The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-15 00:00:00

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

IL DON GIOVANNI.

The first night of Mozart's masterpiece is always
one of those set nights of a season which attract
the amateur on the score of enjoyment, and

the person of fashion as a matter of tiste.
Whilst the progress of our musical knowledge
tends more and more to establish the supremacy of a
writer where dramatic insight was only equalled by
his lyric resources, the various ste ndards which he
raises become so exact and so unquestionable that
the man of ordinary cultivation has to acknowledge
their importance. Thus all society as it ameliorates
gets engaged in the support of art, and the appre-
ciation of the one becomes the test of the advance
of the other.

The performance at this theatre last evening Of
the noblest of all lyric dramas—if not equal to
what his been seen here within the last two

or three seasons—still presents an amount of
excellence which could not be found on
other boards. We have no longer the Donna Anna
of Grisi, nor the Elvira of Mdlie. Csillag, the first
the highest embodiment, and the second the
most entire creation, which perhaps these chirac-
ters have ever experienced but we have
still the Zerlina of Mdlle. Patti, the most
perfect representation that the young and rustic
Spanish coquette has ever enjoyed upon our stage.
We have also the Giovanni of M. Faure, wholly
unrivalled at this moment, whether in respect to
singing or acting ; we have the Leporello of Herr
Formes—a most admirable performance; we have
the Ottavio of Signor Tamberlik, whose "Il min
tesoro" places his claims beyond rivalry ; and
lest, not least, we have the Masetto of the uni-
versal Signor Ronconi, whose mingled humour and
depth of character makes it one of the most remark-
able performances of recent times. In the presence
of this mass of talent we have scarcely a right to
complain that the Donna Anna of Mdlie. Fricci ex-
hibited good intention rather than achievement,
and that the Elvira of Mme. Rudersdorf was the i
effort of a sound musician, but not of a superior
artist.

Madlle. Patti was of course the central feature of
the evening, and she has never more entirely merited
the honour that was assigned her. Not unly were
we made conscious of that obvious deepening of
her voice, which so much adapts it to the
expression of all pathetic and tender melody, but
quite as apparent was the improved taste which led
her on this occasion to a more rigid adherence to
the score, if even at the cost of some embellish-
ments which could:come only from herself. Whilst
het " Batti batti, " therefore, and "Vedrai
Carino," exhibited to the full all their great
dramatic and vocal merits, which we enlarged
upon last season, they were now enforced by the
deeper feeling, which she brought to the great
master, and which, in lieu of the brilliant cadences
she supplied to her two solos, now gave the music
note for note. Of her impersonation of the character
we can only repeat our former eulogies. In all its
piquant and playful humour, its rustic grace, and
pretty wilfulness, it still exhibits all the charms of
a performance that is certainly as extraordinary
for its pleasantry as for its nature. Upon the
admirable band and chorus we cannot be required
to say a word, and we suppose it is as needless to
add that the house wa,3 filled to overflowiug.