The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-27 00:00:00

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

"Un Ballo in Manhera."

The loveliest of all Signor Verdes operas, " Un
Ballo in Masehera,'j was repeated last evening at
the Royal Italian to a brilliant and delighted
audience. From the stealthy opening of the Over-
ture, an opening that always sounds to us as though
it came burdened with muttered Intimations of the
approaching conspiracy, up to the pathetic tumult
of the grand Finale, where Duke Richard expires
amidst the lamentations of his court, having been
struck down by the pistol shot of Renato in the
midst of the gay wild hubbub of the masquerade—
the Four Acts of this most charming lyrical drama
"went off " with admirable effect under the baton of
Mr. Costa. Yesterday being the second performance
of the opera this season, both orchestra and chorus
were brought into due subordination at last by the
potent wand of the conductor. There was no op.
portunity left for cavilling last night, therefore,
any longer at the over-zeal either of the instrumen-
talists or of the choral singers : as there had been
opportunity for thus cavilling on the first occasion,
namely, on Saturday. And by this evidence (as it
were, upon second thoughts !) of moderation on the
part of the chorus and the orchestra, the principal
performers, no less than the composition itself, as
now rendered at the Royal Italian, were very con-
spiouousiy benefitted. Mademoiselle Lagrua, for one,
was thereby enabled, quite unmistakably, to add
yet another leaf to the bay garland she is fast
winning for herself here in England—her Amelia
taking rank now side by side with her Norma
and her Leonora. It is in the tender pathos of it,
indeed, even a yet more bewitching impersonation
at times than the King's Favourite, Signor Mario
again was in noble voice last evening, to the evident
exultation of a crowded house. So that it needs
hardly to be said, what we will yet say, that his
Riccardo was from the first a masterpiece at once
of acting and of vocalisation. His impersonation
of the Duke remains still to this hour wholly and
absolutely unrivalled. The character in itself is
one of the most eminently dramatic within reach of
a prime tenore, and allotted to a consummate artist
like Signor Mario, one who is great as an actor no
less than as a singer, it wins our sympathy through-
out while it commands our admiration. Amore
bewitching performance, again, than Mdlle. Battu'e
Oscar, we have certainly not within our very recent
recollection. It acts with the charm of a spell
upon the usually sedate and undemonstrative
Covent Garden habitue. A most graceful page she
makes, in all the variations of costume and situation
—and one who sings the lovely melodies allotted to
Oscar not merely charmingly but deliciously. Of
Signor Graziani we may here say, at once, that we
have never yet heard him to greater advantage
than as the Duke's friend and secretary in the
lovely double of "Gustave"—this opera of Verdi's
"Un Ballo in Maschera." Graziani's Renato in
the fourth act especially was just everything we
could in resson have wished. His romanze " 0
dolcezze perdute," in which he laments the lost
happiness of his undoubting love for Amelia,
was given with the most exquisite delicacy—
a delicacy all the more apparent in that
tender lament composed for the baritone, inter-
woven as the articulated notes of the singer
are in this romanze with the refined breath-
ing forth, almost, one might say, sighing, of the
flute accompaniment. As a matter of sheer neces-
sity with the audience, Signor Graziani was, at the
close of the second verse, instantly encored. There
were several other encores during the night—
equally as a matter of course: but the ab
sense of one other, would have been a cause
of nothirg less than bewilderment to us but that
the " sit uation"—as for that matter must be always
provokingly visible at every performance of " Un
Ballo in Maechera"—but that the "situation,"
we say, at the moment, precludes the audience
from following its instinct and demanding
a repetition. We mean here, of course, no other
than Oscar's delicious, warbling, riant " &per
vorrcste," with its trilling refrein, " Tra la, la, la"
—sung iu the midst of the dance and frolic
of the masquerade, immediately before the
assassination—and which exquisite tnorceau
was carolled last night by Mdlle. Battu
with bewitching espieylerie ."The gem and
glory of this beautiful opera, however, has yet to
be mentioned—mentioned we mean, of course, in
regard to the rendering of it last evening at the
Royal Italian Opera, For, as to its celebration,
otherwise—who is not already familiar with
it? "It" here signifying that delicious quine
tette, namely, at the close of the filth scene
of the second act, the quintette led off
by Riccardo's " E scherzo ode follia "—how
sung by Mario, those who have ever heard
him sing it will mall, nothing less than grate-
fully, to their remembrance ! It is that superb quin-
tette,
in fact, the very climax of the beauty of which
is Capped, so to speak, by Oscer's impassioned cry
soaring above, piercing through, the chorus, in
sounds of dismay—
" E. sari dunque spento
In breve a tradimento P
Al sol ponsarci
Abbrividendo va 1"
Armando and Arigri, the consciratore, and with
those two the hag, Ulrica, participate with the page
Oscar and the Dake Riccardo in " rendering"
this lovely concerted piece :—one of Signor Verdi"s
most brilliant, as it is certainly also ono of his
most popular compositions. Given as it was
last evening, it was redemanded with enthusiasm,
and listened to throughout, on its repetition,
with unabated admiration. Almost equally
effective—certainly as successful in proportion to its
merit—was the masterly finale to the third
act, where Renato takes his disgraced wife,
homewards from the moonlit field, to the
jeering of the libertine chorus—
Ve la trapdia mutt) in commedia
Piacevoltssima . ah lah 1 all

Of Mademoiselle Tati who was the Sorceress, we
prefer saying
nothingunquestionably fails to at all for as U!rica she
make any impression what-
ever. The rest of the characters, being none of
them of any importance, may be passed by without
being particularized. The opera, as a whole, is
put upon the stage with a minute regard
to its completeness, not unworthy even of the
reputation of this great lyrical estabiishouent. The
final scene, or rather " spec, aule," namtly, the ball-
room in the palace, superbly illuminated and gor-
geously decorated, filled with a radisnt and ever
moving throng of pierrote, harlequins, punchinellos,
wallet dancers
,and masqueraders, some among them
sumptuously costumed, is, as u.n iilusior, just
simply in one word, magnificent. The marvel to us
is, not that the opera should now have been re-
vived, but that two years should have been allowed
to elapse without any performance at all of " Un
Ballo in Alaschera" at Civent-garcien—knowing
full well, us opera-goers do, the
ever-living charm
of the libretto, that is, of the mere story related
in the libretto—a story that, once upon a time, one
might not uurtmonahly have thought, that Auber
had long ago made his own czclusive;y, by royal

right,
as one may say, of his puissant genius as a
composer ! And our
wonder that during the last
two years this Italian double of " Gustave" has not
been heard at Covent Garden, is:not diminished, of
course, when we remember the lovely, fresh
and Sparkling music wedded anew to the
old tale by the younger genius of Verdi—a
genius that (happily) shrink not horn auda-
ciously daring a comparison, even of melo-
dies, with the brilliant Frenchman ! However,

after the lapse of these two 3 ears the charming
opera is revived, and we are thankful. To•mor-
row, Donizetti's "La Favorite," will be repeated :

and on Saturday, for the first time this season, with
Wachtel as Jean of Leyden, And Madame Destinn
as Fides, the patrons of the It )yal Italian will have

produced for them, as Mr. Gj e'e establishment can

produce it, "Le Prophilte"—• we were going to say
bileyerbeer's masterpiece, bu t that we 'nave too

_ .
grateful a remembrance of his "Huguenots."

THE COUNT DE CHAMBORD 'S STUD I--Fourteen
horses, said to belong to the Count de Damns, but
in reality the property of the Count ce Chambord, have just
been sold at the French Tattersall's for the surf of 72,4001.
One, a lady's horse,, was purchased by Ulf: Dale do la
Rochefoucauld for 8,4001, and another by lvf. S.ildanha for
10,4001. The aTerav price of the 14 aryiuuted to not leis
ihats 5,1001,