The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-07-14 00:00:00

KING'S THEATRE.

Rossini's opera senile, in two acts, entitled 7,/rnira,
given last night at this theatre, for the benefit of Signor I
Curioni, was first perforine'l in this country during the '
season of 1821, for the debut of Madame Culbrand-Rossini.
It ranks amongst the best productions of the celebrated
Maestro, however different the opinions of' some cog -novena
respecting it merits. Fur our part we believe it to he inferior '
neither to Mello, Dose, orSemiromble, and we look upon
it as one of his most able compositions. IVe shall pass over
the incidents of' the piece, founded upon the tragedy which
bears the same name, by Debelloy, who hims.lf borrowed
them from Metastasio's ; anti we will merely say
that the author of the libretto has divested it neither of the
incredible suppositions, the strange events, nor the dra•
matic fracas of the French tragedy ; we enter at once into
the more interesting particulars of the musical part, which
calls for fresh notice in consequence of Madame Pasta's first
appearance in this country in the character of Zelntiro.
Panegyric has been nearly exhausted in the analysis of this
lady's numerous performances and various excellencies. It
would, therefore, be difficult to find new words by which
to express the sensations she excites by the different in-
teresting situations in which she appears during this per-
formance. We thought it impossible to discover new
charms in her style of acting, anti yet we find a fresh de-
velopment of talent in her Zelneira. Madame Pasta has
by this time sufficiently shewn, that as a tragedian she is
equalled by none but Talma, and as a vocalist she is un-
rivallcd. She possesses a dramatic power of action, and the
art of adapting the required expression of the music to the
meaning of the poet, to a perfection which no vocalist. has
yet attained ; and we hope she will serve as a model to
all those young ladies who have the ambition of exciting
admiration anti gathering applause on theatrical boards.
Signor Curioni appeared again in the character of Ant more,
through which he went with his accustomed ability.
Signor Curioni has a fine voice; but we believe he does
not take trouble enough in preparing it for Rossini's dif-
ficult music. This strikes his auditors very forcibly,
when he undertakes parts in which they have been accus-
tomed to see Garcia. Ile should endeavour to avoid the
risk of' a contrast which is by no means favourable to him.
Signor Toni took last night the place of Garcia in the part
of Be. As this was a matter of absolute necessity, under exist-
ing circumstances, we shall merely observe, that Signor
Torsi did his best on the occasion. Of Madame Cornega's
performance as Emma, we could say nothing which did
not reflect credit on her ; anti Signor Pellegrini, as Polidoro,
gave great satisfaction. Were we to enter into any detail.
relative to those particular passages of the music which ap-
peared most efftetive, we fear we should surpass those
limits which we are obliged to prescribe ourselves in this
notice of Zelsoira. We shall mention but two, the quill-
' tet in the second act, " Ah! m'illuse un sot' mometito!"
' and the air by Z•lmira, " Da to spero, ociel clemente !"
; than which no happier ideas ever found their way to the
; fertile pen of Rossini. The accompaniments, too, arc ex-
tremely well done. They form of themselves a rich har-
mony. The house was very full, and we noticed but few
boxes unoccupied.