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work to such an extraordinary parody on historical painting as Mr . Hart ' s " Othello and lago ! " ( which occupies , be it whispered in parenthesis , one of the central positions of . honour ) . If we were not corrected by the catalogue we should have called this picture " Portraits of two giants returning from a masquerade , and differing about which is the nearest way home . " Leaving the Middle Room— .-after noticing , by the way , Mr . Stirling ' s clever and humorous " Scotch Presbyterians listening to a Sermon "—the first picture in the East Room that strikes us is Mr . Hook ' s delightful " Market-Morning . " In this , and in a little work of similar character ( No . 77 ) , the painter has not only changed entirely in his choice of subject , but has , as we have said elsewhere , made an immense advance in his Art . Since the death of Coluns , no artist has come near Mr . Hook in representing English landscape and the cottage life of England as he has represented them this year . The " Market-Morning" especially , is an exquisite little pastoral ; and let us add , as greatly
to Mr . Hook ' s credit , that he is thoroughly original . He sees Nature with his own eyes , and paints in his own style . He has a very good picture from Sacred History ( No . 486 ); but , if he will take our advice , he will continue to fol ! ow his new track . It will lead him , we are not afraid to prophesy , to really great things . Mr . Boxall ' s beautiful picture of " The Honourable Georgina Copley , " is the best portrait iu the Exhibition—really a fine work of Art . Mr . Philip , whose picture in the Octagon Room literally cannot be seen , has another work ( No . 68 ) , representing two deliciously life-like Spanish beauties , tolerablywell placed , though not hung fairly according to its merits . The large composition from As You Like It , by Mr . Maclise , shows all his accustomed elaboration and ingenuity ; but it is not , on the whole , an agreeable specimen of his genius . Evidently desirous of attaining the utmost intensity of expression , he has , we doubt not , unconsciously allowed himself to exaggerate . The Duke ' s Wrestler , and , in a lesser degree , the other male figures , all seem ( as the children say ) to be making ugly faces at each other . Coelia and Rosalind offer some amends , however , for the distortion of the men ' s features . Mr . Maclise , in the
case of the ladies , has only attempted to paint beauty ; and he has triumphantly succeeded . Both the female faces in the composition are lovely . While talking of beauty , we must not omit to mention that Mr . Frith has two small pictures —one of " Maria dropping the Letter to trick Malvolio ; " the other of , " A Modern Young Lady in an Opera-box "—both of which are fully equal to the most charming of his minor works exhibited in former years . Another case of great advance on the part of a rising artist is that of Mr . Faed . His picture of •? The Mitherless Bairn" is geiiuinely pathetic in sentiment , and in technical treatment the best piece of painting that has yet come from his easel . It is almost needless to say that this work , being particularly meritorious , is particularly ill hung . We cannot say that Mr . Cope at all satisfies us this year . His prison scene , representing the daughter of Charles I . lying dead , with her head on an open Bible , looks perilously like a piece of sentimental piety addressed to the Evangelical public : and his other picture , " Consolation , " is simply one of the hundred clap-trap appeals to patriotic sight-seers produced by the War . Surely a painter of Mr . Cope ' s eminence and abilities ought to be occupied with better and higher things than these ! Here we must pause again ; reserving the Landscapes and any meritorious figure-pictures which we may have omitted to notice , for a final article next week .
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THE OPERA . Thk success of the Trovatore was confirmed on Saturday and Tuesday . The consummate union of art and genius in Madame Viarjdot ' s Azucena , the thrilling power and passion of Tamberlik ' s Manrico , the resonant voice of Graziani , and the admirable singing of Mademoiselle Jenn y Nev create a real sensation in the audience , and the essentially vocal character of the music is not the least element in the success . When an audience goes home humming an opera , there can be little doubt that the music has found its way to their ears and to their hearts . The chorus here and there is scarcely so effective as might be desired , and not always in tune . Mademoiselle Ney has an occasional disposition to drag the time ; but it would be difficult to excel the ensemble of the Miserere scene in the last act , which seems to be generally considered the chefcTceuvre of the composer . It "is almost a pity that so genuine a success should be interrupted even by the reappearance of Mario , who returned to the scene of
his glories on Thursday in the Puritani , with a voice refreshed and invigorated by the breezes of the Atlantic . It is no secret to opera-goers that for the last two seasons Mario ' s voice has been almost a wreck , and although he disguised the ruin under a certain excess of acting , it was often painfully evident to those who remembered its prime . He would -sometimes substitute dumb show for singing , or leave the high notes to the orchestra , or fly up to a sudden falsetto with a sort of extravagant despair , or half whisper , in a head voice , phrases that should have come with energy from the chest . The consciousness of failing powers betrayed itself in an air of lassitude and negligence which communicated itself sometimes to the whole performance , and the result was most unsatisfactory . There was always a considerable rural population in the audience , who were content to take everything for granted when they found it was Mario , and to
whom even his failures appeared beauties ; but the habitues shook their heads and sighed . Still Mario had fine momenta , and ho reigned supreme even in decay . There was ever a certain voluptuous tenderness in his voice which belongs to no other living tenor , and which with the fairer half of the audience is inseparable from the name of Mario . Add to this his graces of person and manner , his natural distinction and refinement , and it is easy to understand in what sense his loss would seem irreparable . Besides , even since the decline of his voice , he has become , in Lucrczia Borgia , in the Huguenots , in the JPro / j / iete , a real actor , and an actor is a rare phenomenon on the operatic stage . A Viardot , who , if she were not one of the first of singers and , wo may add , a perfect musician , would rival Hachiol as a tragedienne , is rare enough , and still rarer is a tenor Talma .
In the Puritani , Mario rocalshis best and freshest days . He looks , sings , and acts to perfection ; there ia no straining of the voice in that succession of melodies almost cloying in their sweetness , and tho audience are kept in a state of luxurious enjoyment by airs that " bring delight and hurt not . " Mademoiselle Bosio is a delicious Elvira , and LAnLACiiE , a picturoaquo and traditional Oeotgio , and Graziani by no means an ineffective Ricardo . So Madame Grisi has indeed been prevailed upon to appear for a few more positively last nights ! We cannot honestly say wo arc glad to hoar it ; all our admiration cannot eubduo tho sense of an inevitable anti-climax in those reappearances . Nevertheless wo shall not l > o niggard in our welcome to one to whom wo owe so many evenings of the purest enjoyment . Madame Grisi is announced to appear in La Favorita .
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Mr . E . T . Smith , the most enterprising and intrepid of managers , has
reopened DBTTKr-usE , af ter a brief space of silence , for the performance of royal and polyglot opera . Mr . Smith , we think very sagaciously , throws himself upon the million at prices certainly the cheapest ever known in operatic annals . He discards the Free List altogether , according to the bills ; and the crowded house on Wednesday last represented , we are to suppose , literally so many small coins We cordially wish the enterprise all success ; every _ endeavour to popularise good music deserves it , and the opera at Drury-lane is by no means of a quality to be judged by the prices of admission . The sparkling Madame Gassier and her vivacious husband ; Signor Bettini , a sweet , small tenor ; Signor Fortini , a very respectable bass , are still in the company ; and a lady of the name of Arga of whom we have received promising accounts from Paris , is announced to appear in Norma , with Mr . Hamiltom Braham as Oroveso . We are confident that under judicious management there is a cheap musical public large" enough to fill Drttrt-lane again and again .
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THE TF 1 EATRES IN PARIS . It seems likely that the Paris Exhibition will disappoint the European visitors but Paris itself will make ample amends . Among the attractions of Paris the most theatrical city in the world—not the least are the theatres , and , according to the Sikcle , they are busy preparing all sorts of novelties and revivals . The world will have an opportunity of seeing all the great actors of the day ia all the established cheJs- ( Ta : uvre , as well as in the pieces now in vogue . At the Theatre Francais , possessing the best company in the world , a fiveact comedy , by M . Leon Gozlan , and a three-act comedy by M . Legouve , are in rehearsal , and it is again whispered that Mdlle . Rachel may be prevailed upon to play the round of her great parts . Madame Plessy-Arnould -will make her rentre ' e . At the Gimnase , the Demi-Monde bids fair to run the whole summer through . Will the foreign and provincial audiences understand a world so peculiar to Paris ? The Varietes , which has so long been languishing , opens under a new management , with Bouffe .
At the Vaudeville , Lafont , so long the delight of the St . James ' s , and so long absent from the Parisian scene of his early glories , is engaged ; and Mdlle . Page , of the caressing voice and the subjugating eyes , succeeds to her rival , Mdlle . Doche , in the Dame aux Cam € iias . At the Palais Royal , Grassot , Ravel , Levassor , Hyacinthe , Luguet , and Gil-Perez will shake the sides of the initiated with laughter , but much of the fun is incomprehensible to outsiders . Just now they are doing a parody of the Demi-Monde—Le Monde Camelotte . 'After a dinner at Vefour or the Trois Freres , the little theatre of the Palais Royal is an excellent aid to the digestion . At the Porte St . Martin , the Tour de Nesle is to be revived with the attractive Madame Emilie Gd yon in the part of Marguerite de Bourgoqne ; but the great coup
of the season at this theatre is to be a gigantic drama , by Paul Meurice , called Paris , in four epochs and eighteen tableaux , embodying the history of the city , from Julius Caesar to the Exhibition of 1855 . The scene of the prologue and epilogue is laid in 1855 . The four epochs are : Gaul—the Middle Ages—the Renaissance and Louis XEV . —the Revolution ; and the action extends over a period of some two thousand years . The drama will include no less than one hundred and twenty actors and speaking personages , exclusive of supernumeraries , and the getting up alone is said to have cost 6000 / . There are three divertissements in the course of the drama : a Roman orgy—a fete of the Middle Ages—a ballet of the time of Louis XIV . The principal characters will be played by Madame Guyon ( who has Jour roles assigned to her ) , Madame Naftal-Arnault , and that finished and powerful actorDeshayes .
, At the Ambigu , the greatest of surviving actors , Frederick Lemaitre , will appear in a revival of one of his most famous creations , Kean : a title which will attract English visitors . At the Gaite , Monte Clnisto , in two parts , occupying two successive evenings . At the Cirque , a spectacle , also entitled Pans , and occupying two evenings' performance . At the Odeon , Henri Monnier will Europeanise his sententious aphorisms , as the immortal type of the Parisian bourgeois . Franconi , in the Champs Elysees , will no doubt draw crowds from the neighbouring Palace to the most celebrated horsemanship in Europe .
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We are very glad to hear that a silly piece { Le Joli Mois de Mai ) at the Vaudeville , full of flatteries to the Empire , has been vigorously damned We regret to be obliged to add , that some wretched couplets celebrating the Anglo-Imperial alliancewere most incontinently hissed .
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OLYMPIC THEATRE . The idea of the new play , Still Waters Run Deep , is taken from a French novel , entitled Le Qendre , by M . Charles de Bernard . The scene ot the story , however , as adapted for the stage , is removed to England ; and tne morality is ns much as possible restricted within English limits . J he result is a play which has a tiresome first act—a second act containing one of the most powerful and interesting scenes that tho modern stage has presented to us tor some time past—and a third act which , though inferior to its predecessor , lias dramatic merit enough to carry the storj' successfully to a close . I he mam idea of the drama ( or rather of the novel ) is excellent . A kind-hearted , easy-4 fc % 4 4 1 »^«* 111
^^ fe ^^ B ^ V <^^ pb W m A Y ^ A * 'V V < P W ^^ rfm * w wv ** ** * ^^ ¦* ^^* 4 W H ¦* ^ ' V ^* n M ^^* ~^ **— - _ - — - ¦ tempered man , whose indolent temperament and modest manners conceal Mility and courage of the highest order , marries , and is mistaken for a harmless blocKhead by his wife , by her strong-minded aunt , and by her weak-headed old taUier . Circumstances occur which place the whole family at the mercy of a villain . This man is detected , confounded , and punished by the easy , kind-heartea husband , who is roused at last to assert himself and Iiis authority after dclonding from shame and ruin the relations who misunderstand him . Hero is certainly a good idea—an idea which might have been better worked out for an Kngiisu audience if tho dramatist had not looked at it through a French medium , as it ia , we have a play containing some good scenes ; but not sufficiently national in its minor incidents to lay strong hold upon tho audience as a whole . concerned xcoi
The acting , so far as Mr . Wigan and Mr . Emery were , was olent even beyond tho usual high standard of tho Olympic stage . Mr . yVujan played tho part of tho husband with a quiet power and an artist-liko adliercnco to nature which , if his first appearance as an actor had been on Monday last , would have won him at once a great reputation in his profession . I < romueginning to end ho never once sacrificed truth to effect—not a gesture or » l . ° escaped him which was not rigidly faithful to tho realities of Jifo as distiuguisncu from the artificialities of tho stage . It is plcaHiuit and encouraging to be aW ovj add that ho produced an immense effect on tho audience , and was called uoioru the curtain at tho end of the play . Mr . Emery , also , deserves a word ot ncarcy praise . His make-up was admirable , and his acting quaintly and genuinely
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476 THE LEADTSB ; [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 476, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2091/page/20/
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