The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-05 00:00:00

NEW PROVINCES (NEW ZEALAND) BILL.
_ _

Tbis bill passed through committee.
OFFENCES IN TERRITORIES NEAR SIFIIRA LEONE
PREVENTION BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
COPYRIGHT OF DESIGNS BILL.
This bill was read a mood time, and ordered to be com-
mitted on Monday.

INCLOSURE (No. 2) BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
INLAND REVENUE BILL

Thia bill wee reed • mooed time, and the committee
fixed for Friday next, at twelve o'clock.

BOOK UNIONS BILL

This bill was read a third time awl passed.
ATTORNLES AND SOLICITORS (IRELAND) BILL
This bill was read a third time and pawed.
The house adjourned at a quarter put two.

MUSIC.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

Mdlle. Adelina Patti appeared last night, for
the first time, in the Traoiata. The announcement of this
appearance drew one of the greatest houses of the season.
Boxes, stalls, pit, amphitheatre, and gallery, every corner,
was crowded—a conclusive proof that this opera, maternal-
standiag its numberless performances during the last ten
years, still retains its popularity. It is quite weave there-
fore at this, time of day to say a single word
in the way of remark either upon the drama or
the music. The opera-going part of the public have
made up their mind on the subject. The Trariata has
been received as • favourite and will have its day, let critics
say what they will. We therefore think it sufficient to
say that the young prima donna performed the part of
Videtta charmingly and with complete somas. She in-
vested the character with a refinement and delicacy scarcely
compatible with its real nature ; and thus, though in the
opening scene she lacked the gaiety and abandon which
other performers have thrown into it, she enhanced
the interest and pathos of the whole picture. The
Anacreontic song and chorus, from this cause, was
comparatively fiat and ineffective ; but this shortcoming was
more than made up for by her animated expression and
extraordinary brilliancy of execution in the very florid
air which forms the finale to the first act. This made •
great impression ; and when the curtain fell she was called
for and vehemently applauded. During the whole of the
second act her performance was beautifuL In the scene
where Violetta consents to sacrifice her lover, and with
him the whole happiness of her life, in compliance with
his father's appeal to her generosity, she showed the
genius of a true actress, and gave to Verdi's somewhat
trite vocal phrases an expression not their own as the
language of intense and conflicting emotions. And she
was equally admirable in the subsequent scene, where
the poor girl bears, with uncomplaining agony, her lover's
bitter reproaches. The third act—during the whole of
which she is represented as dying by inches of an incurable
malady—is, we confess, utterly intolerable to us, and the
better acted the more intolerable : but it was certainly, on
her pats, a piece of admirable acting, every detail being
elaborated with consummate art. Taken altogether, her
performance of the character was excellent, and worthy of
the applause it received. But we confess that we expect a
n.uch greater degree of pleasure from bet promised appear-
ance in Zerlins, in Bosini, anti in Diuorah—in all of which
she will have much bettor ramie to sing and much more
agreeable scenes to act.

The characters of the lover, Alfredo Germont, and his
father— the only parts, besides that of the heroine, of any
importance, were very well sustained by Tiberini and
Graziani—the latter especially, whose principal air, by far
the best suorceau in the opera, was warmly encored. The
wise en eeene was very elegant. The ball vcene especially,
with the incidental divertissement ►t the end of the second
act, was a most brilliant and animated spectacle.