The largest theatre, however crowded, cannot be more than full,
and full houses may be drawn by very different amounts of attraction. But a succession of full houses night after night, the last as full as the first, have testified to Mademoiselle Piceolomini's unabated attraction in the Traviata ; and it is in the full current of its success that she has now varied the:pleasure of the public by appearing in a new character. This she did on Thursday night, and with such success that the Figlia del Beggintento will in all likelihood supersede the Traviata at Het Majesty's Theatre for the rest of the season.
Maria is a charming character for Mademoiselle Piocolomini. It has-all the grace, spirit, and girlish gayety combined with womanly feeling, which this young actress so eminently possesses. It brings out; too,- that remarkable French tournure which struck us from the first, and which now gives such a zest to her representation of a character so thoroughly. national as a vivandiere of the grande armee. The sight of Piecolomini allvays brings the Boulevards before our mind's eye ; and the other night we almost' imagined ourselves sitting in the Opera Contique, applauding , a reigning favourite of the day. She 'especially reminds us of Ugalde in I her youthful prime, when she was the idol of the Parisian public. She resembles Ugalde in her buoyant lightness, her seemingly unstudied Vivacity, her manner of singing, and even the sound'of her voice. And all this though she is an Italiam and has, we are told, scarcely if ever been in Paris_ Nature itself seems to have made her, in some respects, a Frenchwoman, As an artist, she yet falls short of the accomplished singer just mentioned ; but she has a fascination quite peculiar to her- self—the ingenuous innocence-expressed by her every look and gesture. She- made -us feel, more than we ever did before, the really fine concep- tion of the character—the simple child of nature so rudely nurtured, the fragile flower growing so sweetly' in so rugged '-a soil. There is some- thing in the poor girl's very weakness-and helplessness which is exceed- ingly affecting, and gives a new and serious- interest to her situation, scarcely awakened even by the delightful performance of Jenny 'Lind. Her singing in this opera is much better than in La Traviam,probably owing to the superiority of the music. But here also her singingis thrown into the background-by the charms of her appearance, her grace, and her ac Ong.
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