MUSICAL GOSSIP.
It is at length settled that Covent Garden Theatre is to rise out of Its ashes, greater and more magnificent than ever. The Duke of Bedford
has leased to Mr. (lye an area including not only the site of the late theatre but a considerable space of additional ground. The theatre, it is said, will be more lofty and spacious in all its dimensions than before ; and the plan of the edifice includes a great concert-hall. The occupiers of tenements to be swept away to make room for the new building have already, we learn, received notice to quit. It is expected that the Royal Italian Opera will reopen in Covent Garden for the season 1258; for this season it will be domiciled in Drury Lane.
Another concert-hall on a large scale-St. James's Hall, between the Regent Quadrant and Piccadilly-is also in progress; a large area on it intended site having already been cleared of buildings. From all this it appears that London will soon have enough and to spare of accommodation for musical purposes.
The managers of the rival Italian Operas are understood to be busied in. preparations for the approaching season ; but little has transpired respecting their proceedings. Mr. Lumley, who is still in Italy, is said to have secured Madame Spezia, a isoprene, and Signor Giuglini, a tenor, both of high Continental fame. He of course reproduces Piceolomisi,, and also we believe Johanna Wagner. Mx. Gye will have Grisi, (whose retirement is no longer talked about,) Mario, and all the pnneipal members of his last year's company, with the immense addition of Lablaehe. Auber's Fra Diavolo is to be produced, with Mario as the hero. Auber is employed in composing recitatives for the Italian version of the dialogue. It is now announced by authority that the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace will be held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the 15th, 17th, and 19th of June. The oratorios to be performed are The Messiah, ludas Meteembreus, and Israel in Egypt. The Queen and Prince Albert have intimated them intention to be present at this great musical celebration.
The story of Liszt having turned monk is contradicted by his friend the well-known Juke Ionia, in a letter addressed to a Paris journal. Janin gives an astounding account of his friend's musical activity— "At this present moment he is writing the Milk, of a Legend of St. Elizabeth ; he is thinking over a symphony, entitled La Bataille des Musts'; he has just concluded ‘L'Idial,' in honour of Schiller. He is writing, also, a a legend, a cantata, ' The Sermon on the Mount,' an Oratorio, 'Christ,' and a.poem by Frederic Ruckert." " Certes," says Janin, "Liszt est un Fmncisetun mais un Franciscain de l'ordre de Beethoven !" Mereadante has just produced at Naples a now opera called Pelagio, this prolific composer's fifty-second work. It has been very successful, and is said to have much merit ; at all events, it will be a variety, and a relief from the eternal sameness of Verdi.
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