The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-03 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert took an airing yesterday in
an open carriage and four.
The Hon. Colonel Grey, and Lieut. Colonel Seymour, the
Equerries in Waiting, were in attendance on horseback.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert, attended by Lieut.
Colonel Seymour, visited her Majesty the Queen Dowager
yesterday, at Marlborough House.
Their Royal Highnesses Prince Alfred and the Princess
Alice were taken out in a carriage yesterday,.accompanied by
the Dowager Lady Lyttelton, and visited her Royal High-
ness the Duchess of Kent at her residence, Clarence House,
St. James's.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Prin-
cess Royal were, taken an airing yesterday in the royal
garden.
The royal dinner party yesterday at Buckingham Palace
included her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, the Earl
of Liverpool, Lady Augusta Bruce, Baroness de Speth, Mr.
George Edward and the Hon. Mrs. Anson, and the Hon. and
Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay.
Her Majesty's private band attended in the Palace after
dinner.

A deputation, consisting of Captain Bouchette, Mr. Had-
ding, Mr. Smyth, and Mr. Ward, from the Direct Bombay
and Madras Railway Company, waited upon his Royal High-
ness Prince Albert, by appointment, on Wednesday, to ex-
plain the nature and objects of the undertaking.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager took an airing yesterday,
in a carriage.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent and the
Duke of Cambridge visited her Majesty the Queen Dowager
yesterday, at Marlborough House.
His serene Highness the Hereditary Prince of Saxe Mei-
ningen, and his Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe
Weimar, rode out on horseback yesterday. Tue Hereditary
Prince visited her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent at
Clarence House.

Monsieur Tiarks, Councillor of Legation of his Royal
Highness the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, had an interview
with the Earl of Aberdeen on Wednesday, at the Foreign-
office, to deliver his credentials as his Royal Highness's
Chargé d'Affaires at this Court.
Mr. Mosquera, the Charge d'Affaires of New Granada, had
an interview on Wednesday with the Earl of Aberdeen at the
Foreign- office, to take leave for Spain,;on a temporary mission
near her Cathelic Majesty.
His Excellency Colonel Todd, late Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at St.
Petersburgh, arrived at Sabloniere Hotel on Wednesday, on
his route to the United States by the Caledonia steamer of
the 4th instant.

Sir John Pelly bad an interview with ➢ir. Secretary
Gladstone at the Colonial-office yesterday.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Last evening was the first extra night of the season—the
first of the long Thursdays" for which last season was so
distinguished—and which, to the real lovers of music and
acting, are perhaps the most delightful nights of the season.
The opera was Bdisario, and the name of Belisario natu-
rally suggests Fomasari. It is his chef d'ceuvre ; and, as
long as Fornasari lives, the character is his own. It
would be as hopeless for any other artiste to
attempt the part as it would have been for an English
actor to hare attempted Coriolanus during the lifetime of
John Kemble. Never shall we forget the glorious debut of
Fornasari, then an unknown man, in the character of Beli-
sario, three years since. Unknown, unpuffed, unused to a
large stage, without any of the prestige which attaches to
a great name, he at once assumed the very highest rank
in his profession ; and, when the English public is
next reproached with want of musical taste, be it
remembered to their credit that they were the first to ap-
preciate, and to do honour, and to foster the genius of perhaps
the greatest of lyrical actors, Fornasari. We have watched
his subsequent career with interest ; gladly have we
recorded his subsequent triumphs—and they have not
been few—but never, until last evening, have we
since that night seen his Belisario. It is gratifying to
compare him now with what he was then, and to mark the
giant's stride which he has taken in his professional career.
There is the same intensity, the same truth to nature, the
same dignity in the first act, the same tear-compelling pathos
in the second act, where the poor deserted blinded outcast
finding his child still true to him, hugs her to his heart; the
same fine burst of patriotic feeling in the third, where the
exile indignantly rejects barbarian aid to revenge his wrongs,
and the same painfully truthful death-struggle at the conclu-
sion, that there ever was: But what three years since was a
magnificent sketch, is now a framed and finished picture;
the lights and shades which were then merely given in out-
line are now carefully worked in ; then it was a work of genius--
now it is a work of genius, chastened, refined and polished.
by taste, study, and science. The Belisario of Fornasari,
take it for all in all, is perhaps the most perfect piece of act-
ing on the lyrical stage. Madame Castellan was the Irene,
and beautifully true to nature was her delineation of this
most exquisite character. Taken as a whole, we prefer the
Irene of Madame Castellan to that of Madame Persiani ; con-
sidered as a piece of acting, there was more heart in it, and
albeit she did not overlay the music with needless fioriture,
she sang with greater sweetness, with more power, and she
always sang in tune. Madame Sanchioli was the Antonina.
and she made a great deal of a very uphill part. In the first
act she was sublime in her hate and malice ; and her splen-
did voice told most effectively in the concerted pieces ; and
in the last scene her despair was heart-rending. Her manner
of giving the sublime passage
" Egli e spento—e del perdono
La parola a me non disse,
Di mix voce udendo it mono
Forse in cor mi maledisse,
Form in Ciel del fallo mio,
Or m' accusa innanzi a Dio,
Ah toglieteme la vita,
Che la morte e un ben per me,"
was harrowing. It is not often that we meet with poetry in the
libretto of an opera, but this is poetry—poetry of the highest
order—poetry of which Metastasio himself need not have
blushed to have been the author. At the conclusion, the
two ladies and Fornasari were called before the curtain, and
received that homage which they so richly merited. The
programme of last evening stated that Belisario was to be
represented " for this occasion only." We hope Mr. Lumley
will be induced to review his decision, for it
is not often that an opera is so perfectly re-
presented as was the Belisario of last evening.
The opera was succeeded by Un Bat sous Louis XIV., with
Lucile Grahn as the cavalier, and Louise Taglioni as the
dame, in the stately old minuet. Then followed a new pas
de trois by Madame Petit Stephan, Mademoiselle Louise Ta-
glioni. and M. Perrot, which was most tastefully danced
by the ladies who were encored in their respective
pas, and in which M. Perrot, completely recovered from
his lameness, was the Perrot of former years, and gave us all
those wonderfully graceful tours de force et d'adresse which
Perrot alone can give. After that we had the last scene of
the Sonnambula, in which Madame Castellan, as Amine,
gave the exquisite finale, and the still more exquisite aria
which immediately precedes it, and which, for some unac-
countable reason, is invariably omitted on the English stage,
with a taste and a pathos that left nothing to be desired.
The ballet of Eoline concluded the evening's amusement.
The House was crowded in every part.