J 32 THE MUSICIAN ABOUT TOWN. 



grieving voice ; and therefore we should say that, although physi- 

 cally unequal to the high-flying, principal parts in the great style, 

 he will always be estimable in those of the gently pathetic class.- 



An illustration of the first paragraph in the present article oc- 

 curred on the night of Sig. Mario's debut ; showing the contemptu- 

 ous insolence with which the frequenters of this theatre are treated 

 by Mr. Laporte, who, throughout his management appears to have 

 an equal scorn of that principle in moral geometry, that " the short- 

 est distance between two given points is by a direct line." The 

 bills of performance announced that between the first and second 

 acts Madlie. Taglioni would dance a Polish dance, and after the se- 

 cond act a Russian dance, which would be succeeded by the ballet 

 of La Gitana." We had nothing but the ballet. No murmur — 

 no apology. The plebs in the pit and gallery were inert, and the 

 " genteel s" were delighted — they were '^deceived" — the distinction 

 w^as accurately preserved between their house and that low-lived 

 hole, Covent Garden, where the manager's word would have been 

 disgustingly fulfilled to the last letter. 



Covent Garden Theatre has again been the scene of a signal fai- 

 lure in the production of a new opera, adding one more confirma- 

 tion of the desideratum we have so frequently insisted upon, viz. 

 that in order to ensure success for an English opera, with an En- 

 glish audience, the drama itself must possess some interest in its 

 plot, and some common sense and grammatical construction in its dia- 

 logue. What the character of an Italian libretto may be, is of little 

 consequence ; it may triumph in absurdity, it may revel in dulness 

 and balderdash ; the audience care nothing about the story, they 

 require two or three arias, two or three duets, and a tantara-ra-rara 

 of a finale to each act. If the piece contain one or two melodies of 

 a popular character, it will prove the successful opera of the season. 

 But the case is different at our national theatres. There the audi- 

 ence look for something like dramatic incident, with respectability 

 (at all events) of diction. In both these important requisites, the 

 machinery of Mr. Rooke's opera of ^' Henrique, or the Love Pil- 

 grim," was deplorably deficient. The plot was so ingeniously in- 

 volved as to defy all attempts at a. solution of it : and the dialogue 

 and versification so vapid as to demand some mastery over the fa- 

 culties to knit them to the duty of attention. The consequence of 

 all this was, that " Henrique" was performed for the first time on 

 the 29th of April, and the last time on the 9th of May. It strug- 

 gled through four or five nights, and then faded into the cold re- 

 gions of oblivion. Mr. Rooke is in no other respect answerable for 



