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is not sufficiently present ; so that we are scarcely prepared to conspire with Comma td poison him . At last Sinoro enters , with an unfortunate winged helmet and red cloak , afterwards exchanged for rich robes and an absolutely comic head of red hair . From that moment we find it impossible to hate him with proper energy . Ristori in vain trembles , raves , and expresses with that "wonderful power of pantomime and physiognomical play which is peculiar to her , all the gradations of her passion . The idea of exaggeration is ever powerfully present . Indeed , the actress has an intuitive perception that this is the case , and gives a slightly maniacal interpretation to some of the passages . We follow her with interest ; but Sinoro never rises to a greater tragic height than Bucklaw slain in the chamber of Lucy Ash ton . His admission of crimeeven the horrid detail of tearing out the heart of his victim—which comes as an episode in his passionate declaration of love , is , dramatically speaking , insufficient to constitute him a villain . Signor Gleck , whom it is the fashion to speak
of disdainfully with Signor Boccobiini and the rest , but who plays with an energy and a taste that almost make us forget his ludricous costume—terminating , by the way , for some mysterious reason , in Phrygian breeches , and , we think , yellow leather boots—Signor Gleck , we say , in vain struggles to deserve the summary chastisment preparing for him . "We rather pity him as we see him with so much simplicity falling into the toils of a mad woman . The opportunity occurs of justifying Camma in accordance with the laws of the stage . Oh ! for Marlowe , artificer of horror , to have taken advantage of it ! Talese , the bard , friend of the murdered Sinato , beards the new tetrarch , endeavours to thwart his hopes , and in every way shows a contempt for his power . He is only mildly threatened with imprisonment , and allowed to stay and see the wedding ; whereas a cruel death , that might have aroused the passions of the audience , should at once have been inflicted on him . Then , indeed , should we have been prepared to behold Camma , under the excitement of the new crime
perpetrated before her own eyes , lure the monster who had made her a widow to his fall . As it is , nothing but the overwhelming grace of the great actress prevents our sympathies departing from the Druidess , and we cannot help feeling that Sinoro is illused . It is with some remorse we see him borne off the stagea remorse , it i s true , forgotten in the splendid death-scene that follows ; but that recurs when we look back over the whole story . We scarcely remember to have seen a play that was dramatically so unsatisfactory . It is , moreover , remote from an English audience by its scene , its date , its characters , the ideas referred to—its whole moral atmosphere . Signor Montanelli seems to have been influenced to take up some Druidical notions that have acquired an arbitrary value in his eyes . Here and there are transparent allusions to the condition of Italy under the Austrians ; but we should not like to suppose that Camma is the model proposed for the enslaved . However , speaking from a literary point of fi drawn
view , Camma is possessed of true merit . There may be too many gures from physical nature , but the style is warm and flowing—altogether eloquent in fact . In mere diGtionJperhaps , Signor Montaneixi is too finicking . He writes desiriere , which Madame Risf ORi , fond of popular words , changes to carrier * ;¦ and , instead of womo , squeamishly in most Italian phrase has cavaliere , which , with great simplicity , Mr . Thomas Williams translates ' knight . ' Yet Camma , we repeat , is a remarkable production , considering that it was composed with the not very legitimate object of enabling one actres 3 to display her peculiar powers . This is rather a humiliation for literature . A dramatist must take the company he writes for into account ; but his first duty as not to give any particular actor an opportunity of showing off . Indeed , by so doing , he encourages the fatal facility with which actors degenerate into maunerism . Variety of effect is in reality only possible with variety of character . An actor ' s first , and indeed only , business ie to interpret .
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FAZIO . " Only the other day ( wrote M . Philakete Chasles in reference to M . Frkuebio Soulib ' b drama CZotil de ) our modern Parisians had no idea that the prose drama being represented before them in French dresses of the day , had its origin in a novel by Labca , dramatized in the sixteenth century by an Englishman , and worked up again in the nineteenih century by Milman under the title of Fazio" The English audiences , who were moved to tears by Miss O JNeill in 1818 , who were shaken with terror and emotion by Miss Cushman when she first appeared as Bianco , in . London some years ago , who were struck with awe and pity and admiration by Miss Glynn ' s Biancain 1853 , and who now in this present summer are startled into unconventional manifestations of sympathy and Madame
compassion by the tragic grandeur and almost ideal beauty or Kistobi ' s impersonation—the English audiences , we say , and perhaps we may add the English critics , are quite as much disposed to give Dean Milman tun credit for the tragedy which we believe he wrote at college , aa the French audiences to accept Fr ^ dIbic Souhe ' s Clotilde for an original drama . An Italian proverb assures us that a tragic work by a priest is rarely good and complete . It would be ungenerous to apply this proverb to Dr . Milman ' s composition , the imperfections of which belong rather to unripeness and to that propensity to rhetorical redundancy which ia commonly found in young dramatic writers who have steeped their pens in Elizabethan ink . It cannot be said that Giraldi Fazio is an interesting hero . In the first scene only lie engages our interest and sympathy for a moment , as the poor tnere is
alchemist , rich « in the wealth of love . ' Even Here , However , a feeble flirting fickleness about the fellow which makes us half angry with his wife for loving such a trifler , and from the moment when he is rescued from his studious poverty by the cheap and easy process of larceny not quite ' petty , ' he becomes simply contemptible . As a lover he forsakes the noblest of women for a heartless courtesan , the plaything of his own idle vanity as much as of Aldabtlla ' o viperous fascinations . In the laafc scenes , indeed , after his condemnation to deatih , he is almost a new man . He has gleams of courage , dignity , and nobleness , which transform the vain , larcenous , fickle Fazio of the earlier scenes into a hero worthy of Bianca ' a love , and not unworthy of her jealous hate > but throughout the tragedy it is to Bianca that the supremacy of the scene belongs . And most nobly does Madame Ristori assert this supremacy , not only in the strong situations of the drama , but in those delicate and subtle transitions , those etibtddences of emotion which distinguish the true artist from the conventional dauber . In the course of the tragedy , Madame Ristoiu traverses the whole scale of
passion—love , hate , tenderness , jealousy , pity , terror , revenge , remorse , rapture , desolation—every chord is touched with the instinct and the impulse ot womanly sympathy and commanding genius . In her attitudes , there is at one moment an undulation and a flowing gracoj in the intonations of her voice , a sweet persuasion and a caressing tenderness j at another , a flashing desperation and a fateful scorn . « . Tuke heed : we are passionate ; our milk of love Doth turn to wormwood , and that ' s bitter drinking . What infinite sweetness in her tone , when , after ehe has brought the tremon *
TltilSe ?* " *^ hU 5 band ' ¦ - ™ stl , at « ,, e disaS « Mn ! goMi 8 c S ... . * * * Ebbene Vtvrem poven ancora , e ti perdono . Poveri , ma felici , e i nostri giorni Scovveran come pria rapidi e lieti . When Fazio is torn from her— ' — Oh ! non , ancor Parresta No tu non dei morir !—she _ makes herself a shield between him and death . When Fazio is eone ^ A * u solitary prison cell and couch of straw are empty , how thVutffW * creeps over her sense and spirit ! Madame Ristori does not repSseit th ^ sertion and _ the death of the heart in conventional starts and sobIKb ! t nstmct which is the soul of the highest art she lets you see ? he agony to ? tunng , convulsing-, laying waste and blank the worn wan face and «™ pallid brow , and trembling mouth , like a wind-harp . ' seeping Saran confuse nell' estremo amplesso . Le nostre vite . . . ed io libera forse Priraa di te . . . We sometimes hear it said that Madame Ristoui ' s propensity to the sculn turesque gives a certain formalism and sameness to her various impersonations and that many of her attitudes in Bianca are familiar to those who have seen her Medea . There is , no doubt , some ground for this criticism ; but the truth re mains that no living actress ( we are no bigoted believers in the dead ) can transfix the senses and sway the emotions of an audience like Ristori . The great tragedienne was , on this occasion , better supported than usu * ' ' - rpst of the company . Signor Belt , otti-Bon , an experienced actor of in Italy , performed the single scene in which Bartoldo the Mir sufficient ability to confirm his continental reputation . Sign * - if not entirely satisfactory , at least a more than tolerable Faz Ferkoni , too cold , perhaps , and not quite distinguished enoug tine Marchesa of the fifteenth century , is not an unseductive that there is too much of the dove and too little of the snake in ^ Fazio will certainly be the success of the present season of M performances in London .
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HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE . Signob Belart , a Spanish light tenor , with a sweet , flexible , and elegant voice , not ill-trained nor ill-nianaged , made his first appearance at Her Majesty ' s Theatre , on Tuesday evening , in the Sonnambula , and obtained a positive success by the marked feeling and intelligence with which he sang and acted in the part of Elvino . Signor Belart is a real acquisition to the company . Madame Alboni was the Rosina—and if not precisely Rosina , she was entirely Alboni ; and what more can be said to justify the delight and admiration of the audience ' ? She sang Ah ! non giunge as no one else can sing it in the world .
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RUBINSTEIN . At the Musical Union on Tuesday last , the great Russian pianist played for the last time this season in England , but we have little doubt he will be disposed to return to a country in which the most competent authorities are his warmest admirers . Rubinstbih ( we do not know whether we ouHit to call him Monsieur or Herr ) is by birth a Russian but as a musician he ° is essentially German , and at the first glimpse of Ins head you are sure to exclaim " How like Beethoven ! " for it is almost a fac-simile on a reduced scale of that harmonious Titan . A terrible responsibility is such a likeness , but in this instance it is not unworthily sustained No pianist since Liszt has achieved at so early an age ( Rubinstein is not more than thirty ) 8 oewp-At he ~ himself in the foremost rank of
Sa ^ Ration 7 bound hasplaced the musical art . As a composer , we are not able to discuss ms merits , butaccording to the opinion of those whose opinion is sincere and dec sue , the works he has already written indicate profound study and singularly ; npo «» mp ^ ment , rather than the inventive and creative faculty ; a Pf ^^^^ of the science rather than the possession of those gifts , which n ° ™ ° e nt 0 |^ can bestow , and for which no degree of learning is a substitute . But as an executant , we may honestly and emphatically pronounce R ™™ ™ " ™ greatest living pianist . Irfszr does not excel him in brilliancy , perhaps docnot Iqualhim in the perfect union of profound feeling and ^ l ^ fJ ^ ATl strength and unaffected grace which , in all he touches , marks the and ot « o bikstein . And to all his gifts and powers is added the ^ pre ™ < £ "m Ofthat unfeigned eirnplicity which separates true genius from the counterfeit .
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MR . AND MRS . WEBB'S ENTERTAINMENT . Ax the Dudley Gallery , Egyptian Hall , on Wednesday ^^ jg ^ S and Mrs . Webb appeared under high patronage , and ^ * ~ E ^ w £ KI& J the entertainment which we noticed some weeks since , when it was pr » » performed at Cainden House , Kensington .
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THEATRICAL NOTES . M « . BUCK 8 TONE announces his annual benefit at t ^ 5 ^^ M ^ Vs " ^ is on Wednesday , July 8 th , the 1124 th night of the season I Jjr . JBwow too old a favourite with the public , and deserve * too well ofhuojuntry , ^ quire any special attraction for his benefit , but , w ^ ltli charauonsi md ami enterprise , he announces tor tins occasion the VrodnoUon ol £ ejf original three-act comedy by Mr . Tom Taylor , and a n jj » rc £ oiHinanco bear promising names . Victim ? , the title of the cpmody , Buggeats n pro of serious and sentimental ( probably of ft ""!""" ) "Knean surprises and Second Floor seems to imply any amount of puroly Duelcstonem »^ to clicer catastrophes . Wo wish the worthy manager who has done so mu the public heart a morry bumper on the 8 th . ¦ PniMorss'B on Monday Mu . and Mrs . Oh Anuaa Kean had their benefit at t ** * W ^ Jf & acted for night , when Richard If . was performed . That gorgeoub royiv «* vi " ducou . the last time next Monday ; and on Wednesday' / Aa 2 « w «< thoatw being ol A night rehearsal of this piece takes place on Tuesday—the mow course closed to the public . ., AnELPiu on Monitor , and Mrs . Baunuv Williams again returned to tho adbmm day night for a brief engagement . They merely plftyod In tholr stout x
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630 THE DEADER . rao « o SAT * Rlulr
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Leader (1850-1860), June 27, 1857, page 620, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2199/page/20/
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