MR. MORI'S CONCERT.
MORI'S concert, on Monday night, was, as usual, a tremendous squeeze. Why every body should crowd, at the hazard of their limbs, to this concert above all others, it would be difficult to say, except that it being understood "every body" is going, "every body" thinks it necessary to go. We believe that ladies of fashion, as well as would-be ladies of ilishion, have a decided partiality to crowds, and enjoy, of all things, the less of a shoe or a sleeve ;—we suppose they love to display, as trophies of fashionable valour, a torn cap or dilapidated bonnet. We confess to having caught some of the infec- tion, for we went because "every body" went ; and after all the en- durance of standing in a suffocating atmosphere during a concert consisting of twenty-three pieces and lasting nearly five hours, we have but a dreary tale to tell. It is true that " every body" of emi- nent vocal talent was there, (we use the phrase in its fashionable acceptation, be it remembered). Let us enumerate them,—MALIBRAN, LALANDE, BLASIS, STOCKHAUSEN, STEPHENS, Mrs. KNYVETT; DONZELLI, BEGREZ, DE BEGNIS, SANTINI, E. TAYLOR, and PHIL- LIPS. The instrumental band was superb, and Sir GEORGE SMART was the conductor. Is it possible that we could have been tired ? Yes—heartily tired. Tired of the same dull round of pieces, which, at this season of the year, we are condemned to hear every morning and every night. The airs of "Una voce poco fa," "Di tanti palpiti," some everlasting " Swiss air" from Madame STOCK- HAUSEN, together with the terzetti " Papatice," " Le faccio un inchino," and the finale "Alt guardate," are the stock pieces of all our benefit concerts. We believe that the very last thing which enters into the head of an entrepreneur on these occasions, is the music of which his concert is to consist. And the public are content to go, nay to go at the hazard of their limbs, to hear the endless repetition of the same pieces, and thus to be insulted by the insolent laziness of the vocal fraternity. As to a reheareal, the thing is never dreamt of. No matter how things are scrambled together. Keys are changed, to tile destruction of instrumental efset ; cuts are hastily and imperfectly made, to the injury of the composition ; and if any thing goes wrong, the high and mighty displeasure of the singer is visibly expressed, when it is little short of a miracle that, under such circumstances, any thing can go right. Sometimes, because rehearsing is a trouble- some occupation of time, the band is altogether discarded, and the pianoforte, substituted. Such was the case in the duet at this con- cert between MALIBRAN and STOCKHAUSEN, " Yonne se alberghi." It was new, and therefore ought to have had a rehearsal ; but our prime donne have a short and easy method of dispensing With this needless occupation of their time : " Sing it to the pianoforte" settles the whole business.
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