198 Theatrical Matters. FEB.] 



this point. He is, on the whole, we think, very well circumstanced at the 

 Portsmouth distance from town. 



" Robert, the Devil/' a melodrame with more than an usual proportion of 

 songs, we are told, is to be brought forward rapidly at Covent Garden. 

 Duruset, always a very agreeable and popular singer and performer Keeley, 

 a dry humourist and Miss Cawse, a pretty and piquant one, are to have the 

 principal characters. The Gazza Ladra is to be brought out at the theatre, 

 turned into English. The plot (the Maid and the Magpie) is abominably 

 tedious and childish, but the music is frequently pretty, and we hope it will 

 succeed better than those importations in general. But there are fifty operas 

 of Rossini, worth fifty of it. Why will not managers lay their hands on 

 some of them ? 



Miss Jarman is gone to Edinburgh ; peace be with her. She is said to be 

 greatly admired by the f modern Athenians :' joy be with them ! They may 

 keep the lady as long as they please. She has some theatrical faculties, but 

 Nature has denied her others, without which the stage says to the host of its 

 debutantes, " Come like shadows, so depart." 



The French comedians at the Lyceum, threaten to take the field in great 

 force ; they have already announced their Staff with due magniloquence. The 

 actors engaged are M. Portier, for two months; M. Chacon, comedian, of 

 the Bourdeaux Theatre ; M. Belford, pere noble, of the Marseilles Theatre ; 

 M. St. Aubin, premier amoureux, of the Lille Theatre ; M. Felix, second amou~ 

 reux, from Bordeaux ; Mad. Dumorit, first Duenna, from Bordeaux ; Mad. 

 Baudin, second ditto, from Nantes; Mad.Caussin, premiere chanteuse, of Stras- 

 burg; Mdlle. Florville, of the Lyons Theatre; Mad. Beavois, seconde amoureuse, 

 of the Metz Theatre; Mdlle. Jrma, of the Theatre Vaudeville, Paris; and 

 Mdlle. Anais, Mesds. St. Ange and Beaupre are also engaged, with several 

 other artistes from that capital. Mdlles. Jenny Colon, Leontine Fay, and 

 Bernard Leon, are expected in the course of the season. Laporte, Pelissie, 

 and Cloup, are the directors. To these people we have no objection. They 

 play pretty Vaudevilles ; play them tolerably well, and are not paid intolerable 

 salaries. The case is different, and shamefully different with the Italian Opera. 

 There a woman, with whom no decent person ought to sit dawn in company, 

 carries off half a dozen thousand pounds in half a dozen months, on the simple 

 strength of her solfaing. Such is Noble patronage, while not merely the native 

 theatre is deserted by them ; but demands of a more important nature than 

 those of theatres are urging them on every side. The money paid for this 

 childish and unnational indulgence amounts to not less than 50,000/ a-year, 

 the half of which would relieve the national theatres from all embarrassment, 

 encourage the arts, stimulate dramatic authorship into a sudden life that might 

 give us a second Shakspeare, and provide for the popular mind the most intel- 

 lectual of all amusements. Yet all this enormous sum goes into the hands of 

 a little knot of signors and signoras, of whose lives, here or elsewhere, the 

 anecdotes are sufficiently public to leave no kind of doubt on the deserts of 

 the individual. If our nobility had the spirit or common sense of English 

 gentlemen about them, they would send back the whole tribe to wallow in their 

 native Italian sty, and make their purgation with the Pope and Cardinals. 



Laporte is actively engaged in preparations for the opening of the Italian 

 Opera, which will shortly take place, many of the artistes engaged being 

 immediately expected in London. Donzelli, Curioni, Santini, Ambrogi, ami 

 Lablache, are among the number, as well as Mesdames Blasis and Lalande, 

 Castelli, and one or two third-rates. Gosselin, Charles and Ronzi Vestris, 

 and Mdlle. Brocard, are engaged for the ballet ; Mdlle. Taglioni will also add 

 to its importance in the course of the season. Deshayes will have the direc- 

 tion of the dances. t( La Gazza Ladra" is spoken of as the opera intended for 

 the opening, in which Santini and Ambrogi will make their debut. Some new 

 operas are in preparation, amongst them Pacini's L'Arabe nelle Gallie" stands 

 most prominent. Bochsa will, we believe, again have the direction of the 

 music. We expect to hear of the engagement of some other donnas, as the 

 Opera at present seems very deficient in them. This list, however, shows con- 



