gait.
THE production of Verdi's new opera, Un Ballo in Haschera, at the Royal Italian Opera, has taken place so late in the week (Thurs- day evening) that for the present we can merely record the fact; adding that the opera has been got up with great completeness and splendour, was admirably performed, the principal characters being sustained by Mario, Madame Penco, Grazutni, Madame Didiee, and Madame Carvalho, and was received by a crowded audience with every demonstration of favour. The concert of the Philharmonic Society on Monday last has been, par excellence, the musical entertainment of the week. It terminated the Society's forty-ninth season, and showed this distinguished body, in its "green old age" of half a century, in all the strength and vigour of its early days. It is announced that next year the Society's fiftieth anniversary will be celebrated, as a jubilee, by a grand per- formance of the colossal works written expressly for the Society b7 Beethoven, Spohr, Mendelssohn, and other great composers ; and it is added that Professor Sterndale Bennett has kindly consented to compose an appropriate work to be performed on that occasion. This announcement will excite great and general interest, for the Philharmonic Society of London has long been renowned throughout Europe. At this concert " the observed of all observers" was the veteran Moscheles, who, happening to be on a visit to his friends in London, was induced to appear once more before the public in the arena of his former triumphs. He performed his celebrated concerto in G minor, betraying perhaps, on the verge of threescore and ten, some small diminution of physical strength, but no decay of the fire, vigour, and high artistic qualities which have given him his lofty seat on the musical Parnassus. The reappearance of the illustrious old man caused a scene of high excitement, the audience (including a host of artistic celebrities) indulging in vehement demonstrations of pleasure and admiration. The other great pieces were Haydn's charming old symphony called "La Reine de France," Beethoven's gigantic symphony in C minor, the same composer's violin concerto exquisitely played by Herr Straus, and Weber's Jubilee Overture. The vocal performers were Signor Guerrabella, who made so favour- able a debut at the previous concert ; Mr. Tennant, our young and rising tenor; and Signor Steller, and Italian baritone of much merit, ecently arrived in London. The concert fever, which has raged this season with extraordinary violence, seems to have nearly died out, and it is time. There has been one benefit concert this week, which must not be confounded with the multitude of trivial things of this class; we allude to Mr. Benedict's annual concert at St. James's Hall on Monday last—an entertainment distinguished for the magnificent scale on which it was got up, the amount of first-rate talent employed, the taste and judg- ment shown in the selection of the music, and the vast and brilliant assemblage who filled every part of the hall. The principal and most attractive feature of the concert was Mr. Benedict's own beautiful cantata, Uselisie, exquisitely sung by Mlle. Titiens, Madame Dolby, Mr. Sims Reeves, and M. Weiss—a work which, had lie never written anything else, would have entitled him to a place among the first composers of the age.
It is currently reported in musical circles, that an "English Opera" is to be established in London in the form of a Joint-Stock Company on the "Limited. Liability" principle, and that many persons of in- fluence in the musical profession have signified their intention of joining in the enterprise. If there is any truth in the report, we would humbly advise the persons interested in the matter to beware of what they do. We have seen, in our time, many theatrical com- monwealths, but not one that has thriven; and of all such specula- tions that of a Joint-Stock Opera-house may be regarded as the least promising. The conflicting interests, jealousies, heart-burnings, and collisions among composers, performers, and music-publishers, ine- vitably generated from such a combination, would render successful co-operation next to impossible. Madame Jenny Lind Goldschmidt has signified her intention to sing at a concert for the benefit of the Society of Female Artists, at the Earl of Dudley's residence on Tuesday morning next. But the great pleasure of hearing once more the notes of the Swedish Nightingale (which are said to be as sweet as ever) will be both costly and exclusive : for it is intimated that " vouchers will be ex- changed for tickets, price one guinea each," at Mr. Mitchell's library in Bond-street.
Mario is engaged at the Thatre Italien for next season. At the approaching Musical Festival at Nuremberg, four thousand four hundred singers are to assemble, drawn from a hundred and sixty different places. Some of them will come from great distances ; for instance, from Kiel in Denmark, and Presbnrg in Hungary. We greatly doubt, however, whether the present growing rage for monster gatherings, the origin of which may perhaps be traced to our Crystal Palace, is at all conducive to the real progress of music. During the last opera season at Rotterdam, Beethoven's Fidelio was performed sixteen limes, and the season terminated with Mozart's Kozre di Figaro. Verily the Dutch taste in music seems to be better than ours.
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