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act , of " Possenti niimi , " with the . chorus , and of th « «? Qui sdegno , " in which his weighty and solemn bass , deeper and deeper still , descends like a voice of Fate , thunderwrapt , it did . the amplest justice to the solemn music ; and what higher praise can be given r I was glad to perceive that when compelled to repeat the air , like a true artist , Formes never deserted the character for a . moment . But to turn from grave to gay , what can I say of Papageno ? Imagine Momus himself descended among mortals : summon up all that you can imagine of the quips and quirks and pranks of elves : of most extravagantly funny , mischievous ,
frolicsome , impudent , abating , timorous : stir all up together and mix with " le diable au corps , and you will have some faint approximation , to an idea of Ronconi , as Papageno the Bird-catcher . A less consummate artist would have made him a mere buffoon . Roneoni , out of the very depths of incongruous absurdity contrives to give you a sort of epitome of the weaknesses of our common nature : and though ever ready to beat your best buffoon on his own ground , yet , if you watch him closely , you will catch what Vivian might call the tragic side of his mask . You will no longer be surprised to hear that he is as great in Tragedy as in broad Farce . There is in that great actor a
certain almost hitter intensity , an incisiveness , a mordant , as the French have it , which seizes and penetrates , like a wedge , into all the infirmities , emotions , aspects of humanity ; a grasp of purpose , character , passion which to speak as of plastic Art , combines all the depth and solidity of sculpture , with all the vividness and variety of painting . And there is as wide a distinction between a great artist and a mere actor as between verses and poetry . You know with what brio and finish a thorough musician like Ronconi would touch all that he had to sing .
Mile . Anna Zerr , irreverently styled "the Screamer ' par excellence , by some amateurs , startled the house on the first night by the daring and facility with which she attacked the amazing difficulties of the exceptional music allotted to Astrifiammarrfce , the Queen of Night . On Tuesday , Louisa Pyne stormed the part and carried it nobly , with a perfect ease and self-possession , and a mastery of the music which superseded all indulgence , and made us proud of such an Engl ish singer . She has now leaped into a high position and must keep it . Need I add how Grisi looked and sang to perfection ; and how Mario , who , undoubtedly , has not his voice of
former seasons , was elegant and tender as Pamino . and sang the " O Cara immagine" with a passionate beauty most enchanting ; and how Viardot , with characteristic good-will , lent to the two scenes of Papagena immense eclat , and made the episode of the old woman a gem of mimicry ; or how the three ladies of the ' chorus sang better than the three ladies of higher pretensions ; or how well-appointed was the mise en seine ; or how M . Costa played the bells with inimitable expression ( convulsed by Ronconi all the while ); or how—but no , I shall bid farewell to Covent Garden with a word of inquiry for Sappho , and , according to Vivian ' s instructions , proceed to say a word about the
NOZZE DI FIGARO At her Majesty ' s Theatre . The sum of what he instructed me to say I shall most comfortably express , by saying as little as possible . He found Sophie Cruvelh ' s Cherubino very unequal to the reputation she had acquired by her previous undertakings : unintelligently and awkwardly acted ; coarsely and indifferently sung : in short , a chute . The rest of the performance , with the single exception of Lablache , was below criticism . Hut I have a far more pleasant duty to discharge , in recording the return of the silver-voiced Alboni , who , in
LA CENEUENTOLA , discovered the full resources of her luscious voice and exquisite method , in unimpaired beauty . Open your ears , and shut your eyes , and drink in the voluptuous melody . I Heem to remark her features a little lined down ( they were always amiable , and even delicate ) , and the upper part of her voice has perhaps gained a little that the pure contralto may have lost . I never hear Alboni without being 1 tormented by the remembrance of au execrable pun I heard perpetrated at the Montansier ( then l ' alais Royal ) , in the winter of ' 47 . — " Avez vous entendu la nouvelle
cantatrice ; celle qui , a ce qu ' on dit , a une foule do rosBignols dans le gosier ?—Ah I le beau nidi " Let the author of Alcestis try to beat that . I had intended to go and see Donna Petra Camarra ( of whom I have read « uch rapturous notice in the French pupern ) the other night : but Fhrinda ww
the ppcra , and my sins are not equal to suph a punishment . Talking of Fhrinfa , I was saying the other day that it was generally voted a bore : and was informed ( with ail annihilating shake of the head ) that it was " far too clever for opera goers . " Clever , indeed ! But how is it that Don Giovanni , and the Flauto Magico , and the Noz ' ze di Figaro , and the Huguenots , and the Prophete , are not too clever for us to listen to with ever increased delight , night after night , and season after season ? I am disposed to think that Thalberg would have done bettlr to stick ( as I heard it neatly
expressed ) *« to his five fingers . " Reading the names of the Spanish Dances , I was transported instantly on the wings of memory , tra los monies , into Andalusia : back to the time when at the f olden age of eighteen , blest with a " happily isposed organization , " and with a keen sense of the beautiful , I found myself at Cadiz—and Seville . I remembered one evening when , t think , twelve Englishmen ( a . motley baud ) composed of soldiers , sailors , tourists , yachtsmen , sat grimly ( after the manner of their country ) intent on a private performance of the Spanish national dances , provided for our amusement by a ballet-master , to whom we paid I forget how many dollars . I rememberea the Fandango and the Bolero : but ,
above all , enticing " El Ole , " and the maddening " Jota Aragonesa of these Andalusian Ghawazee : but how shall I forget the little love of a child of three years old who , in an exquisite costume , danced with the ease , the grace , the passionate abandon , and the impetuous coquetry , broken by interval s of voluptuous shrinking and repose , of riper yeare . But alas ! in Andalusia youth and beauty ripen quick and wither early ! These national dances of Spain are a whole Spopie of southern passion : its wild and wayward intensity , its disdainful coquetry , its mad oblivious selfsacrifice , its jealousies , languors , storms , reconciliations : and Ihey belong only to the children of the sun !
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Of the theatres I have little to say this week . Helen Faucit appeared on Monday night , to a densely crowded house at the Olympic , in The Lady of Lyons , and had a reception befitting the first of our actresses . I am not surprised at her having been the idol of the Parisians during her brief engagement with Macready , some years ago . In all ner delineations there is a certain morbidezza , as the Italians say , which to me is most
bewitching , and belongs only to finely tempered art to express . She has since appeared as Juliet , supported by Mr . J . W . Wallack , whom I should be glad to appreciate , but cannot yet . Mr . and Mrs . Kean ' s benefit was a bumper ; and as I cannot believe that you woul « J be disposed to sit out the Gamester as a moral lesson , in the dogdays , it was all the greater compliment to the beneficiares ; and they must have felt it as a testimony to their management of the theatre .
I went to see Valeria , after reading Vivian ' s paper , to justify to myself the severity of his criticism ; and I am forced to say that I think he has " been cruel only to be kind ! " With the exception of Rachel ' s Lycisca , which is a gem from the antique , I was not simply disgusted at the pseudoclassicism and the sh » bby-genteel language , but absolutely bored . We are promised a very dif ferent play on Saturday next , when \ should be sorry not to see Kachel as La Tisbc in Victor
Hugo ' s noble drame Angela . I have now only to adopt a name , and this is no easy matter . Well ! I have a puzzle for you : it is far more serious than it seems , and for its interpretation I refer you to Florian . If my friends only knew the writer of this article , they might say ( but n'importe ) that the name of all others the most inappropriate for a gentleman of such high vocal pretensions ( in private society ) would be Le Chat-huant .
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ADDRESS OF THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE TO THE ROUMA 1 N RACE . Roumains , —You are of an imperishable race . The name transmitted to you by your fathers , your language , your traditions , and your tendencies , all remind you that you spring from that people which , twenty centuries ago , left its great trace upon the grand route of European civilization . That people now lives again . You also
must live again . Fer you also have a mission to fulfil in Europe , and the instinetive consciousness of this mission has never been effaced from your souls . You are called to represent , in the midst of eastern Europe , the idea of individual liberty and of collective progress , which has consecrated us , Europeans , the aposiles of humanity . You are the vanguard of the Greco-Latin race ; and you ought to be the connectinglink to unite its activity with that of the Sclavonian and Magyar races . . . ... .
It is the sentiment of this mission which constitutes and guarantees your nationality . Work it out with faith and perseverance ; suffer , labour , combat for it . It is your duty towards Humanity : it constitutes your own right amongst the nations . It is in the name of the Peoples , who now sign through us the preliminaries of the European Federal Pact , that we affirm this duty and this right . Be ye our brethren ! we are yours ! A People can no more live alone upon the earth , and achieve alone that liberty which is the breath
of life , than an individual can live alone in the State . Peoples are the individuals of Humanity . Enter into the great family ; at its hearth you will recover the titles of your future national existence . Let us join hands over the tombs of our martyrs . The same earth sustains us , the same sky stretches over our heads : let the same thought of love kindle our hearts ; let the same sign be witness of our brotherhood before God and man . Each for all ; all for each : this sacred thought , too long forgotten by the Peoples , and usurped , for impious ends , by our oppressors , can alone insure our salvation .
A great battle is about to take place in the world between the Spirit of Good and of Evil , for Liberty and Justice against oppression ; whencesoever it may come , in that battle shall every national banner be consecrated , and by the blessed brethren Peoples on the day of victory . Hold yourselves in readiness to hasten at the signal ; and in the mean time purify your faith : ponder on the word which springs from the innermost soul of the Peoples and hovers over Europe ; rally your youth round the principles and the lessons of wisdom which our late sad reverses have taught us . Never separate the question of liberty from that of independence . Peoples , like individuals , have a double life , internal and external ; he who forgets the first is unworthy to achieve the second .
Liberty is not anarchy ; it is not the caprice or the selfish interest of each substituted for the arbitrary will or the interest of a caste or of a man ; it is the power of choosing unshackled , and aided by our brethren , the means necessary to each for attaining the great end . That end is Virtue , Truth , Justice , and hove . It is the same for all , and ought to be rmght for , for all . But many routes lead to this end , -nd the choice between these different routes is liberty . Nationality ia the liberty of Peoples . Nationality is not hatred , mistrust , or jealousy ; it ia not the threatening , hostile , egotistical feeling which once caused every People to stigmatize aa barbarians those who lived beyond their own frontiers . That waa nationality as kings and princes conceived and taught it . The
nationality of the Peoples is the spontaneous , instinctive consciousness of a special duty to be accomplished ; of something to be done freely in the world , iu virtue of certain capacities given to a group of men placed under the same territorial conditions , speaking the same language , cradled in the tame national songs , and baptized in the same traditions . Nationality is the sign of this group of labourers in the midst of Immunity ; its right to a place at the common banquet , the banner which it will entwine with those of its brethren , proclaiming its faith in universal association for the good of all , and reserving for itself , at the same time , the right of freely regulating its individual interests , and of developing , after iu own idea , its peculiar tendencies and local habitH .
Never forget these principles , Itoumain brothers ! for you aro surrounded by secret enemies , who usurp the sacred words of your future exi » tence , in order tho more effectually to destroy their aiguirioation and value . The C » ar calls himself your protector , and apeaks to you of independence and nationality : rcpulae him unhesitatingly , for the Czar is a living lie . Therein no independence without liberty ; and how can liberty conic from the oppressor of Poland and Hungary—from the man who at home rule * only by bayonets , the knout , and the mines of Siberia ?
The Emperor of Austria tells you that nationality for { ou is war against the Magyar aud fidelity to his house , tepulsc him with horror . He hold * the « ame language with the Magyar , the German , aud the Solavoniaii . He divides to reign t His cabinet ia the centre of European despotism , everywhere tyrannical , evt-rywhere deceitful . The Government which bears upon it * forehead the double stain of the horrors of Galioia and of Italy , has no right to touch your national banner . The Solaronian and the Magyar , the Italian and the Greek are your brethren , tho Ernncror and tk « Cat * tie
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Jpi * 19 , 1851 . 3 fJit ***»*?? W * \
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¦ earn coa , they nuay b « rewarded »« mere rubbish ; but then it ia rubbiah we are delighted to find , inasmuch a « it ia in certain oontaet with a mine of wealth . What a vein « f truth , for instance , lie * buried beneath the * No Popery' cry , in whatever region of history it is found to have prevailed 1 Tho philosopher , when he meets with ¦ ^* ol ° ** * " bool *«» and , without their aid , lay down witb unerring » ocur « oy , a general outline of the ev «» t « X ^^ rtZ ^ lZS * ™ & *> u * l > ood . ~ Alialr ,
of l Cant Phuauks . —Caut phrases are not wholly to bo despised . Worthless as they are in themselves , they have their uses . They are the straws in tho air—the chipfl in the stream , which servo to ahow the current of opinion . They are the crannies and chinka in the profcsaioiiH put forward by party , through which wo may look and discover the hidden principles by which it is swayed . They express little , but they often indicate much . Like the stratum which lies immediately over a
©Nroptatt Wtmnxux^.
© nroptatt Wtmnxux ^ .
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This page ia accorded to an authentic Exposition of the Opinions and Acts of the Democracy of Europe : as auoh we do not impose any restraint on the utterance of opinion , and , therefore , limit our own responsibility to tne authenticity Of the statement .
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1892/page/17/
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