OPENING OF TIIE LYCEUM, OR THE NEW ENGLISII OPERA-IIOUSE.
THIS elegant theatre, which has been completed with extraordi- nary despatch, is advertised to open for its first season on Wed- nesday, with a new opera and a musical afterpiece. The perfor- mances, we understand, are to be wholly operatic; and almost entirely, though not quite exclusively—for that would be illi- beml—the production of British talent. in a word, it will realize its title " The English Opera-House;" and be to native music what the King's Theatre is to foreign—we hope and expect, more. Thus the stigma of our having no national opera will be removed; and our musicians no longer have cause to complain of the want of a field for the exercise of their powers. This is our reading of Mr. ARNOLD'S pledge to the public: we shall see how he acts up to it.
Some judicious alterations have been made in the regulations of the theatre, which will be found to be great improvements ; parti cularly the change of the hour at which the performances commence, from seven to eight ; limiting their duration to twelve o'clock ; and the abolition, almost necessarily consequent upon these arrangements, of the catchpenny custom of half-price, which in an opera-house would be barbarous as well as inconve- nient. The change in the hour of opening is rendered necessary in a theatre that looks to the support of the higher as well as the middle classes, by the lateness of fashionable dining-hours. The rule of terminating the entertainments before twelve o'clock, will, we hope, be "made absolute." There being no half-price, no excuse will remain fix prolonging them beyond. The balcony seats—that is, those in the projecting front of the dress circle, and a few seats in the orchestra, will be let as stalls, by the night or the season, at only an advance of a shilling beyond the regular box price; and the family boxes will be let on proportion- ably moderate terms, according to the number they are capable of holding. The prices of the public boxes, pit, and gallery,
will be the same as before ; that is, five, three, and two shillings respectively. These prices are moderate, considering the quantity
and quality of musical talent engaged; and that the perfor- mances will assimilate to those of the Italian Opera, the admission to which is nearly thrice the sum.
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