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THE OPERAS. The renlrte of Mario in the ...
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T KOSE CHRllI. I ms'i* week you may reme...
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THE WARDEN OF GAL WAY, produced at the O...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Two Sisters. Awake ! Awake ! The Roy...
Shadowed by many a leafy bough , Perfumed by many a flower . With fingers pale the bridal vine Still clasps her forest lord , and strays Where warm voluptuous sunbeams shine , A thousand various ways ; Or hangs the curtain that she weaves > 4 ^ In folds before that temple fair : r A lovely tapestry Of leaves , That stirs with every air . The child approacht the lone retreat , With quickened step and eager eye ; She called— -Awake ! O sister , sweet ! But there was no reply . She drew the leafy veil apart , She looked above , but nothing said , And entering with a beating heart , She stood before the dead . Alone an <* with the Dead she stood , The Dead * asleep among the flowers , That yesternight her hand had strewed , Marked not the changing hours . She knew hot it was morning prime , Shall never know the silent noon , Shall never heed the twilight time , Nor chronicle the moon . A broken lily in her hand , A drooping rose on drooping head ; Even Nature seemed to understand Her queenliest flower lay dead . The Child , with aspect sad and still , Stood gazing at her sister ' s side , Content , if it had been God ' s will , That moment to have died . She felt like Eve when Eden ' gate Had closed on her for evermore , She fel , t that life was desolate ,. That Paradise was o ' er . f No tears are berSj for tears are . vain , The heart and not the robe is rent , If God who gives will take again , 'Tis folly to lament . Then drop the curtain , fold by fold , Over the consecrated Bower , And veil from curious eyes and cold The dead and living Flower . M .
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The Operas. The Renlrte Of Mario In The ...
THE OPERAS . The renlrte of Mario in the Huguenots was , as it always is , the attraction of a crowded and enthusiastic audience . He was looking in admirable health , but his voice has , I fear , lost for ever its delicate beauty—its bouquet , as the French say of wine ; and when tho domands upon his high chest notes came , he either evaded them , or delivered them without that thrilling tone wo were accustomed to hear . I think it is a , pity he should eontinuo to sing in Meyerbeer ' s operas , especially with Tambcrlik in tho house . There is a p . hhmuW r / mtrt'toire still own to him , and one that will
not tear his voice to pieces . Grisi was in high spirits , and sang as grandly as e \ ror hor duct with Marcel and her duet with itaoul . Formes was very hne , but occasionally bellowed more lustily than was tolerable What a pity so fine an actor , and so excellent a singer aa he sometimes is , does not learn to restrain tho vulgar force ho seems to dolight in letting loose 1 On Thursday , Don Giovanni introduced Ronconi to an English audience in the character of that splendid roproh & to—ribaldo andaec ! Of his performance , and of Tamberlik ' s unparallelod singing of II mio tenoro , I will discourse next week .
At limit Majesty ' s , Cruvolli haa been gaining fresh admirers in Fidelio , nnd is to startlo them by her versatility in Don Pasquale ; hor repertoire booths limitless ! Why does sho not take Cenerentola ? Sho would bo ton times more effective in it than Angri , who is not compotont to support tho weight of an entire opera . Meanwhile tho Wagnor controversy rages , nwl keeps Her Majesty ' s in a state of suspensive discomfort . If this wud Wagner should after all turn out a modiocrity—if tho cantatrico Hhoulcl prove no incantatricc—what immense comfort to tho manager who loses her ; and , as Plato would say , what a " soil" to the public . 1
T Kose Chrlli. I Ms'i* Week You May Reme...
T KOSE CHRllI . I ms'i * week you may remember the avowal of my passion for Itoso Cheri , mul how , when the importinont thought of hor being married orossod me , ft swift ingenuity suggested " arsenic I" Since thon I havo seen her . The arsenic is not wanted . I will givo it to Mim Martha Brown ' s amatory cat , who makos my garden his coneort-room . Mere , puss 1 puss ! O Hose , why did you marry I Marriage 1 'tis such an awkward thing—comma ca vous gate unofemme ! It takes a young girl with tho bloom and beauty , wio mystery and jnlinitc charm oi youth , and dopootizos her . I never
married ! Now I look at Rose , and remember how charming she was , I bless my inconstant stars that saved me'from . . .... The meaning of that rhapsody is , that if you now go and see Rose Chen ( and by all means go ) you will see a charming actress , ' "but you will not see the Vision I once had . She is thinner everyway : thinner in face , thinner m figure ; thinner in voice j thinner in manner . Her naivete * is no longer innocent ; her innocence betrays the least possible sotipgon of the serpent under it ; tier gestures are riot graceful—perhaps they never were , but they must have had the charming awkwardness of youth !
The two pieceB she played were ( 3-enevieve and Brutus laeJie Cesar . The former is an amusingly disagreeable comedy by Scribe , the pivot of which is essentially French . Imagine a father ' s jealousy of his daughter treated as the subject of facile laughter , The very suggestion points to diseased corners of selfish hearts , and outrages the sanctity of paternal affection . It is possible that a father may so love his daughter as to look upon all her lovers in the light of enemies , —rivals ; it is possible that he would force her to marry the man she did not love , rather than see her happy in another affection than his own . I can imagine this as possibleprobable even •—but possible with whom , probable with whom ? And are such exceptional diseases the right subjects for a dramatist to hold up ? I do not call upon the stage for sermons ; I do not insist upon any puritanical severity ; far from it ; I think the stage may be permitted the licenses of life—but except to nail them on the cross of infamy I do not see why the outrages of Nature's code—the diseases which will sometimes vitiate the hearts of men , should be presented to us on th © etag & . If CUrambaut ( the father in this piece ) were of our own set , should we
laugh at him P We should loathe him . His egoism would be revolting ; his love for his daughter would excite disgust instead of sympathy . Yet Scribe makes us laugh at it—treats it as a foible , fit for gay comedy Numa ' s acting in the part of the father was a study of nature , and almost reconciled us to the comedy . The brusquerie , the fondness , the impatience , and the unconscious egoism of the man was worthy of all praise . In the character of the avouS in Midi aquartoze heures—of which I only saw a bit—I did not much like him ; but to play Clerambaut as he played it , a man must be a fine actor .-
In Brutus lache Cesar , Hose Cheri was supported by Lafont , whose performance was the better of the two . Those who have seen Charles Mathews and Madame Vestris in Delicate GroundvnM be glad to compare notes in "this ,, the original of that piece . I did not see them , but I can imagine them . If you can imagine a company of light comedians revelling in tragedy , you will understand the amount of pleasure derived from
The Warden Of Gal Way, Produced At The O...
THE WARDEN OF GAL WAY , produced at the Olympic on Wednesday , the more so when I add that the said tragedy was in the dreariest style of High Art . There we had Mr . Hoskins removed from his sphere of " rattling" vivacity into rant , madness , and agonies of hysteria , throwing himself with reckless abandon upon the tragic green baize , and altogether making a determined " set " at tragedy ; Mr . W . Farren was the conscience-stricken murderer , having to undergo a fearful amount of inexplicable emotion ; Mrs . Walter Lacy was the distressed virgin in white , given up to agonies . JSTot that I mean to attribute to these performers the failure of the piece . It is a dreary play , with no spark of poetry or passion ; with no touch of nature , no Bint of character . The performers really deserve praise for having carried it through to the close . They produced no effect , for no effect was producible with those materials . But to see comedians labouring thus out of their sphere , and in the vainest of efforts to make a parody of Brutus interesting , was not a pleasing spectacle . I cannot bring myself to criticise the play : the cordial hisses of the audience rendered criticism needless ; but I will say a word in praise of the painstaking and occasionally effective performance of Henry Farren in tho Warden . He marred it by two bursts of explosive vehemence , not sufficiently graduated for success ; and he has yet to learn the proper management of his voice in passionate situations ; but in tho quieter portions he exhibited a very marked advance in his ai't . I must borrow from the Times tho notice of the novelty at that really amusing place , tho MARIONETTE THEATRE . " Tho drama of tho Corsicah Broilers having already received a tolerably fair portion of burlesque treatment , haa at last been turned to political account by the puppets of the Adelaide Gallery , under tho titlo of tho Arcadian Brothers—L e ., tho brothers of tho Lowtlier Arcade . Paris ' remains Paris as in tho serious piece , but Corsica is metamorphosed into England , whence Punch beholds tho murder of his French brother , tho Charivari , by tho President Louis Napoleon . Thus prompted by a sympathy , which tho drainu at the Princess ' s lias rendered universally familiar , ho hastens to Paris , armed with a pen , and triumphs over Napoleon , who vainly wields a sabre , gallantly carrying out the idea of tho " Captain Pen and Captain Sword / ' as laid down by Mr . Leigh Hunt . All tho eilects of tho drama , are carefully preserved in tho squib , and great pains havo boon taken to make tho President as like an possible to tho actual dictator , A loud call for tho author was raised at the conclusion , when Mr . Albany Brown , the puppet manager , came forward and stated that Mr . Hugo Vamp , the puppet dramatist , wns too nervous to appear , at tho same time announcing the piece lbr repetition every evening until further notice . Tho consistency with which every detail of theatrical exhibition in carried out by marionettes , without tho intrusion of ii single human being , is not tho least attractive feature of tho entertainment . " And while on these entertainments , lot me not forget to mention tho most amusing of them all—THE ASCENT OF MONT BLANC , which Albert Smith has now rondered a standing topic . I wont for tlid second timo tho other day , for tho ploaBwo of seeing the pleasure sparkle in lovely oyes ,-but I found myself laughing as heartily , and listening as eagerly , and applauding as joyously as if I had novor been there before I Having ' scon it a second time , I promised myself tho pleasure of seeing it a third , when tho crush to get in has become milder .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08051852/page/21/
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