The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-23 00:00:00

CLOSE OF THE OPERA SEASON.

On Tuesday evening her Majesty's Theatre closed
for the season —a season, to the full, as brilliant and
as successful as that of 1843, and one which reflects
even greater credit .on the managerial talents of Mr.
Lumley. No accidents occurred during the course
of the season of 1843 to interfere with the arrange-
ments which had been announced at its commence-
ment; but in 1844, from the very first night of the
season, a series of events, which no human foresight
could have provided against, occurred to interfere
with the previously-announced arrangements, and
occurred, too, at exactly those periods which rendered
it of all things the most difficult- to provide against
their consequences. Such, however, was the tact of
Mr. Lumley, that he turned his very difficulties into
sources of triumph, and neither the illness of Forna-
sari, at the commencement of the season, nor the
accidents which occurred to Perrot and Montassu

during its progress, were -sufficient to damp his
energies, or to stop him in his onward course.
The season commenced on the 9th of March,
not with a second-rate company, as was the case
during the time that Laporte swayed the destinies of
this theatre, but with Persiani as prima donna, with
Carlotta Grisi ai premiere danseuse. Signor Corelli
the first of second tenors, and who will ere long rank
as a first tenor, made his deblit on that evening, and
laid the foundation of that fame with the English
public, which has increased, is increasing, and which,
with ordinary care on his part, will continue to in-
crease. The beautiful ballet of Esmeralda was
also produced on this occasion, and repeated, we be.
lieve, every evening during the stay of Carlotta Grisi.
The next noticeable event was the debut of Favanti in
La Cenerentola, and notwithstanding the disparaging
observations of a certain clique who have chosen to
make a dead set at this young lady, we adhere to the
opinions which we first formed of her talents and
powers, and presage for her, if she gives herself fair
play, a brilliant future. Nature has done everything
for her—her voice is one of the most powerful, and
at the same time most perfect, voices ever heard, but
as a race-horse requires more training than a hack,
so does a brilliant voice require more constant drill-
ing than the voice of ordinary powers. That she is
willing to undergo the drudgery which every great
singer must undergo in order to become great, we
hope and believe, for on Tuesday night we
observed a marked improvement in her style.
Her Pippo, too, one of her latest perform-
ances, was most art;stical; and neither in Pippo,
nor in her performance of Tuesday, was that defec-
tive intonation perceptible of which so much has been
attempted to be made. Her occasional defective in-
tonation is, we believe, mainly tobe attributed to nervous
timidity, for we have frequently observed, that when
she has received the encouragement of applause, that
defect has entirely disappeared, and whenever she has
been encouraged by an encore, she has invariably re-
peated the air in a more perfect manner than she
performed it at first. When, therefore, she shall
have acquired that confidence in herself in which
every debutante must be necessarily deficient, she will
take rank among the very first of her profession,
After Easter we had Grisi, Lablache, Fornasari, and
Mario, added to the corps. The first novelty pro-
duced was Zampa, which, notwithstanding the mag-
nificent acting and singing of Fornasari as the pirate
chief, had not a very long run. This was to be attri-
buted to a variety of causes—first, to the unfortunate
fiasco of Felice in this character at the commence-
ment of the season; secondly, to the fact that the plot
of the piece bears too close a resemblance to that of
Don Giovanni; and lastly, to the circumstance that
the music was originally composed, not to
Italian, but to French words. The attempt,
however, to vary the repertory of the theatre by
naturalising a celebrated foreign opera, was most
laudable. Shortly after Easter, Carlotta Grisi left
us, and Cerito came. Ondine and Alma were revived
in their pristine splendour, and the beautiful diver-
tissement of La Vivandiere was produced. Then
came the operatic novelty, par excellence, of the season,
Costa's opera of Don Carlos, the run of which was in-
terrupted by the arrival of Moriani, the first tenor of
Europe, and for securing whose services Mr. Lumley
is worthy of all praise. At this period, too, the
ballet department was reinforced by the engagement
of Fanny Ellsler, who, with Fanny Cerito, has ap-
peared every night of the season up to its close. We
have heard it made a matter of complaint by those
who are determined not to be pleased with anything
as it is, that so few new operas have been produced ;
ut when we can see the old operas supported as they
have been during the present season, we must confess
that we have no great desire for new ones, and the
public seem to be of this opinion likewise, for every
„..b
night the house has been crowded to the ceiling.
Besides, the fault is not with the manager—where
was he to go for novelty ? Donizzetti has ceased
even to plagiarise effectively, and since Don Pasquale
he has produced nothing of note. Rossini has ceased
to write; and as to Ricci, the success of his
Corrado d' Altamurra holds out no inducement

to the management to repeat the experiment of in-
troducing his operas to the British public. It was
announced at one time that Persiani's Fantasnia was

in praration, but judging from the report of those
who have seen that opera in Paris, we think Mr.
Lumley exercised a judicious discretion in not pro-
ducing it, as long as he found the old and favourite
operas filled his house every evening. The fact is,
there is no great maestro of the present day, nor is
there any young composer who exhibits any promise,
if we except Verdi, whose operas—l Lombardi and
Hernani—have, it is said, recently produced a furore
in Italy. Perhaps, during the course of the ensuing
season, Mr. Lumley may afford us an opportunity of
judging for ourselves of the merits of Signor Verdi.
In the meanwhile, we thank him for having produced
the masterpieces of Cimarosa, of Mozart, of Rossini,
and of Bellini, in the manner in which he has pro-
duced them ; and while he gives us the Matrimonio
Segretto, the Don Giovanni, the Barbiere, the Semi-
ramide, the Cenerentola, the Gazza Ladra, the
Norma, and the Sonnambula, supported by Grisi,
Persiani, Favanti, Fornasari, Lablache, and Mario,
we shall not quarrel with him because he does not
produce La Fantasma, nor should we have complai+red
even if he had left Corrado d'Altamurra alone in
his glory. Nothing can exceed the liberality and
spirit with which the management has been conducted
during the past season—neither pains nor expense
have been spared to make her Majesty's Theatre the
first lyrical theatre in Europe. The orchestra, under
the able direction of Costa, numbers among its mem-
bers the elite of the instrumentalists in this country—
never has it been so strong, and, at the same time,
never so select. The choruses have been most efficient,
and most admirably disciplined ; while the ballet has
been certainly superior to any other ballet in Europe.
The scenery has exhibited a series of the most beauti-
ful and magnificent creations from the pencils of the
Grieves, and the general business of the stage has
been attende i to in a manner which contrasts most
favourably with the slovenly way in which such mat-
ters were managed in days of yore. Neither has the
audience-part of the house been neglected; every ar-
rangement possible has been made to secure the com-
fort of the visitors to the theatre, and great as has
been Mr. Lumley's success during the past season, it
has not been one jot greater than his untiring efforts
to secure the greatest possible amount of amusement
and comfort for his subscribers, deserves.

THE NEW INSOLVENT DEBTORS ACT.—KINGS-
GATE•STREET COURT OF REQUESTS.— At the time tho
above Act received the royal assent, there were twenty-
one debtors who had been confined in Whitecross-street
prison, having been sent there from Kingsgate-street
Court of Requests. The day following the attachment
of the royal signature to the Act, the whole of them
prepared petitions, which were presented to Mr. Com-
missioner Heath, the Judge of that Court, who received
them on the Monday. They were on that and the
subsequent day taken into his consideration, when, on
the Wednesday, separate orders were signed by the
Learned Commissioner for their discharge. The powers
of the Act which constitutes this Court extends to debt
under 2/., and the term of imprisonment to twenty days.
No special meeting has been held by the Commissioners
on the new Act. Westminster Court of Requests.—
This Court is governed by a Local Act, which received
the signature of his late Majesty King William, on the
19th of August, 1836. When the last Act was passed,
there was no application to , the Commissioner by any
debtor for his discharge from prison, from which it is
supposed that there was no person cqnnected with the
authority of that Court who was incarcerated. The
powers of the Westminster Court of Requests reach to
debts under 51. The Commissioners had no power to
imprison beyond seven days, and which included the day
imprisonment commenced, and that when it ended. At the
time the Act was passing the Legislature, there was then
a very prevalent disposition to abolish imprisonment for
debt, on which account the length of imprisonment was
limited in the clause of the Act to seven days.