The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-12 00:00:00

of her Majesty's Theatre, to keep open that
vast establishment year after year in spite of
the very terrible array presented by this immense
and combined opposition. It was only in truth
after the resources of not merely one, or two, or
three, but actually of four successive rival

Managers at the Royal Italian had been squandered
upon the organisation of Covent Garden Theatre

as a permanent lyrical establishment, that Mr.
Lumley relaxed his really extraordinary exertions,
and withdrew from the contest without the

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smallest discredit to himself or the slightest slur

upon the prestige of his managerial reputation.
Three seasons have elapsed since then—three
years, during which the Director of her Majesty's
Theatre is understood to have endeavoured
earnestly, but until now unavailingly, to resuscitate
the fallen fortunes of the natural home of the
lyrical drama in the Haymarket. At length the
catastrophe of the sth of March came as a beacon
lighting him the way out of all his difficulties.
So effectually, that while his undaunted competi-
tor still held together "his own" with a gallant
determination worthy of better news than came
flashing to him at Paris that miserable spring
morning through the wires of the electric tele-
graph—Mr. Lumley already by the 10th of May
(otherwise in a very little more than two months)
Was enabled to re-open her Majesty's Theatre with
all its ancient glories, scenic, orchestral, lyrical,
terpsichorean, et cetera, altogether unimpaired.
An achievement, we conceive this to be, of no un-
important magnitude. A triumph of managerial
.skill, energy, and resolution, so remarkable in its
Way that we can ever imagine to ourselves, Mr.
Gye, looking out upon it from the " smooth
Waters" of the little sheltering haven he himself has
found in the Lyceum, we can even imagine him,
We say, looking out upon it with a_strange sort of
a magnanimously indignant admiration. There
Was, indeed, on Saturday evening—incomprehens-
iblethough it might seem in some particulars—this
'great operatic victory won by the Director of her
Majesty's Theatre out of his own defeat and his
rival's misfortunes. A victory so signal of its kind
as to insure at one blow the triumph of an entire
campaign. After so triumphant an inauguration,
Mr. Lumley need scarcely feel any anxiety what-
ever as to the success of his undertaking.
La Cenerentola, as all the world (that is to say,
all the " world of fashion" within dining distance
of May-fair) knows full well already, was the opera
selected for the opening of her Majesty's Theatre
•n Saturday. Rossini's charming comic opera of
Lea Cenerentola ! A master-piece of lyrical drol-
lery, sufficient of itself to elevate its author to the
very highest rank among buffo composers. Ma-
dame Alboni, the dulcifluous and bewitching
Alboni (after an absence of five years from Lon-
don), was again the " bright particular star" of
the night as Angelina, otherwise, the heroine
Cinderella. The Dandini of the occasion was
announced to have been an old favourite no less
Welcome to the opera-going public than Signor
Belletti, but in consequence of the ill-timed indis-
position of that basso, a substitute had to be found,
and fortunately a very creditable substitute was
found in the person of Signor Beneventi. Iu
the subordinate part of Alidoro, a new singer of
some pretensions, named Signor Vario, made his
first appearance ; another singer, new to the
lyrical stage in this country, a basso cantanti,
"lamed Signor Zucconi, making a very successful
debut before an English audience, in the wonderful
burlesque part of Don Magnifico. As for the
Regan and Goneril of the comic-opera, the spiteful,
coquetish, and tyrannical sisters Thisbe and Clotilde
--they were, as usual, ungrateful parts, rather
unusually and gratefully filled by Mademoiselles
Rizzi and Berti, cantatrici, no less strangers to the
musical public of our metropolis than Signori Vario
and Zucconi. The hero of the night (as Madame
Alboni was the heroine) was a tenor not unaccustom-
ed to that distinction in front of the footlights of
Her Majesty's Theatre, as any country cousin
Who had never been there before might have
understood on the instant without any preterna-
tural degree of shrewdness, on recognising the
Welcome accorded by the immense audience on
Saturday to the Don Ramiro of the evening—
Signor Calzolari. His reception, in fact, was
Only second in cordiality to that which had pre-
viously greeted Alboni when the curtain first
rose, disclosing her (in the chimney corner
blowing up the fire) in the cinderous dress of
Cinderella.
Before that curtain rose, however, before the
opera
began, before the overture cowmenced, the