The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-21 00:00:00

FOREIGN THEATRICALS.

GrmxAsE —The process by which an obtuse, self-
...;fafficient, and ponderous ass of a German-schoolmaster,
filerr Plissm.ln, ascends the ladder of fortune forms the
subject of the last novelty here, Les Echelons du Mari.
Honest Plissmann gains his livelihood by instilling
knowledge into the heads of some dozy, ur-
chins, in village near the chief town of
some little German principality, by means of the
consecrated birch. This occupation is, however, anything
but relished by the worthy pedagogue, who inveighs bit-
terly against Dame Fortune for not having placed him in
some eminent position where his talents might have found
a more congenial employment. Bat M. Plissmann has just
taken unto himself a wife, and by the influence of her bright
eyes, he suddenly finds himself raised, to his great ear-
prise, to the post of secretary to a foreign mission, at the
head of which is a curtain gallant Count. Acoupla of hours
hare not elapsed when the Prime Minister accidentally
meets the new Attaché and the fair Madame Plissmann,
and he is immediately transferred to the more responsible
offize of secretary to his Excellency; but the Premier is not
destined to avail himself of the ex-schoolmasterh's services
for -any lengthened period, for the Kin.' himself has
caught sight of his pretty wife, and the .ilfonarch is im-
mediately struck with the urgent necessity of a confi-
dential attachi to the Royal person, and nominates the
husband to that employment. But alas! for poor Pulse-
raann's ambitious dreams! his sposa is luckily, or
unluckily for him, quite a Penelope, and resolutely
rejecting every naughty overture, is the cause of
his descending his Echelons, even more rapidly than he
had ascended. In fine, he finds himself degraded to the
place of gate-keeper at the Palace, and retires to his
lodge to reflect over the vicissitudes of public life, and
the want of discernment of Princes; for his extraordinary
promotion, with truly marital blindness, he does not for
one instant attribute to its real motive. The piece is well
acted by Mdlle. Luther, and Messrs. Geoffroy, Armand,
and Lesueur.

VAUDEVILLE.—GaIatcoa, Acis, Polyphemus, and other
favourites of the Sicelides Munce, have been introduced to
the unclassical precincts of the Place de la Bourse, by M.
Clairville, who has not hesitated to lay sacrilegious
hands on the divinities of the sea, and transmogrified a
mythological legend of Ovid and Theocritus into a
" vaudeville I grand spectacle," called Les Cyclopes et
es Nereides. The subject of this affair is simply the well
known fable of Acid and Galatce3; and exhibits the
nymphs of the Vaudeville in the agreeable neglige, in
which the Nereides, according to M. Clairville, peram.
bulated the grottos on the shores of Sicily; let us add,
not to shock the reader, that the costume is not quite so
primitive as that of the fifty daughters of Ne.
revs and Doris, which merely consisted, of their
long flowing hair and a garland of flowers. Mlle,
Martha is a charming representative of Galatea,
and the winning Mdlle. Cico the Acis. Instead of
crushing the lovers beneath a rock Polyphemus per-
suades Adis to pluck a certain flower, with the existence
of which the life of his mistress is intimately connected;
the shepherd listens to the perfidious suggestion.
and Galatea expires in his arms, when Cupid, a
favourite divinity with vandevillists, intervenes, and
restores her to her lover, an event duly celebrated by
a pretty ballet, upon which the curtain falls. The piece
was favourably received, and to the admirers of" beauty
unadorned" is certainly attractive,
M. Gusymard has appeared in Roger's part in Le
.Tuff Errant, and was quite a satisfactory representa-
tive of the character. T gentleman, his whose perform-
ance
at Covent-garden Theatre the 'English papers de-
scribed as so triumphant, returned after singing only
twice in London. All admit he sang well—some say
too well—not for the public. but for the artistes.
The favourite buffs Crispin° e le Comare has been
favourably received at Ferrara with Mine. Giovanelli,
and MM. Zacchini, Sane mi, and Dlonzani.
At the Nazionale at Turin, Lucrezia Borgia has been
given with Mme. Cuzzani, who, as the Borgia, appears
to have mute a hit. A nlme. Schieroni as the Orsino,
andMM. Mireglia and Waiter, are also spoken of in
terms of commendation. -At the Sacra, a Mdlle. Cosa
is said to have appeared with success in Ricci's Esposti.
A new opera, 11 Nuovo Mose, has met with a fiasco at
Operto; the name. of the composer is not given.
At Bre-cis, Consolini's Finla Pazza has been favour-
ably \ received; Madame Fiorio and M. Carisio taking
the petehittw.
parts.
AXERICA —Our friends,
Iklusreea. • .
the Anieri6 RospECTS
.IN .
coilarr, seem making haste to overtake the aris-
tocraticbrought before :
of watitationatlefe of the Old World in the establishment
Public amusement. Bills have been
ehusettic. and pen°ll"' Legislatures of New York, Massa-
grandof whose operations i
opera psltulvv ania" for the incorporation of a
coin
magnificent opera-hours"
Philadelphia; which areetlo
or companies—the first three
to be the building of three
and our own opera-houses ITt:leao.lia St)ala'
in New York, Boston, and
the excitement is already
article of th"lr- San Carlos,
at f --- and splendour. That
from the leading
coup d'etat that is to give us oare I:411a
heat may be divined
•' The democrats of announcingw the
e the
-blow—
entered the lists in the operat" at
rug
lc 5 rumor -
Auto-
crat of all the Russias and the great Nita
and we believe. that if the contest is wen_ •
%saes have fairly
with the
nobility,
our side, we will whip the Cossacks _, Ananaged on
have whipped eta tha xtfitish
in this as we
.the world in slaw ers
eke. This is the only intervention in Russian 3e.,l;thing
which the American p p
eo le are determined to tale --a]Paling
tak® part
' us sovereign people of New
in. The glom . York, Bea-
ton, and Philadelphia,including visitors from the whole
Union,
at last, with their hands in their 8
Union, have resolved
and the despots of
pockets, that the Emperor of Russia
the Old World shall not for ever monopolise the great
artists of Europe—shall not appropriate to themselves for
glorious Gris*
i or
ever the beauteous Sontag, the , the
have had a taste of Jenny Lind,
Catherine Wagner. We ' our appetite '
Catherine Hayes, and Ole Bull; and ogrows
three Grand Opera
by what it feeds upon.' So, let the . ,
Boston, and Philadelphia rise up
Rouses of New York,
majestically to heaven, and let us beat the despots of
Europe out of the great mart of music as we did the
Mexicans out of Mexico. We can do it. (0"
The journal whence we derive the above tells us that
the Astor-place Opera-house has failed, owing to the
classification of seats, and the consequent airs of finery
assumed by the holders of stalls. This se ems droll; yet
droller is the following note of
preparation for an ti en-
thusiasm" in behalf of Mille. Alboni—who has reached
the States, in company with Signori Rovere and San-
giovanni :
" She does not intend to sing at present, bat to take
a house, and ' lay off' for two or three months, for the
purpose of seeing the curious sights of alas great coun-
try. She intends to visit Niagara Falls, to climb the
'
the White Mountains, and to ramble like a wild roe
over all the fine scenery and magnificent valleys worth I
seeing during the summer. In the fall she will
th. ea •
mpaign and enter upon a brilliant caree o pen
States." ' r in the
Madame Sontag is expected in America early -
autumn, in
We shalt be - h "curious to see what
lasso a.,
line et interest andBCll2will
by those who have likened sympathy he traced out for her
ave lik , • ponderous Alboni to ~ a
eaed ,he p
wild roe."—Gar
19nani,

CONVEItSIONB. 0Q
Popery at
Sund
eleven converts from
Rome renounced the
errors ofSt. Faure, Bar-
Y.ose

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