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476 T HE LEADER. [Saturday ,
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THE OPERA. The success of the Trovatore ...
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Mr. E. T. Smith, the most enterprising a...
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THE THEATRES IN PARIS. It seems likely t...
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We are very glad to hear that a silly pi...
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OLYMPIC THEATRE. The idea of the new pla...
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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 Royal Academy Exhibition. Before The...
work to such an extraordinary parody on historical painting as Mr . Hart ' s " Othello and lago ! " ( which occupies , be it whispered in parenthesis , one of the central positions of honour ) . If we were not corrected by the catalogue we should have called this picture " Portraits of two giants returning from a masquerade , and differing about which is the nearest way home . " Leaving the Middle Room—after noticfng , by the " way , Mr . Stirling ' s clever and humorous " Scotch Presbyterians listening to a Sermon " ^ the first picture in the East Room that strikes us is Mr . Hook ' s delightful " Market-Morning . " In this , and in a little work of similar character ( No . 77 ) , the painter has not only changed entirely in his choice of subject , but has , as we have said elsewhere , made an immense advance in his Art . Since the death of Collins , no artist has come near Mr . Hook in representing English landscape and the cottage life of England-as he has represented them this year . The " Market-Morning " especially , is an exquisite little pastoral ; and let us add , as greatly
to Mr . Hook ' s credit , that he is thoroughly original . He sees Nature . with his own eyes , and paints in his own styl e * He has a very good picture from Sacred History ( No . 486 ); but , if he will take our advice , he will continue to follow his new track . It will lead him , we are not afraid to prophesy , to really great things . Mr . Boxall ' s beautiful picture of " The Honourable Georgina Copley , " is the best portrait in the Exhibition—really a fine work of Art . Mr . Philip , whose picture in the Octagon Room literally cannot be seen , has another work ( No . 68 ) , representing two deliciously life-like Spanish beauties , tolerably well placed , though not hung fairly according to its merits . The large composition from As You Like It , by Mr . Maclisk , shows all his accustomed elaboration and ingenuity ; but it is not , on the whole , an agreeable specimen of his genius . Evidently desirous of attaining the utmost intensity of expression , he has , we doubt not , unconsciously allowed himself to exaggerate . The Duke ' s Wrestler , and , in a lesser degree , the other male figures , all seem ( as the children say ) to be making ugly faces at each other . Coelia and Rosalind offer some amends , however , for the distortion of the men ' s features . Mr . Maclise , in the
case of the ladies , has only attempted to paint beauty ; and he has triumphantly succeeded . Both the female faces in the composition are lovely . While talking of beauty , we must not omit to mention that Mr . Frith has two small pictures —one of " Maria dropping the Letter to trick Maivolio ; " the other of ' . ' A Modern Young Lady in an Opera-box "—both of which are fully equal to the most charming of his minor works exhibited in former years . Another case of great advance on the part of a rising artist is that of Mr . Faed . His picture of " The Mitherless Bairn" is genuinely pathetic in sentiment , and in technical treatment the best piece of painting that has yet come from his easel . It is almost needless to say that this work , being particularly meritorious , is particularly ill hung . We cannot say that Mr . Cope at all satisfies us this year . His prison scene , representing the daughter of Charles I . lying dead , with her head on an open Bible , looks perilously like a piece of sentimental piety addressed to the Evangelical public : and his other picture , " Consolation , " is simply one of the hundred clap-trap appeals to patriotic sight-seers produced by the War . Surely a painter of Mr . Cope ' s eminence and abilities ought to be occupied with better and higher things than these !
Here we must pause again ; reserving the Landscapes and any meritorious figure-pictures which we may have omitted to notice , for a final article next week .
476 T He Leader. [Saturday ,
476 T HE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
The Opera. The Success Of The Trovatore ...
THE OPERA . The success of the Trovatore was confirmed on Saturday and Tuesday . The consummate union of art and genius in Madame Viardot ' s Azucena , the thrilling power and passion of Tambbklik ' s Manrico , the resonant voice of Graziani , and the admirable singing of Mademoiselle Jenny Ney create a real sensation in the audience , and the essentially vocal character of the music is not the , least element in the success . When an audience goes home humming an opera , there can be little doubt that the music has found its way to their ears and to their hearts . The chorus here and there is scarcely so effective as might be desired , and not always in tune . Mademoiselle Ney has an occasional disposition to drag the time ; but it would be difficult to excel the ensemble of the Miserere scene in the last act , which seems to be generally considered the chefiTceuvre of the composer . It is almost a pity that so genuine a success should be interrupted even by the " reappearance of Mario , who returned to the scene of
his glories on Thursday in the Puritani , with a voice refreshed and invigorated by the breezes of the Atlantic . It is no secret to opera-goers that for the last two seasons Mario ' s voice has been almost a wreck , and although he disguised the ruin under a certain excess of acting , it was often painfully evident to those who remembered its prime . He would sometimes substitute dumb show for singing , or leave the high notes to the orchestra , or fly up to a sudden falsetto with a sort of extravagant despair , or half whisper , in a head voice , phrases that should have come with energy from the chest . The consciousness of failing powers betrayed itself in an air of lassitude and negligence which communicated itself sometimes to the whole performance , and the result was most unsatisfactory . There was always a considerable rural population in the audience , who were content to take everything for granted when they found it was Maiiio , and to
whom even his failures appeared beauties ; but the habitues shook their heads and sighed . Still Mario had fine moments , and he reigned supreme even in decay . There was ever a certain voluptuous tenderness in his voice which belongs to no other living tenor , and which with the fairer half of the audience is inseparable from the name of Mario . Add to this his graces of person and manner , his natural distinction and refinement , and it is easy to understand in what sense his loss would seem irreparable . Besides , even since the decline of his voice , he has become , in Lucrezia Borgia , in the Huguenots , in the Prophete , a real actor , and an actor is a rare phenomenon on the operatic stage . A "Viardot , who , if she were not one of the first of singers and , wo may add , a perfect musician , would rival Rachel as a tragedienne , is rare enough , and still rarer is a tenor Talma .
In the Puritani , Mauio rocals his bust and freshest days . He looks , sings , and acts to perfection ; there is no straining of the voice in that succession of melodies almost cloying in their sweetness , and the audience arc kept in a state of luxurious enjoyment by airs that " bring delight and hurt not . " Mademoisolle Bosio is a delicious Elvira , and Laiilache , a picturesque and traditional Geotgio , and GnAzrANi by no means an ineffective liicurdo . So Madame Grisi has indeed been prevailed upon to appear for a few more positively last nights ! We cannot honestly say we arc glad to hear it ; all our admiration cannot subdue the eenso of an inevitable anti-climax in these reappearances . Nevertheless wo shall not be niggard in our welcome to one to whom we owe so many evenings of the purest enjoyment . Madame Gribi is announced to appear in La Favorita .
Mr. E. T. Smith, The Most Enterprising A...
Mr . E . T . Smith , the most enterprising and intrepid of managers , has
roopened Drtjry-lanb , after a brief space of silence , for the performance of royal and polyglot opera . Mr . Smith , we think very sagaciously , throws himself upon the million at prices certainly the cheapest ever known in operatic annals . He discards the Free List altogether , according to the bills ; and the crowded house on Wednesday last represented , we are to suppose , literally so many small coi ns We cordially wish the enterprise all success ; every endeavour to popularise good music deserves it , and the opera at Drury-lane is by no means of a quality to be judged by the prices of admission . The sparkling Madame Gassier and her vivacious husband ; Signor Bettini , a sweet , small tenor ; Signor Fortini , a very respectable bass , are still in the company ; and a lady of the name of Arga , of whom we have received promising accounts from Paris , is announced to appear in Norma , with Mr . Hamilton Braham as Oroveso . We are confident that under judicious management there is a cheap musical public large enough to fill Drury-lane again and again .
The Theatres In Paris. It Seems Likely T...
THE THEATRES IN PARIS . It seems likely that the Paris Exhibition will disappoint the European visitors but Paris itself will make ample amends . Among the attractions of Paris—the most theatrical city in the world—not the least are the theatres , and , according to the Siecle , they are busy preparing all sorts of novelties and revivals . The world will have an opportunity of seeing all the great actors of the day in all the established chefs-d ' eeuvre , as well as in the pieces now in vogue . At the Theatre Francais , possessing the best company in the world , a fiveact comedy , by M . Leon Gozr , AN , and a three-act comedy by M . Legouve , are in rehearsal , and it is again whispered that Mdlle . Rachel may be prevailed upon to play the round of her great parts . Madame Plessy-Arnould -will make her rentre ' e . At the Gymnase , the Demi-Monde bids fair to run the whole summer through . Will the foreign and provincial audiences understand a world so peculiar to Paris ? The Varietes , which has so long been languishing , opens under a new management , with Bouffe . .
At the Vaudeville , Lafont , so long the delight of the St . James ' s , and so long absent from the Parisian scene of his early glories , is engaged ; and Mdlle . Page , of the caressing voice and the subjugating eyes , succeeds to her rival , Mdlle . Doche , in the Dame aux Cavie'lias . At the Palais Royal , Grassot , Ravel , Levassor , Hyacinthe , Luguet , and Gil-Perez will shake the sides of the initiated with laughter , but much of the fun is incomprehensible to outsiders . Just now they are doing a parody of the Demi-Monde—Le Monde Camelotte . -After a dinner at Ve'four or the Trois Freres , the little theatre of the Palais Royal is an excellent aid to the digestion . At the Porte St . Martin , the Tour de Nesle is to be revived with the attractive
Madame EjiilieGdyon in the part of Marguerite de Bourgogne ; but the great coup of the season at this theatre is to be a gigantic drama , by Paul Meurice , called Paris , in four epochs and eighteen tableaux , embodying the history of the city , from Julius Cesar to the Exhibition of 1855 . The scene of the prologue and epilogue is laid in 1855 . The four epochs are : Gaul—the Middle Ages—the Benaissance and Louis XIV . —the Revolution ; and the action extends over a period of some two thousand years . The drama will include no less than one hundred and twenty actors and speaking personages , exclusive of supernumeraries , and the getting up alone is said to have cost 6000 / . There are three divertissements in the course of the drama : a Roman orgy—a fete of the Middle Ages—a ballet of the time of Louis XIV . The principal characters will be played by Madame Guyon ( who has / bur idles assigned to her ) , Madame Naptal-Aunault , and that finished and powerful actor , Deshayes .
At the Abibigu , the greatest of surviving actors , Frederick Lejiaitre , will appear in a revival of one of his most famous creations , Kean : a title which will attract English visitors . At the Gaite , Monte Christo , in two parts , occupying two successive evenings . At the Cirque , a spectacle , also entitled Paris , and occupying two evenings' performance . At the Odeon , Henri Monnier will Europeanise his sententious aphorisms , as the immortal type of the Parisian bourgeois . Franconi , in the Champs Elyse ' , will no doubt draw crowds from the neighbouring Palace to the most celebrated horsemanship in Europe .
We Are Very Glad To Hear That A Silly Pi...
We are very glad to hear that a silly piece (/> Joli Mat ' Mai ) at the Vaudeville , full of flatteries to the Empire , has been vigorously damned . We regret to be obliged to add , that some wretched couplets celebrating the Anglo-Imperial alliancewere most incontinently hissed .
Olympic Theatre. The Idea Of The New Pla...
OLYMPIC THEATRE . The idea of the new play , Still Waters Run Deep , is take n from a F rench novel , entitled Le Gendre , by M . Charles de Bernard . The scene ot the story , however , as adapted for the stage , is removed to England ; and tne morality is as much as possible restricted within English limits . J he result is a play which has a tiresome first act—a second act containing one of the mosc powerful and interesting scenes that the modern stage has presented to us tor some time past—and a third act which , though inferior to its predecessor , "as dramatic merit enough to carry the story successfully to a close . I lie mam idea of the drama ( or rather of the novel ) is excellent . A kind-hearted , easyconceal
tempered man , whoso indolent temperament and modest manners " » " and courage of the highest order , marries , and is mistaken lor a harmless blocjchend by his wife , by her strong-minded aunt , and by her weak-headed old tatiier . Circumstances occur which place the whole family at the mercy of a villain . This man is detected , confounded , and punished by the easy , kind-heancu husband , who is roused at last to assert himself and his authority after dcteiuiing from shame and ruin the relations who misunderstand him . Here in ^ rtamiy a good idea—an idea which might have been better worked out for an lM 1 b ' n j ? 11 audience if the dramatist had not looked at it through u French medium . w > it is , we have a play containing some good scenes ; but not sulllciently nauonu whole
in its minor incidents to lay strong hold upon tho audience as a . The acting , so far as Mr . Wioan and Mr . Emhuy wero concerned , was ^ ' lent even beyond tho usual high standard of tho Olympic stage . Mr . Wioan played " tho part of tho husband with a quiet power and un artist-liko » UIie ™"\ to nature which , if hia first appearance as an actor had been on Monday iaai , would have won him at once a great reputation in his profession . Jtrol"u " ginning to end ho never once sacrificed truth to effect—not a gesture or » 1 ™"" escaped him which was not rigidly faithful to tho realities of life as distinguisiiw » from tho artificialities of tho stage . It is pleasant and encourag ing to ,, ° , , ' jLL add that ho produced an immense effect on tho audioneo , and was ciMua oo « tho curtain at tho end of tho play . Mr . Emery , also , deserves a word ot " i praise . His make-up was admirable , and his acting quaintly and genum * ' /
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051855/page/20/
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