The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-20 00:00:00

s Pus 7 APRIL 20, 1849.

BANK OF FRANCE.
The following is a return of the situation of the Bank
of France up to April 12:—

ASSETS.

Cash and ingots ...
Ditto in branch banks
Bills past dug
Bills falling due in Paris, of which
15,484,524 f. 90c. are from the branch
banks ... 50,292,321 76
Bills in the branch banks 82,712,404 76
Advances on coins and ingots... ... 16,831,006 00
Ditto on French public securities ... 29,836,799 95
Ditto by branch banks... ... 1,504,337 00
Ditto to the State on Bons du Tresor... 50,000,000 00
Ditto on the loan of 150 millions ... 50,000,000 00
Rentes of the reserve fund ... 10,000,000 00
ilentes, disposable funds 42,581,488 13
investments of the new branch banks in
the publicfunds 12,779,541 39
Hotel and furniture of the Bank ... 4,000,000 00
Real property of the branch banks ... 2,283,787 00
Loan of 10,000,000 f. to the city of Paris 8,000,000 00
Interest in National Discbunt Bank ... 200,000 00
Ditto branch banks ... 230,000 00
Bills protested at Paris ... 7,103,513 34
Ditto at the branches ... 4,167,137 00
Expenses of administration of the Bank 393,469 53
Ditto of the branches 303,342 00
Miscellaneous ... 566,290 54
Adiance to the department of the

f. 194,574,327 41
. . 130,730,112 00
109,010 29

Seine
Loan of 3,000,000 f. to the city of Mar-
seilles ...

3,000,000 00

1,000,000 00

E 702,202,118 00

[PRICE SD.

NEYERBEER'S OPERA.
(PARIS CORRESPONDENCE.)

You may imagine how much the Prophet of Meyerbeer
has been a piece decirconstance in Paris. To the
revolutionists delightful was the idea of a reli•
gious hero being brought on the st,ge professing
Communism and Socialism, and connecting with sacred
dogmas the most unlimited contempt of all the laws that
morally restrain man in political life, or in society in its
more limited sense. The curiosity of the Conservatives was
no lesg:excited, of course, and they lookedlorward to the
pleasure of e.intemplating this religious Lord of Mis-
rule—after destroying all constituted authority of
Church and State, burning palaces, and constituting
himself king as well as prophet—meeting N ith
condign punishment, although in the opera
he is not torn of course to pieces by red hot
pincf rs, as history records. These attramions apart,
.nd that of the difficulty of finding places—Meyer b. ei
basin; I sken the theatre to himselt for five nights —I can-
not speak in anywise favourably of a work upon which
so many hopes were built.

(FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.)
The opera is characterised by that powerful intricate
instrumentation, that sombre loftiness of intention, which
characterise Meyerbeer's genius. harmony there is of
the amplest kind, but generally it has not the mellowed
grandeur suited to the oratorio, whose style it ap-
proaches nearest, and of which Mendelssohn was so
complete a master. To the lyrical operatic style it is
greatly opposed—having none of those contrasts of light
and shade, and but very few indeed of those melodies
which the ear seizes.ana the memory retains. Me) erbeer
appears here to have forgotten, more than in any of his
more recent works, that the rich and the powerful,' and
those whose daps are spent in labours of commerce
and of art, do not go to an opera for fierce excitement,
to renew the fatigues of the day, but for repose of the
mind by change of impression, which nothing dramatic
or musical can afford when it it constanly overstrained
and of the lugubrious sameness, and the appeal to the
ear and the understanding are carried on by the sheer
physical force of voices and instruments. In the choice
of John of Leyden—a choice clearly dictated by Meyer-
beer—a greater error hi cbeen committed than in the se-
lection of Robert le Diable, in which the occasional ap-
proach to the subjects which all men of good taste, not to
speak of the religious, repudiate on the stage, is veiled
by the distance and the mingled tuperstitions of the me-
dieval period.- Whether as a tailor, an enthusiast, an
usurper of power, or areligioniet —the selection of John of
Leyden fora hero is a most extraordinary thought, and his
irreverent doings in his stage character are not likelyto
please either the Catholic or the Protestant, or the Die
senter; still more certainly would it be offensive to the
Anabaptist, since the stern devotee here has revels
worthy of Julius 11., if not of Borgia. The Socialists
alone will be perfectly suited by the libretto of this
opera; therefore was I not astonished to see amongst
the audience Count d'Alton Shee, ono of their leaders,
the first to applaud, the last to cease. You will see that
whilst it cannot afford desirable inspiration to the com-
poser, its hero and its plot exclude it from performance
in most countries. It is surely not under the dominion
of the Austrians or the Pope, it is not at Vienna or in
Italy that it will be performed. The King of Prussia
himself, Meyerbeer's royal master and liege lord,
will not like the example of the burning of palaces in
religious and political enthusiasm which this opera af-
fords. As to England, of course a new libretto must be
written, if, as it is said, Madame Viardot is to have
leave, on the 7th of July, to go over and perform it. I
need not say that whatever the defects of the work
generally, there are some portions worthy of the
palmier days of Meyerbeer'a genius. The two first acts
are heavy and ennuyeux, but the others offer some bright
exceptions, amongst which I must particularly mention
a singular buffo trio, of highly artistic construction, be-
twixt Oberthal and two Anabaptist preachers, supported
by the chorus of Anabaptists, in the third act; and the
stanzas sung by the Prophet with a goblet of wine in his
hand, before he accomplishes his destructive purpose on
the palace in the fifth act. There is also an excel•
lent trio in this act betwixt Fides (Viardot),
the Prophet (Roger), and Bertha (Caatellan). As re-
gards mist en scene, nothing has been spared, picto-
rially or otherwise. Duponchel, who was the first to
make vocalists sing a trio on horseback, spares nothing
for costume and other theatrical effects of appearance.
Nothing is wanting, not even dancing or skating. The
(lancers were Plunkett and Petitpas, and the skaters
performed a bullabile. The constant rehearsals of tke
music of this opera, which keeps the voices of the
singers perpetually on the stretch, has so much strained
those of the vocalists who perform the principal parts,
that it would be unjust to judge them by the result of the
first night, when some a motion must have added to their
fatigue. Cabtellan, who has a secondary and less bur•
thus: some part, written purposely for her alone, cam,
out with full ell. cr. As further proof of bid taste in the
French capital, I will only add, that bzsides this Ana-
baptist prophet, there has been another hero of the sfttne
kind enacted on the Boulevard. whilst even the martyred
Louis XVI. is not respected—Frederic Lemsitre playing
this royal personage pith every probable horrible detail,
at the Port St. Mat tin.