To revert some twenty or five-and-twenty years in the career
of a living composer for the sake of the novelty of the hour, is a somewhat rare event in the history of the modern musical drama: such, however, was the case with Donizetti's opera L'Ajo nell' Inbarazzo, produced for the first time on our Italian boards on Tuesday. The advanced state of the season, and the manifest fatigue of the performers in heavy parts, render some change desirable, indeed necessary; serious operas becoming more serionh through the heat—veritable tragedies for warm weather, as little welcome generally as the smoking sirloin on the dinner-table or the top-coat on the promenade. Iliteregia Borgia had already begun to sing in harsher strains; in a more worn voice and laborious fashion, than we are accustomed to from the admirable Grisi, indicating that her organs required reposes while Lablache was evidently blown; scarcely fit for recitative, husbanding his resources, eschewing cantabile passages and hold- ing-notes as much as he could, and presenting in his ducal ments a spectacle of dignity incapable of being fully appretiated in the dog-days. Of all the corps, Mario has held out best: his voice is grown stronger; and if to his increased animation of style he has sacrificed some of his former sweetness of tone, he has broken new ground in his falsetto, which, albeit we like it not, is a powerful mans of effect on his audience in general. Yet even he succumbed to atmospheric influence Oil Saturday; when Lucia was consequently convened to Nino, and the quell- tity of flat principal sinners among the male voices was legion. The white robes of the chorus had here, indeed, a cool and refreshing effect; but then, the want of movement in the drama, and the sombre portentous entrances of the chorus in unison, (which, by the way, we have heard several times since Nino has become the stopgap of the season,) together with the want of a central object of attraction, rendered the whole heavy; and so indolent
and indisposed were the audience, that even the heroics of Mademoiselle Sanchioli were bestowed in vain. It was high time by the present week to change the note and key of the opera, and to select something adapted to the time in costume and character.
Cimarosa's sparkling genius has imparted a delicious flavour to the ices of many a Venetian café; he comes well into season with Rhenish and Champagne in England: but Signor Gerottimo gives Lablache more to do than is consistent with relaxation; and as the great artist is now entitled to live on the acquisitions of his youth without the fatigues of new study, L'A' o neld' Intharazzo of Donizetti seems to have been selected, and the work produced without involving great effort to any party concerned. This opera is, indeed, but a summer trifle; not destitute of elegant and pleasing passages, but based so palpably on Il Afatrimonio Segreto, both in the style of the music and in the connexion between its instrumental fea- tures and the business of the stage, as to have but slender merit as a crea- tion. Lae one of the new overtures of the celebrated Hook of Vauxhall memory, you seem to have heard it all before. Lablache, however, infuses novelty and character into his portrait of the perplexed and benevolent tutor: it is an expression which we have seen shadowed forth in a diversity of his other performances, but never before embodied in so consistent and finished an impersonation. It is to be wished that the same keeping had been preserved by the composer throughout his work; which has not only been retouched by himself, but has submitted to consider- able interpolation from others. From this circumstance, the action Often hangs, and the void is filled by songs, which, however pleas- ingly warbled by Castellan and Mario, detract somewhat from the exhilaration and spirit that are the life of the opera buffa. The business of the piece consists of a few simple events, without any attempt at involu- tion, or the construction of a genuine comic plot. Conte Giulio, an eccen- tric old ,nobleman, whose whims on education seem to have been peculiar, has brought up twin sons under the care of a tutor, Gregorio, in complete seclusion from the world, until insensibly they have arrived at man's estate. Instead, however, of having been preserved from the follies of the world by their mode of bringing up, both youths, while expected to be good children, show astonishing facility in falling in love. Enrico, the eldest, who is a promising young gentleman, has actually perpetrated a secret marriage, and has commenced father of a family; while the second, who is a sort of Tony Lumpkin, has a strong inclination to throw himself away on the house- keeper. Lablache, the tutor, thus becomes the confidant of important and dreadful secrets; and his agonies between his own responsibility on the occasion and the benevolent anxiety he feels for his pupils furnish the merriment. The scene in which he appears with Enrico's child under his cloak is very amusing. Papa at length is in the humour of forgiveness; and his new daughter-in-law, Madame Castellan, sings a florid concluding scene in token of general reconciliation. Our description of the music, as often pretty, but deficient in novelty and strength of keeping, applies through- out the work; and the unity of the effect may probably be somewhat injured by the numerous interpolations of the singers. Madame Castellan came out in more force than we ever heard her before, and her low notes told finely. The part is just adapted to her : being free from dramatic difficulties, it leaves her at liberty to devote herself to the music of the piece in a manner which is absolutely indispensable to her success. She is not in the least a dra- matic singer in the sense that Grisi is one, exquisitely blending two arts and making each impart force to the other. But Castellan is, however, a vocalist of high merit, and her powers in this respect are beginning to tell on the opera stage; while as an actress she will probably improve. Mario was in good voice, and his grand aria in the first act was deservedly ap- plauded. The chorus, as the domestics of a great mansion, made a quaint appearance, and sang effectively.
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