Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

but for the Epsom event I consider his chance as remote as remote can be. I would rather put my money on his stable companion, Seaport, and his chance is almost hopeless. After Seaport's defeat at Bath, I was informed that he would not be stripped for the Derby race, but be kept for the Great Ascot Produce Stakes of 100 sovs. each (29 subscribers), for which race there is a very poor field. Isaac Day is one of the best judges of racing, in all its branches, that we have now on the turf.

And now I have brought my remarks to a close, and in these anticipating days must conclude by observing that I expect Leander to beat every horse in the race for the Derby; that Ratan will run well, with his companion, the Ugly Buck; and that Imaum, if an outsider does the business, will be the "A one."

White Hart,

Newmarket, April 27th.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS OF THE METROPOLIS.

"Thus song could prevail

O'er death and o'er hell,

A conquest how hard and how glorious!
Though fate had fast bound her

With Styx nine times round her,
Yet music and love were victorious."

POPE.

"My lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you!-SHAKESPERE.

The termination of Lent shed its seriousness over the first week of the month that has just joined company with its departed fellows of the early year. Another week was given to the holiday folk, whose practice squared with that of Crashaw's good man

"Sermons he heard, yet not so many

As left no time to practice any."

And then, the season, the mad and yet systemised season of fashion, par excellence, commenced its running upon oiled castors towards the goal of pleasure, wherever that may be, for the stakes of health, or purse, or daylight, according to the constitution and capacity of the individuals composing this far-famed London season; however they may class themselves as louts, lords, or lions.

According, then, to our programme, we had, first, oratorios and great doings (honoured by the performance of Duprez) [at Exeter Hall; Concerts of the Philharmonic, and exhibitions everywhere, to

combine with, and to soften the seriousness of the springtide fast. Some there are who deem

"There's nothing serious in mortality,
All is but toys."

These delight not in lenten entertainment; it is not so with ourselves. There is a time for everything done under the sun; and it would go hard with a man could he not find gravity enough in the most mirthful entertainment for a Yorick to ponder over, and mirth enough in the dimmest day ever past within the bills of London mortality (did he but seek for it), to give occasion to a hearty guffaw of laughter by way of stretch to his cachinnatory muscles.

The productions of the artists (our own English artists, who seem destined to bring about a second age, only inferior in glory to the Medician) so fast follow they the golden rule of enthusiastic perseverance in the way they should go, were the chief themes of attention (after the fashionable preachers) during the last month. We will speak of them more fully next month, as well as of the new exhibitions now opening to the lounging or the scientific, two variously modified classes, which, however distinct, are almost equally ardent in the pursuit of novelty. The Philharmonic and the Ancient Concerts are earning the best suffrage of the musical world. They are both well attended and well sustained. The Philharmonic Society, which appeared at one time waning in vigorous effort, is now as successful, if not more so, in the production of excellent programmes, to concert lovers, as at any period of its establishment. The second concert of the present season was distinguished by Herr Ernst's extraordinary performances on the violin, and the re-appearance of Moschelles as a solo performer.

The ITALIAN OPERA HOUSE, now the great centre of attraction, never before conjoined so starry a field of excellencies of the surperlative degree. Persiani's sweet notes delighted the early visitant to the foreign shrine of music; Favanti surprised the applause of those who delight in a fine organ and an original style; Grisi re-appeared, at once to assert and obtain her supremacy of skill and voice over all rivals; and to wholly satisfy even the most difficult, the extra fastidious in sound, action, and effect. Pasta excepted, Grisi's Semiramide is, in our opinion, the best of modern days; while her voice, person, and acting are decidedly improved. The touch of hardness in her upper notes that was wont, erstwhile, to mar in some measure the sensation she produced, disappears entirely in the present fulness and richness of her intonation. One great cause of the failure of some of the most eminent artists, both native and foreign, we take to be the high pitch of modern music. Mozart sought not to astonish, he allowed the natural flexibility of the human voice to fix the limits of its compass. Rossini, Donizetti, and others, stretch the capable organ farther and higher than melody can ascend; thence follows a strain, a crack, a dis-accord, a wear-and-tear of the voice; thence such a singer even as Duprez is harsh, and such an organ as Favanti's, untuneable: thence it follows that those not endowed like Grisi, or like Pasta, with health and lungs to match their voices, die like Malibran of ex

haustion, or live like others of undoubted talent, striving against the sense of unmerited failure, and against nature, to elicit that applause from astonishment, which should alone be drawn down by the pleasing and the beautiful. We look upon this as a grave matter of censure upon the eminent composers of the day; and we hope that a maturer reflection on the delightful science they diffuse, will gradually tend towards the objurgation of surprising effects in vocal music, as considering such symptomatic of bad taste. Mario, Corelli, Fornasari, Lablache, make up a quartett of infinite delectibility. In fact, the ITALIAN OPERA this year is one of most melodious promise for the whole season; Lablache is in distinguished force; Fornasari is not quite as we remember him; Mario ever pleases; Corelli is indifferent good. The ballet of "Les Wilis," in which Carlotta Grisi with "the graces seems to play and sport,' and in her part of Giselle, with a "Will o' the Wisp" fairy-like lightness and airiness of step, converts into a charming entertainment a somewhat "heavy vanity," shares with the Esmeralda the public favour. As we were looking upon the group of Wilis the other evening, Spenser's beautiful description of the impromptu ballet, in which the Knight Calidore discovers the nymphs of Venus engaged, rose to our recollection.

"There he did see that pleased much his sight,
That even he himself his eyes envyed;
An hundred naked maidens lily white,

All raunged in a ring, and dauncing in delight.

All they without were raunged in a ring

And daunced round; but in the midst of them

Three other ladies did both daunce and sing,

The whilest the rest them round about did hemme.

And like a girlond did in compass stemme,

And in the middest of those same there was placed

Another damsell, as a precious gemme

Amidst a ring most richly well enchaced,

That with her goodly presence all the rest much graced."

The FRENCH THEATRE possessed Madame Albert as the star of the month. The dance of the Polka, on what was said to be the last night of her engagement was a pleasant innovation on the rules of the domesticoromantic drama, indigenous to the modern French stage. We hear everywhere warmly commended the taste and combinative power of the lessee of this little serre chaude of elegance and comfort. As for the tableaux vivans of the fashions in which the parisian actresses indulge, we can only say that the "Petit Courrier des Dames," "Les Grandes," or "Les Petites Modes," are not to be compared in instruction to them, and we fully expect to hear of a deputation of the heads of the feminine tribe of the Thimble laying at the feet of Mr. Mitchell a magnificent subscription, as a testimonial of the benefit his house confers on the trade in general.

DRURY LANE has been very great this month; the Easter ballet introduced Mademoiselle Grahn to the English public, whose slow and measured pas and attitudes are critically fine, and infinitely better than her quicker movements. Clara Webster no whit falsifies her early promise in this ballet. Benedict's opera of The Brides of

Venice also succeeded last month at this theatre; the music is full of power and "linked sweetness long drawn out," and Mrs. Alfred Shaw's purity of intonation and classical style leaves no room for carping remark.

At the PRINCESS'S THEATRE, the fairy tale of "Cherry and Fair Star," was the staple Easter entertainment; and very pretty it is, especially the scenery. The "Sonnambula" is still well supported there by Mr. Allen's charming voice. This gentleman is another proof of the justice of the remark made above against the extravagantly high pitch of modern music. Mr. Allen can take all the reasonably pitched notes of his parts; he only fails where wonders are strained for; the consequence is a semblance of want of power, which is scarcely the

fact.

The LYCEUM THEATRE'S Easter piece, "Open Sesame," is as amusing as the original on which our childhood delighted-the Forty Thieves." Keeley's helplessly comic appearance in the burlesque dance-styled in the programme "The pas de Tambourine and Carving-knife" should draw well, for it is the perfection of the absurdly ludicrous. His quiet drollery is seen to the greatest advantage when, as at this theatre, he acts with his wife; her clever sprightliness chiming in with his drawled-out humour, and carrying it well off. We are glad to see this house in a fair way towards prosperity.

Herr Döbler's "Natural Magic" is one of the most amusing exhibitions of the season; the effects he produces are, in many instances, to the uninitiated, unnaturally diabolic. The SURREY, STRAND, and ADELPHI THEATRES are all in full vogue. The SURREY is a field of entertainment, and a field so attractive, as to fill to overflowing, every night of the season, pit, galleries, and boxes.

The Royal Amphitheatre of ASTLEY'S, from one of the most incommodious, has become one of the most commodious theatres of London. In every respect its interior, decorations, and distribution, are well designed and carried out; and we prophesy a successful and improving exchequer receipt in consequence: the performances were always, of their class, excellent. Thus-without recapitulating the feats of the mighty General Tom Thuml in courtly precincts, or the novelties of the POLYTECHNIC and ADELAIDE GALLERIES, or the yet more interesting artists' exhibitions of the year-we have dwelt briefly on the pleasure-resources of the great capital in a spirit not altogether free from analysis, but desirous of extracting good from every material thrown into its vast laboratory.

MONTHLY MISCELLANY.

THE LATE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS' HOUNDS.-We have great satisfaction in announcing to the lovers of the chase, in Derbyshire and the adjoining counties, that Sir Seymour Blane, Bart., and John Storey, Esq., have spiritedly undertaken to hunt these hounds next

season; and we feel assured that two gentlemen better qualified to take the management of hounds, or who would be more earnest in their endeavours to show sport, could not readily have been met with. The Pytchley and Atherstone Hounds are at the present time without masters to manage them. Colonel Lowther has been talked of for the former; and Mr. Smith, who lately hunted the Pytchley, for the latter. Two more practical men cannot be easily found: the latter will, we hear, have the support of every real sportsman, to whom sport alone is the object. Mr. Applewaite has sold his splendid pack to the gentlemen of the hunt; and his stud of horses, thirty in number, will be brought to the hammer on Monday, the 6th of this month, at Hyde Park-corner.

The sale of hunters belonging to R. Evans, Esq., of Pendeford Hall, took place about the middle of last month, and was attended by many gentlemen from all parts of the kingdom. The following are the lots, prices, and buyers:

96 guineas.

Bk. g. Sambo...

Gr.

g. Marble

133

[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Duke of Cleveland. Duke of Beaufort. Mr. Davenport, master of the North Staffordshire H. SMr. Hawkins, Birmingham. Mr. Harvey, Liverpool.

Otter-hunting is becoming very popular in the county of Durham, as a pack is now being formed by Captain Philips and Mr. Searth, son of the agent of his Grace the Duke of Cleveland.

The members of the Winslow Hunt gave a public dinner to Wm. Selby Lowndes, Esq., the master of the foxhounds (which he started and supported entirely at his own expense), on the 29th of last month. The whole, we trust-for we write without the particulars before us— went off with effect: a good wind-up to a capital season.

FOX-HUNTING AT HOME.-Captain Longford appears to have made an excellent M. F., his pack, "The Chesterfield," having shown both natives and foreigners many good runs. In conjunction with Lord Powerscourt, Lord Brabazon, and, indeed, the majority of the Roman nobles, subscriptions have been entered up for continuing as usual at two days a week. Captain Longford has also taken effective measures for having the country well stopped; and by his exertions the best feeling has been kept up between the farmers of the Campagna and the members of the hunt. A paper is now in the course of signature, by all the chief landed proprietors, expressing their approval of the hunt, and giving it every facility. Floreut scientia, all the world over.

A limited reduction in the royal stud, comprising some of her Majesty's valuable saddle-horses, which, it is said, are to be sold, is likely to take place shortly.

DANGEROUS AMUSEMENT.-A man named Millwood has been committed for trial for discharging a fowling-piece, loaded with ball, in the Hackney marshes, as he said, for the purpose of trying the

« AnteriorContinuar »