A PROPOSAL TO REMEDYPI iE LOVE OF CADENCES IN SINGERS.
THE Harmonicon, in allusion to Cadences, in the last number, exclaims justly, "How wonderful it is; that English singers will persevere in these abominations, and that the public will tolerate them, when they are driven out of every other part of Europe r' This is well and wisely put: to make the audiences, the encouragers of the offence, ashamed of themselves, is. a safer and quicker means of curing the evil, than to read lectures to the offenders. In regard to the latter, we beg leave to say, that a plan has suggested itself to us, to the prosecution Of which we can see no earthly objection. It is simply this, that the critics of the daily and weekly papers should, when an opera is given out, enter the house with a short carabine slung at their shoulders,—this, from its portable nature, might be easily used without incommoding any of the surrounding company in the .box when a singer enters upon the act of abomination, the critic should unsling his carabine, take aim at the offender, and fire. Harsh as this measure may seem, the influence of a few salutary examples would bring us back to a pure style. To prevent the interference or ill-timed clemency of the people sitting in the box with the critic, it would be necessary that he should carry a dagger also. In the case of young singers, we would advise that the muzzle shoukt be so pointed that the shot might rattle about the scenes without doing mischief ; or that they should be only slightly wounded. But with the old offenders it should be root and branch work. After two or three had ornamented an obituary, we should be enabled to go to the theatre unarmed. How delightful would it then be to hear the simple text of the composer ! What good-natured critiques would appear in the newspapers ! How certain we shouldethen be of quitting the theatre without disgust The contemplation of all these advantages opens somoble a field to our imagination, that the worthless lives of a few bad singers appear but as dust in the balance.
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