THE ITALIAN OPERA.
EVER since the commencement of the season we have been awaiting the materials for a paragraph on the Italian Opera; for, ungifted with skill like that of the French cook who could accomplish a fricasee from a pair of kid gloves, our silence has hitherto been compulsory. On Saturday night, however, a new opera by DONIZETTI, and a new singer, were announced, and the materials for our dish seemed to be supplied ; but, alas! we are still in the situation of the French cook, for they are as insiped as his, while our incapacity to deal with them as he did is confessed.
" A new opera by Ponizetti." Now what is a new opera by Dom- ZET ? Simply this—a gathering and patching together of musical phrases. which have been heard (alas !) till they are familiar to every ear, and adopting them to an opera under a new name. A composer, then, according to the present fashionable acceptation of the term. is a person a ho keeps a musical receptacle of stolen goods, in which is arranged and ticketed property of different kinds which he means to appropriate and pass off as his own. But Dom./A:in is but a sorry labourer in his vocation after all : gold and diamonds he leaves un- touched, and purloins only tinsel and paste—he would be disowned and despised by the skilful professors of his art as a bungler and a fool. The title of this precious production is Belisario ; and it drew a crowded and fashionable house, who seemed to think II all very fine. They are told so to think—and they obey ; or, at least, they give the outward and visible signs of obedience. What follows? Why, that the opera and the audience are well suited ; and their good opinion being of much greater importance to the manager than ours, Bctisorio will be a stock piece for the rest of the season. The new singer Signor INciimm, proved himself worthy to sustain the part of the hero, though very indifferently furnished either by nature or art for any thing better.
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