The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1844-04-30
Hon. w. III. HAMMET.

RE-opENING OF THE ITALIAN OrERA.-The thun-
der-clouds have passed away TO make room for the
sun, which shed last evening his old lustre over
this reunion Of fashion adm beauty.
more crowded, splendid, and elegant house,
from top to bottom, we never The enter
tainment consisted of the celebrated, lately much
talked Of and squabbled about, Barbiere diSirigha
the pet opera of Rossn and his admirers
The healthy vigor, with which all the numerous
airs of this truly Incompatible work abounds, was
perhaps never enjoyed greater than now, where the
affected sentmentality of the Italian school neces
sary considers the opera seria the real field OF
battle, and consequently neglecs the bufia, that
we have only one or two which can stand the test
Of few years. We always considered the opera
buffa as the real domain of the Italians, and the
undmnshed success of the molinara, ie cantatrici,
IL matrtmoni segreto is the best proof of the infe
riori,y of the old opera seria, which has now en-
tirely disappeared from the repertoire.
Amongst the modern composers of any school
whatever, Rossini ranks foremost and if he has not
quite raised himself to the loftiness of Robert le
Diabh, yet he has written works which, for their
freshness genius, and powerful inn gination w. II be
handed down to posieyity with the same admiration
the inspirations Of Paestrina, PasielIo
which he surpasses through the versatility OF his
talents Yet we peri 'c,lv recOlicct the time when
Rossini was the object Of even more furious at
acks than Donzetti and his followers, or rather COL
leagues, and the greatest objection which was raised
against the Identical BarbiTe, who has outved sun
dry political, social, and musical revolutions, wa
that u had hem composed, studied, rehedrs.d
and performed IN the Incredible space of fortnight
And In fact the music Of this wonderful work bears
IN every bar the stamp of divine inspiration, sud
den as that of the Pythoness of Dodona. We
farther here the influence of good libretto on
the composer; the words without the music could
perfectly anuse an audience, through the archness
of Rosina, the elegant comic of Figaro, and the
broader contours of the characters o., Bartolo and
BasilIo. Present times are entirely changed In
every respect. Donzetti's greatest merit consist
| IN writing operas particularly adapted to hide the
defects OF singers brought about through the super
hcla modern school, whereas Rosslni shines
through his great art in profitIng OF the superior
method OF singing created Principally by his works
Ii is therefore evident that the musical world has
| much lost by this change so likewise with lbre.
los The old authors borrowed from Shakespeare,
Mollere and Beanmarchais, whose scenic arrange
ments they have faithfully followed. The modern
manufacturers-fOr authors they are not-have
kept up this borrowing system, but so detile, mutt
late and destroy the source of which they awaited
themselves that we do not find anything except
the names and perhaps the catastrophe.
The performance OF last evening was very in
erestlng and effective one, and went of with great
applause. De Begins circulated a doctors certi6.
cate about his health, as an apology, but really he
was admirable. Borghese was delicous-looked
well and sang well But we have time for re-
marks--more tomorrow.