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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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LUCREZIA HORGIA . There was an immense audience at Covent Garden on Tuesday . The opera was Lucrezia , a favourite , with Grisi and Mario , the favourites of favourites , and Bonconi in the 8 mall but important part of the Duke ; and after Lucrezia came the third and fourth acts of I Martiri , in which Tamberlik , as usual , thrilled the house with ungovernable enthusiasm . Grisi was very grand in Lucrezia ; her acting , perhaps , finer than over , and her singing still the most delightful singing to be heard when Alboni is not present . Mario reserved himself somowhat ; using the falsetto more than wns satisfactory , but abandoning himself to the two great duets of the second and third . acts , and dying with oven more effect , than heretofore .
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THE MUSICAL UNION . The third concert , on Tuesday , was delightful . Herr Laub , the Bohemian violinist , leading in satisfactory style , and Herr Pollitzcr , on the tenor , being a decided acquisition . Mendelssohn ' s lovely quartet in D ( No . 3 . ) has rarely been better played ; Beethoven's incomparable sonata in C minor , for piano and violin , severel y tried the powers of Herr Laub and Mdllo . Clauss ; but although the violinist was not irreproachable in his mechanism , ho waB in feeling and style—they both played in what for want of a better word I must call the true Beetlioyenish mood . Mozart ' s quintet in A , I found rather tiresome iu its simplicity : especially coming
after two such lovely pieqes as those of Mendelssohn and Beethovp Had it opened the concert one might have liked it better . Madlle GlauR wound up with Chopin ' s Nocturne , not altogether in Chopin ' s style and with Heller ' s Ckasse—an opportunity for display of fingering , People who like these imitative compositions , and want music to be descriptive instead of emotive , may exaoy / La Ckasse , I don't . You may hearin it the clatter of , hoofs , on me frosty ground ; you may see the red coats flashing in the sun ; you may hear i ^ eTallyho , and smell rum and milk in those mpdulations- —if you like 1 Tt is as easy as thoujght . Imagination has boundless sway . And if you area sportsman , you will say that ' s something likemusic ! I prefer music . itself : ' . *
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EGMONT AND THE GERMAN ACTORS . Although not a good play in any theatrical sense , JSgmont , like every work of that immortal writer , retains a deep hold on the mind that has once read it : the qualities demanded in a scenic pictuye of life , may be found more prominent and vigorousi in far inferior writers ; but the profound humanity , the organic creation , ever / jr 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 , when he had just broken away from Lili ; it was finished in Italy , when he had broken away from the turbulence of youth , and commenced his great career of serene and noble life . Can one not liear something of both epochs in the accents of this playP He liad parted from JAli—r-wliy I will some day endeavour ~ to explain—but his heart still yearned towards her . Efe 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 ner song ? It was the one he had written to her in the fresh morning of their love I
" 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 , asMs victorious nature everdid . Goethe always sought consolation in Art . With JEgmont he cheated sorrow ; and , although Egmont is a tragedy , how little tragic emotion there ison the surface ! To find that you must pierce deep . jForGoethe —as the noodles tell you— was * so cold ! " Noodles who never penetrate beyond surfaces ! JSgmont is not , properly speaking , a tragedy ; nor is it , as commonly said , a great historic play : it is a profoundly human play . Had Goethe been an historic mind he would certainly have produced a great painting
of history here , in lieu of the individual , human picture 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 . Paoli had 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 like 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 one-• Jl _ J J ' Tj . i _ ± J ] 1 _ X— —1 --XT __ « wma «« X *¦ > w * n 4-11 fa . oa l r / "iAT . nft S siae unwise iiiue / uodui
, a ana , xi * » vu quarrei wimj . au gieaiu , o «*> ^ w 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 suchdeep poetic insight as we have here in JSgmont and Clara ? Suppose the play a political manifesto—would any one ,--except in hours or commotion- —and genius creates for all times prefer that to the drama of the brain and heart acted here P No . The free and joyous and almost godlike carelessness of JEgmont is worth a whole tribune of patriotic orators , for in him we see Euimanity , not a mood , tin * 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 blase public . The house was overflowing ; the audience in ecstacies ; the success ot the experiment unequivocal . I was sure it would be so . INoveitv > fashion , and a legitimate curiosity , were not bad things for a manager to speculate unon ; and considering how ignorant the public is , how
mcapablo of appreciating Art , how willing to take for granted that ^ foreigners must be artists , there is no reason to suppose that any deficiency i quality will interfere with the monetary success of this speculation . A a « glad of it : for Mr . Mitchell , above all managers , deserves to succeed , he is enterprising , generous , and keeps faith with the public . ^ But you want to know what I think of these Germans P As tar as y could gather , there w « to only three persons in the house who shared my opinion ; but this imposing minority satisfies me ; and not being a ^ L . " tomod to take my opinions from any higher authority than the . big *» h who holds his court in my breast , I shall " fearlessly declare" ( as writei » say when they are under no sort of peril whatever ) that my admiration the acting was that which one feels for mature mediocniy--modioci i j without crudoness , —ripe , perfect , untroubled by m how of future aov
lopment ! rv \ ne llorr EmilDovriont is accredited as the greatest tragic actor now iivi jjj in Gormnny . I saw him years ago with very mitigated admiration , last night that feeling was not changed . lie is a fine looking , noi " graceful man , with a hatchet face and a good voice . Ho treads tiio »* h as "to the manner born ; " speaks with an agreeable accent , ana a v vatod intelligence , so that you feel you are listening to a # ontu l } ' , l 0 one who understands what he is saying . Ho is never great ; no " flashes of genius ; ho never thrills you ; but he is froo from rant , txu
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CRUVELLI AND DE LA GRANGE . Ox Saturday I went to see CraveHi ' s 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 fialian stage . The pertinacity with which she avoided looking at and listening to her lover was almost amusing ; and in lieu of the playful touches of coquetish affection mingling with the deep and girlish tenderness of Amina , she gave us the most stagey of f stage coquetries and no tenderness whatever . There were many points in her singing worthy oif hearty praise , but her acting wanted every quality demanded by the part . Sic cogiiavit Vivianus . After Sonnambula we had Gnecco ' s amusing farce , JLa 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 I have already said she is remarkable ; " but unpleasant" —let me still add . Her voice , seldom agreeable , is very flexible , and the staccato passages were touched 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 tne eternal complaint , old as Aristophanes , raised against the substitution of means for an end : Ei Se Tig avruiv / 3 w / ioAox £ uo * atr' r / xafixptiev riva Kct / iTnjv Oiac oi vvv rag Kara Q pvviv tclvtciq rag Sv&KoXoKa / nrovg 'E 7 rerpif 3 tro TVTCTo ] J , tvog rroWag tog rag Movcrag dpavtZwv . " And should any one dare the tune to impair , and with intricate twistings to fill , Such as Phrynis is fain , and his 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 oxpressive 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 the applause of the public ; by this means I preserve independence without unfairness , for you may reasonably say , " After all , if it pleased the audience it may please me , whatever Vivian may think . " Only I give you fair warning , if you don't agree with me—you are wrong !
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For they were words of love . © lave , love , love ! O thirst , O passion , withering life away , TVhy didst thou pass into my brain , why glide So like a liquid flame through heart and soul For sweet and subtle ruin , till I felt That without love there was no life for me , . , No beautyj . no delight ; no universe . 0 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 ; 1 looked but saw them not . I looked again , I 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 his stately ships . " M .
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546 ¦ ¦ . ' . . - .. '¦ ' ¦¦ ,: ¦ ¦ , THE : ^ E : AJJ : || , ;; . ; , : , ¦; . . /¦ ¦ . . . . ^ M ^^ jr ;
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Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1852, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1938/page/22/
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