The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-07 00:00:00

KING'S THEATRE.

This theatre opened on Saturday night for the season, with the
well-known Barber of Seville, on which occasion a new prima
donna, Madame SIGNL VESPERMANN made her first appearance
as Rosina, a part which appears to be a peculiar favourite with
debutantes in general. Madame VESPERMANN appears to have
chiefly relied for success on the facility of execution which she
has acquired by long practice. This power enables her to deal
with the music allotted to Rosina in such a manner, that under
the fascinating. effects of brilliant execution the defects peculiar
to her voice might be more easily concealed. Her voice is a high
soprano, reaching from the low F in the lines to the E above
them, extending to two octaves, less one note; at least such was
the compass it appeared to be limited to on Saturday. To go
higher, would indeed be nearly impossible for the voice of any
female adult; but similar soprani frequently reach three-notes
lower than the low F in the lines. The power of this lady's voice
is, so far as we could judge on this occasion (for an apology was
made in her behalf, on the score of the effects of severe indispo-
sition), singularly varittl. 'When she sings in the higher scale,
her notes are distinct, and she is able to dwell considerably on the
very highest. In the lower scale she is sometimes scarcely au-
dible, and she avoids sostenuto passages there by an introduction
of profuse and even redundant ornament. Of late years no singer
has appeared on these boards whose style of singing was as florid
as that of Madame VESPERMANN ; even Madame MILLIBRAN,
whose great fault is a partiality for excesses of the same descrip-
tion, is but a plain singer when compared with her. Madame
VESPERMANN is apparently not very young ; she is of short sta-
ture, slender in person, rather graceful in he motions, treading
the stage lightly, and not deficient in ease of manner. Her eyes
are dark, her features small, and her countenance rather expres-
sive. She gave the cavatina, Una voca poco fa, not as the com-
poser thought proper to pen it in his happiest mood, but in a
manner so peculiarly her own, that it was with some difficulty
the orchestra could keep pace with her. The other characters in
the opera were very efficiently sustained by Signor Cilium as
the Count Altnaviva, Signor De BEGNIS as Don Bartolo, and
Signor LABLACIIE as ligaro. In the ballet we have had no ac-
cession to its former company to rival the exquisite grace of BRO.
CARD. Madame MoNTEssu undoubtedly possesses great merits,
but of a different kind. She is essentially a danseuse ; her figure
is short, and from the waist upwards uninteresting ; hut her leg,
though a little robust, is well formed, with a particularly neat
ancle and short well-formed foot. Grace or elegance is, therefore,
not her characteristic, but she is full of animation, and executes
the most complex movements of the feet with amazing quick-
ness and beautiful precision. She performed the Sotnnambule
remarkably well. Monsieur LEFEBVRE is a person of very high
merits in his department. He possesses a finely-formed figure,
is, like Madame MONTESSU, exceedingly rapid in his steps, but
his general movements are, with the exception of his walk,
equally bold and graceful.