The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-27 00:00:00

THE HANDEL FESTIVAL

All rehearsals, both public and private, having
been duly gone through, the first public performance
of the Handel Festival for 1865 cams off yesterday
with a fair average amount of gnomes, one which,
however, it is to be hoped, will be surpassed in the
two performances which are yet to come. The
attendance, although very considerable was not so
great as on the first day of the last festival, a cir-
cumstance which those who are experienced in such
matters attribute mainly to two causes. In
the first place, it is thought that the great
public rehearsal of Friday last, including,
as it did, so many of the gems of
the entire programme, to some extent excited
the public curiosity ; but much more mischief was
probablydone by the intervention of the great roes
show of Saturday, which brought together one
of the most brilliant and fashionable companies
that ever assembled within the crystal walls. Still
there was a great attendanoe yesterday, and the two
railways were kept busy bringing down visitors
from a comparatively early hour. The West-end
line begins now to be a formidable competitor to
the older established one from the City, and as a
general rule seems to be honoured with the more
fashionable passengers. A third line (the Chatham I
and Dover) will be opened almost immediately,'
and as this completely avoids the interminable I
flights of steps. there is no doubt that it will, bring
a large accession to the Crystal Palace audiences I
in the persons of all the lame, the aged, and weak
of limb, who up to this time have been so chary of I
their visits. It has been more than once remarked I
by habituts of the Palace that, however numerous
the company, a lame person is seldom seen amongst
them, and it will be one of the strongest recommen-
dations of the new line that it will enable hundreds
to enjoy the amusements and the natural beauties
of the Crystal Palace and gardens who now are
either excluded altogether, or who are obliged to
make their visits "few and far between."
The weather looked dark and threatening in
the morning, and those who had taken a note of
the predictions of the late Mathieu De La Drome
had fully made up their minds to a day's rain and
a thunderstorm inclusive. The sky however, held
up wonderfully, and the absence of sun only made
the glass-covered transept more pleasant and com-
fortable. The reserved seats were all filled, densely
in the front, but rather sparsely in the rear, where
distance, however it may lend enchantment to the
view, does not much facilitate the hearing of the
solos. All she galleries, up to the roof,
were filled with company, one, we believe,
being devoted exclusively to the provincial
press, no less than SOO representatives of
which, we were informed, were present. Two or
three state boxes have been arranged in the first
gallery, including one royal one, but the richness
of their decorations will not, we apprehend, dimi-
nish very seriously the next annual dividend. The
box next to the royal one was yesterday occued
pi
by three young Indian Rajahs, in the most splen-
did Oriental costume, and who seemed to take as
much interest in scanning the vast company that
covered the transept beneath them as the company
did in scanning themselves. There was not much
forbearance in the use of the lorgnette
on either side ; but the youngest prince,
who wielded a formidable binocle, some-
thing like a maple of Armstrong guns
lashed together, succeeded at last by patience and
perseverance in staring down all too curious
observers. There was considerable novelty in the
aspect of the general company. That they were
principally from the country might be readily
inferred from the broad shoulders of the men and
the ruddy complexions of the ladies. But they
had another distinctive peculiarity, which drew a
perceptible line between them and the ordinary
Crystal Palace loungers, who prefer to enter sen-
sationally, in the middle of one of Adelina Patti's
most brilliant cadenzas, talk incessant) y whilst
their neighbours wish to listen, and rise to leave at
the very moment when good aste and politeness
would suggest to them to " wait a little longer." The
worthy people who filled the reserved seats yester-
day observed a totally differentline of conduct. They
came in on tiptoe, with full souses of the Ilemiah in
one hand, and small baskets of creature comforts in
the other. They opened their books simultaneously
with Mr. Costa, and did not, we feel convinced,
miss a single word or a single note from the begin-
ning to the end of the oratorio. The railway ex-
cursion arrangements had obviously begun to tell,
and new blood was being infused into the metro-
politan audience. The palace is a very large
interior, but in a year or two when approach to it
is made easy from all parts of' the kingdom it will
probably be on occasions of great attraction as
densely crowded as the ordinary places of amuse-
ment in town. Before promieduig to notice the
music we must say a word or two respecting the
extxaordivary appearance which the great orchestra
presented when the whole army of choristers rose
to sing the National Anthem. Th formed an
audience of themselves four thousand strong, the
ladies strongly looked in the centre as gay and
many-coloured as a flower bed, and the men in
dense columns on the flanks, stretching up.to the
corners of the vaulted ceiling. Centrally in the
front were massed the instrumentalists, bows all
moving in unison, cornets and ophicleides glittering
in gold and silver, and the great drums looking like
so many pontoons ready for active service. In the
front, calm and unmoved, stood the experienced
leader who with a simple roll of paper was to direct
this mighty host, to make them "roar you as
sweetly as any nightingale," or be still as &lab,
according to his will and pleasure. The orchestra
had a good view of the audience, and the audience
of the orchestra, and it would be hard to say which
was afforded the contemplation of the most im-
po spectacle.
sing
The performance of the Messiah differed little
from previous performances of the same work
which the public have heard at the Crystal Palace,
especially that which took place at the Handel Fes-
tival of 18€2. The chief difference lay in the greater
numerical strength of the chorus, which consisted
of about three thousand six hundred voices ; the