Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-08-15 00:00:00

AUGUST 15, 1859.

MU: CAL, DRAMATIC, LITERARY, AND
ARTISTIC NEWS AND GOSSIP.

It is good news for the English opera-goer that the Pyne-
Harrison company, in coming to •Covent Garden, will take
advantage of the properties and scenery prepared' for the
Pardon de .Ploennel, to produce an English edition of that
opera in September.
_Mr. 11. Chorley has been engaged to
Anglicise the libretto. Some speculation hai arisen
.in
musical circles as to the cast of the principal parts. 181-111
Mr. Harrison undertake the role of Hoel, the music 0f
which, as it stands, he cannot by any possibility sing ; or
will he trench upon Mr. G. Honey's province of comic, and
enact the silly Correntino, who is frightened at his own
shadow ? That this artist has some cause for such a dread
there can be no doubt.

The principal members of -the Drury-lane Royal Italian
Opera company, including Mdlle. Titiens, Mdlle. GuarduCei,
Signori Giuglini, Badiali, Vialetti, and otherS, are: about
to set out "on an extensive tour in England, Ireland, and
Scotlan,d, during the autumn.

The quire of singing birds, say
rapidly clearing out of London. Madame (iris' and Signor
Mario are not going into our provinces, as was expected—
neither, we believe,to St. Petersburgli; for the winter ; but
intend, it is said, to break fresh ground in an opposite direc-
tion, by singing in the Spanish capital. The rest of the
company, so far as we can make out, is very inferior ; and
a singular announcement in connection with this is, that
Signor Mario has undertaken the " administrative superin-
tendence" (queen' stage management?) and the direction of
the singers. M. Nicolas, small singer, who appeared at
the Opera Comique of Paris two years ago, has been pro-
moted to no less arduous an occupation than that of first
tenor at the Teatro della Scala, Milan. Times are changed
in the Lombard capital with a vengeance ! The baritone,
Signor Giraldoni, a French gentleman who has been sing-
ing in Northern Italy with some success, is about to join the
company at St. Petersburgh. Some of our opera-goers will
be sorry to hear that Madame Lotti della Santa is not com-
ing- to London for 1860, others that Madame Penco is.
Madame Gassier is engaged at the Havannah for the next

4thenaum, is nor

winter season, on the enormous and unp
£5OO sterling per week and a free benefi
Madame Anna Bishop is about to leave England for
America. Previous- to her departure she will give, this
(Monday) evening, at the Surrey Gardens, a monster fare-
well concert, at which a number of distinguished vocal and

dented terms of

instrumental artistes will assist

Foreign journals now state that the production of Herr
Wagner's new opera, Tristan .und Ysolde, which was to
have taken place at Carlsruhe very soon, may' possibly be
deferred, owing to continental discomforts.
We (Critic) understand that the differences of opinion
between Mr. E. T. Smith and the committee of Drury-lane
Theatre have been adjusted, and that that gentleman will
continue in the lesseeship of that theatre. To guard against
accidents, Mr. Smith had secured the refusal of her Majesty's
Theatre, so that in any case he would have had a terrain
for his operatic campaign next season.

Mr. and Mrs. Gerrnari Reed, who are deservedly increas-
ing in popularity, continue to give their new entertainment,
Our Home Circuit, and Seaside Sketches, every evening to
crowded and delighted audiences ; and the different cha-
racters which these clever artists personate, as they become
more known, are better appreciated. Amongst the most
attractive in the long list of personages in the entertainment
are Mrs. Naggitt, with her capital song, "I will speak my
mind if I die for it," which, like " Ombre Legere,,, in
Dinorah, is nightly redemanded by the audience ; Jessie
Bloomfield, the young lady who invariably speaks before
she thinks, but who sings "Think before you speak," an
exceedingly pretty ballad ; and Mrs. Owlett, the marine
landlady, who dreams of ball-room triumphs, and is by no
means chary of her abuse of a certain Mrs. Jones. These
characters, and several others, are personated by Mrs. Reed
with her. accustomed, dramatic power. Nor must Mr.
Reed's Joe Summerbreeze be forgotten ; it is a clever sketch
of a jolly tar, redolent of salt water, and distinguished by 3
hearty bluffness of manner, in admirable keeping with the
author's conception of the Character.
The popular low comedian, Mr. S. L. Toole, having
received a month's conge from the Adelphi Theatre, is about
to commence a starring tour in the provinces. He com-
mences on Monday at Dublin, where he will play for twelve
nights ; then proceeds to Glasgow - for six nights, and
finishes his tour with six nights at Edinburgh, after which
he returns to his post at the New Adelphi.
The Critic is rather severe upon the author of "Friends
in Council." "Mr Phelps," says his reviewer, "is a pains-
taking, if not a very skilful, workman in literature. Years
ago this gentleman appeared near the end of the list of
Cambridge Wranglers, a place generally considered sacred
to industrious'mediocrity. We are very far from ivishino'
lay it down as a rule that a man's umversitv degree shoUla'
generally, or even often, be considered a fair test of his talents.
`Wooden spoons' have, ere this, became judges learned in
the law, and Senior Wranglers furnished briefless barristers
and humdrum curates. But, in our opinion, the after literary
career of the author of Friends in Council' vindicates the
exact justice of the place assigned to him in the mathe-
matical list of the Cambridge examiners. Since then our
Wrangler has published a series of dull but painstaking
essays, followed by a painstaking but dull history and
tragedy, and terminating in the present series of essays,
which can only be characterised by the same two epithets."
A new weekly journal is announced for immediate publi-
cation by Messrs. Kelly and Co., under the title of the
Steam 0514ipping Chronicle, to be devoted exclusively to the
interests of the mercantile steam marine. Mr. P. L. Sim-
mons, an extensive contributor of articles to the London
press on maritime and commercial subjects, assumes the
editorship.

The women of

.e,ngland, who take most properly a lively
interest in the publications of the Ladies' Sanitary Associa-
tion, have just, succeeded in securing as editors of their pub-
lications Dr. Southwood Smith and Dr. Farr. A better
selection could not have been made.
Several of those gentlemen who were the most frequent
contributors to the defunct Household Words are talking of
republishing their papers in a collected form. First in the
field is Mr. Hollingshead, an author who for some time has
anonymously contributed in the highest degree to the delight
of the reading public. The city has afforded a great field
for his observation, and he is thoroughly conversant with all
its.intricacies, frauds, and fallacies. The book, which will
appear about the end of September, will be called" Under
Bow Bells," and will contain a selection of papers having a
connecting city interest.
The leader which we believe is uncle,.
a venerable litterateur and journalist, says : _
moured in publishing and literary circles that negotiations
are on foot for the purchase of the Literary Gazette by the
proprietors of the Critic. We shall be glad to have to con-
gratulate the veteran of the literary press on falling into the
arms and uniting its aged existence with its young and
vigorous contemporary. The Critic has steadily pursued
its way, and has, under able and persevering management,
advanced itself into a distinguished and authoritative posi-
tion. Its varied intelligence, both literary and scientific, is
mare abundant than in any other British journal, and it
is
a staff of contributors who show they are well fitted for
passing in review the entire literature of the age, as it issues
from the. ever-teeming press." -
It is astonishing, says the " Lounger at the Clubs," in
these day's of universal novel-writing, to find how few really
good books are brought out. Taxed by friends passing
their lives away in country houses to send them an amusing
novel, one reads Mudie's list through and through, and
finally,. in despair, pitches haphazard on one with the most
promising title. The names of the publishers you will find
to be your best guides. There are, of course, exceptions to
every rule, but you can scarcely go wrong when you find a
book issued by Messrs. Blackwood, Messrs. Chapman and
Hall, or Messrs. Smith and Elder. Most of their novels
are above the ordinary stamp. The publMers have a repu-
tation to lose, and their professional readers—" tasters," as
Mr. Carlyle calls them—are gentlemen of education and
knowledge of , the world.. Beware, oh ! beware, of novels
published " on commission," or on the " half profit" system,
the brain-skimmings of those literary amateurs whom
Messrs. Saunders and Otley, Skeet and Newby, delight to
honour.

e editorship of
" It is ru-

M. Barbedienne, of Paris, the well-known art manufac-
turer, says :---" Now that peace appears to become more firm
every day, will it not be possible to return to your project
for the exhibition of 1861 ? It appears to us that it is the
duty of commerce and industry to rely with confidence on
theinterests of nations, and to discard all foolish and tran-
sient causes of antagonism and strife. In the actual state
of things, a Great Exhibition in London would have a
double salutary effect, both in the industrial as well as in the
political world. Personally, I will do everything in my
power to promote so noble and excellent a cause."
The most remarkable feature of Lord Northwick's pro-
longed sale of pictures:(says the Town-Talker of the Illus-
trated News) is the price at which old English miniatures
have sold. Miniatures never sold so well ; the quotations at which Billiards, Olivers, and Coopers have sold would
delight the old Duchess of Portland of vast celebrity, and old
Horace Walpole, who foresaw what they would bring. Nor
were the prices extravagant.
Pending the transfusion of the Old Polytechnic into the
New ditto, Mr. Buckland is giving a very agreeable enter-
tainment, and next week there will be two new lectures, one
"PoisonS and their Antidotes," the other on the "Human
Eye as an Optical Instrument." The veteran institution in
dethrminecl to keep up its fame foisuch lectures.