We have had two.charming evenings at Her Majesty's Theatre this
week. On Tuesday there was llossini's masterpiece, Ii Barbiere di Siviglia the .finest specimen extant of the pure opera buffs; and on Thursday the superb Don Giovanni. They were both admirably performed and keenly enjoyed; the lightness and gayety of the one giving as much pleasure as the grander= and variety Of the other.
Sontag's parts in both operas are among her happiest performances. The Rosina, one of her -earlieat characters and revived in more than pris- tine perfection last season, is of matchless 'beauty and elegance. The Zerlina is a new and delightful reading, differing essentially from 'those of any of its previous representatives. It is, of course, perfectly free from the hoydenish coarseness with whieh some performers have thought-pro- per to clothe it ; but it is also a sweet and truthful picture of a simple, innocent country girl, dazzled by the splendour .of her noble admirer, yet recovering in a moment from her delusion. In the "13atti, batti," the little wheedling arts with which she strove to bring her angryjover to good. 'humour were quite captivating; though in this air she was rather More florid than we could have expected a German to be, singingMozares Music.
Lablache seems to have brought with him ,a renewed stock of health, vigour, and animal-spirits. It streak us that his voice -was more sonorous than we have heard it for a meson -or two. His Bartok -and his Leporello are rich specimens of Italian remedy, highly :intellectual as well as exquisitely comic. It is rather a pity, however, that, being a sort of privileged man, ,he -sometimes exercises his privilege by perpetrating jokes hardly reconefleable to good taste. He has ,got into a habit of- using English plirases,—a silly way of raising a laugh, and ren- dered stale, moreover, by uniform repetition. Bartolo never sees 13asilio enter in one scene, without exclaiming, "How well he looks !'' and 'Leporello, when he sings -44 Son gia male e tre," never fails to add, Tousand and tree:" Don Pasquale always exelnimir, when he sees Norina, "Elle eat magnifique t"--stieking, in England, to the French phrase with which he amused the audience when the piece was brought out at Paris. All this betrays rather a "barren wit," and is not worthy of a man like Lablache.
-At Covent Garden, Grisi, Mario, and Tamburini, after their winter sampaign at St. Petersburg, made their Tent* on Tuesday, in Imorezia Borgia. These favourites of the -public were most cordially welcomed. The great prima donna retains her queenlike beauty, and gave the part of Lucrezia with her usual terrible power. Mario was somewhat hoarse, but not so much so as to impair the effect of his singing. A debutante, Mademoiselle Okolski, took the part of Orsini, but failed entirely to please. On Thursday, Grisi appeared in Norma. Our impression de- rived from these two performances is, that her voice has all its old falness and volume in the lower tones, but -that the upper notes ate thinner and weaker, and its general flexibility is a little impaired. Nevertheless, she is still, and we trust will long continue to be, a tran- scendent performer. litario's hoarseness having -continued, the part of Pollione was sustained with great success by the new tenor, Tamberlik. Herr Forums was awful in Groves° ; but his sepulchral tones were ad- mired and applauded to the echo.
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