244 
MUSIC AT HOME. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 18'J‘J. 
anything- ever attained by the potter’s art ; and it would he 
difficult indeed to imagine it other than a piece of sculp- 
ture. A longitudinal plaque or tablet, about 20 inches 
in length, containing a complex group of figures in 
bas-relief, was also one of the distinguishing items. 
The design represents the burial of a Roman soldier ; 
and the work derives additional value from the fidelity 
with which the arms, dresses, and insignia have been 
studied. The dead soldier is borne in the arms of his 
comrades, under the command of a centurion ; and it is 
not impossible that the antique design, from which the 
Wedgwood plate has been copied, served as a model or 
suggestion for the medimval painters. The execution of the 
very elaborate minutiae of drapery, of the various heads, the 
armour, the arabesques of the shields, breast-plates, 
helmets, &c., is exceedingly fine, and in the best taste that 
the ceramic art may attain. Among the other busts were 
those of Voltaire and Rousseau, Locke, Grotius, Epicurus 
(life size), Spenser, Bacon, Ben Jonson, and Cicero. The 
white and blue ware included medallions of varying shape 
and design, and a vast number of oviform and other vases, 
among them some of the famous pattern which has satyr- 
shaped handles and is ornamented with classic medallions 
and festoons of flowers. 
Some of the medallions, white on blue ground, were remark- 
able as being portraits of men celebrated in their day, but 
whose names have almost dropped into oblivion. Among 
these were the mad sailor-lord, Lord Camelford, who 
was killed in a duel early in the century ; Philip Egalite, 
the hero and victim of the French Revolution and friend of 
Cagliostro ; Sir W. Hamilton; Warren Hastings, &c. The 
miscellaneous items of art and bijouterie comprehended 
ivories, camei, Poniatowski gems, Gris de Flandres ware, 
Sevres china, antique porcelain, and some few bronzes ; 
but neither of these were exceptionally remarkable for 
quality or taste. 
MUSIC A 
1 JHE operatic swan at Her Majesty’s Theatre is an 
unconscionable time dying-. Formerly the Italians 
came in with the easterly winds of March and April, and 
went out when sturdy August reapers commenced bending 
to their work in a thousand English corn-fields. We have 
changed all that, and the march of musical intellect ignores 
precedent as completely as it despises conventionality. The 
song-birds of Southern Europe are no longer in the majority, 
nor do they herald the summer, but, together with the mixed 
nationalities of Germany, France, and England, warble their 
griefs and declaim their revenge while the autumnal equi- 
noctials are howling round the coasts. As for the laws and 
customs regulating the beginning and end of opera seasons, 
one may consider them overturned by the Maplesonian lever, 
for a delightful uncertainty now prevails regarding “ last 
nights.” Credulous people doubtless imagined they had 
seen the final bouquet of 1866 thrown on August the 18th; 
but that cry of exultation peculiar to Christmas time, “Here 
we are again,” might well be sung in sonorous unison by the 
vocal strength of the company again assembled in the lyric 
theatre. Mr. Mapleson has, within a few weeks, made two 
bold moves upon the chequered board occupied by himself 
and his amiable brother manager of Covent Garden. In 
the first place, the giant Tradition is overthrown, for, con- 
temporary with the waning November festival of Guy 
Fawkes, and that kindred but more elaborate exhibition, 
the Lord Mayor’s show, we have Italian opera. The re- 
maining achievement is the destruction of the proscenium 
boxes, which genteel apartments were “ cells” in more than 
one sense. From them suffering humanity could see little 
more than the crowns of the singers’ heads, and could hear 
but imperfectly at the best. Stage room is an object now- 
adays, and though the largest horse-shoe in Europe may 
have lost something of its proportions, Mr. Telbin will 
bless the day that saw the last of these boxes. Speaking in 
carpentering phraseology, the proscenium is by no means 
“ square.” The sides lean outwards; but that was entirely 
unavoidable, and is, after all, a matter of small moment 
compared with the advantage gained. The autumn “ fare- 
wells ” were inaugurated on November 3rd, by a per- 
formance of Gounod’s Faust, with its Mephistophelian 
miracles of sword-breaking and flaming wine ; its grand point 
when Valentine and his friends scare the malicious fiend with 
their cross-liilted weapons; its tremulous and passionate love 
scene ; the piteous wailings of despair, which follow when 
Marguerite tries to pray before the church ; and her burst of 
devotion as the curtain falls. Mdlle. Titiens, wearer of the 
lyric crown, and chief pillar of the state wherever she 
appears, cannot look the tender girlish Marguerite according 
to Retsch’s, or any other artist’s outlines, but she can read 
the character and sing the music to absolute perfection. A 
slight-figured supple girl of fifteen or sixteen would, as 
regards personal appearance, realize Shakespeare’s Juliet 
T HOME. 
better than a full-grown woman of riper years ; but put 
blooming adolescence into the character, and what becomes 
of the poet’s language ? In the musical, as in the ordinary 
drama, the rule holds good that time alone can give the 
experience necessary for the perfect rendering of this or 
that heroine. Under this dispensation, we must be content 
very rarely to enjoy instances of complete and thorough 
dramatic illusion. Mdlle. Titiens is, in her way, a genius as 
far superior to the generality of prime donne as Mont Blanc 
is higher than Shooter’s Hill. 
A superb voice is an excellent thing in woman, and when 
allied to an intellect which can grasp the full meaning of 
such composers as Beethoven, Mozart, Gliick, Cherubini, 
and others, the effect becomes doubly impressive. This is 
precisely what Mdlle. Titiens can do. She can discover and 
appreciate the grandeur of such parts as Leonora, Donna 
Anna, Iphigenia, and, last, but far from least, Medea ; and 
she is blessed with a physical strength which enables her to 
realize them with a force oftentimes terrible and over- 
whelming. 
Versatility is an attribute of all true artists, and the 
great Hungarian’s claim to this distinction is beyond all 
dispute. Those who have seen the tiger-like ferocity of her 
Medea, and the pleading- tenderness of the gentle Marguerite, 
will assuredly acknowledge Mdlle. Titiens’ power in delinea- 
ting- exactly opposite tones of feeling. The prima donna, 
now the mainstay of Her Majesty’s Theatre, has attained 
the highest position in the operatic world ; and none but an 
artist of the noblest acquirements could have stepped, with 
such an increase of fame, from Verdi’s to Beethoven’s 
Leonora, or from Flotow’s Lady Enrichetta to Mozart’s 
Donna Anna. 
Even as the English Mrs. and Miss are exchanged for 
Madame and Mdlle., so the Farisian, when he reaches the 
capital of the shopkeeping nation, forswears his proper 
prefix, and calls himself Signor. A certain noble duke, when 
his parish clergyman invited him to “pray for rain,” 
assented to the proposition, but added, “ It’s no use, though, 
while the wind is in this quarter.” In like manner let M. 
Morin, the original Faust of the Lyrique, by all means re- 
christen himself Signor Morini ; “ though it’sno use,” while 
his style is so thoroughly and intensely French. We have 
had better representatives of the revivified Doctor in un- 
musical England ; nevertheless the new tenor is an acquisi- 
tion to the theatre. His voice is powerful, and his intona- 
tion true. A tenore robusto is seldom more than respectable 
in sentimental passages, and Signor Morini is no exception 
to the rule. He hurls defiance at operatic oppressors better 
than he makes love ; in point of fact, “ Diquella pira,” and 
similar specimens of vocal energy, are evidently more in his 
way than songs of such rapturous tenderness as “ Salve ! 
Dinorah.” This may not bo the opinion of the “lively” 
Parisians ; but it will probably bo the conclusion arrived at 
