The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-17 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY.
The Royal Mail steamship Canada, Capt. Lang,
has arrived in the Mersey with the usual mails
from the United S atm and British North America.
She left Boston on the sth inst., and Halifax on
the 7th, and has brought 117 passenger', but no
specie.

The following vessels had arrived out :—The
steamer New York,. from Glasgow, and the Bor-
dassia, from Hamburg, at New York, on May 1 ;
and the • Ariel,. from Southampton, on the 4th.
The Europa, hence, arrived at Halifax on M•ty 4.
The President had signed the Kansas Bill, which
finally settles that question.
Nothing of importance had taken place in Con-
gress.

Considerable agitation exists in Washington with
reference to the Yrsarri Trelty, and it i-i said that
it will not be ratified unless the transit monopoly
is abolished.

Edward Dessling, the Prussian, arrested under
the extradition treaty, for forgery at Colognl, has
been acquitted.
Havannah advicos to the 25th ult. represent
sugars as dull, at a decline of half a real on inferior,
qualities. _ .

Advices from Venezuela, state that the ex-Presi-
dent Monages had Peen given up by the diplomatic
body, but that his win had escaped. The Provi-
sional Government had issued a commissio❑ invit-
ing General Paery to return from New York and
resume the Presidency of the Republic.
The ship Majestic, from Liverpool to Charleston,
was burned at sea ; the passengers and crew were
saved and landed at Halifax. _ _

At Now York, on the 4th, stocks, though vari-
able, exhibited a slight advance. A considerable

alteration hal-taken place in foreign exchange, the
market was firm at 109.
Cotton was without important change ; mid.
uplands 12g.
State and Western flour very heavy, and a shade
lower. Southern steady. Canada superfine nomi-
nal. Corn higher. Beef steady. Pork dull, un-
settled and lower. Lard dull and lower. Sugar
depressed. Freights firmer. The Europa's news
caused greater firmness in the New Orleans Cotton
Market on May 4th.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

+-

NEW COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.

The inauguration of this superb and unequalled
Palace of the Lyrical Drama took place on Satur-
day night under the most auspicious circumstances.
According to a promise to that effect made public
about two months ago, the occasion selected for
the Opening Day was no other than Her Majesty's
Birthday, the official Birthday 'celebrated. on the
15th of May, in anticipation of the real Birthday
of Queen Victoria, the 24th inst., Monday next,
on which day that happy event will be commemo-
rated among themselves by the Royal Family
as its veritable thirty-ninth anniversary. Con-
spicuous this time beyond all the festivities, official
and ex-official, given in honour of the Sovereign on
Saturday—beyond Her Majesty's own regal Draw-
ing-room in St. James's Palace, the various minis-
terial Banquets, the Grand Ball at the Prime
Minister's nominal residence in Downing-street,
and the stately assembly at the would-be Premier's
actual dwelling (Cambridge House) in Piccadilly,
atwhich last mentioned abode the reunion was "kept
up" until long past midnight in a manner perfectly
consistent with Lord Palmerston's recent and very
curious adhesion (iu the wrong way) to the Sabbata-
rian movement! Beyondallthese radiant and sump-
tuous festivities, aided by the customary review of
the Household Troops in the Park, the firing of
salmon, the ringing of church bells, the display of
flags and streamers, and the kindling after night-
fall of numerous appropriate illuminations—there
was the giand event of Saturday evening, an event
which will long distinguish her Majesty's Birth-
day in 1858 among its many predecessors, and we
hope also, with God's blessing, among its many
successors—namely, the opening of the new Royal
Italian Opera, tho new Covent Garden Theatre,
according to solemn promise and engagement.
How that promise was kept it would be difficult
indeed to describe with any accuracy—it would be
bewildering even to conjecture. A rumour was
afloat among the audience on Saturday, shortly
after their admission within the walls, that the last
two hours were something very like madness ; yet,
assuredly, it must have been a madness with a
marvellous method in it, for there was this won-
derful edifice completed inside to its minutest deco-
rations, although up to the last minute before the
admission of the audience the preparations were
in active progress. In illustration of this we
may simply remark that while we were all waiting
under cover before the grand entrance (half-an-hour
after time by the way, and no wonder !) there was
carried through the crowd across Bow-street from
the direction of Long Acre, some of the scenery,
to be passed just in the nick by a side door in Hart-
street on to the stage to assist in the decoration of
the performances. Beyond which, after the crowd
had actually entered the building—there, behind
the lovely mimic draperied drop-curtain still rang
the clink of nail and hammer, the busy note of pre-
paration I
Already it would be merely a platitude to say
that the new Italian Opera House in Covent-garden
is the largest Theatre in the World—still with
one exception, the renowned La Scala. Every-
body knows that. But everybody does not yet
know that it is actually and truly besides that with-
out any exception—the grandest, the loveliest, in-
comparably beyond all others in Europe, the most
stately and the most magnificent. Entering the house
and taking up our allotted position in perhaps the
very best place of all both for sight and sound—
for what our neighbours call the coup d'ceil
and the tout ensemble, meaning the orchestra stalls,
the stalls—we glanced about us, we gazed our fill,
we drank deeply of the splendour and the beauty
of that all but perfect interior. It was soon crowded
—not to suffocation, for the place is deliciously ven-
tilated—not to inconvenience, for each spectator
is provided in the way of mere room for living and
breathing, with ample accommodation. It was filled
as a matter of course everywhere, in boxes, pit,
stalls, slips, gallery, and amphitheatre. Alto-
gether from one to two thousand, strictly speaking,
we believe, 1,698 persons were enabled with entire
comfort to see the stage, to hear the music, to
lounge at ease each in his arm-chair as though he
were slippered comfortably on his own hearth-rug,
or lolling in one of the very best specimens of the
modern railway carriage. Only that besides being
without the motion of the latter, you are anything
but (as in the instance of the railway carriage)
cabined, cribbed, confined. Looking upwards to
the 'ceiling—there hung radiantly pendant and
resplendent from its centre, the largest cut
glass chandelierever constructed-18 feet in height,
13 feet in diameter, consisting altogether
of three tons of the purest cut glass; comprising
700 gas jets and 120,000 glass prisms ! No wonder
the very chandelier itself when the gas was turned
on more brightly received a distinct round of ap-
plause, as though it had been ono of the performers
—a star it certainly was and a very bright one of
the first magnitude. The applause might have
been appropriated to themselves by the fabricators
of this Wonderful Lamp in this Palace of Aladdin,
the Messrs. Defries of—Oh, unromantic name—
Hounsditch ! Having admired themammoth chan-
delier to the utmost, with a passing glance of appro-
bation at the small delicate triple branches with gas-
jets and cut-glass shades arranged round the grand
tier at each division of the boxes, and noted, not
without marvel, the astonishing row of footlights
extending along the whole width of that wonderful
elongated orchestra—we look up once more to the
ceiling. Not this time to remark the mammoth
chandelier but the half-dome-shaped ceiling
from the middle of which it is hanging and
glittering. A domical ceiling it is, supported on
exquisite elliptical arches. The perforated centre
has a diameter, we are told on reliable authority,
otherwise we should hardly believe it, a diame•
ter of twelve feet, giving, of course, some thirty-six
feet as its circumference. The decorations (while
throughout the house they are almost entirely pure
white and gold) are here, in the ceiling, gold upon
a delicate groundwork of the lightest azure, look-
ing, by artificial light, of the palest peagreen. The
design of the adorn ments overhead has been furnished
by the master designer of the whole theatre, Barry,
and this design has been truthfully and tastefully
executed by Messrs. Jackson. It is, so to speak,
if we may define it by any one word, geometrical
Divided into radiating compartments—bossed, and
looped, and trellised, altogether an exquisite fabri-
cation. As to the boxes, built up in three tiers,
and surmounted by a gallery tier on either side,
giving a total of exactly 124 boxes in all, they are
in simplest exactitude of phase, framed each like a
very charming picture—some of these pictures, by
the by, disclosing to the impertinently prying
telescopic gaze of our opera-glass, " originals'
of the "human face divine" better than any that
ever came from the easle of Sir Joshua or Sir
Thomas, of Grant or Gordon, of Vandyck or
Velasquez. While the lining of these boxes is
crimson the silky curtains by which they are all
draperied in front are of a deep rose-pink. A
colour warming up the cool sparkle and freshness
of the prevailing white and gold in the pannelling
and the pillars—the pannels for the most pact being
bossed with cupids, flowers, and fruit—Ale pillars
being of the most elegant spiral shape well im-
aginable. The latter it may be ?observed, too,
meaning the pillars, are one mass of gold-leaf--the
former, i.e. the pannels, gold-leaf and cream-white
alternately. As to the amount of gilding in the
house it would be rather puzzling to guess at—the
gold leaves must have been strewed about there as
thickly as the famous leaves of Va!ambrosa ! The
proscenium is one mass of the richest gilding—
that matchless and eminently beautiful proscenium !
This, of all parts of the house, if we could positively
have made any selection of the
kind, we should
have chosen as our favourite. The proscenium !
—fifty feet high, eight or ten feet wider than any
theatre in London, wider even than that ofthe great
La Scala—fit porch or rather lattice to that gigantic
stage, a vast stage, no less than 90 feet square in
its dimensions. Above this lovely gilded, ornate,
soaring, in its lightness almost aerial, proscenium,
glows, in gold, the familiar medallion profile ever
delightful to gaze upon, but certainly mostagreeable
of all to look at when stamped in gold, the pleasant
English features of our gracious English Queen.
Grouped on either side of the shield bearing this
medallion are the classic and semi-c'assic designs by
Raffaelle Monti, in alto and basso-relievo—repre-
senting, on one hand, Orpheus and his ancient
Greek listeners, and on the other hand Ossian and
his ancient British listeners. Both sufficiently
apocryphal—the latter being the portraiture of an
ideal scene that it would have done Mr. James
Macpherson's heart good to look at 1 Scanning, in
fact, the whole interior of this wonderful
edifice as a whole—taking the view of it into
the mind in one general survey—considering it no
longer piecemeal but altogether—we lecogniee as
its chief attribute, as its paramount and con-
,pictious characteristic (in spite of all the gorgeous
rofasion of gold leaf already par, iculaxised)—
e hab ?—distinctly we say it, a lovely and chaste
(GA artistic simplicity ! In its proportions, in its
otitl nes, in its furniture, in its decorations. There
is nothing overlaid with ornament. There is much
ti at is gorgeous—there is nothing that is meretri-
Ciolle. It is simply superb, The eye is charmed,

the taste and judgment are together satisfied. But,
while wo are gazing about us in delighted admi-
ration—there is a second peal of applawe, at first
slight but rapidly rising into acclamation. Not
another Brobdignagian chandelier—no, it is the
orchestra filling, it mM. Costa at his desk baton,
in hand. There is M. Sainton with his violin, by
right as well as by genius " first fiddle," there is
Pratten with his flute, there Lazarus with his
clarionet, there Harper with his trumpet, there
Chipp with his drum, there Prospere with his
o phecleide —there, above all, is the chef,
the maestro, Composer, Director, Conductor,
all in one—Costa. It is like his welcome
home again, that cordial round rising, and falling
and swelling louder, again and yet again, as he bows,
magic wand in hand, to boxes, gallery, andamphi-
theatre. The opera begins, the masterpiece wisely
chosen for the first night —" The Huguenots!'
There are long pauses between the acts, the last act
even is not performed at all, the National Anthem
losing substituted for it as a conclusion in conse-
quence of Sunday morning having commenced.
Yet never perhaps has grander effect been given to
those three that acts than was given on Saturday
night to that three-quarter length of the great
original of Meyerbeer. What is the cast ? It is
the grand old cast of yore—before the late house
was burnt into ruins. Read the names, and say
whether they sound not familiarly. As for
Mario, never did he sing more deliciously.
He was in glorious voice, and acted (as he
was) as though he were lord of the scene and
master of the situation. His welcome home again,
too, was an ovation. Cordial, also, was the reception
accorded to each in turn among the other favourite
performers. Particularly (as to a pet) to Madlle.
Didiee, as the stripling page Urbano. But most of
all to the long-time Queen of Song, Madame Grisi,
who was greeted at first with a storm of plaudits,
and at last with a brilliant and odorous shower of
bouquets. The mis en scene, even with all the
hurry of the first night, was admirable. The
scenery, new and sparkling from the ar-
tist's brush, the dresses, glossy and sparkling
from the hands of the costumier. The choruses
have been admirably drilled, and the orchestral
accompaniments were in every instance kept in
perfect subordination—even at moments of the
wildest fury of sound from drum and trumpet, as
in the crash of the grand chorus of malediction,
after the stealthy retreat towards the back of the
stage, the sudden wheel round upon the audience,
and he rush down to the footlights. Admirable
also was the famous chorus of the Huguenot sol-
diers with its " Ra.taplan " refrain. Madlle.
Didioe's ever delightful " Non —non, non,
non," won applauses that reminded us of the
encores always extorted for the same delectable
romance by Madlle. Alboni's rendering of it.
As one morsel of humour in the midst of
the colossal solemnity and pathos of the great
opera, it should be remarked that Signor Talmo
provoked a burst of laughter by his lugubrious
comicality in dolefully chauntingthat dismal little
stave as head of the Night Watch. Signor Taglia-
fico was the only chief performer who appeared to
us in any way at fault, and in the instance alluded
to, somewhat unaccountably—we mean in his de-
livery of the Nobil Donzella when conducting his
bride to the nuptial barge at the close of the
second act. Fresh his voice may be in
every note but in this instance it was
decidedly flat, and, so far as relates to any pleasure
resulting from it, beyond all manner of doubt, un-
profitable. It is almost needless to say that a very
cordial reception was accorded to the various ins-
personatOrs of the chief characters. While, it
must be admitted, that M. Zelger gave a respect-
able rendering of the great part of Mircel, it can-
not possibly but be regretted that Herr Formes
somehow failed to appear as the old puritanical
swashbuckler. This inevitable regret was all -*he
more poignantly experienced on hearing Zelger's
version of the grand old Piff Paff song of bleed-
and-thunder. Signor Polonini, it will have been
remarked, appeared as formerly as Count de
San Bris—Signor Soldi as Travannes—Signor
Rossi as De Retz—and Signor Pierini as
Meru. It was in his famous interview with
these in the third act that Signor Tagliafico, as the
Count de Nevers, appeared on Saturday both as s
singer and as an actor to the highest advantage.
But the grand histrionic and lyrical triumphs of
the night were of course won pre-eminently and
beyond all question, mais cela va sans dire, by
Madame Grisi and Signor Mario, as Raoul and
Valentina. Who does not know Grisi's " Salle
Raoul per me non temo I" and yet more, the "11'
the morra ma per salver ?" Who has not a grateful
remembrance of the dulcet and delicious tones 01
the great tenor, of the thrilling passion and ten-
derness thrown by him into the " Per tutti 11
ci el," or, best of all, into the "Bella diving lucent-
atrice t" The climax of the acting and singing Of
each being capped by the renowned scene at the
close of the third act, with which, as we have Faid,
this Famous First Night of the new Theatre in
Covent-garden terminated. The memorable event
of that first night is a triumph to all concerned in
it—above all, it is a wonderful triumph for gr.
Gye, whose absence on the occasion was a matter
of universal regret—more particularly from the
circumstance of that absence being unfortunately
attributable to the exhaustion consequent upon his
extraordinary efforts to fulfil his apparently impos‘
Bible, but punctually realised engagement.
The Queen's box was occupied by Lady Caroline
Barrington and Miss Barrington, Lady Georgians
Grey, Mr. C. Barrington, Mr. Sartoris, and Mr.
West. Among the fashionable company present 10,
the theatre were—the Duchess of Montrose 5111"
Lady Agnes Graham, the Marquis of Stafford, the
Earl Granville, the Countess of Glengall and LadY
Margaret Butler, the Earl of Carlisle and LadY
Blantyre, the arl and Countess Constance Gros'
venor, Earl Spencer, the Earl of Uxbridge, the Bari
and ountess of Stamford and Warrington, the Earlf
of Coventry, the Earl of Cardigan, the Countess°
Kinnoull, the Earl of Gifford, the Earl and Countess
of Bective, the Earl and Coentess of Bessborough;
the Earl of Shelburne, the Countess of Fife and
Miss Wemyss, the Countess of Bradford and the
Ladies Bridgman and Miss Moncrieffe, the Conn'
teas Dowager of Harrington, Viscountess Villiers,
Viscount and Viscountess Malden, Viscount ,and
Viscountess Dupplin and Lady Henrietta Morant,
Viscount Ranelagh, Viscount Clifden, Viscount
Exmouth, Lord Vard, Lady Wharncliffe, LadY
Augusta Seymour and the Misses Seymour, Lord
H. G. Lennox, M.P., Lord G. G. Lennox, M.P.,
Lady Hislop, Lady Georgiana Codring?ilt
Lord Henry Thynne, Lord Adolphus Vs,"
Tempest, M.P., Lord Arthur Hay and tue
Ladies Jane and Julia Hay, Lady Elinor Cavell;
dish and Mr. C. Cavendish, Lady Panmure and
Mr. Power, Count Louis Corti, Capt. the Hon. u.
flay and Mrs. Hay, Capt. the Hon. T. H. G. Fer;
mor, Hon. E. S. Russell, M.P.,and Mu. Buell
and the Hon. Miss Russell, on. Mrs. Colvi •
Hon. John Fortescue, Hon. Mrs. Ives, Hon. +. 1.•
Biddulph and Miss Seymour, Hon. Otway T$ f".O
lion. Mrs. Charles Oust, Hon. Mrs. _Ricardo, S!r
Alexander Bannerman, Sir George Armytage, Sir
William de Bathe, Lady Webster, Sir Geo, Womb-
well, Lady Macfarlane and Miss Macfarlane, Sir
John Lowther, M.P., Sir Henry Cotterell,
Col. Brownlove Knox, M.P., Col. de Bathe,
_Ol.
Ellison, Col. Bigg, Col. Meyrick and Miss Meyrielt
Major Gage, Major de Horsey Major Cook, Car':•
f
E. St. John Mildrnay, Captain Dawson Darnel'
Captain and Mrs. Leyland and Miss Leyland,
Capt. Dampier, Capt. Vivian, Capt. Shearson,_D2l
Beutinck, M.P., Mr. Conyngham, M.P., and Msg.
Conyngham, Mr. Henry Baring, M.P., Mr. Ha-
milton Beckett and the Hon. Mrs. Beckett, Mrs.
William Duff, Mr. Hubert de Burgh, Mr. Theo-
dore Uzielli, Mr. Woodford, Mr. Ellis Williams,
Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish Beutinck, Mrs. Mountjoy.
Martin, Mr. and Mrs. Villeboie, Mr. Antrebus,
Mr. Chas. Webster, Mr. F. Webster, dec.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATEE.—The Queen's box at
Her Majesty's Theatre was occupied on Saturday by
the Duchess of
companyM Ron. Arthurur g
h
ancbe s
honouring
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ody
Egerton.eh
Churchill,tA
eat
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oL
viniagditit
the
fashionable BlancheEgerton,
thetheir presence were the Duke of Cleveland and Le?
Augusta Poulett, the Duke of Hamilton, b'
Excellency Baron Brunnow, the .Marquis of Call;
ricarde, the Marchioness of Downshire,
Ward, his Excellency Count Kielmansegge the
Marquis of Sligo, and the Ladies Browne,
Countess of Harrington, the Earl of Chesterfields the
Earl of Wicklow, the Earl and Countess of Essex, the
Earl and Countess of Mountcharles, the Earl of Shef
burns, Viscount Clifden, Viscount Powerscourt, fir.
Charles Klingemarn, Count' Amlejorn Sparre, Count
Bark, the Lord and the Lady Mayoress, Lady Cber4-
Somerset, Lady Geraldine Somerset, and Lady
Somerset, Lady Brougham, Lord Ernest Bruce, LA,
James Stuart, Lord William Lennox, Lord and Le"
Harry Vane, Lord Sandys, Lady Charlotte Eger.,,t°l3:
Lord Ashley Lady Ryan, Lady Wilson, Hon. J'Ar''
Stuart, Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley Ward, Ga. tb!
Hon. H. Cavendish, Col. Paget, Capt. Bateson, Admiral
Ryder Burton, Sir Joseph Hawley, Sir Ralph an
Lady Howard, Sir John Gibbons, Sir J. Buller BO."
Sir Cusack and Lady Roney, Capt. Lyon, SrJ. Re"le°
Mr. Forbes Campbell, Gen. Taylor, Gen.
Slr. Alfred Montgomery, Mr. Roupe'l, M.P., andtl.
R.iiipell ; Col. Hammill, Col. Lockyer Freestun,
nd Mr Freest in, Col. Crispin, Col. and Mra. Wa.
son, Mr. Paoke, and Mrs. Packe Readieg ' • Mr- 4°o
Mrs. Kay, Mrs. Trelawny, Mr. Burder, Mr. AlPbaS
C Things, &c.
A
A pOTHECABIES HALL—The following are the DO
n-
of gentlemen who passed' their examination in the
,eiei,ce and practice of medicine, and received certificates
to practice, on Thursday, May 13 :—Henry Elirsovr
Castle-street, Hastings ; William Tande, Laira7
Conduit-street ; William Harris, Waterford, Ireland
Henry Hope Atkinson, Redhil, Surrey ; Jas. Oliver
•
John Morton Beaumont ; Nicholas Fenvirck JELele,
Pangbourn, Herts. , ;

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