5 APRIL 1851, Page 13

The Royal Italian Opera commenced its fifth season on Thursday

; but the event was not attended with any very remarkable circumstances. The opera was the well-known Semiramide ; performed with the completeness and splendour for which this theatre is famous. The orchestra was as powerful and well disciplined, the chorus as effective, and the scenic dis- plays as gorgeous, as usual. The most gratifying occurrence was the appearance of Grisi, in strength, vigour, and matronly beauty. Madame Grisi does not absolutely grow younger—as some of our enthusiastic contemporaries imagine ; but she retains possession of powers and attractions of wondrous perfection and force. In Semiramide, her buoyant form, her free movements, her ener- getic action, and her rich, pure, flexible voice, almost carried us back to the time when she first appeared in this, the grandest of all her persona- tions.

Grisi was well supported by Angri ; whose masculine appearance and manner, though they disqualify her for many parts, certainly fit her for Armee. It is evident that her gifts have never been cultivated by a re- fined education: more is the pity ; for her voice, when she subdues its Mndency to coarseness, is often very beautiful; and as an actress, she has a great deal of native energy. Of Signor Salvatori, who has replaced Tamburini in the part of Amur, 110 judgment could be formed; for he was labouring under a cold and hoarseness, which not only destroyed his voice, but evidently depressed his spirits. His appearing at all, in such a situation, must have been on his part a painful self-sacrifice to the exigencies of the theatre.

The house, though well filled, was less crowded than might have been expected on the first night of the season. But, indeed, the production of so well-known an opera, without any strikingly novel feature in its per- formance, was not calculated to create much excitement.