The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-12 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S OPERA.

Her Majesty's Theatre opened last evening
for the season with Cimarosa's opera seria Gli
Orazij i Curazij. The compositions of Cima-
rosa are not so well known to many of our mo-
dern opera-goers as they ought to be. He was
the father of the modern brilliant school of
music, and prepared the public taste to appre-
ciate the works of his great successor Rossini.
We hail, therefore, .this revival of one of his
best operas, and hope that it is not the only one
of Cimarosa's compositions which M. Laporte
intends to revive during the season. Madame
Pauline Viardot (late Pauline Garcia) was the
Horatio,. This lady has improved vastly in her
acting since she made her appearance on these
boards two years since ; and now bids fair to
rival in acting, as well as in singing, the fame
of her sister, poor Madame Xtalibran. Her
grand scenic in the second act " Quegli Suoni,"
was a perfect triuMph of art. Nothing could
exceed the thrilling effect which she threw
into the concluding words of the scena,
"Oh teatro d'orrere." Mario was the Marco
Orazio, and had the part been written for him,
it could not by possibility have suited him bet-
ter; his exquisite falsetto notes came beautifully
into play in the aria " Se ails patria," in the
first act,
and•he sang the whole of the air, in it-
self a most beautiful composition, in a style of such
exquisite taste as to force loud applause from what
appeared to us to be rather an unenthusiastic house .
The duett at the close of the close of the piece,
" Svenami ormai crudele." yas,most effectively
given by Mario and Madame Viardot, who were
called for at the fall of the curtain, and received
with the usual honours. We are glad to perceive
that this very talentedyoung man is increasing in
public favour in this country. -Whenever Hu-
bini shall have put his often-threatened design
of retiring from the stage into execution, wo
know of no one so fitting to become
his successor as' Mario. Curiazzo found
a very efficient representative in Miss A.
Nunn, who 'made her first appearance
at this theatre last evening, but whose perform-
ances at various concerts during the winter have
made a favourable impression on the public.
After the opera, the National Anthem was sung,
the solo parts by Miss Nunn and Kadame
Viardot. .The audience seemed quite taken by
surprise by the energy and enthusiasm with
_which Madame Viardot gave her part of " God
save the Queen," and which contrasted strongly
and most favourably with the careless manner in
which this fine composition is usually slovened
over; The new ballet of Le Diable Ainoureux
followed—a very splendid affair, and much supe-
rior to the gelleral run of pieces of this sort.
Mademoiselle Guy Stephani made her first
appearance in England in the character of
Uriele. She is not only a clever, graceful dancer
of the Cerito school, but she is also a most ac-
complished, arch, and espiegle actress. She was
loudly and deservedly applauded; and M. La-
, porte will, no doubt, find her a most efficient ad-
dition to his corps. Albert made his first
ap-
pearance here these two years; during the inter-
val he has lost nothing of his grace or agility;
he was _loudly applauded on his first appearance.
The house was well filled.