The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-29 00:00:00

stand against their vehement and vigorous oppo-
nents. Times are indeed changed since we hailed
in Prussia the triumph of constitutionalism, spread-
ing its beneficial influence at home, and presenting
an example that foreign nations admired and emu-
lated. The debate on the Budget sufficiently shows
the state to which things have come, and indeed it
may be safely and surely predicted that we shall
soon hear of a crash somewhere. People will not go
on for ever tamely submitting to their liberties being
outraged and their rights trampled upon ; and even
the lethargic Prussians must be roused by the un-
scrupulous conduct of their Government if a change
does not take place very shortly in the tactics of
Herr BISMARS and his coadjutors. It has come to
something when the Ministers openly declare that
they refuse to resign whatever happens, and set the
assembled Chamberi at defiance. General VON
ROON'S speech is quite a masterpiece in its way, and
aptly represents the policy of Ministers at present.
It deserves an attentive consideration, and may be
studied with advantage by all those who wish to in-
form themselves concerning the prospects of the
future. The General's tone was insulting in the
extreme, and the numerous dissentient remarks that
interrupted his discourse plainly showed that the
patience of his audience was severely tried. He
began by attempting to bully the Chamber by de-
claring that they were endeavouring to make
a political question out of what should be
a military and technical affair. Having laid
down this premise, he drew a conclusion very
convenient to the Government, but very ob-
noxious to the Chamber. He went on to affirm
that the constitutional rights of the Crown were
being assailed, and that it was a monstrous thing
to propose to vote the taxes annually. "You want
to add to your power at the cost of the Crown ;
gentlemen, this will never be suffered." (Loud cries
and tumult.) Those who have sneered at the
prophecies of good judges will now see their mis-
take in persisting in the belief that matters would
right themselves in Berlin, and that the storm would
blow over without the power of the Crown or the
places of the Ministers being sacrificed. Such an
indication of feeling as was exhibited during this
debate can not be mistaken, and it is quite impos-
sible for the present feeling to be continued without
it creating a struggle for supremacy that may
assume fearful proportions, and, indeed, convulse
the whole state of the social atmosphere. The
General's remarks about the Ministers would be
amusing, if the occasion that called them forth were
true. He boldly declared that they were told to
resign, but declined to do so. " Our seats, believe
me, are no easy chairs ; we should take your advice
to-morrow could we hope to see the vacancies filled
up by competent successors." This is, certainly,
one way of getting out of the difficulty, and the
ingenuity of these place-mongers must be admired
by all crafty and inveterate statesmen who put
office before everything. It is really refreshing to
notice that when the General went on to declare
that the King placed confidence in them, a voice
called out, " The country places no confidence in
you." But what mattered it to the sublime devo-
tion and fervent loyalty of the speaker and his
friends, whether or not the ignorant men who
listened to him approved of his policy or not. It
was, indeed, perfectly plain that his mind was made
up, and that the pleasure or displeasure of the Cham-
bers and the country was a matter of perfect in-
difference. Really it would almost seem as if the
Government had made up their minds to provoke
the Assembly into doing or saying something that
might furnish pretext for summary proceedings.
As for dissolving the House, the General said
that party organisation was too strong for them as
yet. This is clearly a contradiction in terms, be-
cause the object of a dissolution should be to ascer-
tain what are the sentiments of the country, and
what party is preferred to represent the interests of
the nation. We are informed by the plain-spoken
orator what will be done if a better feeling is not
manifested by the Chambers. Sensation and uproar
very naturally followed the announcement of the pro-
posed policy to break through the organisation of
party, and get at the people themselves. The people
are not very likely to profit much by the intervention
of the Government. As for the final threat of
adapting the result of the elections to the interests
of the country, it is - only what has been all along
surmised by very competent judges, and the Gene-
ral's much vaunted ultimatum fell very flat on his
auditors. Perhaps the only words of truth that fell
from the lips of this audacious and arrogant speaker
were those with which he wound up, when he sai d
that, " for the Government it was no longer a ques-
tion of right but of existence." There was a method
in the seeming madness of this daring and defiant
address, and the meaning of the enigmatical pro-
ceedings of Ministers will doubtless soon be disclosed.
Herr WicHow very properly animadverted upon
the extraordinary conduct of the officials. He told
them that there was a NEMESIS in history,
and that if a rupture was brought about by Govern-
ment they would have to pay the penalty one day.
He also very truly stated the exact posture of
affairs, by reminding the House that the Ministers
had caused the confusion of thingi from which they
were now suffering, by spending money not appro-
priated by the House, and hence the desire that had
been expressed to vote the taxes annually arose from
the idea that the interests of the country were being
sacrificed.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

M. Gounod's " Faust e Margherita,"

There are none so deaf as those who will not
hear is, however, an adage, the truth of which can
not; be gainsaid, and assuredly Herr vow BISMARK
and his friends is an ample verification of it. Loud
cheers greeted the spirited assertion of Herr
WRCHOW, that menaces would not terrify them—
" It is we who have taken our stand on the rock of
right, and depend upon it you will find us
in the breach whenever the constitutional
rights of the country are imperilled." It
will, indeed, 15e a pity if the people of Prussia
suffer themselves to be intimidated by the grasping
conduct of unprincipled statesmen, and thus lose
their prestige among the nations of Europe. A
heavy responsibility now rests upon the representa-
tives who have to hold the rights of the people
against powers and principalities in the face of
overwhelming obstacles. The good wishes of all
lovers of freedom will go with them to their arduous
endeavour, and if they succeed will indeed rejoice.
One of the moderate party also spoke out with much
warmth, and thus displayed the feeling of the
House. Dr. &IBA'S earnest words must have
struck terror to the minds of the Ministers, and the
best proof was that General BONN felt obliged to
explain some of his language. It was not so easy,
however, to give an answer to this query,—General
BONN' speaks lightly of the House and of its exist-
ence, but is the Cabinet formed of more durable
material than the country ? Such a state of things
as has been indicated by this debate cannot last
without a momentous turn being given to affairs,
and hence all eyes will turn with expectancy to
Berlin, and watch anxiously for intelligence from
that quarter. It may not be long before the wrongs
of Denmark are avenged in the misery and confu-
eevnedn t now,
o wb
e,
ns i odne
etdh,a
tt
hwe
isp r etvhf
beginning
nPnr Prussia, i ae,f
anthde
traced in the dissensions and strife that are shaking
to their foundotions the time-honoured institutions
of the land.

The new season at Covent Garden commenced
last evening under the happiest auspices. Yesterday
having been the Third Court held by her Majesty
in person, at Buckingham Palace—the third since the
lamented commencement of her Majesty's widow-
hood—early though the present date in the London
season is as yet, the house last night presented alto-
gether a most brilliant appearance. In spite of the
weather, the attendance was very considerable. But,
turning from the audience to the entertainment, that
also was in many ways remakable. The perform-
ance set down by Mr. Gye for the First Night, pre-
sented a combination of attractions. There were
two debuts to begin with—a soprano and a contralto
—Mdlle. Berini, from Milan, and Mdlle. Honore,
from Moscow. And both of these debilts weri suc-
cessful. Again, as the hero of the night, of the
First Night of the Season, there was that yet King
of Tenors, Signor Mario—still King amongst them
all when he happens to be in good voice, as he
did most happily prove to be last evening.
To crown all, the opera selected for the
inaugural night of the season, was that most popular
among all modern operas, Gounod's Faust e Mar-
gherita. Incomparably, notoriously—the most popu-
lar. Not the greatest work by any means, of course,
neither the grandest, nor yet the loveliest of the
world's lyrical masterpieces ; but, beyond all doubt
of it, among modern operas, we repeat, the most
popular ! And for that—matter:claiming for it, as
we have but just now intimated quite frankly, and
also not very surprisingly claiming for it, as
we do, no exceptional pre-eminence, or priority,
or precedence among works of art, many of
them holding far loftier rank as chefs d'ceuvres
among musical compositions—who can wonder, in-
deed, at the exceeding popularity of the Faust of
M. Gounod ! To begin with—the theme selected
by him is so matchlessly attractive ! Meaning, of
course, not in any way the mere libretto of
Messrs. Carre and Barbier—a libretto much of
a piece with the general run of produc-
tions of that proverbially feeble class —but
meaning rather by " the theme " of the opera,
the ideal Faust of Goethe, the ideal Faust-and-
Margaret of the Teutonic Shakspere. Even through
the hazy verses of Carre and Barbier, the luminous
and haunting Drama of the great German Poet is
clearly discernible ! Thanks, this, of course, to the
vivifying genius which somehow appears to be
more or less peculiar to all great musical com-
posers, for inasmuch as it enables them—when
supplied with no more than the veriest dry
bones of a libretto—to create a soul under the ribs
of death ! As with the rest of them, so is it
here with M. Gounod in regard to this five act
lyrical drama of Faust e Margherita. For— thanks,
we repeat, exclusively to himself in thus having
wedded his lovely music, if not to immortal words,
at any rate to the immortal idea of Goethe—What
Five Acts they are ! What Five Acts in the mere
picturesque distribution of the various incidents in
this tale of love and terror, in this wonderful
shadowing forth of the passionate and the beautiful !
In immediate evidence of which, observe the mere
symmetry and completeness of effect produced
by the distribution of the incidents in these
Five acts of Gounod's Opera 1 The Student's
Chamber constituting the framework of the first
act, an act rendered enthralling by the apparition
of Mephistopheles, by the transformation of Faust,
by the dream-picture of Margaret at her Spinning
Wheel. The Market Place being the region given
up to the occurrences of the second act with all its
fluctuating throngs of soldiers, citizens, students,
maidens, matrons, children, old men—touched to
its completing beauty and its crowning interest
by the first meeting of Faust and Mar-
garet. The Garden Scene—the exquisite garden
scene—forming the back-ground, as it were for the
filling in of the picture presented to view by the core,
the heart, the central passion of the whole drama—the
pretty coquetries of Gretchen, and the warm-blooded
wooing of her by the demon-haunted student !
Act the Fourth running out the tangled thread of
their destinies to a more tragiehl issue— Outside the
Church first of all—afterwards Inside the Church—
within view of the very sanctuary. Finally, and in a
manner perfecting this wonderfully picturesque and
symmetrical adaptation to a lyrical form of Goethe's
marvellous dramatic poem, for the Fifth Act
we have The Prison Interior—the granite walls of
the dungeon melting away at the very close, reveal-
ing the apotheosis, as one might say, of Margherita,
or rather the spectacle of her soul being borne
heavenwards through the starlit empyrean upon the
wings of angels, after the famous picture of the death
of St. Catherine ! It is by means of the arrange-
ment thus symmetrically of his materials, but above
all by the embedding those materials—the frail text
of his libretto that is—in the amber of his music,
that M. Gounod has won for his Faust its amazing
popularity. And in regard to the general excel-
lence of the music of the opera, it must be allowed
to be at the very least somewhat significant that
every fresh prima donna ambitions as one of her
most cherished aspirations the achievement of a
triumph in Margherita ! While, among the roles of
Mario, the representation by him of Faust is admit-
tedly one of the very noblest of his impersonations.
As we have said, moreover, last night was one of
his lucky nights—in other words, the great tenor
was throughout the evening in really splendid
voice, singing just as nearly as possible to per-
fection. The impression produced by Madlle.
Berini's Margherita, although it awakened no en-
thusiasm, gave very complete and thorough satis-
faction to one of the most fastidious audiences in the
world. Madlle. Honore's success upon her first ap-
pearance as Siebel, it should be added, was quite as
genuine and in its way also quite as unmistakeable.
In the absence of M. Faure—now unhappily for
London opera-goers, detained in Paris by his pro-
fessional engagements—we had the best of all
possible substitutes for him as Mephistopheles in
Signor Attri, who—speaking thus, of course, not by
any means in dispraise, but, on the contrary, applying
the words as a very panegyric—we would say sang
and acted throughout diabolically ! Signor Gra-
ziani being still the Valentine, Madame Anese the
Marta, and Signor Tagliafico the Wagner,
they ',sustained their reputations last evening
simply as a mere matter of course. The noble
Orchestra of the Royal Italian, and the equally noble
choruses, marshalledas they still are respectively bythe
baton of M. Costa, in their turn also sustained their
reputations. Listening to the Chorus of Old Men
in the Second Act, Nei di di riposo, who can ever
fail to recognise the ineffable touch of genius—not
of talent merely, but of true genius—in that
quavering, subtle, senile masterpiece 1 The glo-
rious, massive pomp of the great choral chaunt,
Deponiam it brando pealed forth as magnificently
as ever on the return of Valentine. As to the
delicious, gyrating, haunting melody of the
Waltz in the fourth scene of the second act—
to the choria3 of dancers Come la brezza—it never
went with a more resistless swing than last night—
that exquisite melody, the echoing of which towards
the close of the fifth act we regard as the truest and
loveliest touch of genius in the whole opera! Namely,
in the dungeon scene, where the dying Margherita,
while she is besought in an agony of remorseful
tenderness by Faust to fly with him from her im-
prisonment, herself the while recalls dreamingly,
hesitatingly to mind, the occasion of their first
meeting in the market-place—her soft lamenting
reverie as she sings, being, as it were, coiled round
and twined about by the haunting accompaniment
of that lovely long-remembered waltz ! It is impos-
sible to listen to it unmoved. It is a thought, a
fancy, an emotion, marked with the recognizable
sign manual of genius I Merely thinking of it now
—it is as if we kissed the maestro's hand in the
remembrance! At the conclusion of the opera
(some time after midnight !) the National Anthem
was given, according to annual custom upon the
Opening Night, but (this not according to custom)
simply in full Chorus, that is, without any solo
whatever. A more auspiciouil opening night alto-
gether could hardly have been desired. It gives
noble promise for the whole season, and fills us,
above all, wit high hope b regard to the xlfricainel

THE .SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 1865.