ENGLISH OPERA-HOUSE.
A NEW musical entertainment, called The Spring Lock, from the pen of Mr. PEAKE, was produced at this theatre on Tuesday evening. The plot combined two popular stories, of which it will be sufficient to copy the abridged account in the Globe.
" Many of our readers are doubtless familiar with that beautiful and pa- thetic tale, so poetically told by Rogers, of the " Fair Italian Girl," whose sportive frolics met with so melancholy a termination on her wedding-day, when, playfully hiding from her bridegroom in an antique chest, the heavy lid fell down, and, the spring catching, ' fastened her in for ever.' This oc- currence, but with a less mournful catastrophe, formed the main incident of Mr. Peake's new drama, and conferred on it its designation of The Spring Lock. The chest, of course, was metamorphosed for the nonce into a hand- some cabinet ; and some other necessary alterations were made in the story ; with which was amalgamated, that of the little impertinent Doctor Manente, so pleasantly related in Blackwood's Magazine for July 1823, in a translation from Lasca, an Italian novelist of the Boccaccio school. In this adventure Lorenzo the Magnificent plays much the same part as our old favourite Haroun Alraschid, or Philip the Good of Burgundy, wandering about in dis- guise at night, and mystifying tipsy people whom he encounters in his walks. Doctor Manente, who is the Christopher Sly in the present case, has annoyed the Grand Duke by his impertinent intrusion at his table ; and, in order to pu- nish him, he first intoxicates, and then has him stripped and conveyed to an old empty apartment, when he persuades him that he is dead, and has him waited upon by devils. A court mimic is in the mean time furnished with the Doctor's clothes, and instructed to personate him at home, where he pre- tends to die of the plague. This, with the return of the poor physician to his own home when he is at length permitted to escape, and finds his spouse already looking out for a second husband (in the original she has succeeded in obtaining one), furnishes some laughable situations. During his deten- tion, he is near enough to the cabinet to hear .:-Iniarontha's groans ; and by his relation of that fact, which he ascribes to his supernatural tormentors, contributes eventually to her preservation."
The serious part of the plot has very little of intrinsic interest ex- cept the incident which gives a name to the piece. The comic incidents are well grouped, for stage effect, and the situations managed with the skill of a dramatic veteran. There is one which has all the outrageous absurdity that O'KEEFE used occasionally to revel in ; of which KEELEY and 0. SMITH certainly made the utmost. The dialogue is bestrewed with puns, some of which are not quite new, and some not very neat.
As the piece was not entitled "an opera," we must judge of it ac. cording to its pretensions ; which, musically considered, are but slen- der. Mr. RODWELL'S aim seems to have been simply to hit the public taste by imitating such airs or passages as have already seized the public attention. There is no affectation of originality, either in the structure or filling up of his melodies. Nevertheless, they pleased, precisely because they have pleased before. The opening glee is feeble, and was but ill sung. The part of Lorenzo de Medici was performed by Woon ; and the songs, though not exactly suited to the character of the noble Florentine, were very well adapted to the voice and power of his representative. Woon is a natural, unaffected, and pleasing singer. There are some tones in his voice which come over the ear with great sweetness ; and in this theatre its best qualities only are de veloped. Like all singers of limited power, he is sometimes tempted to endeavour to do more than nature has enabled him to effect ; and the inevitable consequence with him, and with all such, is defective intonation. He can never be a grand, but he may always be a pleas- ing singer ; and his articulation is so correct, that we never lose a bar of his performance. Unless we are much mistaken in Woon's character, he does not think himself at this moment an all-accomplished vocalist; he knows that he has yet a good deal to learn, and thervrore he will go on to improve. Miss CAWSE has the best singing part. Her first song, "Pensive warbler," in as far as it resembled Bisktor's "Mock- ing bird," was pretty. The scena in the oratory is clever, and might be rendered more effective if the lady would take more pains. The first act closed with a musical finale, of which the latter part has some good points ; and with the first act the music nearly ends. The second act contains only two songs, the third act not one. Such an arrange- ment bears all the marks of haste, for we will venture to say that so experienced a hand as Mr. PEAKE originally designed a more equal distribution of the musical business of his drama.
The audience, for some reason or other, were determined to be pleased ; or perhaps it would be more correct to say, that. a certain portion of them went to the theatre determined to encore certain fa- vourites. This practice is growing an abominable nuisance, for encores are usually enforced precisely in an inverse ratio to the merits of the songs and the singers. One of the best performances of the evening was a buffo song by Mr. J. RUSSELL, written on the model of SAC- CHINI'S well known " I violin tutti insieme." It was a rich piece of comic singing ; and the imitation of VELLUTI excellent, except that RUSSELL sang in better tune than his Italian prototype is accustomed to do. Mrs. KEELEY did much for a little part, and came in for her encore with the rest.
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