326 Theatrical Review. 



have made it highly attractive, while in the hands of Blasis it lost 

 much of its effect from the causes we have above stated. 



Catone played the " Marquis," and sung, as he always does, with 

 exquisite taste and sweetness. His song 



" Ove eredea di porgere 

 Conforto ai mali miei" 



gave the most unmixed delight to the audience, as also in the duet 

 with Blasis, 



" Ma verra, verra il momento." 



There is a simplicity and elegance about his style which is delicious 

 to'the ear after being accustomed to the over-wrought cadences of 

 Rubini, which almost cloy with an excess of sweets. We long to 

 hear him in Mozart. He would give 



" II raio tesoro" t 



to perfection 1 . 



Miss Fanny Wyndham appeared in petticoats as the old " Count- 

 ess/' and did what little she had to do exceedingly well, though a 

 remarkably fine young woman is by no means a fitting representa- 

 tive in person of a motherly dame of fifty. The parts of '* Rosen- 

 berg" and "Michel" were filled by Signers Torri and Ruggicro. 



January 31*/. A comedietta, adapted from the French vaudeville 

 of" Michel and Christine," with music by M. Benedict, was played 

 in England for the first time on this night, and we are free to confess 

 that we should have felt no regret had it never been played at all. 

 "With the plot no doubt many of our readers are familiar, but for the 

 information of such as have not seen the French original we will de- 

 tail the few ineidents of the operetta. " Eliza's" old lover has left 

 her for the army, promising to return in a year and a day to claim 

 her hand. Meanwhile, with more than woman's fickleness she be- 

 comes attached to a handsome young peasant, and on the completion 

 of the period of her probation, her warrior not having arrived, she 

 joyfully consents to marry her new inamorato. The unexpected 

 entr&e of " Lorenzo' 5 causes some confusion and distress to the silly 

 couple, until, perceiving the state of her affections, he generously 

 foregoes his right, presents them with all his fortune as a dowry, and 

 returns to the perils and excitement of a soldier's life. 



In the original piece the plot went for nothing ; all depended on the 

 acting and peculiar nature of the characters. A Frenchwoman has ac- 

 quired by established custom the right to be fickle, and the French mi- 

 litaire is an animal as much sui generis as our English sailor. Then 

 the parts of " Stanislas," the soldier, and " Michel,*' the country boy, 

 were written for Gontier and Perlet, and those who have seen them at 



young songstress that, on her refusal to listen to his addresses, he tried to destroy him- 

 self. Moved by such a strong mark df devotion, she consented to an union; but mar- 

 riage soon turned the honey into gall, and in a paroxysm ef jealousy he attempted her 

 life a* he had before his own. This was a mode of displaying his affection by no means 

 pleasant to the lady, who forthwith separated herself from the bed and board of so fero- 

 cions can admirer. Her income being considerably affected by this change, she found 

 it necessary) to adopt a profession of which we are confident she is destined to become 

 one of the brightest ornaments. 



