Macfarren's serenata, The Sleeper Awakened, produced last night at the
Grand National Concert, does him great honour, and helps to show that if we have not an English opera it is not for want of English composers. The story is that of Abou Hassan in the Arabian Nights, deprived of its Oriental colouring, and too much sentimentalized ; for Mr. Oxenford has given honest Hassan a wife, and made the interest centre on her love and fidelity to a husband who, she thinks, has deserted her. The piece is too long ; and the dialogues in recitative, without the aid of ac- tion, are heavy, and ought to be greatly compressed. But the composer has done his part admirably. There are several songs, for each of the characters, which have much melody and expression ; and the morceaux d'cnsemble both vocal and instrumental—the choruses, marches, &c.— are brilliant and full of picturesque effect. Of the singers, Mademoiselle Angri, who had the part of Zuleika (Hassan's wife) bore the bell. She indeed surprised us, especially by her clear and emphatic enunciation of the English words ; in which she greatly excelled her English coadjutors, Mr. Reeves and Mr. Bodda. Mr. Reeves did not by any means shine : his voice wanted body, and his alternations between the extremes of loud and soft rendered it often impossible to make out what he was saying. The piece as a whole was carefully got up, and completely successful.
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