THE THEATRES.
CLASSIC themes are just now in vogue at the great theatres; and, for awhile, French give way to German importations. The Doric portico of Covent Garden need not frown contemptuously on the tripods at the doors of Drury, for they are also kept in countenance by altars on the stage, and Ranked by playbills filled with a whole vocabulary of antique names. Mr. Bunn following the lead of his rival M. Laurent, has played a mytho- logical ballet to the Greek tragedy: it remains to be seen whether The Danaides will prove as good a card as Antigone. The ballet, as a spec- tacle, is as classical as the tragedy' and much more magnificent and varied: but Monsieur Hoguet is not a Sophocks even among ballet-masters; and Herr Schmidt, though a clever composer in his way, bears no comparison with Mendelssohn. The mythological legend of Danaus King of Argos, familiar to all classical students, would appear an impracticable subject for dancing-pantomime to any one but a ballet-master. The marriage of the fifty daughters of King Danaus with the fifty sons of King Agvptus, in one batch, has something comic in the representation, for all the splendour of the scene: to see the father furnishing his daughters with daggers and making them swear to kill their husbands, is positively ludicrous. But the climax of absurdity is when forty-nine of the fifty brides come tripping on in their night-dresses with hair flying loose and holding out their bloody daggers for papa's inspection. The death of this wholesale man-slayer by the fall of a column, and his advent into Tartarus along with the murderous young ladies, conclude the extraordinary exhibition. The characteristic beauty of the scenery, the richness of the costumes, and the picturesque effect of the whole spectacle, together with some beautiful dancing, de- lighted the audience, and diverted attention from the extravagance of the
subject. • A new danseuse, Mademoiselle Maria from the Acad6mie Royale at Paris, made her first appearance as the heroine. The lightness and firm- ness of her step won deserved admiration; though there is nothing novel in her feats, and her pantomimic power is not remarkable. M. H. Vestris is greatly improved since he last appeared; and the other dancers acquitted themselves well. The pantomime business devolved on M. Hog,uet, the .composer of the ballet; whose intelligence and force of expression disposed the audience to resist the risible tendency of his excessive energy.
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