The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

Adelina Patti in "La Sonnambula."

Bellini's charmingly tender and graceful two act
opera of "La Sonnambula " was performed last
night at the Royal Italian for the first time this
season—Madlle. Adelina Patti being the Amine,
Signor Naudin the Elvino. and M. Faure the Count
Rodolpho. A hattet Zast among living artistes
could net f.,a aeasonably looked for. With the
.mica of Madlle. Patti the London nehlie. is already
familiar. The Elvin° of E4,,snor Naudin was, on
the other hand, e, rotaelty. While the appearance
of M. Faire as the Count was greeted with evident
satisfaction by an audience that welcomed him with
the cordiality, alone displayed. towards an acknow-
ledged favourite, 177 our usually blase, or, at any
rate, undemonstrative world of opera-goers. The
entrance uf Signor Naudin a little earlier is the
evening, namely, in the fifth scene of the first
cc
l whatever. For this a
'
,
atbeytheway, being
a signal for no reception
waapparent apathy or indiffe-
rence towards himself, however, the accom-
plished Frenc'a tenor was fated to win for himself,
more than once during the evening, the very amplest
compensation. I'Ve have hardly ever heard Signor
Naudin, in truth, to greater advantage than we
did yesterday. His impassioned singing and
acting repeatedly roused the audience to enthusiasm,
The music of Elvino is exactly adapted to the range
of his voice, as the character itself is sufficiently in
harmony with his capabilities generally, to secure
for it at his hands the advantage of an apt and, at
at times, most effective impersonation. Although
encores were by no means the rule yesterday
evening, the fact in regard to those attesta-
tionsbeing, in reality, exactly the
N aud in,
s most impassioned de-
i:ery reverse,o(f
(at
tpleasuret Signor
he
close of the fourth scene of
the second act) of the "Ah ! perche non
posse odiarti"—agonized in the prevailing fervour
' of its intonation, nothing less than tearful in its
closing cadences—drew forth a thunder of applause
that virtually amounted to a demand for its repeti-
tion. Any repetition there, however, being simply
impracticable from the mere circumstance of the
"situation"—thelovere having separated in anguish,
and the chorus of villagers having dispersed. Signor
Naudin so completely took the house by surprise
last evening by his representation of the character
of Elvino that we have been tempted thus to make
first-mention of him in regard to last night's per-
formance. Mademoiselle Adelina Patti's Amina
has already, in point of fact, long since assumed its
place, in London as elsewhere, among her most
charming impersonations. As Amina among all
the most singularly gifted of living soprani, this
youthful, this still almost girlish cantetrice has
actually no superior, has, all things considered, no
competitor. By one only most rarely-gifted
creature has she been surpassed, indeed (in our
recollection) as—that fairest of village maidens, la
Bonnambula! Dazzling though the vocalisation
of Jenny Lind in Amine, at Her Majesty's,
bewitchingly though the character was represented
by Miss Romer at the Lyceum, and exquisitely
though her every look, and tone, and movement
was rendered by Madame Grisi, when la diva was
yet in lae,r glory still, even then we would say, that,
upon the whole, Madlle. Patti's Amine has never
once been surpassed! But for Malibran !—but for one
of our earliest recollections, that of Malibran !—a re-
membrance caught at the most impressionable age of
all—one of the most vivid, as it certainly is also one
of the moat treasured memories of childhood—but
for Malibran ! as thus heard and seen distinctly
in her great character of Amine, heard and seen
still it seems to us distinctly at that distance of time
(how many years is it ?)—but for Malibran, we
say, we should have yet pronounced Patti's Amina
unsurpassed. Remembering Malibran, however,
as the somnambulist, remembering that incom-
parable genius of the 'yrical stage—among operatic
soprani what E3mued Kean must have been among
tragedians, what Paganini must have been among
violinists, just simply, in one word, unapproachable
—it is no disparagement whatever to say of Madlle,
Patti that in one instance, though in one instance
alone, in this character of Amina, has she been, in
our own recollection, surpassed. Malihran's exqui-
site, her nothing less than matchless Amine having
raised the Drury Lane Theatre as an operatic arena
to a level, in those days, with the noblest lyrical
stage in all Christendom. Who that once heard
her, that once saw her, that listened to her en-
tatnaed, that watched her through teare—can ever
lose the remembrance of it ? Ihe passion, the very
rapture of her singing awakening a shadowy reflec-
tion of genius, as it were, in the English tenor who
then sang and acted with her as Elvino—poor past,
and gone, and almost forgotten Templeton ! No—
it is no disparagement whatever to say of Madlle.
Patti that her Amine has been in that one instance—
in the instance of the incomparable Madame
Malibran-deaßeriot—not merely surpassed, but
surpassed incommensurably. Having been thus
surpassed by Malibran---for the one simple
reason that in Malibran the possession of the
divines': voice was combined with tha possession,
(quite as absolutely) of the rarest gift of genius.
Apart from any comparison, however, with that
purely exceptional instance of Madame Malibran,
what a lovely and delicious impersonation it is, the
Amine of Madlle. Patti ! Bellini's sleep•walking
heroine is, in fact, among the triumphs of imper-
sonation achieved by the most youthful and fas-
cinating of all living prima donnas. From the first
to the last, yesterday, from the warbling joy, of the
" Come Der me serene," to the rapturous end daz-
zling delight of the 4C Ah ! non guinge uman pen.-
siero"— Madlle. Patti's delivery of the lovely music
allotted to Amine, was worthy in every note of the
splendour of her reputation. The duet between
Amina and Elvino, Prendi, l'anel ti done,'
as given last night by Madlle, Patti and
Signor Naudin, was especially entitled to
admiration, if only by reason of its evidencing
unmistakeably the enhancement, yet further during
these last few month!, of the power already
familiar to us in the fresh and radiant organ of
the young eantatrice. Testifying, thus, that even
as her rare powers are now, they are still in
appreciable process of development! • Faure's
Rodolpho, excellent throughout, from his tender
and contemplative delivery of the famousl
the
ravviso, 0 luoglai ameni," thr"gh all
agitating scenes that follow -- the bed-
room scene, where the Count's chivalrous
soul prompts him to leave the fair hsomnaam-
bulist sleeping dreamily
an his colic e
proached, unasvakened, undisturbecl down to the
last breathes incident when, in
Elvino'ssight and
in the sight of all the villagers, she unconsciously
attests her own innocence by a repetition, aver the
millroof, across the bridge, of her perillous som-
nambulism. Moro than simply excellent, how-
ever M. Faure's Rodolpho was not. The rest of
.
the characters are so peculiarly
insignificant that
they scarcely admit of being Plrtcularised. lt
Signor
Si
will be sufficient, therefore, to mention that
rragli .g
afirPolonini was the Alessi°, Madame
the intriguing Lisa, and Aladlle. Anese, Teresa t,
The
foster-mother of Amine the somnambulist. 1
t
instrumental accompaniments of the action of the
piece by the orchestra,
with the occasional
together
choruses of the villagers, were all that could be
wished by the most fast' as—Mr. Costa presiding
over the momentary whirlwind and directing the
intermittent storm of both orchestra and chorus
with all his wonted mastership as a conductor--as
4 nt area of the hotre
the conductor. The magnificent -
last night was very fully occunie,d in boxes, stalls,
and amphitheatre.
To-night Meyerbeer's " Itobertoll Diavolo" (first
,given this season on Saturday) will be repeated.
Thursday will be the first night this season of
Gonnod's "Faust e Margherita." We observe,
moreover, that Fiotow's opera. of " Stradella," iu
lieu of Nicolai's " Merry AVives of Windsor," is
active preparation,
announced by Mr. Gye as now in

The town of Miramont (Haute.Garonne) was
thrown into consternation three days since by a dreadful
homicide committed on the person of the mayor, M. Birag-
net, a cloth manufacturer. About nine in the morning a
re.pectable man named called to see the mayor,
and the latter, after a long interview, was taking leave of
his visitor at the door, when AI. D- stabbed him in
the neck with a table knife, inflict►ng a wound wn,ch termi-
nated fatally soon aiterwarda. The assassin iwinedia"Y
after the crime threw himaelt into the river with the inten-
tion of committing suicide, but was got out alive and de-
livered over to the police. Re ie supposed to be tame.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LREUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

GIBRALTAR.

MAY 12.

A telegram received some days ago from Malaga,
reported the wreck of an English vessel on the
African coast, near the Spanish settlement of
Alhncemas. Tier Majesty's gunboat Procris and
the Redpole were therefore despatched to the rescue
of the wreck for the purpose of saving the nrew,
and whatever might be left of ship and cargo.
There being no vestige of the ship discernible on
the shore, the commander of the Procris communi-
cated with the Governor of Alhucemas, from:whom
he learnt that the vessel had been wrecked about
four miles to the eastward of that settlement. On
proceeding to the designated locality, the com-
mander ascertained from the Ruffians on shore,
with whom he communicated by means of a
Moorish interpreter taken from Gibraltar, that a
large English vessel, supposed to be a barque, had
been wrecked, that three of the crew were drowned,
and that the survivors, seven in number, had been
sent in one of the Riff boats to Tangiers.
The week had entirely broke up. The Procris
had left for Tangiers to bring over the seven men
who have been sent there, and in case the Riff
boat should not have reached Tangiers, we under-
stand that the Prooris is to coast along the African
shore to Tetuan, with a view of intercepting the
boat in its passage. The name of the English
barque is not yet known.

Commercial accounts from the Western coast of
Barbary received by the Languedoc, speak of the
difficulties which heve been experienced by the
European merchants in their commerce with
the Moors, on account of their ill-% ill, more or
less disgusted with which the Moorish authorities
regard all trade with the Sultan's subjects and
foreigners. A regulation made by the Moorish
Government, about a year and a half ago, that pro-
duce should be sold only in open market at the coast
towns, and that agents of foreign merchants should
not be at liberty to traverse the interior for the
purpose of purchasing the productions of the
country, although not strictly in accordance with
the treaties between the Sultan and several
European Powers, appears to have been acquiesced
in as an experimental matter. The result seems
not to have been satisfactory, for we learn that the
British Vice-Consols on the coast have now been
informed by a circular from her Majesty's Minister,
Sir John Hay, that British subjects would be pro-
tected in their rights to make purchases by them-
selves and their agents beyond the jurisdiction of
the coast towns. This would, it was thought, give
an impulse to business. The supply of wool coming
to market in Max Igen was not abundant, and there
was a report that the Sultan at the end of the pre-
sent clip would prohibit the exportation. Prices of
wool were high, not only on account o the short
supply, but because vessels were in the bay loading,
and their charterers were therefore under the neces-
sity of completing their cargoes at the high price
demanded by sellers, or sending away their ships
half empty.

Cad:z papers says—" The object of the visit of
the Duke and Duchess de Montpensier to England
is to be present at the marriage of their daughter,
Dona Maria Isabel d'Orleans, to the Count de Paris,
which is to be celebrated on the 30th inst.

The Spanish Minister in London has also been
directed by Royal order to be present as a witness
of the marriage.
The following British vessels have arrived hero
since the departure of the last mail:—Schooner
John Pierce, 23 days from Liverpool; schooner
Mary and Jane, 14 days 'rem Cardiff; schooner
Exchange, 17 days from Cardiff; steamer Arasces,
61days from Liverpool ; steamer Marathon, 51 days
from Liverpool; steamer Syria, 5 days from South-
ampton; and steamer Peninsular, 8/ days from
Swansea.

Exchanges are quoted on London, 90 days' date,
50i to ik; Paris, sf. 32a.; Marseilles, sf, 32c.;
Genoa, of. 32c.; Madrid, eight days' sight, par;
Cadiz, 2 die.; Seville, 1 die.; Malaga, 1 dis. ; Bar-
celona, prem.; Almeira, Valencia, and Admit,
par.