The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-12-23 00:00:00

MUSIC AND THE DRAMA.

M. JTTLLIEN will give a grand concert at the Philhar-
monic-hall on the 2nd of January next. Miss Cicely
Nott will be his vocalist, and Signori Sivori and Bottesini
his principal instrumentalists.

THE ORATORIO OF THE MESSIAH was performed last
night, at the Collegiate Institution, for the benefit of St.
Anne's Dispensary and Eye and Ear Institution, by the
practical members of the Philharmonic Society, forming
a chorus of 180 voices, who, along with Miss Stott, Miss
Parsons, Mr, Miranda, and Mr. Armstrong volunteered
their services gratuitously ; also Mr. E. F. Smith, as
organist, and Mr. William Sudlow, as conductor. The
attendance was numerous and select, and the piece passed
off with great eclat. We have not heard the amount of
the receipts.

THE EQUESTRIANS AT THE AMPHITHEATRE.—A9
Christmas approaches, there is a growing appreciation on
the part of the public for this species of entertainment, and
better houses have lately greeted the performances. Mr.
McCollum, Mr. E. Stone, and Mdlle. Soullier, continue
to elicit applause by their graceful and daring acts, while
the Brothers Elliott succeed in placing the audience under
the most painful excitement, by their very hazardous
gymnastic feats on the " aerial cords." The American
portion of the company will secede from the establishment
in the course of the present week, in order to appear at
Birmingham, where they intend opening a monstre circus,
capable of accommodating nearly 10,000 spec! ators. The
French troupe. however, will remain for some time longer,
and arenowmaking considerable additions to their number,
which will enable them to offer a variety of novelties for
the gratification of the public.

THEATRE ROYAL.—To-night will be the last of the
present season and of the performances of the Italian
company of vocal and instrumental artistes; after which
the theatre will be closed, to complete the preparations
for the Christmas burlesque. Mr. Buckstone again con-
tributes the opening part of the pantomime, which, we
understand, is even more replete with fun than his pro.
duction of last year, " The Child of Hale." The story is
taken from the writings of "Tim Bobbin," and abounds
with jokes in the dialect of Lancashire. The scenery is
entrusted to Mr. Dearlove and assistants, and will con-
sist of some beautiful views of different parts of Lan-
cashire in ancient and modern times, with the usual
concomitants of fairy temples and demon caverns. The
dresses are elegant and elaborate, and the masks ludi-
crously absurd, being furnished conjointly by Mr. Dear-
love and Mrs. Jeffries. Indeed, the whole of the "get-
ting up" has been on the most liberal and extensive
scale, and the lessee deservedly anticipates a successful run.
LIVERPOOL MUSICAL UNION.— On Friday evening
last, this association held its third meeting. Hummell's
Quintett in E flat minor, for piano-forte, violin, viola,
violoncello,and contra basso, stood first in the programme,
and was beautifully performed. The finale, " Allegro
Agitato," was executed in the most brilliant style, and
drew forth rapturous applause. Then followed a Sonata,
by Corelli, for the violoncello and contra:basso. We
apprehend this was inserted for the purpose of exhibiting
prominently to the audience the powers of the latter in-
struments, for certainly there is very little in the leading
idea of the piece, and not much in the mode of its develop-
ment. A Trio, by Beethoven, for piano-forte, violin, and
violoncello, concluding the first part of the concert,
was excellently rendered by Mrs. H. Beale, Mr. Baetens,
and Mr. Haddock. Beethoven's Sonata, in A minor, be-
gan the second part of the evening's performances, which
were brought to a close by Onslow's admirable Quintett
in F minor. The arrangements of the entertainment
reflected the highest credit on Mr. Haddock ; and we were
glad to see so good an audience.
PHILHARMONIC EXTRA CONCERT.-01 all t'Le odd per
formances that we ever heard, this was the oddest. The
contrast between the sacred, first part of the concert, and
the secular, second part, was not, it appears, sufficiently
marked, but there must needs be introduced, not only
operatic music, but operatic actors and operatic costumes.
Our readers may fancy the extravagant result. The in-
congruity was so great that, when the concert was an-
nounced, musical people stared, and wondered what would
come next. But if the anticipation caused them to stare,
what must the reality have done ? The band and chorus,
who were excited by the beauty of Handel's " Messiah"
and Mendelssohn's " Elijah," were half an hour after-
wards splitting their sides with laughter at the antics of
Figaro in the " Barber of Seville !" and, if this were not
enough, there was Mr. Armstrong, who a short time be-
fore had sung the solo in " David"—" God is the King
of all the Earth."—was painfully alive to the necessity
of
taking care of his toes, lest the volatile Figaro should, in
the midst of his gyrations, tread upon them ! The ab-
surdity was too great : we could not settle down, after the
first part was over, to listen with any patience to the
efforts of Signors Montelli and Guido and Madlle. Sain-
ville on a platform, where half an hour before some of the
most sacred of all our sacred pieces had been performed.
How far the public may enjoy such olla podridas, we nei-
ther know nor care to enquire; but this may be safely
asserted, that men of taste have not for a long time past
had such an incongrous mixture of things sacred and pro-
fane presented to them. The associations which have been
called up by this performance quite unfit us for criticising
the second part, and we shall, therefore, merely make a
remark or two on the first. The chorus consisted of but
few members of the society, owing to the recent disputes
being still unsettled. The deficiency was supplied, as far
as possible, by strangers, who certainly did not give pro-
mise of great musical proficiency. The alto and tenors
had only half the proper number on the orchestra, and
the basses were very weak ; while the whole effect was
marred by great coarseness in the execution. This was
more observable in " For unto us," the running passages
in which were very badly done. Yet this was the very
chorus in which the Philharmonic Society excelled so
much the last time they performed it. In "Thanks be to
God," from " Elijah, too, the difference between the
old chorus and the new was painfully observable. " God
is the King" was pretty well done, the solo part being
well performed by Mr. Armstrong. The brass instru-
ments, however, were badly managed, and they were out
of tune a great part of the evening. The band performed
the overture to " William Tell" admirably, and it was
encored. The concert concluded with the National An-
them, which was badly sung by the chorus. They had no
copies, and each singer was allowed to choose his own
harmonies.

MRS. FANNY KEMBLE'S FOURTH READING.—On Fri-
day evening, at the Philharmonic Hall, Mrs. Fanny
Kemble read to a delighted audience Shakspeare's comedy
of " A Midsummer Night's Dream ;" and that most
sportive and imaginative of all the great playwright's
works—fairy-like, yet identified with no elfin legend ;
mythic, yet assimilating with no mythology—derived ad-
ditional beauty from the extraordinary rhetorical power
which this talented lady brought into action in the charac-
teristic delivery of language displaying so great a diversity
of feeling and sentiment as that contained in this singular
drama. In the first scene, the timid, trembling, pleading
voice of Hermia was admirably contrasted with the stern,
though friendly tones of Theseus. And when, as in the
concluding line of some of Byron's verses, she descended
from the sublime, and enacted, con amore, the ludicrous
scene between Quince, Bottom, Snout, and Co., the effect
was electrifying—so much so, indeed. that we almost
thought the scene was over-acted. It was like a giant
condescending to be playful. The fine poetry which oc-
curs in the two first scenes of Act H. was delivered with
precision and taste. The haughty reply of Titania, be-
ginning with the words

" Set your heart at rest,
The fairyland buys not the child of me"—

was enunciated with more than fairy—with womanly dig-
nity. In the third scene, where Hermia awakes to
find Lysander gone—

" Lysander ! what remov'd ? Lysande,r! lord !"
—the audience was thrilled with the extacy of her despair.
And when, in the cross-purposes brought about by the
mischievous Puck, Helena fancies herself the victim of a
confederacy, which she suspects Hermia of having joined,
her address to the companion of her childhood,--half sar-
casm, half regret—was given in a tone and manner power.
fully indicative of the painful position in which Helena
supposes herself to be placed. But anon Hermia winces
under the supposition that she is flouted on account of
her lowness of stature, and the passage concluding with
the following lines—

" How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;—
How low am I ?—I am not yet so low,
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes."

—was given with such right good will, that we almost
thanked our stars we were not within reach of the offended
lady. Another little passage, where Titania addresses
Bottom—

" Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk roses on thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy"-
- - -

produced considerable amusement from the inimitable
spirit of tender cajolery in which the lines were delivered.
The gem of the performance, indeed, was in the low
comedy line, when Bottom awakes and finds the ass's
head gone, and himself no longer attended by Messrs.
Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed. His
astonishment when he finds his head no longer orna-
mented with such aural longitude, and his ineffectual at-
tempts to recollect what has taken place since he was
enacting the " most fair Pyramus," were expressed with a
mastery of intonation and countenance we never remem-
ber having seen surpassed. Mrs. Kemble retired at the
conclusion of the reading amidst the applause of her gra-
tified auditors.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND INFANT SCHOOLS, CORN-
NVALLIS-STREET.—The half-yearly examination of the
Infant School, Cornwallis-street, was held on Friday
evening last, in the school-room, which was densely filled
in every part. The examination was conducted with great
spirit by the talented and respected master of the school,
Mr. William Clark, to the great satisfaction of all present.
After the examination, a subscription was set on foot,
among the parents and friends, and warmly taken up,
with a view to present Mr. Clark with some testimonial,
as a mark of respect for the zealous and efficient manner
in which he has, for the last 13 years, discharged his duties.
LECTURE ON ORANGEISM.—On Friday evening, the
first of a course of lectures was delivered by Mr. H.
i
M'Leod, to a large audience n St. Simon's School-room,
Bolton-street ; the subject was " Orangeism—what it is :
and the contrast which it forms to other secret societies."
The Rev. J. T. Brien occupied the chair, and, in a neat
and eloquent address. introduced Mr. H. M'Leod to the
meeting. The lecturer, who spoke for nearly an hour and
a half, was listened to with great attention, and received
much applause. After the close of the proceedings, a vote
of thanks was given to the Chaii:man for his able conduct
in the chair, and the meeting separated. The second lec-
ture will take place on Friday evening next.