Drury-Lane Theatre.
The Times, 1824-01-14T00:00:00

One of the worst operas which it has:been our inisfortune to wit. ness for rmany years, was last night produced at this theatre. It is entitled Philan,derj,;B or Thze Ros`c Queen: "philmdiering", it seems, being a term for a system of generalTflirtation and' courtshi in opposition to that steady affecdion whichl confines itself to olle o.a ject. Tlie chief incidents of the opera are founded on the feast of the Rosiere, which formerly was very generally celebrated in dif. erent Provenqal vellaga. At this ftast all the young wormcn of the tolhave assembled, e nt d se who was adjudged by tdi matron, to have been the most mdest and virtuous durinig the preceding year, was crowned with a wreath of roses, and presented wieth'a mar. riage portion. Two old peasants, Jerome (Mr. Dowton), andPrerre (lr. T erry), the former a merry laughing wight, the 'atter an austere and ascetic one, have educated their daughters according to their own respective notions of propriety. Jero eallows his daughter, Pauline ( adame Vestsis), to parbtcipate in all the village amusements whilst Luette (Mliss Smithson). the daughter of Pierre, is not suffered to enjoy any of those innocent pleasures wnich are con. genial to her sex and age. Each of the fathers indulges a san- guine hope that his daughter will be chosen " Rose Queen;" and the piefe opens on the eve of the festival of roses. The Seigneur o theVillages Count Amarautlk (AIr. Braham), pays his first visit tohis Castle at this period. He is accompanied by his intended bride, Matikla (Mliss Forde),' together with his friend Philander (Mr. Liston), and his afflanced ladv Emile (MAfiss Stephens). The Count and Philander, wearied with the Iiitation oftbeirr= tivermistresses, deterrnineto puttheirfide. lity to thetest. Each ma -es lovetothemistress of the Otber and eacl succeeds. The ladies having been previously let into the-plot by the instrumentalitv ofAnselin(Mr. IMercer), the protege of the Court, take this mnethod of punisling the jealousy of their lovers. The latter agree to forsake their supposed faithless mistresses, and, as- suming the character of Troubadours, set out with a determination to revenge themselves on the female sex generally. - Tliby proceed to the Feast of the Roses, where thev commence their career of "phi- landering" with the daughter ofJerome: their ladies follov them in the disguise of1 Gipsies, snd discover their inconstancy. The daughter of Pierre now sets up ve claim to Philander, as her hus. band. It, however, ultimately proves tbat the Count's protepe, Anselbmo, had secretly marzied her under the assumed name of PAi- lander, and thus created the confusion. In the end; all parties are satisfied, and the piece concludes with some half-do. zen of marriages. Indepenldent of these the princinal cha- racters, Knight enacts a jealous peasant, and larley bustlesi about as Leo,rr Lapsis, a village schoolmaster. A host of talent, it will be seen, was pressed into the service of this opera; but the comic ability of Dowtou, Liston, Knight, and Harley, are insuffi. cient to make sheer dulness pass for humour; and even the musical genius of Braham and Stephens could make but little impression on the audience, when employed to give effect to the merest common. places that were ever composed. We here speak of what was called the original music," on the princislc, we should itmrl e, of "tluc e ne tluewendo." The renTark does not, of coarsef :ltend to the selections from Miozart, Paesiello, and othereminent map9,n. Their strains, interspersed with thoseeof Nr. HIome, were more1.tan ordinarily grateful to the ear. As a drma, the piece is miserably deficient in iiicident, aud the few which it comprises are neither no- vel nor powerfuL lVe are not led to forget thiat defect by the dig_ nity of the serious or the point of the comic, portion ofthe dialogue. The former, whidl is almost exdusively confined to the characterof ierre, is declamatory and bombastic, little else than a string of-in. terjectioNs: the latter is forced and far-fetched. The author seems to have plundered without mercy some magazine of old jokes-some repository of superannuated pertnesses, and to have seized on those which bore the greatest appearance of antiquity. The chief and the best part oi the story is borrowed from the trifling French drama'of Joconde,whichlbas been translated, and was frequently performed at the Olympic Theatre. With this part of the plot the author has taken scarcely any liberty; and as to the por. tion which he claims as his own, it is, in situation, cha. racter, and dialogue, as jejune and meagre as possible. 'T'he songs are written in the worst possible taste: they can boa*t neither rhyme nor reason. The author, in an advertisement pre- fixed to them, hopes thlt the difficulty of writing words to music already written, " will prove an apology for the nonsense of some of them, and for the absence of poetry in all of them." Now, trulv we cannot permit so larme an apology for " nonsense" to pass. bay, when he wrote the songs of theBeBgnr's Opera, and Thomas Mloote when he adaptedl words to various fbreign airs, contrived to give the world both sense and poetry. Besides; the songs of the new opera which were set to music by Mr. Horn, are every bit as nonsensical and as unroetical -s those which were written for music already composed. -'lhe different perfomiers did their utmost for their respective characters; and, by their exertions, keptthe audience in good humour till towards the dose of the piece. A good deal of disapprobation was then manifested, but the great body of the au. drence were cTearly in favour of this the longest and the dullest o1wra we were ever compelled to sit out. -The curtamn did not drop till a quarter after 11 o'clock. It is too bad to be afflicted, for upwards of tour hours, with maudlin dialogue and despicable music. DRURY-L,4AVB THEATRE.