Mademoiselle Piccolomini and her advisers have chosen, for the last
of the three parts which have formed her repertory of the season, Norina in Don Pasquale ; which she performed on Saturday last and repeated on Tuesday. They might easily have made a better choice; for this cha- racter is less calculated than either of the others to display her attractions. Don Pasquale holds the very lowest place among Donizetti's operas. Its subject (taken from a French piece brought out at one of the small Paris theatres) is merely farcical, neither creating interest nor exciting the slightest serious feeling. It was made into an Italian opera buffs at Paris for the use of the admirable performers who were there some ten or twelve years ago, and owed nine-tenths of its success to the grotesque humour of Lablache in the principal character, which he has made so entirely his own that it has scarcely ever been attempted by anybody else. Hence Don .ggsquale has not made much way in Italy, and its success has almost been confined to Paris and London. Its music bears evident marks of the haste with which it appears to have been written,— light, easy, fluent, and produced at no expense of thought. Among its melodies there is only one which has the slightest individuality of cha- racter—the little serenade, " Com' 6 gentil," which Mario's sweet voice has made popular.
Piccolomini gives a different colouring to the character of Norina from what the dramatist intended. Norina is a very knowing widow, who enters into an indelicate and disreputable plot to trepan an old gen- tleman into a false marriage in order that he may be glad to get rid of her by turning her over to his nephew who is her lover. Piccolomini makes her a lively young girl, who jumps at the scheme proposed to her, as a piece of capital fun ; and carries it through with girlish vivacity, tormenting her victim in mere gayety of heart, and laughing in her sleeve all the while at her own success. All this she does with such un- flagging spirit, such exuberant animation, while she looks so pretty, and her fresh young voice sounds so unsophisticate, that it is impossible to re- sist her fascination ; and young and old, grave and gay, yield to the spell of the hour. She makes Norina charming, simply because she is charming herself.
Rossi gave a tolerable imitation of Lablaehe • but, like other imita- tions, it was overdone. Belletti and Calzolaii made as much as can be made of such trivial parts ; but Calzolari's voice lacked the sweetness of Mario's in the serenade, the only musical feature of the opera.
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