30 JULY 1842, Page 13

SPOBR'S "FALL OF BABYLON."

WE stated some months since that &ORB had consented to place his new oratorio, The Fall of Babylon, at the disposal of the Committee of Management for the coming Norwich Festival. Several partial re- hearsals of it have already taken place ; and this week there were two fall-band rehearsals, with the principal singers, at the Hanover Square Rooms. They were strictly private, and we can only report the gene- ral impression on the baud and singers ; which is that of the warmest admiration. There is a chorus in canon which is spoken of as singu- larly beautiful ; and some of the dramatic effects are represented as mag- nificent, especially where a distant chorus of the Jews is heard amidst the festivities of Belshazzar's court. Two of the songs sung by Madame CArtAriout appear to have excited very general admiration, both for the sweetness of their melodies and the richness of their accom- paniment. From the Norfolk papers we learn that the Norwich Choral Society has been in diligent practice of &POUR'S oratorio, as well as the other works which it is designed to produce ; and that the ensuing fes- tival promises to equal the last in its attractive character and its influ- ence upon the best interests of the art.