Olgatru an 331usir.
The indisposition of Miss Amy Sedgwick has caused the manager of the Haymarket Theatre to engage Mrs. Charles Young, a promising act-
ress' who made a successful debat at Sadler's Wells last year, but waswholly unknown at the western end of the town. Her line is that of Miss Sedgwick, and she brings with her the qualities of a singularly dia.. tinct articulation, a total freedom from mannerism, and a thoroughly feminine delicacy in the delineation of emotion. The last character she has attempted, viola, in Twelfth Night, does her great credit indeed, being conceived with intelligence, and executed with a degree of finish that seems the result rather of natural refinement than of artistic train- ing. This is the second time the Haymarket company has been recruited from Pentonville, and in both instances the emigration from the north to the south-west has worked well. The first movement was the temporary engagement of Mrs. Marston, who in her own department, has had no equal since the days of the late Mrs. Glover.
At the St. James's Theatre, a new conjuror, Signor Carlo Andre°. letti has made his appearance. He is a skilful manipulator without ap- parel-us, after the fashion of Herr Wiljelba Frikell, not of "Professor An- derson."
PARLSIAN THEATRICALS.
One might imagine that every manner in which avarice could be treated on the stage, had been thoroughly exhausted, but MM. Anicet Bourgeois and Labiche have contrived to obtain a new position out of the favourite old vice. Instead of representing an elderly miser cursed with an improvident son, they have inflicted an avaricious son on a prodigal father, thus destroying the connexion be- between advanced years and the love of money, that from time imme- morial has been assumed by satirists. Their piece, which is called Avare en gants famines and has been produced at the Palais Royal, would probably make a greater sensation, were it not known that a play written by M. Dumas fils, on a similar theme, will shortly make its appearance.
Mademoiselle Bigotini, an old celebrity of the French ballet, has lately died at the advanced age of seventy-four, having retired from the stage for upwards of thirty years. She made her debut on the 29th Brumaire of the year X (20th November 1802) at the Opera, then called "Theatre de la Republique des Arts," and was thus the representative of an epoch, belonging to another order of things.
Mademoiselle Titiens has appeared in a second character, and gained a second triumph, though hardly so unqualified as the first. She ap- peared on Tuesday as Leonora in the Trovafore, and repeated the same part on Thursday. There were great houses, ttad the prima donna was received with all the usual marks of enthusiasm. The character of Leonora is deeply tragic, and was acted with immense power, particularly in the concluding scenes, where the triviality of Verdi's music is lost in the terror and pity inspired by the catastrophe. But the appearance of Titiens in this part confirms what we said before it took place. The T.-ovatore is not the opera by which she should have followed up the im- pression made by her in the Huguenots. She is a singer of the very highest class; but, like Jenny Ney and Johanna Wagner, her school is essentially German; and it is evident that it is in the great works of that school that her powers must be most fully displayed. For this reason we are glad to see that she is to appear next week as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni ; and we hope her subsequent part will be the heroine of Beethoven's Fidelio, the most beautiful and affecting character on the musical stage. In the Trovatore, .Alboni appeared as the gipsy Azucena ; acting with singular genius and originality, and singing with matchless refinement and finish. And Giuglini took his well-known part of Manrieo with his usual success. In other respects the performance presented nothing remarkable.
The principal musical performances of the week have been the New Philharmonic Concert on Monday, and the Concert of the Sacred Har- monic Society on Wednesday. The New Philharmonic Concerts come in place of the Concerts of the New Philharmonic Society, now dissolved; are carried on by Dr. Wylde, the defunct Society's conductor ; and are quite similar, in plan and quality, to those which the Society used to give. The performance of Monday evening was good on the whole. Several orchestral pieces of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, were played by an efficient orchestra, and the singing of Miss Louisa Pyne and Madame Lemmens was excellent. There was one unfortunate circumstance : it has gradually become more and more apparent, that St. James's Hall, spacious and beautiful as it is, has considerable acoustical defects. Single voices and instruments lose their resonance ; and, when combined, their effect is often indistinct. We believe that the proprietors of the Hall are aware of this fact ; and that they will endeavour to discover the cause of the evil and to provide a remedy for it.
The Sacred Harmonic Society's Concert consisted of Mendelssohn's Athalia and Rossini's Stabat Mater; two pieces performed together be- cause their united length suits a single evening, but otherwise suffi- ciently ill-assorted. The singers were Madame Clara Novello, 'ust arrived in England,) Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Weiss. e hall, as usual, was crowded to the doors. These constantly crowded houses have this bad effect, that they render the Society careless about novelty or variety. They have for a long time past fallen into a narroy routine of four or five familiar pieces, beyond which they do not think it necessary to go. But the Sacred Harmonic Society ought not to be a mere commercial concern, regarding money the only end of its being. It ought to be a powerful agent in the promotion of art ; seeking out not only the works of the great old masters, but those of young composers, especially among ourselves, whose genius will be fostered by encourage- ment. Where, for instance, are the works of the illustrious Sebastian Bach, and why has it left his chef d'eeuvre, the famous Tassions-Nussk, to be brought out by a young society, without a tithe of its means ? And where is the young English composer whom it has taken by the hand and brought into notice by the performance of his music ? This great Society, in truth, is misusing the "talent" intrusted to its charge.
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