THEATRES AND MUSIC.
Jenny Lind has passed from the dramatic stage—to the stage of do- mestic life; a scene for which the bent of her genius indicates the most engaging qualifications. Her actual retirement has taken people some- what by surprise: it was only within these few days that the issue of a epeeist licence to one singularly favoured by fortune was known; and it was not until the very morning of Thursday that the advertisements an- nounced her appearance at Her Majesty's Theatre that evening, in Roberto Diaoolo, as "the last operatic performance of Mademoiselle Lind." She had chosen for her leave-taking the part in which she was first welcomed in this country. The house was more crowded than ever,—ladies re- moved in a fainting state, gentlemen attired in the evening costume of the operahouse converted to "ragged fellows," police invoked, with other in- cidents of an intolerable squeeze. The Queen was present, and the elite of the great world. Mademoiselle Lind's performance was surpassingly beautiful, to the eye as to the ear; complete in the assumption of cha- racter, fluished in every detail, studied until every action was justified, familiarized until every action was spontaneous. The applause was less frequent than usual, excepting sudden berets, as at the " Quando lasoiai la Normandin ": the enjoying silence of the audience was intelligible, and served as a foil to those irrepressible bursts, and to the prolonged farewells after the fall of the curtain. Thrice Jenny Lind came back to receive the acclamations of the house: the last time it was observed that her step fal- tered as she crossed the stage, bowing reverently, and her face was bathed in tears.
" The last operatic performance "? that should imply that there may be others—concert-singing, we had been told before, chiefly of the charitable kind. But can the youthful prima donna for ever forego the sweet excite- ments of the higher branch of her art, now habitual, and renewable at plea- sure? Can she retain the conscious power, and waive it?
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