The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-10 00:00:00

SURREY THEATRE.

With the first holiday evening of Whitsuntide, the
operatic season was commenced at this theatre, the
management displaying no little enterprise in the
way of its effective inauguration. Everything, in-
deed, appeared to have been done tbat was at all prac-
ticable in order to provide the frequenters of the
Surrey with a varied and satisfactory entertainment.
And the spirit evinced by Messrs. Creswick and
Shepherd has already been admirably responded to
by their patrons, the house being literally crowded to
the ceiling before the beginning of the first piece—
Cinderella. It must be remembered that Whit-
Monday, especially at the principal suburban
theatres, is a sort of summer boxing-night, and
so it certainly seemed to be last evening, if ,
not in the boxes and pit, at any rate in the galleries,
where the sixpenny gods disported themselves rather
coolly in their shirt-sleeves, and indulged themselves
at intervals by quaffing thin potations of stout and
other homely refreshments. Yet with all the crush-
ing they were compelled to submit to, in spite of all
their efforts to obtain something like elbow-room, the
audience contrived to enjoy themselves without uproar
or indecorum, and found plenty of space, too, to shake
their sides with laughter. We have seldom seen a
more attentive and never a more gratified assemblage
of playgoers. They listened throughout with evident
enjoyment to the three acts of Rossini's charming
opera, and to the two acts of the romantic drama by
which the performances were brought to a conclu-
sion. Cinderella, as played on the English stage, it
must be remembered, is not precisely the Cinderella
of the original libretto. For reasons which do not require
to be enumerated, it needed some sort of adaptation
to our stage, and this adaptation has been judiciously
accomplished, in the present instance, by Mr. R.
Lacy; the dear old nursery story, loved by all of us
from the days of our childhood, being more closely
followed than in the Italian version, especially
in regard to the fairy spectacle and the magic trans-
formations. Altogether the cast of the opera last
night at the Surrey was really excellent. Miss P.
Horton, as the heroine, secured to herself, as she al-
ways does, the sympathy of the house, her voice tell-
ing admirably in the difficult but bewitching part
she had undertaken. Her appearance both as the ser-
vant in the kitchen and as the 'princess in the ball-
room, was full of fascination, and at the close of the
piece she was called for again with a genuine and
unanimous enthusiasm. Travers, as the Prince, was
commendable, though his memory at times appeared
somewhat faithless. His principal song, however, he
gave with so much energy and passion as to com-
mand a very general encore. Borrani looked, sang,
and acted Dandini to admiration. His assumed
pomposity, as the mock prince, was delightfully
facetious, his very " a-hem !" being expressive of
portentous solemnity, and his strut what we might
expect from a seven-league-booted lord of burlesque.
In the comic aria, "As the bee when the sunbeam
uncloses," he was repeatedly interrupted by ap-
plause, and the same weed was awarded him
in the humorous duet with Pompolino. The
latter part, that of the Baron, was capitally represented
by Mr. H. Corri; and Mr. Widdicomb as Pedro
called forth shouts of laughter both from the gods
and the groundlings, by the drollery of what
Charles Lamb would have called his stolid and in-
corrigible " visnomy." Miss A. Norman looked
charmingly as the Fairy Queen, and the Misses
Coveney enacted with considerable ability the roles of
the spiteful and vixenish sisters of Cinderella. Several
of the scenes were cleverly painted, and the metamor-
phoses were ingenious specimens of mechanical:contriv-
ance, the rats, the lizards, the mice, and the pumpkin.
After the opera came a new drama, entitled Roland
the Rider, being founded by Mr. J. Courtenay on the
popular tale of " Second Love," by Mr. Palgrave
Simpson. The plot will be readily remembered by
those who have read that delightful fiction, and those
who have not should forthwith devour the written
narrative of the novelist, and hasten afterwards to
hear the spoken ono of the dramatist. It may be
mentioned, however, that Mr. Shepherd was Roland ;
Mr. T. Mead, Gaston de Courval ; Mr. Montague,
Albert Walsingham ; Mr. Widdicomb, Sam Bolter;
and Mr. B. Norton, Achille Napoleon Pommedivine.
The drama was not less favourably received than the
opera, and the whole entertainment, which did not
end until nearly one o'clock, went off to the entire
satisfaction of the auditory.

ASTLEY'S (BATTY'S) ROYAL AMPIII
THEATRE.
The audiences at this theatre are proverbially
good-humoured on holiday nights, though tlhesitr mirth
may be somewhat uproarious, and they a
showed no dissatisfaction at the absence of novelty in
respect to the first piece, Eleanorth
of which we
e
Amazon !
Queen of France and England, the
gave on its first representation on plot
Easter Monday.
Suffice it to say that the story includes
of the French Court in the reign of
the departure
of Louis VII. for
the Crusade, the subsequent marriage of Henry 11.
with Queen Eleanor of Prance, andtt
of the " Fair
who,
Rosamond,"
history (altered
and adapted for melodramaticstd ea effects)
of drinking poison, is
lucky enough to be 'rescued by the Lady Abbess of
Godstone, who removes her at once from the potion
so freely offered by the Queen, and from the perfidy of
her false lord, Henry. As a spectacle the affair is not
so good as the general run of these pieces, though
the performers exerted themselve to the utmost. A
Gardoni astonished the audience by her very
unique and graceful performance on the tight-rope.
The scenes in the circle were much applauded ; and,
as a matter of contrast, the riding of Mdlle. Alberti,
of Paris, on her highly-trained steed of the ntenage,
was highly pleasing. Barry, the clown, charmed " the
gods," and so did Wheal, the gymnastic buffoon. The
performances closed with " a grand hippo-dramatic
sketch," called A Night in Persia ; or, the Fete of
the Shah. This was made the vehicle for introduc-
ing serpent charmers, sprites, target-players, pos-
turers, mandolin players, almas, nymphs of the veil,
ladies of the harem, dancing girls, guards, lantern
bearers, by numerous auxiliaries ; silver sprites ; or,
ariel acrobats ; the serpentine ladder, polandric pheno:
rcenon, Egyptian jugglers, musicians of the royal
band, the globe equilibrist, the pas de cocoa 17,
dancers of Senegal ; the dance of the floating veil, byas
the alma of the ganges ; wild dance of
the serpent charmers of Koordistan; waltz Oriental,
by the bayaderes of 'Tibet, &C.

VAUXHALL GARDENS.
Notwithstanding that Whitsuntide has been
ushered in with its usuel severity, this deservedly
favourite resort attracted a crowded attendance last
evening, when amongst other entertainments pro-
vided
for the holiday-makers was an aerial ascent by
Mr. H. Bell, in his patent locomotive balloon. The
ascent was an excellent one, but owing to the high
wind prevailing at the time, Mr. Bell was unable to
bring into operation those peculiar appliances by
i
means of which, n very calm weather, he undertakes