THE THEATRES.
THE solitary Oratorio of the season, on Wednesday night, was like the apparition of a defunct custom revisiting the lamps. It was a musical melange, in which the names of " The Messiah" and " The Creation" were put forward as a ',vete-ice ; the real attraction being the Italian vocalist s who sang in the me hey at the end. It answered the purpose, however. Serious persons, who eschew theatrical per- formances, had an opportunity of . hearing the voices and seeing the faces of the corps &opera of the King's Theatre, us well as of listening to a few well-worn fragments of HANDEL and HAYDN. The Adelphi and Olympic closed on Saturday ; the managers of both having the agreeable task. of congratulating themselves, in their respective addresses, on a successful season. That of the Adelphi has been triumphantly so, surpassing even former seasons. YATES, how. ever, we are sorry to say, has had a damp thrown over his bright pros- pects, by an accident (the bursting of a blood-vessel) which obliged him to appear by proxy. VESTRIS spoke a brief and piquant address, and made her farewell curtsey in person. The French plays are now removed from the Lyceum to the Olym- pic, to make room for the English Opera, which eommences its re- gular season on Easter Monday. Mr. ARNOLD opens with a flush of novelties. They consist of, first and foremost, a new opera composed by Mr. PACKER, some time a pupil of the Academy of Music. The subject is the well-known Oriental tale of &WA and Kalasrade. The drama is written by Miss 111motto: so that Nve may surely look for- ward to something better in this respect than either of the operas of last season could boast of. A comic interlude follows; which is to be succeeded by a mysterious melodrama, with the additional at. traction of music by Mr. Tnamsos, the composer of Hermann. Mr. ARNOLD finds it expedient to revert to the old custom of draw- ing up the curtain at seven o'clock, and having a half-price admission at nine. Persons engaged in .trade, who seek amusement mostly after the business of the day is entirely over, compose a large proportion of playgoers; and they naturally -prefer paying half instead of whole price for two-thirds of an evening's entertaiment. People in this commercial country dearly love to have "their pennyworth for their penny." Those m ho are content with being able to say they have heard a new opera, will be satisfied by coming in at the conclusion : those who go to hear it, will come in time. The company is nearly the same as last season, with the addition of GIVEILEI, and his clever little wife; who is better known as Mademoiselle PROCHE, formerly of the King's Theatre, where she was only second to Tactician. Miss P. HORTON is also engaged—a most agreeable and effective acquisition ; and two or three debutantes as yet unknown to the London public are added to the list. The company now presents an array of talent, that It working strength may stand a comparison with either of the Great Theatres.
At Covent Garden there will be a new melodrama ; and at Drury a .i.ama of doleful and domestic interest, " founded on fact," called the Ante Forger. The Adelphi company are engaged to commence the season at the Surry; and Astley's opens with the Siege of Jerusalem. At the Queen's, Mrs. NISBET has profited by the closing of the Olympic to engage Mrs. ORGER.
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