fair representation at this greet

musical commune to the various provincial towns. The re-
mainder of the chorus will be selected by ballot from the
members of the Handel Festival Choir, their complete organi-
astion and constant practice %miler Mr. Costa renderingthern
a moat efficient body of choreliste ready to hand. Whether
preliminary rehearsals or not will be needed is not yet de-
cided ; at any rate, the rehersals at present appointed, all of
which are under the direction of Mr. Costa, are u follows :
Full bud rehearsal ; Exeter-hell, Tuesday, tuorning, 29th
April. Chorus rehearsal ; Exeter-ball, Tuesday evening,
29th April (town and country chorus). Full rehearsal ;
Exhibitiomboilding, Wednesday, 30th April. It is now
tolerably certain that the opening ceremonial, on the lit of
May, will commence at , one o'clock precisely. From the
imposing effects which must be produced by this great
music awniblage, there is no doubt but that as the details
become known the sale of season tickets will proceed very
rapidly. The Sacred Harmonic Society have published •
small engraved plan of the Exhibition building, showing the
situation of the orchestra, which they present to all pur-
chaser. of Exhibition season tickets ►t Exeter-hall, whether
applying perionally or by poet. Thi■ little plan gives an
excellent idea of the arrangement of the building, the Hor-
ticultural Gardsua, entreaties, and reads.

MADAme Luen-Clomeentewr.—Thin benevolent
lady has volunteered leer gratuitous assistance to the com-
mittee which has undertaken, at great expense, to restore and
enlarge the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Northampton,
one of the few coned churches of the Knight. Templar,.
The Mescal will accordingly he performed next Wednesday
morning in the Corn Exchange in that town, and Madame
Goldschruidt will sing. The applications for tickets have
been very numerous. _ _ .

Tax VOCLI AMOCIATION. —Miuleuto6ello Marie
Craven, frees the principal theatres in Italy and Paris, will
snake her AM appearance in England (after an staenee of
sight years) at the smart of the Vocal Association on Wed-
newhy evening next, Bt. James's-hall. The other principal
features of the progremmeare, Mendelasohn's Psalm, " Hear
my prayer," for soprano solo and chorus ; Meyerbeer's
" Pater Nosier," and a duett on two pianofortes, by Mina
Eleanor Ward ; sod Mr. Benedict. Herr Formes will also
take part in the performance. Mr. Benedict will, as tuned,
be the conductor.

EXPERIMINTA AT SHO6BURYNEAB.—SiIIee the laid
experiment* tried with the new wrought iron smooth bore
Armstrong gun, other trials have been made with the
same piece of ordnance to prove Its power. Duriog the
course of there it has been tried with a 301 b. charge of
powder against a target of three fiveloch plates of wrought
iron bolted together—a mass of wrought iron, in all, of
15 inches thick—or, as *early as possible, four times the
thickness of the Warrior's plates. Two or three shots were
fired against this, and each broke all three plates, crushing
the first, ripping sod splitting the second, and ripping the
third is such a way as to show that even 15 inches of metal
wee an insufficient protection against ordnance of this de-
scription at rime rangea—rtesee.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIITY OP LONDON. —At the
monthly general meeting bold mter&ty at the sooksty's
taloa, in ilassover4qoarm the Bight Hoe. 84 G. CIRzl
Bart., I. the *hair, liessrs. Alfred
Waage, W. daises, /LP., C. R. Cock, R. Y. Hordes,
W. J. Nev,a' sad Y. H. Duthie. were elected fellows of
the society. Lord Braybrook, Sir W. 0. Artsetreeg,
H. Cotterell, Bart, Colonel C. A. Amy, Ileum H.
WA*, P. Phipps, H. Rocklny, IL T. Richards, H. C. D.
Long, P. Cumin, J. I. Nicholl, P. Nomision, and Murray R.
Johnson, were proposed ma candidate' for the fellowship.
The report from the cornice stated that the number of
visitors to the gardens dairies the year had been over
37.000. The arrival of a pair of Pandit* birds on the lit
inst. in the gardens was anocioneed ; they continued is
Loud heal* aged were daily improving in plumage.