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546 THE tEADfK ^
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€t}t Ms.
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CRUVELLI AND DE LA GRANGE. On Saturday I...
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LUCREZIA BORGIA. Thebe was an immense au...
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¦ THE MUSICAL UNION. Turn third concert,...
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EGMONT AND THE GERMAN ACTORS. Although n...
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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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Passages From A Boy's Epic. I. Some Thir...
For they were .. -words of love . O love , love , love ! 0 thirst , Q passion , withering life away , : Why didst thou pass into my brain , why glide So like a liquid flame through heart and soul For swee t and subtle ruin , till I felt That without love there was no life for me , No beauty , no delight , no universe . G sister ! I am nearly blind with grief , Let me I pray thee make an end of it ! One morn I stood beside the sheltering cove , Where the tall Attic ships were wont to be ; k I looked but saw them not . I looked again , 1 climbed a rock , and over the waste sea And the wild heaven did send imploring eyes , And spread my arms for some receding sail , Then leaping madly from the rock I rushed Back to the palace , calling him aloud ; , But only mocking echoes answered me With ' Theseus , Theseus , ' till men came and told That he had fled with all bis stately ships . " M .
546 The Teadfk ^
546 THE tEADfK ^
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Cruvelli And De La Grange. On Saturday I...
CRUVELLI AND DE LA GRANGE . On Saturday I went to see Crxryellis Amina , which her admirers consider a masterpiece . I was struck with two things in her singing ^ - ^ the improvement in the delivery of her voice , which , is less nasal than it used to be , and the greater precision and variety of her execution ; but it also seemed to me that her voice was fatigued , and that screaming was beginning to tell upon it already , as it assuredly must tell before long . As to her acting , frankly I do not understand the praises bestowed on it . A colder , Harder , more ungenial , less naive , less joyous Amina , I have not seen on German or Italian stage . The pertinacity with which she avoided looking at and listening to her lover was almost amusing ; and in lieu of the playful touches or coquetish affection mingling with the deep and girlish tenderness-: of Amina , she gave us the most stagey of stage coquetries and no tenderness whatever . There were many points in her singing worthy of hearty praise , but her acting wanted every quality demandedby the part . Sic cogitavit Vivianus . After Sonnamhula we had Gnecco ' s amusing farce , La JProva d ' un Opera Seria , which lives in the pleasant memories of all who remember Malibran and Grisi . Lablache , magnificent as ever , kept the house shaking with uproarious mirth , and Madame De La Grange made a decidedly better appearance than she did in Lucia . The reason is simple . The part is one of mere vocal display , and for astonishing roulades ! have already said she is remarkable ; " but unpleasant "—let me still add . Her voice , seldom agreeable , is very flexible , and the ^ taccato p s ages w t hed with a lightness and precision reminding one of a violin , and also reminding one of Johnson ' s " Madam , would that it were impossible !" for it was not singing but a singing lesson . I thought of the eternal complaint , old as Aristophanes , raised against the substitution of means for an end : Et Se tic avrov j 3 < o / io \ o % ev < rair' ffKafi \(/ titv rtya Kaftirtjv Oiag oi vvv rag Kara & pvviv ravrag tag SvffKoXoKajnrovg 'ETcerpifieTO Tvirropevog iroWag big rag Movcrag aipavi ^ iov . " And should any one dare the tune to impair , and with intricate twistings to fill , Such as Phrynis is fain , and hia long-winded train , perversely to quaver and trill , Many stripes would he feel in return for his zeal , as to genuine music a foe . " and while " wondering" at this execution I sighed for one expressive phrase , or one delicious note , such as should make my nerves tremble with delight . Yet her success was enormous , the audience enraptured ! I hope you observe that I am always careful to record my opinion as an individual opinion , and one often contradicted by tho applause of the public ; by this means I preserve independence without unfairness , for you may reasonably say , " After all , if it pleased the audience ifc may please me , whatever Vivian may think . " Only I give you fair warning , if you don't agree with me—you are wrong !
Lucrezia Borgia. Thebe Was An Immense Au...
LUCREZIA BORGIA . Thebe was an immense audience at Covent Garden on Tuesday . Tho opera was Lucrezia , a favourite , with Grisi and Mario , the favourites of favourites , and Eonconi in the small but important part of the Duke ; and after Lucrezia came the third and fourth acts of I Martiri , in which Tamberlik , as usual , thrilled tho house with ungovernable enthusiasm . Grisi was very grand in Lucrezia ; her acting , perhaps , finer than ever , and her flinging still the most delightful singing to bo hoard when Alboni is not present . Mario reserved himsolf somewhat ; using tho falsetto more than was satisfactory , but abandoning himself to tho two great ducts of the socond and third acts , and dying with even moro effect than heretofore . , ^ ,
¦ The Musical Union. Turn Third Concert,...
¦ THE MUSICAL UNION . Turn third concert , on Tuesday , was delightful . Herr Laub , tho Bohemian violinist , leading in satisfactory style , and Herr Pollitzor , on tho tenor , being a decided acquisition . Mendelssohn's lovely quarfcofc in V ( No . 3 . ) has rarely been bettor played ; Beethoven ' s inoomparablo sonata in O minor , for piano and violin , severely tried tho powers of Herr Laub AlBMWdlle . Clauss ; but although the violinist was not irreproachable in his ¦ jjrtBWTanism , ho was in feeling and style—they both played in what for m & mrtf a better word I must call the true BoethoyeniBh mood . Mozart s 5 BCTi « Bfj | j n a , I found rather tiresome in its simplicity : especially coming IPia
after two such lovely pieces as those of Mendelssohn and "Beethoreii Had it opened the ebneert one might have liked it better . Madlle . Cku wound up with Gtaopin ' s JVocturne , not altogether in ^^ Chopin ' s style and with Heller ' s Chwse- —an opportunity for display of fingering . People who like these in ^ tatiye compositions , and want music to be deseriMvo ' instead-. of emotive / tinay enjoy La Chasse , I don't . You may hear in it the clatter of hoofs on the frosty ground ; you may see the red coats flashing in the sun ; you may hear theyTallyho , and smell rum and milk in those modulations— -if you like I It isjas easy as thought . Imag ination has boundless sway . And if you are a sportsman , you will say that ' s some - thing like music I I prefer music itself .
Egmont And The German Actors. Although N...
EGMONT AND THE GERMAN ACTORS . Although not a good playin any theatrical sense , JEgmont , like every work of that immortal writer , regains a deep hold on the mind that has once read it : the qualities demanded in a scenic picture of ' Hie , maybe found more prominent and vigorous in far inferior writers ; but the profound humanity , the organic creation , every touch of which speaks the poet , and , finally , the bright happy life that animates this work , make it something higher and deeper than an amusement . JEgmont was written in two strange and culminating epochs of Goethe ' s life . It was commenced and sketched out in 1775 , w ^ en he had jusfc broken away from Idli ; it was finished in Italy , when , he had broken a \ vay from the turbulence of youth , and commenced his great career of serene and noble life . Can one not hear something of both epochs in the accents of this play ? He had parted from Lili— -why I will some day endeavour to explain—but his heart still yearned towards her . He lingered about her house , of nights , wrapped in his cloak , mournfully happy if he could but catch a glimpse of her shadow on the curtain as she moved about the room . One night , as he stood there beneath the stars , he heard her singing . "What was her song P It was the one he had written to her in the fresh morning of their love !
" Wherefore so resistlessly dost draw me ? " & c . Her voice ceased . She rose and walked up and down the room , little knowing how her sorrow was shared by him that caused it—little knowing who stood beneath her window struggling with his feelings ; struggling but conquering , as his -victorious nature , ever did . Goethe always sought consolation in Art . With JEgmont he cheated sorrow ; and , although . Egniont is a tragedy , how little tragic emotion there is on the surface ! To find that you must pierce deep . For Goethe —as the noodles tell you- — was " so cold I" doodles who never penetrate beyond surfaces ! JEgmont is not , properly speaking , a tragedy ; nor is it , as commonly said , a great historic play : it is a profoundly human play . Had Qoethe
been an historic mind he would certainly have produced a great painting of history here , in lieu of the individual , human p icture it has pleased him to paint ; for the time was pregnant with historic impulse . Frederic the Great—over whom Carlyle now ponders—was resting on his splendid laurels . Catherine of Russia , that great Empress , towered in the North . Paolihad struck for liberty . Washington and Franklin had achieved it . But Goethe , absorbed by Man , had little or no thought of the universal life which moves through History . "I and my immediate circle , " he says , " did not meddle with the news of the day : our affair was to study Man : men in general we allowed to go their own way . " An indifference which draws forth from politicians Tike Mazzini a burst of passionate
scorn ; a scorn any one can understand , who contemplates Mazzini s splendid and disinterested life , or who gazes on the " victorious sadness of his countenance" ( to use the beautiful epithet applied to him by an exquisite friend of mine ) but a scorn , nevertheless , which I take to be onesided and unwise . It is idle to quarrel with so great a nature as Goethe s because it was not different from what it pleased God to make it . And , frankly , what amount of historic insight and local colouring could be accepted in lieu of such deep poetic insight as we have here in JEgmont and Clara ? Suppose the play a political manifesto—would any one , — except in hours of commotion—and genius creates for all times— -preier that to the drama of the brain and heart acted here P No . The free ana joyous and almost godlike carelessness of JEgmont is worth a whole tritoin iiim noi 7 vi / i *
bune of patriotic orators , r we see Humanity , * » « . — I will not argue this point . Let me rather turn to the German troupe whom Mr . Mitchell has brought over for the delectation of a blast puWic . The house was overflowing ; the audience in ecstacies ; the s "j ? ? jJ the experiment unequivocal . I was sure it . would be so . JNoveny , fashion , and a legitimate curiosity , were not bad things for a manager ™ speculate upon ; and considering how ignorant the public is , how mt - pablo of appreciating Art , how willing to take for granted thaUoroignoi » must be artists , there is no reason to suppose that any deficiency w quality will interfere with the monetary success of this speculation , A a glad of it : for Mr . Mitchell , above all managers , deserves to succoca . he is and faith with the public is iimul f t
enterprising , generous , keeps . „ r no enterprising , generous , ana Keeps wuu ww «»»* " „ But you want to know what I think of these Germans P As tar as _ could gather , there wore only three persons in the house who snared i 1 j opinion ; but this imposing minority satisfies mo ; and not boing aou tomed to take my opinions from any hiffher authority than tiio Hig v b who holds his court in my breast , I shall " fearlessly declare ( as w » i *» say when they are under wo sort of peril whatever ) that my admi ' ^ V . / . the acting was that which one feels for maturo modiocrity--nioaio x J without crudeness , —ripe , perfect , untroubled by a hope ot luturo uo »
lopment ! . ¦ . i ; : I-Iorr EmilDevricnt is accredited as tho greatest tragic actor now nv » jj in Germany . I saw him years ago with very mitigated admiration , last night that fooling was not changed . Ho is a fine looking , n ° * graceful man , with a hatchet face and a good voice . He treads ino » h . as « to tho mannor born ; " speaks with an agreeable accent , ! iina » ^ vatod intelligence , so that you fool you are listening to a gentieni » u , ^ one who understands what he is saying . He is never great ; no * flashes of gonius ; ho never thrills you ; but he is free from rant , v *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1852, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05061852/page/22/
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