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July 19, 1851.] «t>$ 3Lt*\*X ** 686
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Of the theatres I have little to say thi...
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Cant 1 iihanks.—Cunt phrases are not who...
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This page is accorded to «n autb.en.Uc E...
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ADPRESS OF THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN DEMOCRAT...
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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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Vivian A3 G It O T A T. You Know What A ...
act , of " Possenti numi , " with the chorus , and of the " 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 ? 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 , doating , 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 . Ronconi , 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 bitter 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 purjjose , 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 sinsr .
Mlle . AnnaZerr , 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 Astrifiammante , 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 English 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 irnmagine" 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 scene ; 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 tho
NOZZK 1 ) 1 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 . lie found Sophie Crnvelh ' . s Cherubino very unequal to the reputation she had acquired by her previous undertakings : uninlelligenily 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 . But 1 have a far more pleasant duty to discharge , in recording the return of the silver-voiced Alboni , who , in
LA . C 1 SNKRHNTOLA , discovered the full resources of her luscious voice and exquisite method , in unimpaired beauty . Open your curs , and shut your eyes , and drink in the voluptuous melody . I seem 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 n little that the pure contralto may have lost . I never hear
Alboni without , being tormented by the remembrance of an execrable pun I heard perpetrated at the Montansier ( then Palais Royal ) , in the winter of ' 47- — " Avez vous entendu la nouvelle cantatrice ; celle qui , a ce qu ' on ( lit , < i une foule do rostiignols dans le gosier ' { —Ah 1 la beau nid ! " Let the author of A least is try to beat that . 1 had intended to go and see Donna I ' etra Camarra ( of whom I Imve read such rapturous notice in the French papers ) the other night ; but Florinda , was
the opera , and my sins are not equal to such a punishment . Talking of Florinda , I was saying the other day that it was generally voted a bore : and was informed ( with an 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 Nozze 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 hare done better 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 , tr * los monies , into Andalusia : back to the time when at the golden age of eighteen , blest with a " happily disposed organization , " and with a keen sense of the beautiful , I found myself at Cadiz—and Seville . I remembered one evening when , I think , twelve Englishmen ( a motley band ) 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 remembered 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 intervals of voluptuous shrinking and repose , of riper years . But alas ! in Andalusia youth and beauty ripen quick and wither early ! These national dances of Spain are a whole epopee of southern passion : its wild and wayward intensity , its disdainful coquetry , its mad oblivious selfsacrifice , its jealousies , languors , storms , reconciliations : and they belong only to the children of the sun !
July 19, 1851.] «T>$ 3lt*\*X ** 686
July 19 , 1851 . ] « t > $ 3 Lt *\* X ** 686
Of The Theatres I Have Little To Say Thi...
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 her 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 . WaJlack , 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 would be disposed to sit out the Gamester as a moral lesson , in the dogdays , it was all tiie 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 shabby-genteel language , but
absolutely bored . We are promised a very different play on Saturday next , when I should be sorry not to see liachel as La Tisbe 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 seem . s , and for its interpretation 1 refer you to Florian . If my friends only knew the writer of this article , they might say ( but n'import e ) that the name of all others the most inappropriate for a gentleman of such high vocal pretensions ( in private society ) would be Lk Ciiat-huant .
Cant 1 Iihanks.—Cunt Phrases Are Not Who...
Cant 1 iihanks . —Cunt phrases are not wholly to bo de . spiaed . YVoithlesu < ih they are in themaelveH , they Imve their umch . They are the ntruwti in the air—the chips in the Htreain , which Herve to nhovv tho current , of opinion . They are the . crannieH and chink * in the profesHionn put forward by party , through which we may look and discover tho hidden prineipleti by which it . in swiij ed . They express liitle , but they often indicate much . Like the stratum which lies immediately over a seam of coal , they may he regarded aH mere rubbish ; hut then it in rubbish we are delighted to find , inanmuch an it iH in certain contact with a mine of wealth . What a vein of truth , for instance , lies buried beneath the ' No Popery ' cry , in whatever region of history it is found to have prevailed ! The philosopher , when he meetn with it , may clone hit * books , and , without their aid , lay down with unerring accuracy , a general outline of tho events to be met with in itH immediate neighbourhood .. —Miall ' a Nonconformist ' a Sketch-Book .
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This Page Is Accorded To «N Autb.En.Uc E...
This page is accorded to « n autb . en . Uc Exposition of the Opinions and Acts of *& e Democracy of Europe : as such we do not impop * any restraint on the utterance of opinion , and , therefore , limit our own responsibility to the authenticity of the statement .
Adpress Of The Central European Democrat...
ADPRESS 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 thatfpeople which , twenty centuries ago , left its great trace upon the grand route of European civilization . That / tfeople now lives again . You also must live again . For you also have a mission to fulfil ha Europe , and the instinctive 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 apostles of humanity . You are the vanguard of the Grseco-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 afiirm 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 it 3 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 . Bach 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 . world be
A great battle is about to take place in the - tween 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 , tho means necessary to each for attaining the great end . That end is Virtue , Truth , Justice , and Love . It is the same for all , and ought to be sought for , for all . But many routes lead to this end , and the choice between these different routes is liberty . Nationality is the liberty of Peoples . Nationality is not hatted , mistrust , or jealousy ; it is not the threatening , hostile , egotistical feeling which once caused every People to stigmatize as barbarians those who lived beyond their own frontiers . Thai , was 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 , in virtue of certain capacities given to a group of men placed under the same territorial conditions , speaking the Bame language , cradled in the same national songs , and baptized in the same traditions . Nationality is the sign of this group of labourers in the midst of humanity ; 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 , alter iis own idea , its peculiar tendencies and local habits .
Never forget these principles , ltoumain brothers I for you are surrounded by Hecret enemies , who usurp the sacred words of your future existence , in order the more effectually to detttroy their signification and value . The Czar calls himself your protector , and speaks to you of independence and nationality : repulse him unhesitatingly , for the Czar is a living lie . There is no independence without liberty ; and how can liberty come from the oppressor of Poland and Hungary—from the man who at home rulea only by bayonets , the knout , and
the mines of Siberia ? The Emperor of Austria tells you that nationality for { au is war against the Magyar and fidelity to hia house , tepulae him with horror . Ho holda tho Mine language with tho Magyar , the German , and the Sclavonian . Ho divines to reign ! His cabinet is the centre of European despotism , everywhere tyrannical , everywhere deceitful . Tho Government which bears upon its forshead the double atain of the horrors of G » licia and ° * U **! * « W no right to touch your national banner . The Sclavouian and the Magyar , the Italian and the Greek are your brethren ; the Emperor and tjM C »* i U «
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071851/page/17/
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