The Sun. — 1859-08-18 (London, England)

HALL.  (From the Entr'acte.) Startling as our heading may appear, it is nevertheless a fact, that Verdi's opera of " Macbeth," so long the subject of criticism in the Parisian musical world, has been produced for the first time in this country at the establishment of Mr. C. Morton, in tho Westminster-road—namely, the Canterbury Hall. We do not wish, however, in any way to mislead the public ; the music simply is performed, there is :no mise en scene, but the opera is gone through as it would be in any other concert-room, and very admirably it is done.  Before commencing any remark upon the music, we must comment on the libretto, which, like all other foreign librettos, is peculiar for the very close manner in which the author has copied every idea from the text of Shakspere, and at the same time made some of the primest mistakes that it is possible to be guilty of. For instance, in the first act, " Lady Macbeth," who, by the bye, has,P,a long duet, wound her husband up to the "killing" pitch, and, indeed, as the text informs us, has been almost an eyewitness to the murder, is made to join in the final chorus to this act, calling for vengeance on the murderer's head, and requesting the Divine aid to discover who the assassin is. We forget any such passage in Shakspere, so we suppose it may be looked upon as the ideal creation of the poet's brain. In the operatic last act, the libretto includes, very briefly, the whole of the fifth and part of the fourth acts of the tragedy. Thus we have a chorus of "Scottish exiles," and an air for Macduff, which includes that celebrated speech—  " Front to front bring thou this fiend of Scotland," ece. and which is certainly closely copied from the Bard of Avon. The sleeping scene is then given, whilst the battle scenes are pressed down into twenty lines of gong, scent', aria, and chorus. The first and last acts have alone been produced at this Hall, and we certainly plead ignorance as to how many Verdi has written; be this as it max, however, there is much to praise in the music, and when it shall be produced on the operatic stage, we think it wlu become quite as favourite an opera as the " Trovatore,"and certainly immeasurably superior to the " Vespres Siciliennes," the choruses being finer, and the songs, what there are, far more telling. The chief features amongst the solos are a grand scene for Lady Macbeth (which in reality answers to the reading of the letter, and after the soliloquy in the first act of the tragedy) and a very beautiful recitefive and song for Macbeth, in the last act, which we think will be likely to rival, if it does not excel, its near neighbour from "Il Trovatore," "Il Balen." The choruses are, of course, by Verdi, and that is quite sufficient to intimate that they are intricate, noisy, and not too full of melody ; but this is one of the peculiarities of this composer. The production of this opera at the Canterbury Iran a decided feather in the cap of the proprietor of the establishment, Mr. C. Morton. Hitherto these stages have been made the vehicle for mere clap-trap songs and duets, dances, duo performers; and ebc-iy minstrels. Mr. Morton has raised the character of his Hall, and the concerts which are nightly given are such as to give great satisfaction to even a musician. The opera itself, which has been so well got out under the superintendence of Mr. F. Jongmans, the musical director, is really admirably performed. The solos are executed in an artistic manner, and Miss Russell, whose cs" sesses a florid, well-cultivated, and clear voice, scene above alluded to in a style which might arouse do envy of many of our acknowledged West-end concert-IV° performers. Macbeth, too (we forget the gentleraan's private name), exhibits the thorough musician in all he has to sing, and particularly in the air, " Obedience, love, and honour." sing the  Should Mr. Morton continue presenting 'such novelties as this at the Canterbury Hall, it is likely, not only to take the lead, as it does now, but to entirely separate itself freru the other concert-rooms of the metropolis. We cordially recommend this new production to the attention of eur readers in particular, and the public in general.