The Elisir d' Amore was performed at Covent Garden on
Thursday. Novelty was given to this exceedingly pleasant but rather hackneyed opera by the appearance of Roneoni as Dtdeantara, and of Madame Viar- dot as ..ddina. The itinerant quack is one of Roncora's " crack " parts in Italy ; and is, no doubt, a true, as it is a very lively representation of a kind of character unknown in this country. To US it seemed a piece of the most extravagant buffoonery, which more than one daily contem- porary has justly compared to the Adelphi drolleries of John Wright. ablache is extravagant enough, but he has a pleasant unctuousness, which Ranconi wants ; and between their singing there is no sort of com- parison. Madame Viardot was, as she always is, extremely clever but she does not know how to trifle gracefully with a light part. She is too anxious to make the most of it, and too desirous to be quite unlike any- body else. Hence her country coquette was altogether artificial, la- boured, and overstrained. Viardoes genius demands greater scope ; it must grapple with what is lofty and impassioned ; and this is the case with her singing as well as her acting. She was to have appeared as Leonora in Fidelio, and that opera lately was in actual rehearsal : with 'Rich a character, and Beethoven's music, Viardot would have left us, at the end of the season, aometking to renteraher.
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