COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.

TEE revival of The Marriage of Figaro at this theatre, on Tuesday night, taken in connexion with our Dresden correspondent's letter of last week, suggests a little speculation as to the fittest place for its per- formance. As to its rank and station we shall be agreed. It is, per- haps, the most perfect specimen of the comic opera in existence. The story fitted, though not intended for music ; and the music, like assorted precious stones of every lovely hue, is all brilliant and. blazing. A. never-failing stream of melody, or rather combined melodies, gushes throughout—alike in beauty, yet so disposed, so contrasted, as never to weary or cloy. The opera has not a feeble point or i tiresome scene— nothing that could be spared and nothing that could be added without injury to its general effect. What, then, is its proper habitation ? by whom should it be played ? to whom should it be addressed? MOZART, it would seem, has answered the last question ; for, like all his operas' it was written for and produced in Germany. With Italians generally he never was a favourite ; and the Italian singers of his time, accustomed as they were to the beautiful eantilena of PArtirEzw, RACCHINI, and CIMAROSA, accused him of having removed the pedestal from the stage and placed it in the orchestra. With their successors of the present day MOZART is a barbarian : relentlessly grasping them in the fetters of time, and weaving around them the artful web of his accompani- ment, he forbids that sort of display which constitutes the only charm of a modern opera-song. Accustomed to regard every such composi- tion as a mere sketch, they know not how to deal with a finished pic- ture. Witness the undisguised listlessness with which Gala and RU- BINI walk through their parts in any opera of MOZART—the evident

reluctance with which they come to a disagreeable duty, and the awk- ward and barbarous devices they use to lower the classical elevation of his style to the wretched standard of DomzErn. No; MOZART in the

bands of modern Italians will never do. Here and there you find an exception : CAMPORESE was one, but CAMPOBF.SE was a woman of

education, and endowed with a quick and accurate perception of what- ever was beautiful in art. Such exceptions only prove the rule. In Germany we have felt, and we acknowledge, the truth of our corre- spondent's remark, that "Figaro's Hochzeit is not Le Nozze di Figaro."

If performed in Italy or by Italians, we must close our ears; if by Germans, we must shut our eyes. But the Germans, at any rate, do their best. They bring to their work cordial reverence for the com- poser, and a correct knowledge of his design. The disadvantage of the

language is compensated by the scrupulous accuracy of the perform- ance: you have all that MOZART wrote, and you have nothing more. Give us this, and we will pardon Figaro's squab figure, and Susanna's "streams of dropping ringlets." Let us remember, too, that every Italian Figaro will not resemble our correspondent's portrait : we have all seen one of herculean stature and make—portly, tall, and brawny—

one who could have placed his intended bride in his coat-pocket and walked off the stage with her.

We turn from these foreign exhibitions of the opera to our own ; and we do so with some feeling of pride, for, taken as a whole, we have rarely seen this splendid composition so well represented. The same reason which compelled just censure for the late exhibition at Covent

Garden prompts the more welcome duty of ungrudging praise for the present one. Comm presented the mutilated fragments of the finest works of art huddled together ; The Marriage of Figaro exhibits the opera of MOZART entire and complete. In the one, all is confusion and disorder; in the other, all symmetry and grace. An English version of

the opera was produced some years since ; but, like the Comus of the present season, a mutilated and misshapen affair. The English libretto, as we learn, has been furnished by PwarcHE ; and it is very skilfully done. The difficulties of such a task are many and great, but they are admirably surmounted. The opera is better placed on the stage, as to scenery, decorations, and chorus, than we have ever witnessed in Eng- land; and, under the able guidance of Mr. BENEDICT, the orchestra was well-trained, and every piece was taken in its true time. No effect was lost—at least none that his materials could produce.

We had now an opportunity of hearing Miss KEMBLE in a character which tests a singer's powers ; and her performance of Susanna will assuredly raise her in the estimation of the public. She threw more archness and vivacity into the part than we expected ; and those who remember her mother in her prime must have been struck, as we were, with the frequent resemblance in look and in voice : if in Norma she

moved and declaimed like a KEMBLE, in Susanna she was altogether a DE CA.MP. Her singing was correct and judicious—she felt the all- sufficiency of MOZART, and she also made her audience feel it. " Voi,

che sapete " (we must give the Italian titles in order to be intelligible) was taken from Cherubino's part and given to her ; and, like all thea- trical singers, she sang it better on the stage than in the concert-room. The part of Susanna has no song of display ; but Miss KEMBLE must have felt that this is not an indispensable requisite to success. The ex- quisite air " Deh vieni, non tardar," which singers of slender capacity

often omit, produced as mute attention and as tumultuous an encore as we ever witnessed. Miss RAINFORTH'S Countess was in no respect in- ferior to Miss KEMBLE'S Susanna : her graceful appearance, her simple

yet elegant dress, her dignified deportment, were no less worthy of admiration than her singing. Among so much of excellence that the opera in various ways presented, it is difficult to give precedence to any individual effort ; but the lovely " Porgi amor " was if not the first, in the very first line ; and the duet of the "Sall' aria" was as finished a spe- cimen of vocal combination as we ever heard. Miss Rartuon•rn brings

to her duty an apparent love of MOZART as ardent as that of a German ; and her singing throughout was con amore. The dialogue of the drama is

spoken, not sung : but we suggest the propriety of retaining a portion

at least (perhaps beginning at " 0 Cielo") of the recitative which in- troduces "Dove son," as essential to its effective commencement.

Madame VESTEIS was Cherubino ; and she dressed, looked, and acted the part admirably : her singing was less polished than that of the other ladies. LEFFLER'S Figaro surpassed our expectations. A man of Ger-

man extraction, brought up in an English cathedral, would seem in-

competent to personate "that incarnation of Southern vivacity, joy- ousness, and fun," with success : but he bustled through his part with

great animation, and sang with correctness and good taste. • His " Non

pm andrai " wanted power, but his performance was more than re- spectable. Not so that of Mr. STaurrow ; to whom, in an evil hour,

the part of the gay and volatile Count was committed. His acting was bad enough, and only better than his singing. In the duet " Crude!, perche finora," he managed to steer so adroitly between major and

minor, that it was difficult to say which mode he preferred; and this exquisite composition, which even in a concert-room usually commands an encore, fell lifeless.

At the original performance of Le Nozze di Figaro, in Vienna, two English singers were in the cast, STottacE and KELLY: Arrwoon, the pupil of MOZART, was in the orchestra, at his master's elbow ; and M. -lDE CAMP, the great-uncle of Miss KEMBLE, was ballet-master. KELLY'S account of the reception of the opera will appropriately con- clude the present notice of it- " I remember at the first full-band rehearsal, (this was in 17840 Mozart was on the stage, with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat ; and when Bennuci was singing Non pia andrai,' with great animation and power of voice. I was standing by Mozart ; who, :lotto voce' kept repeating, Bravo, bravo, Bennuci!' and when the singer came to the fine passage Cherubino, ails, vittoria! ' which he gave out with stentorian lungs, the effect was electrical: all the performers on the stage and those in the orchestra, actuated by a com- mon impulse, vociferated 'Bravo, bravo maestro! Viva, viva Mozart!' I

thought the fiddlers would have never ceased applauding by beating their

violin-bows against the music-desks. The little man acknowledged, by re- peated obeisances, his thanks for such distinguished applause. At the con- clusion of the first night's performance, I thought the applause of the audience

would never have ceased. Almost every piece was encored ; which made the Emperor (Joseph 11.) issue an order on the second representation that no

piece should be encored. Never was triumph more complete than that of Mozart ; as the successive crowded houses who flocked to hear his opera sufficiently testified."