64t t4ratrts.
We do not remember a time—nor was there probably ever a time— when the London public have enjoyed such musical entertainments as have been provided for them during this last month of October, the " dead season" of the year. Besides Piccolomini's appearances at the old Operahouse, there have been Italian operas at Drury Lane, worthy of comparison with those of the great Italian theatres during the height of the fashionable season. They have been presented every night this week, and there will be one more performance tonight. The principal members of the company have been Grisi, Mario, M. and Madame Gas- sier, Mademoiselle Sedlatzek, Lorini, and Formes. M. and Madame Gassier, though they have not yet appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre or the Royal Italian Opera, are nearly as well and as favourably known as if they had. He is a first-rate baritone and an admirable comedian ; she is to be classed with Persiani and Bosio. Signor Lorini, the tenor, though a tame actor, is a more than respectable singer. With such per- formers, Norma, the Barbieri, Lucrezia Borgia, &c., have been cast in a manner which would be satisfactory anywhere ; and in regard to the orchestra, chorus, and all the seethe accessories, their ensemble has been careful and complete. These performances have been most successful. The house every night has been full to overflowing; the demand for boxes and stalls having exceeded the supply, and numbers having been turned away from the pit. The " old playhouse prices " were adopted —the prices, that is, of Drury Lane and Covent Gar- den in their high and palmy days as the great English theatres : and, we believe, Messrs. Beale and Co., the real entrepreneurs, have found those prices sufficiently remunerative. From all this, some per- sons haveumped to the conclusion that we ought henceforth to have Italian talian opera performances regularly at this time of the year. But that does not follow. We see, no doubt, that our immense metro- polis has a public both able and willing to support this most elegant entertainment at all seasons of the year, on terms which, we verily believe, arc as high as those of any theatrical entertainment ought to be. But the Italian opera, so long as it retains its aristocratic and exclusive character—so long as it is the fashionable entertainment par excellence, not only in England but all over Europe—will continue to be extravagantly costly in comparison with other branches of the drama which equal it in intrinsic quality : and while our Grisis and Marks receive exorbitant salaries for singing to the beau monde at one season, they will not take half or a third of the rate for singing to the million at another. They may from particular circumstances, as from being in England at the time, accept some passing engagement like the present, but there is little prospect of such engagements becoming a regular practice. We never had faith in the professed design of the projectors of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden to render this entertainment popular by means of comparative cheapness ' - because the great stars of the opera will not be drawn to England except by inducements which must put cheapness out of the question ; a fact of which the aforesaid projectors must have been as well aware as we were. It has been said, "Let us have Italian opera without great particular stars, but with artistic completeness and quality of general performance." It is easily said : but the English
public will not have such things—they must have the best or nothing. We are the most fastidious people in the world, and, when abroad, will hardly tolerate performances which pass current in the best theatres on the Continent. We must have Italian opera in all its splendour and beauty : if we cannot afford its cost, we will do without it altogether ; but we will not put up with an inferior article.
Previous page
