REGENT-STREET SONGS—LEE AND VESTRIS.
READERS may perhaps be startled by our saying, that, in certain situations of life, it is a fine thing to have a liaison with Madame VESTRIS. But, let us not be misunderstood—we speak of an en- gagement purely commercial. For instance, who doubts that Mr. ALEXANDER LEE, the singing composer and music-seller of Re- gent-street, is considerably obliged to Madame Vasrais for singing., his bad songs ? And who doubts that VEszais is considerably the richer for the mart in Regent-street, and consequently obliged to Mr. A. LEE for composing and music-selling ? At the great theatres, in addition to the dirty boys sent in to clap and encore by the music-seller, there are always the partisans of a favourite lady singer, a large proportion of natural fools, and innocent country gentlemen. The music-seller, by means of his myrmidons, and the lady by her squad of admirers, rule the house, and the te- diousness of encores is inflicted upon the hearer who does not wish to oppose, or rather who does not wish to hit out right and left in defence of his opinion. Sanguine as we are in the cause of a re- form in the taste of our theatrical music, it would not lead us to the encounter of six constables in the lobby—now to have our hopes dashed as we lay on our back, then to have them revive with a successfully planted body-blow. The principle of coalition be- tween parties who come before the public, and who humour it be- hind the curtain, may be a wise one for individual profit, but it has a sad effect upon public taste. Allusions of a certain kind in the words of songs, and something in the music to excite the stupid gape of the multitude, characterize a song which is destined to have a ran in Regent-street.
The daily papers state, that Mr. A. LEE is about to bring out an opera at Covent Garden Theatre. Unless Mr. A. LEE produces something very different from anything which we have yet seen of his manufacture, the stage taste will be in a fair way to relapse into that wretched style of music from which WEBER for some time rescued it. As Mr. Bisnor does not now write for the theatre, and none of those who do, know how to manage the orches- tra, to invent a good melody, to put a good bass, or have the slightest notion of musical design,—it would be a proper step in managers who are not the veriest mercenaries, to engage some re- spectable artist, like LOUIS MAURER for instance, to write an opera for them. At the meanest theatre in Paris or Vienna, our ears are not scandalized by the false progressions and blunders of all sorts that are heard in our great metropolitan houses. We cannot help laughing when we think, that besides the chorus-mas- ter and leader being employed to compose, the copyist occasionally assists. The lamp-lighter ought to take his turn.
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