THE ITALIAN OPERA.
AT length we have something on which to write emanating from the Italian Theatre. PAULINE GARCIA made her first appearance on Thursday, night ; and the manager, well practised in the tricks of his trade, had announced this event by a series of puffs preliminary from the very commencement of the season. Miss GARCIA had been "pre- vailed on to choose London for the place of her debut, from a sense of gratitude to the liberal patrons of her departed sister." Such was LAPORTE'S first appeal. Sisterly affection and gratitude united in the person of a prima donna, herself another MammiAN, would secure the triumphant success of the debutante, and render the speculation a sure one. Titus reasoned the manager. In this instance, however, the nick failed—failed even to draw a house. The pit, spite of plenteous orders, was unusually thin, the stalls more than half empty, and the boxes a beggarly account. We never witnessed a debut, of any pre- tence, that attracted less notice : and we believe the very circumstance on which LAPORTE relied for success has been, in part, the cause of failure. Instances of a like celebrity in the saute art existing in two members of the same family, are so rare, that the general impression is against the possibility of their existence. " MArlinun cannot have an equal in a sister " was the antecedent prepossession—and it was the right one. PAULINE GARCIA has a family resemblance to her sister enough to provoke a constant comparison, but always to her disadvant- age. In voice, in execution, in animation, in science, in every requi- ime to form a great artist, she necessarily challenged a comparison with MALIERAN, and failed. Had she been allowed, as far as it was possible, to stand on her own merits, she would have stood better. A resem- blance to MALII1RAN is a resemblance to vocal excellence, almost to vocal perfection ; and. although it has been made, iu this instance, to tell against the debutante, it is, in itself considered, a possession of no ordinary value. She made a few hits, that indicate talent both as a singer and an actress ; and we know her to be a well-trained musician. Time may ripen this promise into fruit ; but at present, her engagement, in all probability, will not be a protracted one : she has no chance of supplanting PERSIAN' or GRIST. We were forgetting to mention that the part selected for Miss GARCIA'S first appearance was Desdemona in ROSSINI'S Otello.
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