The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-06 00:00:00

PO R TUGAL.

LISBON, APRIL 6.
Two Austrian frigates and a gunboat have sailed
for the Baltic.

It is expected that the bill, abolishing the tobacco
monopoly, will meet with oppoAition in the Charu.
ber of Peers.

FRANCE.

In the Paris corn market during the past week
prices have been in general somewhat higher„ The
four marks of flour are quoted 81f the sack of 157
kilos; wheat, 29f the hectolitre and a half; rye,
16f 50c the 115 kilos ; barley, :5f 50c the 100 kilos;
and oats, 151 50c Vile 100 kilos.
At the public sale-rooms in the Rue Drouot four
fine pictures painted by La, renee, sen., bearing the
date of 1774, and representing the four elements,
were sold for 15,200 fr. At the same sale a chest of
drawers in wood-marquetry, adorned with gilt
brasses, handsomely chased, brought the large sum
of 4,800 fr.

BOURSE, April s.—The market has been heavy,
and prices have slightly declined, Threes, for the
Account, being now at 66f. 5c., with but little
doing. Mobilier have receded to 1,05 'fr. 25c. Rail-
way Shares rather offered, and some of the lines
quoted '_over. The market closed as follows :

41 per Cents .. 93 53
Do. ead month.... --
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 05
Credit Mobilier,. , 1015
Do. end montt, 1047 50
Bank Sharr,is 3295
Credit F oncier 1285
Roman . 77 -

Italian Loan . 67 65
Do. end month.... 67 65
New ditto
Do, end m0"..ah....
A'astrian
liorae Debt .
Deferred

$3[L

Orleans
Northern, .
New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 940 .. 950
New ditto
Southern
Western
Eastern ....
Sardinian 367 50
.. 366 25
Austrian
Loit.bard
North of Spain • ........ 490 .. 491 25
Saragossa ..... ~
Ditto to Bwroolona

Cash. Account.
958 75 .. 963 75
975 .. 977 50

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

Mario as Masaniello.

Covent garden was last evening, its a matter of
course, filled throughout. From the magnificent
" parterre" (once the Pit, now the Stalls) to the
railed amphitheatre close under the ceiling, the
noble building was completely occupied. All this,
we say, as a mere matter of course—for, were there
not yesterday two distinct attractions to the house,
either of which would have been sufficient to secure
the largest audience the vast structure could con-
veniently accommodate? The chef dosurce selected
for performance—is it not well known for years
past as one of the chief &antics of Mr. Gyees esta-
blishment ? That exquisite masterpiece of Auber—
the lovely and bewitching, the ever fresh and ever
new five act Opera of " Masaniello !" Added to
which—was not last evening that annual event in
the operatic season, the first appearance of Mario ?
It will be remembered that last year the Fisherman-
Hero was -represented by M. Neudin—the character
of Pietro being allotted at the same time to M.
icaure. Without any disparagement whatever to
I either of those accomplished artistes,it may at once be
said, however, that it was a gratification to the vast
majority of opera-goers in London when Mr. Gye'e
programme for 1864, intimated among other we,-
come arrangements for the new season—"'she season I
which it is agreeable to think 'nets hardly yet
commenced—that Masani'aVio and Pietro would
revert from their late French to their
original representatives at Covent
Garden ; Graziani resuming his part as the
fishe-eman Pietro, and Signor Mario, his part, one
'ef the most picturesque and admirable among his
numerous delineations, the fisherman MAseniedo.
Otherwise than in those two particulare, the cast ot
the opera, yesterday, was the same as heretofore at
the Royei Italian, was identically the same as the
east of it last season. Perhaps there could
be adduced no more delightful illustration of
the all bat perfection with which a great opera
can be produced than " Masenielio," as it is, year
after year, put upon the stage of Covent Garden.
The mis-en-scene is everything one could possibly
wish. Two of the scenes especially, as mere spec -
tacles, are, as we all know, wonderful as realisations
of the localities and of the incidents. Namely—
the market scene in the third act, endicg with the
revolutionary rising of the Neapolitans at the bid-
ding of Masaniello—and the lovely sea view near
Portici, in the second act, where the pescatori, clus-
tering round their favourite hero, are "preparing"
for the Revolution 1 Those two scenes especially
are al admirably realised this year as they have
ever been upon the stage of the Royal Italian—to
say nothing of the effect produced, as usual, by the
pageantry of the coronation procession of the
King-Fisherman, or again by the gorgeous
finals with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
And surely, it might be said, no acorn
meats can ba lavished too profusely upon that
loveliest opera of M. Auber, one of the loveliest
among the loveliest of all our operas, those five
acts of haunting melodies known variously as the
" Muette de Portici" and as " M aeaniello." It was
significant as an indication of the popular apprecia-
tion of this great work, as a work of art, being
still as fresh as it has ever been during ail these
years past, that the overture—played with such
consummate brilliancy by the noble orchestra
of the Royal Italian, led, too, as that orchestra is
with such inimitable &plomb in the every turn and
throb, so to speak, of hie wizard baton by Mr.
Costa—was greeted at its close with an eat) osion of
applause—and instantly encored. As to the opera
itself, the abounding beauties in it are, long since,
a vets proverb among all the musical circles ot
Earope—Masaniello, comprising within it as it do a
(who is there who will venture to gainsay it ?)
two of the loveliest barcaroles ever composed,
one of the most exquisite love ditties, dance
music in profusion of the most delicious variety and
of the most exhilarating animation, and, beyond
all this, that wonderful prayer at the end of th,-
fourth act, by the produc'ion of which alone Auto r
may well be said to have immortalized laitns,tf.
rurning, however, from the opera and its composer,
to the artists who last night co-operated so very
Admirably in doing full justice to both, we should
here record at once that the reception which
greeted Signor Mario upon his first appear-
ance—that is, almost immediately after the
rising of the curtain for the second fact, when, in the'
midst of the chorus of the fishermen, he is seen, in
the picturesque dress of M isaniello, desc-mding
from among the rocks upon the seashore near For-
tici—was a reception, in its way, so enthusiastic and
AO prolonged, that it was, in literal truth, nothing
less than an ovation. In the mere look of him, he is
still the Mario of old—still the same, completely,
identically, without one shadow of a shade of dete-
rioration. In his acting, he is a greater artist than
ever: his closing scenes, where he is in a partial
delirium from the effects of the poison—singing
softly, yet, ah ! so wildly, the tenderest snatches of
his exquisite barcarole silencio pescator, while the
choral voices of the populace cry out to him, half in
despair, half in supplication, the beloved name of
their idol, " Masaniello! Maeaniello !"—in hese
closing scenes, Mario rose, as he has oLten done
before, to the height of tragic intensity. If only
his once match:ess voice were yet in all its prisine
power and beauty—which, alas ! it is not, or if at
all, only in momentary snatches ! But then—as we
heard remarked by some near us last evening—No
man can go on singing for over ! And singing,
moreover, we may add, as we still have at
least the delight of remembering that Mario, dur-
ing so many years past, has been singing ! At
intervals, in defiance of Nature, and still mere
almost it should be said in defiance of our
bleak, humid, wretched, wintry atmosphere,
here in London wintry even in April—at inter
vale, we say, in defiance of all this, the great,
tenor yet contrived to delight his audience yester-
day, time and again ; not only, as already inti-
mated, by his acting in the closing scenes of the
opera, but occasionally by his still unrivalled per-
fection of style in singing also; as in his lovely,
dulcifluous rendering of Del miser sol .. . amico
Ado, where Finella, is failing into a slumber
to the Dream-Mnsio, or as again where he bids fare-
well to his lowly home in the Addio capanna mia,
before mounting his caparisoned cearger ro be borne
away in procession to the stately ceremony of his
coronation. Signor Greziaui's Pietro—as formerly,
a great favourite with the Covent-garden :audience
—won a cordial encore (as was, indeed, nobly well
deserved) in the Ve come il vento irato. For the rest,
little enough remains to be said, the same h.avteg
been said already so very frequently—such, for ex-
ample, as that Medlle. Marie Battu made as charm-
ing an Elvirn as ever, while the graceful danseuse,
Salvioni looked the most interesting ot Fe-
nelias. Signor Neri Baraldi represented as ably 'as
hitherto Alphonse, the Don-Juan like son of the
Duke D'Arcos, other wise at once Fenel la's lover and
Elvira's bridegroom. Without particularising in any
way the minor characters in the opera (t e doing of
which in truth in regard to so familiar a cast
would be simply unnecessary), it would be
ungrateful, however, as it seems to us, not
to ply one additional tribute of admira-
tion (if we could put a laugh into print while
doing so wo would I) to the nameless fisherman
with the ridiculous legs and arms, and that inde-
scribable comic cock to his bonnet-rouge, who is
still—we are delighted every year to recognise him
through his disguise—Mr. W. H. Payne, beyond
all manner of doubt the very funniest pantomimist.
living.
To-morrow evening, it is pleasant to note that
Verdi's " II Trortatore" will re-introduce to a Lon-
don audience Herr Wachtel, the German tenor
whose debut, it may be remembered, took place
two seasons back. Herr Wachtel appearing now.
of course, upon this occasion as Manrico—while
the character of Leonora will be undertaken by
Fricci---with Madlle. Ddslinn as Azaceni.
On Saturday, Mario, as already announced, will,
after an interval of eight years, resume his old part
in La Favorita of Danizetti, Ding assisted, in the
other leading characters of that charming opera, by
Lagrua and Signor Graziani.

TELEGRAPH TO BALMORAL.—In the miseellaneou,
estimates for this year is an item of 4280 for the telegraph
to.Balmoral,

Her Majesty's Theatre.

Oa Saturday next Mr. Mapleson commences his
season, and the preliminary programme already
issued Shows that it promises to be one of a most
attractive description. During the recess the
talented director has ransacked the continent for
novelty, and he returns, vie may nearly say, over-
loaded with new engagements. Ia addition to the
names of the established favourites, amongst whom
that of Mdlle. Titiens, Signor Giuglini, Signor Gas-
sier,
and Mr. Santlev are tb be found, we are to have
Mdlle. Giuseppina Vitali, of the Teatro de Bologna ;
Mdlle. Harriers Wirpere, of the R.)yai Opera, Ber-
lin; Mdlle. Eleonora Grassi, of the Teatro Apollo,
Rome, Barcelona, &a.; Mdlle. Bertiehim, of the
Imperial Opera, Vienna; Signor F Ince:li, of the
Teatro St. Carlos; Signor Mezzati, of the princi-
pal theatres in Italy ; Signor M. Juuc 1, of the
Teatro Regio, Turin; Signor Martotti and Signor
Manfredi, The chorus of the theatre has also been
strengthened by important additions, and is now
almost entirely composed of singers from the tucatres
in Turin, whilst the orchestra, already so justly
eminent, has been remarkably reinforced, and again
confided to Signor Arditti, whose recognised talent
and untiring zeal has raised the performances at Her
Majesty's Tneatre to their present high standard.
The ollowing grand operas wilt be performed for
the first time iu England :—" La Forza del Des-
tino," music by Verdi—the production of which
will be superintended by the composer. "Le Donne
Allegre di Windsor," by Otto Nicolai, which has
made the round of Germany, ana combines the
German, French, and Italian styles in a peculiarly
fresh land happy manner, 115E3 everywhere become
popular. " Tannhiuser," the mist celebrated dra-
matic camplseion of Herr Richard Wagner. The
romantic story of Tannhauser, founded upon one of
the most ancient ano picturesque of the Thuringian
legends, has m ,de this oprra popular even with the
most stanch opponents of what is styled " the music
of the future," will be brought out with the utmost
splendour and completeness, the principal parts
being sustained by Signor Giuglini, Mr. Santley,
and Madlle. Tiiiens. We are also to have " Fide-
lica" "Robert le Diable," " Der Fr ischutz," and
" Anna Bolena " the latter of which has not been
played for 20 years.
The ballet department will be found unusually
attractive on account of the new engagements, at
the head of which stands the names of Signor
Simondi, of the Teatro Regio, Turin (director), with
Madlle. Aranyvary, Madlle. Beretta, Madame
Guirand, and Signor Allesandri, as principals. A
new ballet is announced for production at a very
early period, tied also several new divertissements,
the most important of which will be one entitled
Un Anedotto di Frederico II." The season will
therefore, we feel sure, be one of unusual brilliancy,
and we trust that Mr. Mapteson's subscription list
will adequately compensate him for the labour and
fatigue he has undergone to secure the highest
available talent for Her Majesty's Theatre.