The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-13 00:00:00

THE ROY.

N OPERA,

Lagrua and Mario in "La Favorite
Last evening Donizetti's lovely four act opera of
" La Favorite" was repeated to as brilliant, and to
the full as appreciative, an audience as that which
so cordially welcomed its first performance, this
season, at the Royal Italian, on Saturday. Among
all the librettos—(these librettos as a rule being for
the most part, as we all know only too well, the
merest " flies in amber")—among all the various
librettos which have been glorified by the genius
of our great modern composers, the libretto of
"La Favorite" is, in very truth and deed,
we might go so far as to say, the " best
beautiful," It treats no doubt (as indeed its
very title intimates) of profligacy ; but it does so
charmingly, it does so in the noblest and
the purest spirit, in a spirit not of Pagan but of
Christian philosophy. The defiance of the repre-
hensions of the Church upon his licentiousness by
Alfonzo XI., King of Castile, is at the heart of the
whole plot of this pathetic lyrical drama. Ferdi-
nando's exquisite sense of honour, his love for what
has been finely termed the very chastity of honour,
a love beyond even his passionate affection
for his espoused wife, Leonora di Guzman,
is the source of the profound anguish with which
this tender story of their unrealised love is brought
to its fatal close. Leonora's remorse for her own
tarnished purity,moreover,it should be remembered,
enhances the mournful charm of the incidents here
enacted in " La Favotita"—her remorseful sense of
her position, that is, as the King's Mistress, or Fa-
vourite, at the very time of her marriage with Al-
fonze, the latter knowing nothing whatever of this,
however, until immediately after the close of the
marriage ceremony. Throughout the whole of the
courtly (grace and erotic fervour of this lyrical
drama, moreover, there floats audibly, so to speak,
the benign influence of the genius of religion. The
first scene in the first act opens in the cloistered
gloom of the monastery of San Jacopo di Compos-
toile. The last scene of the last act (this fourth act,
indeed, ,having all its seven scenes, so-called, fol-
lowing each other in melodious sequence in the
same consecrated locality) reveals the closing inci-
dents of the drama, still, in the interior of that noble
monastic institution, among the arched entrances to
the Temple, under the moonlight shadow of the
Cross, in the midst of the tombs scattered pic-
taresquely about the Graveyard of the Monastery.
There, immediately under the shadow of the Cross,
what is familiarly termed " poetic justice" is com-
pletely satisfied as the curtain descends ! Leonora
having breathed her last in the garb of
a Novice, while Ferdinando prepares to follow her,
himself by that time enrolled as a Monk among the
brethren of San Jacopo di Compostella. As now
performed at the Royal Italian, "La Favorite"
justifies as fully as ever its claim to our admiration.
Mademoiselle Lagrua, as already briefly intimated
by us, more than confirms by her Leonora di Guz-
man, the remarkable impression produced
by her noble impersonation of the Druidical
Priestess, Norma. Her lovely voice, now
that she has been familiarised with her achieved
position as prima donna in the opera seria at Co-
vent-garden, rings clear and bell like upon the
hearing of her delighted audience—nothing what-
ever of its freshness having gone, as we had hoped
would prove to be the case when the influence of
the first night's suspected nervousness should alto-
gether have disappeared. And so, in point of fact,
the event has proved—our anticipations having
in this been completely realised. And, now, if
Mdlle. Lagrua cannot be said to be another Grisi,
or Pasta, or Malibran, she is, at least, a noble
substitute for them, now that we have lost long ago
(we fear, even in the instance of the one; only one
amongst them still surviving, lost for ever) those
matchless Queens of Song. As for Signor Mario, if
his rare and, in some respects, incomparable powers
as an artist have been left to him, in nothing
else, we are tempted to say that they
are left to him, complete, entire, unmarred,
with all their pziltine bloom upon them, in his Fer-
dinando. Certainly we can with' truth assert that
we never remember to have heard him sing the
lovely romenz 1," Angiol d'amorc,” more exquisitely,
more deliciously, than he did last evening.
Throughout it the hushed and enraptured audi-
ence were tempted to interrupt him repeatedly
with their plaudits—the great tenor being
applauded, moreover, to the very echo at its
conclusion, and being then all but encored—the
audience evidently resisting the temptation to
encore him solely from a consciousness of the frail
tenure preserved by him over the energies of an
organ at one time always to be counted upon, but
now only to be counted upon (as it happily could be
last evening !) most exceptionally. Mario's acting
as Ferdinando, was, if possible, finer than ever yes-
terday. More, particularly in_the great scene, the
scene in which—(singing the while with a noble
passion in his every articulate sound of scorn
and indignation)—he tears the jewelled order of
knighthood from his neck and hurls it at the feet
of his insulting King, plucks his dishonoured sword
from the scabbarl and, snapping the blade in two
across his knee, hurls the clashing fragments be-
fore the same startled Sovereign, tears from himself
the clinging, supplicative grasp of Leonora, and,
as he flings her round almost contemptuously,
in the direction of her royal paramour, passes
from the scene of so much wrath and an-
guish amidst the respectful homage of the
courtiers ! Several of the concerted pieces, but
more especially the noble daet, the duet between
Leonora and Ferdinando were sung last night at the
Royal Italian by Madlle. Lagrua and Signor Mario
in a manner worthy of two such unrivalled artistes.
Graziani's Alfonzo only occasionally satisfied us—
there being still apparent in the manner of this
singer, in the mistaken employment
by him of his
evidently splendid natural powers, that muffled or
suppressed delivery of the music allotted to him,
marring so much the effect of his whole performance
as to result for us chiefly in a sense of profound
disappointment. Signor Attri, as Baldassari, was
sonorous and impressive. Madame Tagliafico, as
Inez, was more than usually animated and effective,
more particularly in those charming melodies
warbled by Leonora's attendant to the haunting
dance-music on the flowery margin of the Isola Di
Leon,immediatelybefore Ferdinando is floated to the
bank in the gilded bark like one of those charming
Princes of Fairyland read of in the nursery tales,
blindfolded, as he is rowed across the lake to his
rendezvous with Leonora, then (unknown to
him) La Favorite ! Among the company
honouring the performances at the Royal Italian
with their presence last evening were the Prince
de la Tour d'Auvorgne, the Ambassador of France,
the American Minister and Mrs. Adams, the Duke
of Sutherlatd, the Marouis of Hartington, Maria
Marchioness of Ailesbury,
the Countess of West-
morland and Lady Emily heiegscote,Earl Granville,
the Earl of Uxbridge, viscount and Viscountess
Mountgarret, Viscount Sydney' Viscountess Forbes,
Lady Churchill, Mr. and Lady Charlotte Watson
Taylor, Hon. Frederick Leveson (sewer, Lady Ross
Greville, Lady Mary Craven, Viscount lianelagh,
Sze.

The demand for seats at the Royal Italian Opera
to• morrow evening, on the occasion of Garbaldi's visit, is
beyond all precedent, and a brilliant ovation to the General
is confidently anticipated.
THE CLYDE PORTS.--The course of the Clyde
ports, although not exhibiting the rapid progress
which obtained in 1860, 1861, 1862, and 1663, is still satisfac-
tory. Thus the amount of Customs' duties collected at Glas •
cow in March, 1861, was £84,676, against 577,041 in March,
1863, and £73,637 in March, 1861 At Greenock the Customs'
receipts were £82,363 in March, 1864, against £96,50,; in
March, 1863, and £30,947 in March, 1862 ; the decrease here
apparent ie partly accounted for by the great falling off in
the imports of sirLar, the greater bulk of that produce being
sent to continental ports at present. At Port Glasgow
the Customs' receipts in March, 1864, were £7,934, against
£18,617 in March, 1863, and £12,409 in March, 1862. The
Customs' revenue far the year ending March 31,.1864, at
Glasgow was £990,938, against £974,400 in 1862-3, and
£912,197 in 1861-2; at Greenock the Customs' receipts were
£1,162,521 in 1863_4, against £1,172,632 in 1862.3, and
£957,524 in 1861-2 ; and at Port Glasgow the amount col-
lected was £128,041 in 1863-4, against £129,739 in 1662-3,
and £129,205 in 1861-2. On these amounts being added
together, it appears that what may be styled the Customs'
revenue of the Clyde was £2,281,500 in the year ending.
March 31, 1864, as compared with £2,276,871 in the year
ending March 31, 1863, and £1;998,925 in the year ending
March 31, 1802,