THE THEATRES.
AN opera by BENEDICT, which has been long in suspense through many accidents, was brought to a hearing at Drury Lane on Monday. It is entitled The Brides of Venice ; and is entirely of the current house- model for which Mr. liumi long ago deserved a patent, having equipped by it many operas not only for successful public appearance but also for a temporary popularity in the Regent Street music-shops. The stage glitters as usual ; crowds are grouped upon it in vivid and gorgeous costumes ; the scenery is magnificent ; there is a profusion of melodra- matic spectacle, of processions, dances, the revelry of pirates, &c. ; and in the midst of all, a dreary monotony and want of novelty. To ana- tomize these things—to strip them of their finery and imposing pre- tension—is no very agreeable task ; and yet it must be done, if the profession of dramatic musician in England is ever to be re- stored from its present decayed and low estate. Time was in the his- tory of opera when the authority of the musician was paramount— when he selected a drama of suitable materials for the exercise of his genius, and modelled the scenes according to his fancy, taking care that vivacity in the action and truth in the situations were not de- ficient. He alone was responsible for the plot on which he expended a composition ; and his success or failure was adjudged according to the capacity for musical treatment of a subject presumed to be his own choice. All this has, however, passed away, and with it the power and the interest of genuine dramatic music. The composer is no longer the autocrat of the musical theatre, giving, as Gnuca was wont, laws to all around, while the manager of the day thought it ma slight favour to be permitted to hold his hat, wig, or greatcoat : no, he now enters very humbly in society with the scene-painter and ballet-master, to supply the joint stock with a cast of his art upon any given subject that it may please the management to offer him, and which, if he feel no interest in, he can at least treat from a ready-made assortment of commonplaces and conventionalisms. Abstractedly considered, he is a person of no dignity ; he may succeed without merit, or fail without loss of reputa- tion: he has only added a small and inconsiderable piece of mechanism
to a thing purely mechanical. It is impossible to witness the similarity that exists in the Drury Lane operas without the conviction that they
are referred to no true musical standard. A certain managerial theory of propriety and expediency prevails, influenced, we suppose, by the treasury ; meanwhile, the art is degraded—nauseous repetitions take place, and the iaventive charm of music seems for the time wholly extinguished.
Some one, who seems to have overlooked the fact that dmusical drama should have movement, has spun the two long acts of The Brides of Venice out of two incidents—the carrying off a bride, and her rescue. Our contemporaries of the daily press make a long matter of the story ; referring to ROGERS'S Italy, StsmoNnr, Count DARU, the Reverend Mr. SMEDLEY, &c., as if some interesting historical drama were in hand :
and so it may seem till put to the proof. The want of progress in the
action and of interest in the individual characters are, however, the dead- weight of the opera. Count Soranzo, (B0at:AD:10 a Venetian nobleman —a gambler, and the leader of a band of pirates—has come to Venice to seek the hand of Francesca, (Miss ROMERO one of its chief beauties. He is accompanied by an Arab page, Mama, (Mrs. Susw,) a lady who, though he has betrayed and deserted her, still attaches herself, in dis- guise, to his fortunes. Francesca, being affianced to Alberto, (HArtar- soN,) rejects the overtures of the buccaneer ; who selects the day of her marriage, when she forms one of twelve brides at an annual nuptial ceremony, to carry her off; in which he succeeds. In the second act we find her in the Castle of Segna, the abode of the pirates. A storm takes places, and a man is cast ashore from a wreck. It is Alberto ; who, favoured by Naama, is conducted to his lady ; and the lovers run some risk of their lives — when the Venetian fleet arrives and saves them.
It would have been impossible to spin out such a subject into the usual length of opera but for the unusual number of songs interspersed ; a plan very desirable when good and new melodies can be found, to which rapidity of action may well be sacrificed. But BENEDICT, though capable of much elegance of construction and combination, has no vein of natural melody. The things he here produced were for the most part readily traceable as reminiscences, rendered occasionally interesting by a certain piquancy in the harmonizing or instrumentation. In the orchestra he has acquitted himself well : his oblizato accompaniments, scattered here and there, for violin, violoncello, harp, &c., together with his ma- nagement of the wind-instruments, are among the most interesting fea- tures of his workmanship. Characteristic and original vocal melody, however, is to seek ; and, independently of the stoppage created by re- iterated airs of this kind, the frequently imperfect execution of them was a serious drawback. Mrs. StrAw has not yet recovered her voice so as to command her middle notes with any certainty of intonation. BORRANI was constantly flat, and performed some roulades which exemplified the incompleteness of his studies in vocalization. Miss ROMER sang merito- riously, but wanted the excitement of more forcible situations to draw her out. The scene in the first finale in which she and her lover break
from the bands of the pirates for one more embrace, has been so often
repeated in a variety of operas as to have lost all its effect. We trust that fighting and singing finales may now rest for a time. Had HARRI- SON been less exaggerated, he would have done well ; but he was too much in extremes, vulgar in his louder tones and affected in his almost inaudible pianos. Of the choruses, the Villanella, sung unaccompanied, is the best, though by no means striking either in point of conception or effect.
Among the novelties of this piece, we must not omit to mention the additional stage erected at the conclusion—a lighted-up chamber of carousal above, a dark dungeon with secret staircase below ; which was an absolute triumph of carpentry, though little serviceable to poetical illusion.
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