The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-29 00:00:00

Li' CB UM THEATEE.

Last night Madame Celeste commenced her
managerial reign at this theatre, and if a first night
can be taken as any criterion, then a success equal
to any that has. been secured since the theatre has
been erected may be safely predicted. On the
rising of the curtain, the talented directress ap-
peared before a brilliant audience to deliver her
inaugural address, and the reception she met with
was enthusiastic in the extreme. It was fully five
minutes before the cheering and waving of hats
and handkerchiefs ceased, when Madame Celeste
came forward and spoke as follows :
" Ladies and Gentlemen.—lt is with the sincerest grati-
fication I have the honour of appearing before you this
evening. It has been my good fortune for so many years
to enjoy your applause when, perhaps, you have too much
flattered my poor endeavours—(` No, no')— that—and this
is the penalty imposed upon you for your good nature—l
have taken courage to assume the managemen.t of this
theatre—(loud cheers)—a responsibility which will extend
the sphere of my exertions to gratify you, and demands the
full exercise of all the artistic ability for which you have
been pleased to give me credit. (Cheers.) Had I listened
too attentively to the recommendations of my more cautious
advisers I should probably have retired from an enterprise
in which success can bring me no more dramatic triumph
than I have already received at your generous bands.
(Loud cheers.) I feel bound to give you an outline of the
general programme of my first campaign. In the first rank
I propose to place romantic drama, which shall be sup-
ported with the lighter elegancies of the comedietta and
the Tandeville. Nor shall the eccentricities of farce be
wanting to finish your histrionic feast. (Continued ap-
plause.) And now, having briefly described my intention,
I am anxious to make a formal announcement of my deter-
mination, in the selection of new pieces, to give a preference
to the original productions of English authors. (Loud
cheers.) I have one word to address to Messieurs the
Critics. I pray you, gentlemen, from whom personally I
have always received so much indulgence—l pray you, if
you detect our failings (and of course you will, for perfec-
tion is not given to mortals), to deal with us kindly—to
;do your spiriting gently'—(cheers)—for a word well and
generously meant gives encouragement and provokes emu-
lation at the same time that it gives counsel and advice.
Of one thing you may rest satisfied—that whatever pro-
mises I make I shall most assuredly perform. (Loud
cheers.) I will do my best to please you—the best can do
no more. Entirely shall I be dependent on your kind
patronage for 21y future prosperity. If that is granted me
I may hope to enjoy a long and happy reign. In giving
you a most affectionate welcome to the Lyceum under my
management we part to meet again very soon." (Enthu-
siastic applause.)
In a few minutes the curtain rose on the new
melodrama, entitled " Paris and Pleasure, or Home
and Happiness," which is a clever adaptation by
Mr. Charles Selby, of MM. Beauvoir and Tri-
houses " Les Enfers de Paris" and presents a vivid
representation of the gaieties of Paris, and the vor-
tex of pleasure in which fast youths with more gold
than sense speedily become engulphed, but from
which they were sometimes rescued, before being
wholly lost, by the intervention of one guardian
angel or watchful friend. The piece opens with a bril-
liant scene representing a " Cabinet Particulier at
the Cafe Anglais." The revellers are assembled
after the opera bal masque in their fancy costumes,
making a merry night of it. Two visitors from the
opera introduce themselves, dressed as Punchinello
and Crespin, and are welcomed by the members of
the boisterous party. They are George Kerven and
Jolicceur Desgenais, two young gentleman farmers
of Britanny. They have recently come into the
possession of a large property, and have started to
the French capital to see and enjoy life in Paris,
leaving behind them, in a most disconsolate state,
the young peasant girls to whom, before this wind-
fall of good luck, they were affianced. At the
height• of their revelry, a masked figure of his Sa-
tanic Majesty enters, and endeavours, contrary to
all the notions of that personage, to dissuade the
youths from their vicious courses and return to the.
paths of virtue and their homes in Britanny. The
warning voice is disregarded, and they rush head-
long into the follies of fast life. The morning
after the ball a Britanny farm girl makes her
way into the lodgings of the gay youths, deli-
vers to them letters from the absent Madeline and
Trouquette, and upbraids them with having left
the pleasant fields and home of their native land to
be fine gentlemen in Paris. They are, however,
intent upon following the course which they have
commenced. They. are about to become the victims
of some unprincipled chevaliers d'industrie, have
signed some acknowledgments for shares in some
swindling joint-stock concern, when, just at the
moment they are about to hand over the documents,
a Commissary of Police makes his appearance, the
sharpers are arrested, and the fraud is prevented.
George forms a connection with one of the gayest
of the gay lorettes of Paris, Mdlle. Carmen, and a
lady of fashion - waits upon her, imploring her to
sacrifice her self-interest and feelings, and permit
her adorer to return to the heartbroken peasants
whom he has left in the country. The struggle to
let him go is a vain one, and her self-interest
triumphs over her better feelings, and she is re-
solved still to drag the hapless youth a captive at
her chariot. Funds begin to fail the youths, and
they resolve upon selling the fee simple of their
estates. A commission agent interferes very cleverly
with the old usurer who is about to clutch the estate,
and the sale is prevented. Finally, want and
poverty overtake the gay Lotharios, and they are
the wretched inmates of Cliehy, the debtors' prison
in Paris. Hopeless and desponding for the future,
Joliceeur resolves .upon selling himself to the
Devil, whom he supposes he has recognised in
each of the various personages who have interfered
in his and his friend's behalf. In obedience to some
grotesque incantations, the gentleman on town ap-
pears. Apologising for the absence of the usual
physical adornments of his Satanic Majesty, cloven
hoofs, horns, Sc., and for proffering advice so much
against his own interest and inclinations, he offers
the prisoners their estates free from encumbrance, on
the condition of their preferring in future " Home
and Happiness" to " Pleasure and Paris." Distress
and poverty have brought about a feeling of repent-
ance, the offer is accepted, and the prisoners obtain
their liberty and return to their homes in Bri-
tanny, to receive a hearty greeting from the ill-
used Madeleine and Trouquette. The good genius
of the young men has been after all but a long-lost
sister of the two forsaken peasant girls, who has
obtained a high position in her profession as an
actress, known as Mdlle. Chamrfieure. She had
recognised in the pleasure-seeking youths the com-
panions of her former years, and the suitors of her
sisters, and enjoying access to numerous sources of
information, she had been enabled to keep a watch
on their career, while her abilities as an actress en-
abled her to assume readily the various disguises
which she thought necessary in order to protect
their interests, or restore them to a life of rectitude.

The principal part, that of Mdlle. Champfleure,
an actress, was of course sustained by Madame
Celeste, and a rarer exhibition of the dramatic art
we have never witnessed. In each of the charac•
ters she represented, and there were six or seven
of them, she acted as she alone could act, and the
rapidity with which the numerous changes were
effected were really marvellous. The peculiarities
of each of the difforent characters were brought out
with that rare artistic finish for 'which the talented
managress has been so justly celebrated. Mr.
Walter Lacy and Mr. F. Villers, as the runaway
lovers, were excellent, while Miss Julia St. George
as Trouquette and Miss Hudspeth as Madeline acted
with a piquancy that was really refreshing.
" Paris and Pleasure" has been put upon the stage
in the most brilliant manner imaginable, and it is
very rare nowadays we see such evidences of extreme
taste and knowledge of effect. Nothing
certainly can be more brilliant than the co-
lours of the holidav-makers' dresses in the café
or more chaste than the tapestried boudoir of Ma-
dame Carmen, or the Breton cottage.
At the fall of the curtain the applause was im-
mense, and the new drama may be pronounced
" a decided hit," and most deservedly so.
The " National Anthem" was then sung, and the
entertainments concluded with the farce entitled,
" A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock," in which Mr.
Rouse sustained the leading comic part with much
genuine humour.

The subscription to the East Indian Railway 5
per Cent. Debenture Loan of £1,600,000 was completed this
morning. The company have declined to allow brokerage
to members of the Stock Exchange on the amounts origi-
nally subscribed through their agency, although they have
paid it on each subsequent sum.

LATEST NEWS.