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tivated the audience, that he established himself there at once as a favourite, and an engagement of two years was concluded with Merelli, the impresario. At the conclusion of this engagement, which proved as fortunate to the impresario as it was beneficial to our talented juvenile tenore, he sang with success at the principal theatres in Italy; when, upon receiving a letter from Mr. Beale, of the firm of Cramer, Beale, and Co., he revisited his native country. Mr. Beale, however, abandoned his speculation, and Mons. Jullien had the honour of presenting to the British public the best English tenor that has appeared for many years.

In 1848, he appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre, as Carlo in Linda di Chamouni, with Madame Tadolini as the protagonista, with whom he had previously performed at La Scala, Milan. In the autumn of this year he made a most successful tour in the provinces, and in September was engaged as principal tenor at the Norwich Festival, proving himself, there, master not only of the Italian school of singing, but equally successful-if not more so-in the sacred and secular writings of Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, &c. In October 1849, he made his re-appearance on the English stage at Covent Garden during Mr. Bunn's management, in his celebrated character of Elvino, in La Sonnambula, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm. On the sudden breaking up of this establishment, he was engaged, and sang through the winter season at all the oratorios given by the Sacred Harmonic Society, under the direction of Mr. Costa.

In the spring of 1849 he sang, with great success, at the Royal Italian Opera House, Covent Garden. At the close of the season, he performed the operas of Ernani, I Puritani, Lucia di Lammermoor, and La Sonnambula, in the provinces, and with preeminent success in Dublin,-where an extraordinary scene occurred, he being in the boxes as a spectator to witness the début of an Italian gentleman in the character of Edgardo, whose failure was so signal that the audience would not endure the attempt after the first scena : Mr. Reeves was discovered, and by the united voice of the audience, forced to appear upon the stage, and actually finished the part, amidst the enthusiastic cheers of the audience, although not then under any engagement with the managers.

During the present season Mr. Sims Reeves reappeared at Her Majesty's Theatre, in Verdi's opera, Ernani, when he achieved a triumph that will long be remembered.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

"The Opera," says a dramatic censor who dedicated his labours some eighty years ago to David Garrick, but whose name we have no inclination to revive, "the opera, serious or comic, but especially the former, is a species of the drama not at all defensible; it carries absurdity on its front, and absolutely puts nature out of countenance." This fact being established, it was natural that the critic should regard foreign operas with a peculiar horror; and, accordingly, he says that " Every man of real taste, feeling, and genius must be shocked

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at the predominance of those dear-bought, unessential exotics,-Italian Operas."

These notions were really held by a great many sensible, well-meaning people in Garrick's time, and still later; and even the accomplished Lord Chesterfield, although he did not go quite so far as to say that the Opera put nature out of countenance, was clearly of opinion that it was a palpable outrage upon common sense.

It is pleasant to look back from the elevated point we have reached in these matters upon the art-superstitions, if we may so call them, of our ancestors, who struggled as lustily against innovations and improvements in questions of taste as they did in questions of utility. If they had had their own way in these things, we should now have neither Italian Operas nor railroads, and the velocity of the electric telegraph would be represented by a sleepy post-boy with a leathern bag. But Mrs. Partington is gathered to her account, and her broom is broken.

If we could only call up David Garrick and Lord Chesterfield, and the critics of that day, and drop them in her Majesty's Theatre, we wonder what would be their impression of the sights and sounds that would be presented to their senses on the occasion ? Think of the wide and forlorn interval that has been spanned over by art since their time, and of the advance which in the meanwhile we have made upon the lyric stage. It would assuredly appear more astonishing to them than to see the streets lighted with gas, or caravans full of people flying over the tops of the houses at Bermondsey.

There is nothing more surprising in the way of progress than the height of excellence the Italian opera has attained within the last half century-an excellence which is developed in its most perfect forms this season at her Majesty's Theatre. To the mere attraction of melody and concerted music, expressed with sensibility and taste, have been added all the accessories requisite to bring out the passions and the action of the piece. An opera is no longer an incoherent patchwork of musical effects, but a drama of plot and character, in which the performers are not singers merely, but actors, and some of them great actors-Coletti and Lablache, for example. Criticism is no longer satisfied on the stage with the attainments that delight us in the concert-room; much more is required to fulfil the demands of the theatre-passionate utterance, dramatic power, feeling, energy and judgment. To render the illusion more complete, the scene is dressed with a scrupulous attention to historical propriety, and pictorial art supplies a back-ground, that realizes, as far as art can realize, the last exaction of a cultivated and pampered taste.

The performances at Her Majesty's Theatre, this season, may be referred to in illustration of the justice of these remarks. The combination of talent collected within the walls of that house, which still retains a supremacy worthy of its traditions, has enabled the management to produce an ensemble beyond which it would be difficult to imagine the achievement of greater triumphs. In the Marriage of Figaro, for instance, sustained by Sontag, Parodi and Miss Hayes, Lablache, Belletti, Coletti and Calzolari, if Mozart had been present, he must have acknowledged that the soul of his music was never more spiritually drawn out, or its characterization more accurately preserved. The Don Giovanni deserves equal commendation. In this opera, Sontag shows a wonderful facility of adaptation to the demands of a

composer who is generally found to be too pure and classical for that modern school, in which the singer considers it less his business to interpret the music than to display his voice. There were no excesses of that kind apparent in this performance, which was everywhere pervaded by grace, beauty, and unity. The Leporello of Lablache has exhausted the admiration of successive seasons; and every person in the opera played up to him with great gusto and animation. Parodi, whose Donna Anna is one of her best parts, has acquired, since last season, encreased tone and decision, and become an important feature in the cast of all the operas in which she appears. In such parts as Elvira, Guiliani is a valuable acquisition to the theatre; and the sweet and delicate tone of Calzolari, so touching and pathetic in expression, is rapidly gaining the strength and soundness necessary for the great area to which it is addressed. Il Barbiere should not be dropped out of the catalogue of great successes at this house. Rosina is obviously a part as admirably adapted to Sontag's peculiar excellencies as if it had been expressly composed for her. But the vocalization transcends all expectation, and discovers at each repetition new varieties of skill and taste, which take her greatest admirers by surprise. Here, too, Lablache is again supreme in the old doctor, an impersonation which divides our wonder between the rich and spontaneous humour of the acting, and the artistical mastery of the fluent music. Belletti's Figaro is excellent; and the Almaviva of Calzolari shows considerable improvement in voice and style.

We have never placed much faith in the lamentations that have been raised from one age to another about the neglect of native talent -especially in the department of Opera. We believe that talentif it be true and genuine talent-will always find ample patronage under whatever sky or circumstances it shows itself; and we do not believe that Italian singers are fostered in this country because they happen to be Italians, but because they happen to be artists. The suc cess of Miss Hayes and Mr. Sims Reeves is a proof that really no such prejudice exists where there is enough of merit to justify public support. This in truth, is all that is wanted to secure to native talent the same measure of reward that is so liberally bestowed upon foreigners. If native talent would think less of its nativity, and more of its art, there is no doubt, supposing our climate could produce voices as soft and flexible as the South, that there would be no lack of recognition, but, on the contrary, much pride and exultation over the discovery.

The Cherubino and the Lucia of Miss Hayes have abundantly established the claims of that lady to take her place in the first rank of vocalists on the Italian Opera stage; and Mr. Sims Reeves, in Edgardo and Ernani, has been so favourably received that he, at least, will have no occasion in future to complain of the indifference of his countrymen.

Of the several débutants of the season, Signor Bancardi made the most decisive impression. His rich and powerful voice, remarkable alike for tenderness and strength, promises important aid in the great works which are said to be in preparation at this house.

The ballet, in which so many attractions are united to flatter the senses and enchant the imagination, has derived additional interest this season from the début of Mademoiselle Ferraris, a young Neapolitan dancer, who, in the very opening of her first pas, won the heart of the spectators. There is sometimes an instinct in dancing, which, lifting

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