The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-27 00:00:00

P.RINCESS'3.

Auber's popular opera of Fra Diavolo was produced
at this theatre last evening, Mr. and Mrs. Wood sus-
staining their original characters. We remember well
the time when this opera was produced at Covent-
garden, and Mrs. Wood's Zerlina is to the full as good
as it was then, while Wood's personation of Fra Diavolo
is greatly improved. Never has the innocent, naive,
warm-hearted, yet somewhat coquettish Zerlina been so
beautifully or so naturally represented as by Mrs. Wood,
and never has Auber's delightful music been so de-
lightfully sung as by that lady. She made the character
her own when the opera was produced originally, and
albeit we have had many Zerlinas since, we have never
bad ono who could approach her either as an actress or
a vocalist. Notwithstanding this opera has been so
hackneyed, yet the naivete and abandon of her acting,
and the exquisite management of her powerful and
richly cultivated voice gave the opera last evening
all the charm of novelty. Tho celebrated scena
" On yonder rock reclining," was magnificently given
and rapturously encored. Beautifully too did she give
the toilette scene in the second act; never was the inno-
cent vanity of an artless simple-minded girl more be-
witchingly represented. Wood's Fra Diavolo was a first-
rate performance. His acting throughout was excellent,
and his fine rich voice, which is now cultivated to the
highest pitch, and hat, in consequence, acquired that
flexibility, the want of which was, in former days, its
only defect, told admirably. He did full justice to the ex-
quisite music of the part. The barcarole was given with
exquisite taste, and was loudly encored, and the opening
scena of the third act was a master piece, both of singing
and acting. Wood has as completely identified himself
with the character of Fra Diavolo, as Wallack has iden-
tified himself with that of Alessandro Massaroni. Miss
Grant made more of the part of Lady Allcash than we
have ever before seen made of it. In her hands, it be-
came a character, and her beautiful voice told admirably
in the concerted pieces. Paul Bedford was Beppo,
and although not exactly the beau ideal of an
Italian brigand, he was irresistibly laughable. The
Woods were called for at the fall of the curtain,
and received with all the honours. The opera was fol-
lowed by a new comedietta, entitled Aged Forty, in
which Miss Fortescue made her first appearance at this
theatre, in the character of Lady Clifton, the young
widow of an old General. Neglected by her cousin,
Sir Harry Wilder (Walter Lacy), that most heartless
of beings, a male coquette, who, after having won her
heart, deserted her, she had married old General Clifton,
who, dying shortly after her marriage, left her a widow,
with a large fortune. Sir Harry, who is "aged forty,"
and finds, from the appearance of certain grey hairs,
that he is no longer in the bloom of youth, pays her a
visit, with the intention of renewing his suit, and meets
at her house with a certain Mr. Dapper (Oxberry),
whom he immediately magnifies into a rival
suitor. Dapper, it is true, loves the lady,
but he has never told his love, and Wilder
by his conduct actually forces Dapper to take upon him-
self the character of the lady's champion. Wilder seeks
aninterview with his cousin, and makes her a formal
offer of his hand. She recals to him all his former con-
duct, dilates on the anguish she has suffered from his
former neglect, and tells him that she had become ac-
quainted with General Clifton, from having nursed his
daughter on her death-bed. That daughter had con-
fided to her certain papers, which she had read, and
raor
those papers were his own letters. He had won that
oratsesoc x_
poor girl's love and deserted her, and she had died of a
broken
true heart.tragedy,
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Walter m aa
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Laicny's whichby-play
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narrated this tale of misery was touchingly pathetic—it
w
ceed ingly good—his shudder at the mention of Miss
Clifton's name was true to nature. Of course she in-
dignantly rejects his suit, and Dapper entering just at the
moment is attacked by Wilder as the cause of his rejec-
tion, and threatened with a challenge. Dapper, thus
forced to avow his love, is accepted by Lady Clifton ; and
Sir Harry Wilder, " aged forty," is doomed to expiate
his heartlessness by an old age of celibacy. The piece,
which is well written and was admirably acted through-
out, was announced for repetition every evening. The
house was well attended.

OLYMPIC THEATRE.
Last evening the presentation, for the 25th time, of
Mr. Leman Rede's drama of the Profligate opened the
performance. A farce, which has been played with much
success, was then revived for the first time this season;
it is entitled Angels and Lucifers. The anxiously-
expected event of the evening—the revival of a piece
founded on the popular tale of " Robinson Crusoe"—
concluded the evening's entertainments. It was in 1817
that this drama was first produced, at Covent-garden
Theatre, it being from the pen of the author of the
favourite drama of the Miller and his Men. It adheres
closely to the tale, with the exception of the incident
that the wife of Robinson Crusoe having left England in
search of him, is placed on shore by the mutinous crew
of the vessel of which her son is the commander, and it
so happens that they fall on the very island where Robin-
son and hie man Friday are located.