Rnk.
MADAME Lusu-GoLDsmixtor seems even yet to assert a sway over the English public more potent than any of her successors in its favour. The Messiah, the first of the three oratorios in which her untiring benevolence has led her to devote her talents to the aid of three most useful charitable institutions, was given in Exeter Hall on Wednesday last. No other singer in the world could have drawn together the hundreds that absolutely filled Exeter Hall on Wednesday. There are few who would have freely given their utmost exertions for a similar object, and I must add that, despite all the deteriorating effects of time, there is not a singer in the world who could have sung Handel's sublime music as did Madame Lind-Gold- schmidt on Wednesday night. Clouded, so to speak, as now is the brilliancy of the lower notes of her register, and great as apparently is the exertion re- quired to bring out those thrilling higher tones on which enraptured audi- ences used to hang as if they were utterances from an oracle, the dramatic expression thrown by Madame Lind-Goldschmidt into the grand recitatives of the Messiah was as vivid and emphatic, her bravura singing of "Rejoice greatly" as perfect, and the devotional feeling which per- vaded the whole of her rendering of "I know that my Redeemer liveth," as deep and earnest as, if not more so, thrill ever. In fact, her diminished physical advantages serve but to bring out more forcibly than ever her intellect and ability to appreciate and enter into the sublimest conceptions of the great composers, without which even her voice in its best days would never have gained for its possessor her unrivalled supremacy. Wednesday night was probably the last occasion on which an English audience will hear her in the Messiah; the genuine admirers of Handel may have to wait many a year before they hear an exponent of his music so competent, in every sense, as "Jenny Lind."
The other " principals " were Miss Palmer, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Signor Belletti, and it need scarcely be said that they sung their very best. The band and chorus, organized by Mr. Mitchell, were admirable, and all the more difficult choruses were given with a precision rarely surpassed, thanks, in a great measure, to the able guidance of Herr Otto Goldschmidt. The proceeds, which must have been very considerable, are to be devoted by Madame Lind-Goldschmidt's munificence, to the Hind-street Institution for Needlewomen.
The Creation, the second of the series, will be given on Wednesday, the 28th instant, in aid of the Brompton Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, and Elijah, the last, in aid of the Royal Society of Musicians and the Royal Society of Female Musicians, on Wednesday, June 4th.
Nothing very striking has occurred during the week at either Opera House. Madame Guerrabella appeared at Her Majesty's, on Saturday, in I Puritani, but the absence through illness of Signor Giuglini, and the sub- stitution as Arturo of Signor Bettini, with whom she had not even re- hearsed the duets, renders it only fair to all parties to postpone criticism until after a more favourable specimen of her Elvira.
At Covent Garden, Mdlle. Patti has been attracting crowded audiences, and enchanting them when attracted, by her fascinating impersonations of .Rosin and Zerlina. Roneoni, the inimitable, was sadly missed as a com- panion Figaro and Masetto, but his place was very creditably filled in the latter character by Signor Ciampi. That of Figaro was filled by Signor Delle.Sedie, who, though an accomplished singer and good tragic actor, possesses but few of the elements of success in a part requiring such exquisite and refined comic talent as that of the world-renowned barber. Signor Mario appeared on Saturday and Thursday as Count -4 baaviva, a part in which he is certainly incomparable. AMATEUR.
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