The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-16 00:00:00

EPUBLIC
! DENMARK AND THE DUCHIES.
COPENHAGEN, Nov. S.
Prussia has lately made two propositions to the
Danish Government. The first is to appoint a com-
mission of Prussians, Austrians, and Danes, to con-
sider the differences existing between the Danish
Crown and the Duchies. The Cabinet of Berlin de-
sires that that of Copenhagen should make the ne-
cessary advances at Vienna to obtain the adhesion of
Austria to this proposition. Answer has been made,
that it was not for Denmark to prescribe to Germany in
general, and to Austria in particular, in what manner
either should fulfil its obligations.
The second proposition is for an armistice. This
has been neither accepted nor repulsed. As it was
concluded in obscure terms, the Government has
applied for the explanations necessary to determine
its meaning. Desiring, however, to furnish a new
proof of its good will, it has announced its readi-
ness to order General KEOGH to cease hostilities for
a fortnight, provided that a similar engagement is
taken with the Holsteiners. The Danish Govern•
ment cannot accept the conditions which the Seat-
thalterschaft has attached to this suspension of hos-
tilities.

Prince CHRISTIAN of Giuckiburg. and Count VON
Pl./158EN are on their way from Warsaw. They are
the bearers of an autograph letter from the CZAR, in
which he declares that he will not ailow the question
of the duchies to remain subject to the arrangement
of the quarrel of Austria and Prussia.

HEN, MAJESTY'S THEATRE.
GRAND NATIONAL CONCERTS.
The committee last evening fully redeemed the
pledge they gave in their programme, that these
concerts should have, as one of their great objects,
the encouragement of the cultivation of a taste for
music of the highest order by the production of classi-
cal works, vocal and instrumental, by living English
composers. Last night was produced a classical
work which will do honour to the English school of
composition wherever classical music is appreciated,
and which is destined, if we mistake not, to take its
place hereafter by the side of the master- pieces of Mozart
and Handel. We allude to Mr. G. A. Macfarren's
serenata, The Sleeper Awakened, which was pro-
duced last night at these concerts with a perfection
which left nothing to be desired, and with a success
as genuine as it was triumphant. Our non-musical
readers may, perhaps, be inclined to ask what is a
serenata ? A serenata is, in fact, a secular oratorio,
a dramatic musical composition, produced without
the aid of scenery, machinery, or gorgeous cos-
tumes—an opera minus the usual stage accom-
paniments. Handel was rather fond of this style
of composition, and in his Acis and Galatea
has given us what has hitherto been con-
sidered the model serenata; but Handel, in
the composition of serenatas, confined himself ex-
clusively to serious subjects ; and to Mr. G. A. Mac-
farren is due the honour of being the originator of
the comic serenata, for such is his Sleeper
Awakened, and as perfect in is way as is the Adis
and Galatea of Handel; taking Mozart as the standard
of comparison, we may say that what the Acis and
Galatea is to La Clemenza di Tito, that is The
Sleeper Awakened to the Nozze diFigaro. The
libretto is by Mr. John Oxenford, and Mr.
G. A. Macfarren has consequently enjoyed the great
advantage of having words and songs with meaning as
well as rhyme to set to his music, an advantage not li
always enjoyed by composers, but one of which Mr.
Macfarren has well known how to avail himself, for
he has always seized the meaning of his author, and
translated it admirably into the universal language—
music. A composition more brilliantly sparkling, more
dramatically expressive or more perfectly instru-
mented, we have never heard than The Sleeper
Awakened. It took two hours and a half to per-
form without any entre-acte or interval of rest, and
yet there was nothing heavy, nothing common-place
about it, nothing that the most fastidious critic could
have wished removed; the attention never flagged, the
audience were carried on with the author, the com-
poser, and the performers, in the development of the
story, and at the conclusion there was not, we are
sure, a person in the house who would have wished
to have it curtailed in the least. The following is
the official programme of the cast and arrangement
of the serenata