The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-10-23


This evening, the last performance OF W.
MARErzEKs Italian opera troupe in this city,
was attended by a crowded house Of Baltimore
beauty and fashion. The piece was La Som
,saanl1Ia-snd it was received, as it deserved,
with great and oft-repeated applause.
We confess to have had strong prejudices
against the opera particularly the Italian, or
any foreign opera. The regular drama taxes
our faculties Of illusion heavily We have to
disregard time and place, to witness the events
of months and years crowded into an hour, and
the scenes of cities and Kingdoms mimicked
and contracted to small part of room. We
have to tolerate act, rs.-lovers and plotters-
talking loud enough to be heard by several
thousand people, even when talking to them
selves. And they sometimes talk in blank verse
But all these nothing to the violations OF
probability and propriety in an opers--where
instead Of talking, lovers and enemies, kings
and pessants, warriors and pedars, all sing
and always happen, whenever they meet,
whether in wilds, or in palaces, or in kitchens,
to have an accompaniment of couple Of dozen
or 30 of instrumental performers.
But this is not all. These actors not only
sing, but sing in foreign tongue The Italian
is not understood by one person in a hundred Of
the auditory; and what is still more extra
ordinary, some of the most popular of their
plays are English in character, incident, and To-
calty Lucia di Lammermoor and II Puritani
are Scotch and English. Hence, as play, an
opera involves more absurdity, more violation
of probability, than almost any thing that pre-
tends to the initiative or representative. As
such, in fact, it has little value. But the music
the music of twenty or thirty voices, of every
variety Of power, meditation, and tone, accom-
panied by as many performers on all the musical
instruments of the day, gives to the opera an
attraction which, for the present at least, is
superseding all other performances on the stage.
The opera is perfect feast of music, vocal and
instrumental, solitary and choral pathetic tragic,
comic, martial. and devotional. And perhaps,
for the music, it is better to have the words in
foreign tongue, for then the abstract power of
music, particularly vocal music, is realized, un-
affected by the thought or sentiment which
words express.
The taste fer the opera grows rapidly with in
diligence. Whether it will have salutary effect
Onpublic manners, is questionable Music is the
favorite, generally, of people who have passed
the era of intellectual and moral vigor-and fire.
quent indulgence in it, disqualifes and indsposes
the mind for the duties and labors of life. But
the city of Washington is, happily, not poPulous
or rich enough to support such an expensive
luxury as the opera, permanently, and, for few
nights, it would be decidedly preferable to the
entertainments we are occasionally favored with
Certainly it is far better than such performance
as the MoHrPLArsIR ballet troupe, and many othe
exhibitions we occasionally patronize. Wehav'
no doubt that the troupe of NJ. MARETzEK vii
have reception at Washington scarcely less ia
vorable than the one given to JENNY LIND.
Baltimore is now crowded with visitors to the
great cattle and agricultural show, and the ex-
hblion of manufactures. The articles collected
and the concourse of people, promise to exceed
any thing ever witnessed here before.