The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS, dux 3, 1858.

Wednesday--on the whole as well as we have heard
it—though the first movement was a little wanting
in clearness. The execution of the solo parts was
only respectable, and the chorus singing little better
than discreditable. Miss Louisa Pyne, Miss Stabbach,
and Mr. Montem Smith were the principal vocalists,
and delivered the notes with sufficient correct-
ness ; but Mendelssohn requires a great deal more
than this. Miss Pvne's constitutional coldness is
fatal to sacred music; Miss Stabbach's voice i , too
metallic to mingle with one of such differmt
quality as Miss Pyne's ; and Mr. Montem Smith
is not in any respect equal to the tenor music.
He is but an indifferent vocalist ; his voice has
no charm, and his style no dignity. Nevertheless,
with a sort of hard correctness, the solo music was
got through. We should be glad if we could say as
much tor the choral parts. We are not complaining
of coarseness and bad tone—we are accustorrosl to
expect these whenever we find the advertisements
announcing a body of so many hundred performers—
but we do complain that the notes were not sung;
that in the fugued choruses the parts were not taken
up with firmness, and very often not at all ; that two
such choruses as " Praise the Lord with lute and
harp " and " Let us cast off the works of darkness "
were made almost unintelligible by the miserable in
accuracy of the performance. We really trust that
before next season the directors of the Vocal Asso-
ciation will look to these matters ; the society holds
a prominent position, as the only choral body at the
west-end of the town, and might, if well conducted,
take high rank. It is all very will to hire an or-
chestra, to engage pianist 4, violinists, and solo
singers, and so with symphonies, concertos, and
songs to make up a good and attractive series of
concerts ; but if the members of the Vocal Associa-
tion desire to be of any use or to retain any existence
as a society, they must place their chief reliance on
themselves. We do not object to the form of their
concerts, nor blame them for calling in the assistance
of the best artists they can procure ; we are only
desirous that their own performances should be in
some degree w rthy of such co-op ration. They will
not attain this without strict discipline and long
and steady practice, but surely such a society ought
to aim at nothing less.

MISS IiEhIBLE'S CONCERT of last Wednesday, held
by favour of the Earl of Ellesmere in the picture
gallery of Bridgewater-house, was one of the
pleasantest of the season. The artists were all of
a high class, and the programme well selected.
Mr. C. Halle, Herr Joachim, and Signor Piatti,
were the instrumentalists, and Madame Viardot
Garcia, Mr. Santley, and Signor Mario, the vocalists.
Beethoven's sonata in G (op. 30) was finely ren
dered by Mr. C. Halle and Herr Joachim ; the
former also contributed a pair of Mendelssohn's
scngs without words, and a valse by Chopin ; and
Tartini's famous " Songe du :liable" was grandly
played by Herr Joachim. Signor Piatti was there
too, with his violoncello and a fantasia of his own.
Mr. Santley sang the bass air front Rossini's Ste bat
Mater, a new song of no great merit by Berger, and
Donizetti's buffo duet, " Senza tanti complimenti,"
with Madame Viardot Garcia, who also displayed
her wonderful powers of execution in Pacini's florid
air, "Il soave e bel contento." Signor Mario was in
good voice, and his air from the Favorita, often as
he has repeated it, was as welcome as ever. Miss
Kemble herself is a pleasing and efficient singer,
not endowed with any remarkable gifts, but of fair
ability and good taste. She sang a pair of songs by
S:hubert and Mendelssohn, Arne's " Where the bee
sucks," the duet " Di Vergogna," from the Marino
Falicro, with Mr. Santley, and Rossini's " Mira la
bianca luna " with Signor Mario. This last attempt
showed more courage then discretion ; the ex-
perienced artist was rather more than a match for
the young vocalist.

't Drain a.

ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.

ON Friday, the 25th ult., Mme. Ristori appeared as
Octavio, in the tragedy of that name. We have felt
and said so much on the depreciation of dramatic
composition by conversions from the original into a
foreign language that we naturally hail with delight
the production of a real Italian tragedy, and by a
master-hand, at this theatre. A better work in the
abstract might, perhaps, have been selected, but for
the display of Mme. Ristori's powers no other cha-
racter could, we think, be more appropriate. The
plot is simple enough. Nero having repudiated his
wife, Octavia, and banished her to the shores of
Campania, espoused Poppeea, wire of Otho, one of
his iiivourites. Octavia's popularity was so great at
It me that Nero found it necessary to recall her.
Poppcea, on hearing that she was about to return,
upbraid, Neto with want of affection for her, and in.

615

sists that Octavia shall be banished yet farther front
Rome. In the outpouring of her jealousy she
tells him :

Ti dico intanto
Cbe Ottavia e me, vice ad un tempo entrambo
Non Ow una reggia, una citti non cape.
• • •

Ahi lassa! dal mio cor panel
_ppien ease strapper la imuragia tua,
Come da to svellermi opero!
Of course she abuses Octavia and extols her own
disinterestedness, and at last she finishes by ex-
claiming :

Oh, qual puoi farmi immenso
Danno ! it tuo awor to mi puoi Virre.
Ah ! pria
Alia vita prendi : Kasai minor fia'l danno.

Whereupon Nero assures her that he abhors her
rival more than she does herself, and promises that
Octavia shall be the slave, not the rival, of Poppcea.
Tigillinus, a sort of confidential officer in Nero's
court, having promised his aid to Poppcea in her de-
termination to cause the destruction of Octavia,
seeks his master, whom he finds ripe for any cruelty.
Nero declares his intention to put Octavia to death ;
bis creature urges the necessity of making ber
appear guilty In the eyes of the " empia plebe," and
forthwith accuses her of an atrorous interview with
her slave Enceras. Nero agrees to make this charge
(which Tigillintis undertakes to prove) the handle
of Octavia's persecution. The tyrant, who just before
had said,

Porch'io l'abborro, e res
Quest° poss'esser mai,

then has an interview with the recalled exile, during
which he makes known the accusation that has been
put into his mouth. Octavia, who up to this time
had been meek, and apparently satisfied to endure
anything at the hands of the man whom, notwith-
standing his many crimes (amongst which the
murder of her father and brother), she still adores,
at first struck dumb by the horror of the infamy
imputed to her. Then she pours out a torrent of
lamentations, which were delivered by Mme. Ristori
with most thrilling effect. The passage,

Oh ! non piu intesa
Scellaragine orrenda! Or 'e l'iuiquu
Accusatur ? Ma, oime ! stolta, the chieggo ,
Nerone accuse, e giadica, ed uccide—
drew down great applause upon her. It is, cer•
tainly, one of the finest in the tragedy. Octavia is
immediately afterwards publicly charged with the
crime invented for her. Her attendant*, the slave
Eucerns inciuded, are put to torture in order to ex-
tract from them testimony of her guilt. One and all
boldly die denying it. Octavia is then charged with
sedition and political intrigues. One day is offered
to her wherein to prepare her defence. She de-
clines the offer, but requests that Nero and Poppata
will come to her. Meanwhile, she entreats Seneca,
who has always acted as her friend, and who is at
this time with her, to put her to death. He refuses
to comply, alleging, amongst other reasons, his in-
ability, having no weapon with him. She reminds
him that he had told her he always carried poison
about his person. He says he has none, but she
seizes his hand, and, after a struggle, withdraws
front his Huger a ring, in which she knows some is
contained. In an instant she has applied it to her
lips and sucked in the deadly powder. Nero, with
Pappcea and Tigillinas, comes in just in time to
receive her last words, which breathe only kindness
and forgiveness to her cruel lord. The death scene
is so true to life that one could almost fancy Mme.
Ristori had studied it from nature. She has died so
often and so well, and then risen again, that, when
her time actually comes for removal to her
ancestors, we shall scarcely know bow to realize her
departure hence. On Monday she performed with
great power in the weil•known tragedy Phiare,
Italianized by F. Dail' Ongero. With a repertory
including Medea, Octavia, Phkdre, and others of the
same stamp, it is difficult to understand the grounds
on which Adrienne Lecouvreur was repeated on
Wednesday. The latter seems to bear to the former
about the same relation that the worst work of Verdi
would have to the best of Mozart. As a rough back-
ground in a picture is intended to throw out the
beauties of the foregreund, so, perhaps, Adrienne
was given on Wednesday to heighten the effect to be
produced by Medea on Friday. In that view we con-
gratulate the manager on a decided success.

We have nothing new to notice at Her Majesty's
Theatre. Louisa Miller on Tuesday, and Il
Troratore on Thursday, were performed with nearly
the same merits and defects that we have already
called attention to.
ERRATT3I.—In our last number, under the heading
" Her Majesty's Theatre," line 41, for " The latter
was encored in Ah! si ben mio," and in the delicious
D'arnor sull' all rosee,'" read " The latter was
encored in Ah ! si hen mio,' and in the delicious
the la morte.'"

_A

636

THE WEEK.

is to