Mask an tt rarna.
THE week has been crowded with musical events of the greatest interest ; in fact, for this early period of the season, the supply
• af good music has been somewhat too much for the demand, and there have been none of those "hundreds turned away," which managers and concert-givers look upon with such a mixture of satisfaction and regret. At the Crystal Palace on Saturday, the orchestral portion of the concert was of the usual irreproachable character ; Madlle. Therese Ellinger—of whom more anon— sang into good humour an audience sulky at the loss of Madame Lemmens-Sherrington ; M. Vieuxtemps perversely wasted his "virtuosity "— the word is barbarous, but current—on two decidedly feeble compositions of his own, and Mr. Coward's subsequent selection on the great organ rendered the promenade not less attractive than usual. On the same afternoon Mr. Howard Glover gave a monster concert in Drury Lane, which, thanks alone to the locale, was actually over before six o'clock. If people will give these monster concerts, why do they not let the seats by the hour, and so allow several audiences to go away satisfied, instead of one going away bored to death. The system is radically bad, and the attractions of a few great singers are too frequently merely used to secure a forced attention to a host of mediocre (Militants. On Monday Herr Ernest Pauer com- menced his third series of pianoforte recitals at Willis's Rooms. Each recital is confined to the composition of a particular school, and the selection is arranged in strictly chronological order, so that, with a slight amount of preparatory reading, an attend- ance throughout the series ensures a knowledge of the rise and progress of pianoforte music, which is one of the desiderata of the musical education of the present day. If young ladies would devote some of the shining hours they waste in attempting Thalberg's splendid impossibilities, as in mastering the trash of the Thalberg-and-water school—would only take their Fetie, care- fully read the biography of every pianist, and then go for half a dozen Monday afternoons to Willis's Rooms, I think many of them would find their ideas of pianoforte music beneficially en- larged. On Monday evening, besides a capital "Monday Popular," the presence of Royalty gave especial éclat to the Philharmonic Concert at the Hanover Square Rooms. On Wednesday, the symphony of M. Silas, so well received at the trial of new com- positions by the Musical Society of London, met with like success at their concert, St. James's Hall, as usual, being filled with nearly all the cognoscenti in town.
Al Covent Garden Mdlle. Carlotta Patti has still further demon- strated her consummate execution and surprising range of voice ; Antonietta Fricsi has proved moderately successful in a character in which anything short of absolute failure is creditable —that of Norma ; and Signor Naudin's Masaniello has become a confirmed success. Tuesday next, however, will probably bè one of the most brilliant nights of Mr. Gye's campaign—not onDsr a "command night" for the first time these two years, 14d, the first occasion on which the Prince and Princess of Wale\. will appear in public. At Her Majesty's Theatre a splendid performance of that most repulsively fascinating of operas, Lucrezia Borgia, has been the principal event of the week. That the house was crowded and enthusiastic was a matter of course, but in one or two points the anticipation was even surpassed by both heroine and hero—Mdlle. Tietjens and
Signor Giuglini. The horrible scene, for example, where Lucrezia is compelled to acquiesce in the poisoning of her son, Alphonse mockingly wonders at her unwonted hesitation, and Gennaro scarcely credits the honour done to him in the offer of the fatal golden goblet, even seemed to reveal new depths of horror under the magnificent acting of Mdlle. Tietjens. The event of the evening, however, was the Milt, as Maffeo Orsini, of Mdlle. Therese Ellinger. The brindisi "IL segrete "was, of course, the great test for a new Orsini, and Mdlle. Ellinger's success in it was decided. She possesses a voice of immense power, great range, and, in the lower notes, of extremely rich quality, together with considerable execution. Whatever may be her success in parts requiring more delicate management of the voice, or more subdued fioriture than that of Orsini, it is certain that her physical qualifications, and a certain wild originality of style, render her singing of "11 segreto " most remarkable. The power of her lower notes, especially that on which, departing from the text, she closed the first verse, brought down immense applause. It is strange, by the way, that opera-goers never will recollect that between the verses of the brindisi comes the ominous chorus behind the scenes—
"La gioja de profani E un fumo passaggier," and by persisting in applause after the firet verse entirely spoil a fine dramatic effect. Mr. Mapleson is certainly fortunate in con- tralti; with Alboni, 'Una and Effinger, it would be difficult to find a contralto part he cannot fill to perfection.
The prospects of the ballet seem favourable at Her Majesty's Theatre, too. La Farfalletta, a ballet in four tableaux, by M. Diani, has been given after the opera throughout the week with success. Mademoiselle Amalie Ferraris, the principal danseuse, is graceful and agile, if not original, and the "Grand 13allabile des Masques," on which the curtain falls, forms an extremely
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