The Sun. — 1828-12-19 (London, England)

DOUVILLE,  ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC AT THE  ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE.  It must' be quite refreshing to the starved and hungry amateur and hunter of Operas to be enabled to obtain an occasional meal of music, that he may be prevented from being famished outright, during the continuance of the alarming dearth which at the present period prevails to an extent perhaps without a parallel in the recent history of music. Metaphor apart, we are fully borne out in this belief, after contemplating the appearance of the elegant audience which last night filled the English Opera HOuse; 'in order to witness the second attempt. of the pupils bejouging to the Royal Academy perform " L'lnganno Felice," a semiseria production of the brilliant ROSSIN/, "'represented 'experimentally," says our book of the performance—intended, we presume, as a modest propitiation of the indulgence of the auditory. However much such a feeling may be deemed most commendable, it did not appear to our imagination to be in the slightest degree requisite. considering the increased difficulty necessarily attendant upon the embodying of a- serious drama, to say nothing of the pupils having to execute this task unaided by DE BEGNIs' very powerN histrionic talent, it is quite impossible not to be impressed with the even greater tact that was displayed upon this interesting occasion, when compared with the first performance. L'lnganno Felice is constructed upon the stale materials of a true Italian story. A husband becomes jealous of his wife, and very coolly commissions a friend to take her to sea in a crazy boat, which (of course) is wrecked; she is supposed to be drowned, but, for" the better carryingon the plot," is saved, and takes up her aboJe with a miner, an honest one, as a matter of course, also.— Ten years are supposed to have elapsed when the amiable " cam sposa" is led to this very spot, during his command of a military expedition; he makes his appearance bewailing the supposed loss of his murdered wife, good man ! His friend accompanies him, the parties meet, reconciliation is the consequence, and " mirabile dictu," the scoundrel kill-wife is also pardoned! Upon this flimsy, and ,to us most improbable, story,- ROSSINI has composed some very charming music, replete (as is usual with him) with all that style of phraseology so remarkably adaptable to comic opera. It is in the present instance somewhat out of keeping, and being of his earliest productions, it is scarcely liberal to test it by the usual ordeal of critical analyzation. Miss CIIILDE was pre-eminently successful in the, part of the injured wife. Her nice discrimination and execution of the aria " Perche del tuo seno" developed the highest kind of talent we (know of— the pathetic—which usually includes that most trying, as well as most estimable, requisite of a vocalist, the sostenuto. This young lady has gone far to convince those who have been fortunate enough to observe her singularly happy attempts, that she is destined to become a first-rate artist. In the second act she introduced a beautiful and elaborate composition of that clever and lamented musician RADICATI, during the performance of which there was exhibited two or three exquisite touches of the most tender, as well as the most exalted, passion, placing at once this interesting novice upon a pedestal of fame, that few, even of riper years, have ever surpassed. Her deportment, too, was less embarrassed than upon the first appearance, and forcibly led our ideas away from the supposition that an entire company of debutantes were placed before us.