Year: 1870

Wn0n
the luxurious foliage Of summer is about to
put on its many colored costume; to await in
the most gorgeous robes of nature the dat Of
dread winter" that cOnsigns its beauty, leaf
by leaf, to the dust; when chilly nights and
sobbing winds at noon and eve warn the sum-
mer swallows Of fashion that the time is COM
ing to abandon their sylvan haunts and saline
atmosphere, and seek city comforts, recrea-
ton and little dissipation--of course In a
modest and moderate way--it is just now that
the question becomes important, what are we
to have in the way of musical and theatrlcst
amnsements for the season which is lust opea-
ingp


Nature has toned herself with such gentle
charity to the delicate lambs of society that
no sooner can she no longer clothe than in
sunshine and salt water than she yislds to
art the authority to take care Of them in the
whirllng destinations of metropolitan season.


We can predict such season as we have
not enjoyed for long time. Managers seem
to have walked up to the fact that while sensa-
tons more or less demoralizng In their effect
may pay for time an intelligent public soon
weary of them. The common sense of the
people, the minds trained to thought in the
study and the library, and learning in the
broad highways of life to distinguish what d
good from bad in dramatic art, as well as in
the realities of life, ignore the counterfeits
which our stage has so long presented for
public appreciation. The programmes Of the
different theatres, we are glad to see, have
assumed better shape this season than
usual. The force of example tells with happy
effect upon nearly all of them. With such
0rtiStes as Nilsson, who has already, by one
grand coup, been enthroned in the hearts Of
the New York public; and Marie Seebach, the
interpreter Of the highest faculties of the
tragic art known to the German stage, who
makes her first appearance at the Fourteenth
street theatre tomorrow night, under the
same able management which gave us
Rstori, whose successful career in
America will never be torgotten-with these.
artists we cannot complain of poverty in good
material. Then comes the opera 6oute at the
Grand Opera House, which is to be revived on
a scale of spectacular splendor never known
before even at this extraordinary spectacular
establishment. Here we are threatened with


zone hundred persons" all dramatic and lyric
celebrities The season opens on Monday with


''Le Petit Faust" Miles. Celine .Montaland
and Lea Silly, fresh and blooming from the
atmosphere Of the Palais-R Royal and the varfe-'
ties in Paris, lead the galaxy of the ''one hum
dred, who are to furnish the public with such
charming morceaux as ''Les Brigands," LA


Prlncesse de Trebizond" and full bouquet Of


other attractive pieces.


German opera, at the Stadt theatre, its natu-
raj resort, will undoubtedly draw large audi
ences. The English opera, which is not half
as well patronized as it ought to be, will
occupy the boards Of Niblos next month,
under the management Of Hesse. English
tragedy, represented by the German 0rtisN


Janauschek, who has made the English Ian
guage q study-as we are told Kossuth
did in his prison, from the pages Of Shaks-


peare-in order to afford her fine talents all
opportunity of development, opens the season


at the Academy of Music. Surely here is
novelty enough. But there is good deal
more in store. At the Fifth Avenue theatre
there is some probability Of new play by
Oakley Hall, great as jurist, q litterateur,
politician, mayor and playwright
in all capacities and failure in none. WAL
lacks does not descend from its high standard;
therefore the drama, pure and elevated, shorn


of all its dross, redolent OF the genius Of


Sheridan and Goldsmith and other legitimate


dramatists, study and delight for all who


witness it, will retain it's exalted place on
these boards. Some changes on the pro-
gramme at Booths will occur when Joe


jefferson wakes from that Rip Van Winkle
sleep which holds the audience almost as
much enthralled as the actor "a Winters
Tale" is promised when Rip relinquishes the
boards.


The other theatres have equally attractive
programmes. 1t is not wholesome feature,
however, the promised reproduction of ''Black
Crook" at Niblo's and the blonde burlesques
at Woods theatre. 1t may be a mistaken ex-
pertinent to revive this class of entertain
ment; but at the same time it may be safely
left to the improved taste Of the public to
decide whether it shall be encouraged or not.
1t may be said that people saw the attractions
of these performances not Through glass"
but through ''gauze darkly;" but we think


that the public comprehends them now in
brighter light, and will shun the demoralizing
influence which breathes from them like deadly
miasma from fetid swamps.


AS we have said, the musical and theatrical


season promises to be brilliant one. With
Nilsson and Seebach, the lyric and the tragic
queens, leading off the list and the probability
that Nilsson will appear soon in opera, sup


ported by choice company, and the better
class of representations which the theatres
generally offer, there is a season of some