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    No. 436, Jpi,? 31,1858.] THE LEADER. 74....

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    ^.ItlV fJJ rtSf AJbljr MIW-.-..

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    Koyai. Italian Opeua.—On Saturday evenin...

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    Purification Of The Thames. Purification...

    tialforthe perfect purification of the Thames as it is for the economical utilisation of the sewage . Each of these things spoils the other—sewage rainfall by pollution , rainfall sewage by dilution . The mixed mass is too vast and variable for economical distribution over fields , too foul and fetid for advantageous delivery down streams . The sewage proper should be carefully diverted , from the Thames ; and just so , on the other hand , should the rainfall be carefully directed to the Thames , to aid its scour , which suffers from every drop withdrawn . The author says , therefore , " that the battle of interception is to be fought , not on the banks of the river , but in the basements of the houses : not

    with monstrous tunnels , but with modest tubes ; not by the diversion of variable rain brooks , alternately dry and torrential , but by the diversion of uniform cistern supplies , always moderate and manageable . " Mr . P . O . Ward has already much contributed to the public information upon drainage matters , and nearly as a matter of course has somehow or other been jostled out of all thanks or profit , if he ever sought them .. Although we may not adopt his crotchet , and the Metropolis Board very probably will not , he yet deserves some thanks for his strenuous labours in a disagreeable field , and is welcome to the share due from such the very

    trifling fraction of the public we as individuals represent . That be will have the chance of another hearing before tke great public is by no means out of the question ; for in our opinion , as in his , these monster tunnels and this Metropolitan Board of Works even yet may chance to be put down as blunders by indignant ratepayers . It must , after all , be a ratepayers' question , and if the eyes of the small householders rated at from 20 / . to 35 / . be but once opened to the peculiar unfitness of their representatives and the very severe taxation in store for them , they would probably , in the panic which would seize upon them , tear to pieces all the plans of their representatives and engineers , and commit the whole subject to more proper hands .

    No. 436, Jpi,? 31,1858.] The Leader. 74....

    No . 436 , Jpi , ? 31 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 74 . 9

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    Koyai. Italian Opeua.—On Saturday Evenin...

    Koyai . Italian Opeua . —On Saturday evening was again presented the opeTa of Nornia , xrith- Madame Grisi as the heroine , Signor Tamberlik as Pollione , and Tagliafico as Oroveso . The impersonation of the Druidess by the still uuapproached queen of lyric song was , we can only say , magnificent . The intensity of passion and utter self-oblivion with which she withers that unpopular hero Pollione , and devotes the Bom an legions to destruction from her country's altar , can , if equalled , surely never be surpassed .

    Madlle . Marai , the Adalgisa , was in exceeding good voice , and zealously seconded the prima donna ' s exertions : and the long and grand finale to the opera was admirably given by the whole company . A new "ballet divertissement of the flimsiest construction , entitled IS Amour < Tune Hose , was produced after the opera for the first time . But the new dancer , Mdlle . Zina Richard , an acquisition from Italy , bids fair , we have little hesitation in reporting , to take a high place in her profession . Her style is firm and agile , and was perfectly free on Saturday from the ungraceful and meretricious embellishments which

    irnve , to our thinking , often vulgarised the ballet since the reimportation of that Spanish school of . dancing , which , popular as it may have been of late , was a dead failure , as some of our readers may remember , when first attempted some years ago . The incident in I ! Amour d ' une Hose represented , as far as we could make it out , the extemporo provision by an enamoured landscape-gardener of a floral fete for the gratification of a rather blasie damsel in search of a new sensation . The ample stage was almost magically encumbered at a given signal with garlands , wreaths , nay more , entire beds of flowers . Parterre behind parterre , with box-edgings and alL appurtenances , rose bristling on the boards , and

    Mdlle . Zina as the delighted maiden , at whoso wish they -were forthcoming , bounded with graceful ecstasy amidst them with her bevy of attendants , and executed several pleasing figures and intricate dances with M . Desplaccs . The charming- music , expressly composed for the divertissement by Mr . Alfred Mellon , was , of course , faultlessly performed » y the admirable band under his direction , and the disappearance of the magic garden by the same agency which had evoked it quite realised at the close the idea of « . fairy gifts fading ; away . " Some years ago there was an opera buffo produced here entitled Lei Tre Nozxe , the music composed by Signor Alary , which has now tnken , we understand , a permanent position upon the shelf . The talented composer nas been selected by the management of the Royal

    Opera to hack , gash , cut , carve , and otherwise arrange and alter the Don Giovanni of Mozart , so as to admit , among other changes in the cast , of the substitution of & tenor for a barytone voice in the part of the Don . That he has effected the requisite adaptation with marvellous success , considering the violent -unorthodoxy , or as it must be termed by many Janatici , the heresy of the task , cannot be denied . Had he had any other than first-class voices and orchestra to deal with he would have fallen like Lucifer ; but all but the most bigoted may well understand that with Mario as the Don , Ronconi as Lepoi-ello , Tagliafico as the Comnundatore , Grisi as Donna Anna , Marai as Elvira , Bosio as Zerlina , Tarn-Derlik as Ottavio , Polonini as Masetto , ajiasco was out of the Question .

    Among the new excisions of old favourite airs may be mentioned the " Ho capito" and " Fuggi il traditor . " But so much was left that was beautiful , and the artists whose special qualifications for their various parts are sufficiently familiar to the world , so admirably illustrated the composer ' s flood of beautiful ideas , that we passed a mental vote of confidence on Signor Alary ' s heretical version , in spite of some very critical old opera-goers of our acquaintance who venerate even the faults and failings of antiquity , more than the excellencies of the moderns . We are more disposed than otherwise to thank the management for affording the public the opportunity of trying their old favourite , Mario , in what is a new part to him , at all events in London . We are well content to

    acquiesce in the substitutions and elisions in consideration of being permitted to hear , in even a castrated form , the chef-d ' oeuvre of Wolfgang Amadeus . We cannot serve our readers by announcing the bill of fare of a week that is passed , but when we mention that to-night promises a repetition of Don Giovanni , and next week the same work , with Herold ' s Zanipa , on a day not yet fixed , we may , perhaps , be of sonve slight service . At Her Majesty ' s Theatre , reduced -prices and final performances still prevail , and are announced for all next week . Last evening , TlBarbiere was performed for the last time , with Alboni as Hosina , Belletti as Figaro , and Signor Belart as Conte Almaviva

    This evening , // Don Giovanni is announced for the last time , when we shall be enabled to institute comparisons between Mozart " as imported" and Mozart ' ' Alarified . " On Monday we are to have the Lucrexia , on Tuesday , II Trovatore , on Wednesday , Don Pasquale , and on Thursday , Balfe ' s La Zingara ( Bohemian Girl ) . Mademoiselle Titiens will leave London for Vienna on Wednesday nexr , Tuesday being . her last appearance . The theatre finally closes on Saturday , the 7 th instant , with La Traviata . ; Mademoiselle Piccolomini and Signor Giuglini leaving London on the Monday following for Dublin , where they have been announced to appear in a series of representations .

    jeyond all help , at the same time a ferocious maniac . Miss Annie Ness , seemingly artless and unpractised as the pure Desdemona , was happily very successful in her representation of the character . In the present comparative dearth of really effective tragedians , in the broad sense of the term , a visit to the Lyceum may not but recal agreeable associations to such as can appreciatively remember the tragedy of the elder Kean ; and we can only regret that the pecul iarity of the artist ' s complexion precludes the probability of our witnessing his performance in such an extensive range of character as we could wish . Siv

    Martin ' s Hall —On Tuesday evening it was our fortune or our fate to assist at a mnemonic seance at St . Martin ' s Hall upon the invitation of Mr . Abel Matthews . The "entertainment" was courteously supposed to consist of the recital by heart , by this gentleman , often thousand five hundred lines from Milton ' s Paradise Lost , audit must be confessed that we are more inclined to ridicule the want of thought that had drawn us into so false a position than complain of our entertainer , when , after listening for a reasonable period to his very unimpa 8 sioiied and apparently correct delivery , it occurred to us that the performance , if ever brought to a conclusion , might possibly detain us where we

    were until noon on Wednesday . "Ten thousand lines in about ten hours at that pace , " we said to ourselves ; " allow two hours for rest , under proper inspection , for no ' cribs' could be allowed , and we shall get well into to-morrow . " Then it flashed upon us that the invocation which had called sixty fools into a circle was possibly the result of a wager . We were quite prepared for the announcement ( so familiar to the ear of those who have watched the sale of golden sovereigns at one halfpenny each ) that "it is to decide a wager of one thousand guineas made

    between two well-known sporting noblemen , " & c , but not even that ray of comicality came in to pierce the solid dulnesa of the soiree . Mr . Matthews , an extremely gentlemanlike man , with a not unpleasing voice , commenced the Paradise Lost without a word of preface , and proceeded calmly and deliberately through the eight hundred lines of the first book . He unrolled them before an audience of about sixty souls , men , women , and children , as deliberately as a novice at the counter " ' would so many yards of ribbon . The company were spell-bound , partly from a courteous desire not to vex the mnemonic

    enthusiast , partly from a very proper consciousness that we were the authors of our own misery . After a few minutes' rest , for we remained although fourand-twenty of the society took that opportunity of effecting their escape , the reciter started into Book II ., which is somewhat longer than the first . The next half hour was a trying one . One or two elders went to sleep . Men of business who had strayed into the place fixed their eyes upon the roof and let their souls wander into the City . The children

    Lyceum Theatre . —It has been made the subject of judicious animadversion by one of the most enlightened of modern theatrical critics , wliose excellent language we are on this occasion well pleased to adopt , that the originally mistaken policy should yet prevail among those concerned in catering for public amusement , of making Mr . Ira Aldridge ' a complexion the qualification and chief attraction of his performance . " For , " our contemporary observes , " that it at all added to the merit of the actor , in certain characters , that he was really black instead of painted , is a vulgar piece of showmanship , worthy of a Barn urn or u Gingell , but certainly not at all

    were a little restless , but considering all things , very good . Ourselves , ditto , ditto . The remembrancer held up bravely , though he seemed entirely without backers . He was courageous , for there he stood alone , before only five-and-twenty people , in the ample hall which his -wondrous memory must have told him had been often crammed to suffocation by and for the benefit of other artists . Nothing did he falter , and as his silvery tones went roofward in unbroken thread we could not miss to think of that Horatian Till that

    Laketur et labetur in omnc volubilis oevuni . There were some determined-looking seniors who came there to see the business out , and perhaps write to the Times in case of a failure . One had with him the works of John Milton in small octavo , and worked zealously as public checker . He waa prepared to call a halt , we felt sure , on the very first break-down . lie looked like a man with a mission ; so , as he opened not his mouth , we have great pleasure in announcing that during the period of our stay the reciter ' s feat was eminently successful . We left Mr . Matthews far less exhausted than ourselves before the end of the second book , and for all we personally know he may by this time have gone through Paradise Regained and be well into Samson Agonistes . We have heard , however , that the evening ' s amusement , on which the reader has before

    compatible with the consideration of stage acting as an art . The only parallel to the absurdity was the parading Stephen JKemble as a great Fahtaf , because he lia < l individually the fat person in wliich it lias pleased the dramatist to encase that witty , shrewd , and humorous character . " We had little anticipated the enjoyment which was iu store for us . The name of the Black lloscius has been , it is true , for a few yoars familiar—not to playgoers who habitually patronise the same class of theatres as ourselvts — but to such as read , as they may run , the placards and sliop-window announcements of the minor and suburban houses . But no real notion of the title of

    the actor to a reputation which in course of time will perhaps be fur more widely spread , liad reached us before witnessing Mr . Aldridge ' s performance of Othello on Saturday last at the Lyceum Theatre . Mr . Aid ridge , versatile as the great Kean , has taken the Germans by storm as Othello , Macbeth , and a nigger melodist ; and in the former of these characters we are prepared in the strongest terms to endorse the verdict of the Berlin and Coburg critics , among whom he numbers no less distinguished personages

    him our matutinal reflections , came to an abrupt end , without the slightest break- down , at « the termination of the second book and the J . 853 rd line . The " entertainer" then closed the performance somewhat abruptly by politely thanking- the limited number ot his guests for their countenance , and threw the curtain over the most impenetrable piece of public amusement it has ever been our fate to record . That Mr . Abel Matthews , supposing him capable , which we take it is not yet proven , of reciting ten thousand five hundred lines by heart , may find some more profitable use for his memory than the unaccented , unemphasised , undramatic , and in every way unattractive delivery of an epic , we sincerely hope for hia own sake . What his evening ' s practice inflicted upon us we are content , now that we have unbosomed ourselves , heartily to forgive and to forget .

    than the King of Prussia , and his Serene Highness the Duko of Saxe- Coburg Goth a , He is as successful in the more delicate touches of the character as in its deep and passionate shades . His loving tenderness to Deademona is as successful as is his terrible declamation of the third act . In his dissembling examination of Desdemona in the second scene of the fourth act , he was the true Othello of the dramatist —a lover softened by the beauty of that most unhappy lady , but , the current of his life being poisoned

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1858, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071858/page/21/