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"stand all apart!" Mr. Young clung to this resolve-and abandoned Covent-garden. He is now at Drurylane, playing the Chief Tragedian in Mr. Kean's absence, and dividing the town with the new gilt pillars. We should be glad to know whether any one else, besides Mr. Young, thinks Mr. Young is half so good a performer as Mr. C. Kemble, or Mr. Macready. Has he any of the natural grace of the one, or the poetical enthusiasm of the other? Is his cold, calculating declamation worth 51. a week more than the spirit and power of either of those gentlemen? Or ought he, because he himself arranges it, to be raised to the throne of Tragedy above the reach of others? The truth is, Mr. Young is a very useful respectable actor-but as for the Genius of Tragedy, he has it not, and knows it not. We understand he rated himself with John Kemble -and cited him as an authority for exterminating all that had trod too closely upon the robe of his greatness,-John Kemble! Well! "An Eagle towering in his pride of place" but the proverb is somewhat musty. -If Mr. Kean return soon to DruryLane, will Mr. Young play with him, or will he then take the opportunity of completing his provincial engagements? Let him not play Iago to Kean's Othello! We saw Booth (another self-opinionated Chief Tragedian!) try a fall (to use a wrestling term) with Kean! If Mr. Young should contest the ground with that ardent creature, he will learn a lesson which will be useful to him as long as he remains on the stage.

We have written a fair history of the contest between the two Theatres, and of the conduct of certain of the Actors; and we are quite sure that our readers will see, that so long as the expectations of Performers are thus extravagant, and the struggles of Managers thus inveterate, no plays can or will be represented with that" union of talent," which is now falsely promised and groundlessly expected. It has been the common cry against the theatres- Why is not a play filled with the strength of the house?-Is not our narrative a pretty clear explanation of the cause?

a complete answer! The actors will

not combine!-There are too many chief Tragedians, and chief Comedians. Drury-lane has commenced its boasted career of greatness-and with all its vaunting, what is the fact? We have Mr. Young in Hamlet; that is the chief! "The rest are nothing!" Perhaps it may be as well if the ladies and gentlemen of the stage will leave it to the public to decide who is the first Tragedian, or first Singer, and not settle the point for themselves in their own letters.

We had a few words to say upon the rashness and folly of Drury-lane, in pampering the extravagance of performers beyond all former example. The rate of salary appears a minor consideration. Mr. Liston, we believe, was desired to name his own terms, and they would be allowed him. This is the way to put a player beside himself, or we know not the mode. We had also intended to enter into the merits of Mr. Elliston's play bills; but we have nearly consumed all our space, and must leave the bills, which are drawn in the style of promisory notes, to speak for themselves.

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We have scarcely any room to notice the novelties of the month. A Mrs. Hughes, from the Exeter theatre, has played Sophia, in that vivid comedy the Road to Ruin';—and although her figure is not very girlish, she played with great spirit, and evinced considerable talent. Her voice is remarkably clear, and her enunciation distinct. She does not talk Devonshire, which is, perhaps, on the stage no demerit! The full house made Elliston brilliant in Harry Dornton: and Munden in Old Dornton was all truth, eccentricity, and feeling. Mr. Barnard acted Mr. Barnard as usual. We wonder he is not tired of playing that character.

At Covent-garden a Miss Chester has appeared in genteel comedy,and a Miss Lacy in tragedy. The first is a tall elegant woman, with a good knowledge of the stage. The latter has, we almost trust, abandoned the profession! Miss Chester does not manage her voice very well. She appears to speak continually in the falsetto. If she adhered to her natural tones she would please the ear better. Then her dress is over

done! Her plume of feathers, in Mrs. Belmour, was like the ornament at a child's funeral. Her head seemed enveloped in a huge white cloud. Fine feathers may make fine birds-but they do not make fine wo

men.

The new after-piece of Ali Pacha, at Covent-garden, is splendid in scenery and dresses; but its interest does not keep pace with its magnificence. Mr. Farren, as the old tyrant and murderer, looked the part well; but the huskiness of his voice seemed to thicken with the cruelties it had to deal with. Mr. T. P. Cooke, a very clever and intelligent man, uttered

his patriotic sentences about Greece and Liberty with good effect, and Mr. Farley gave spirit to Hassan, a friend to the mysterious. Of the sce nery we preferred the ramparts of Ali's Citadel, a beautiful view certainly But the blowing up at the conclusion, with its awful red light, was fire itself!-Such an explosion must, we think, make the Sweeper at the corner of Bridge-street take to his crossing, and bless himself,-dumb-founder the link-boys at the Colonnade,and shake the very apples in their baskets in the silent avenues of Covent-garden market.

REPORT OF MUSIC.

THE festivals at Derby and Norwich, with a minor concert at Yarmouth, are the principal features in the public music of the month.

Mr. Greatorex was the conductor at Derby, and his party (for singers and instrumentalists class into genera and species) constituted the orchestra, with the addition of Camporese. Mr. Greatorex is the wellknown manager of the Ancient Concerts, and the head of the English school, of which Harrison and Bartleman were (and of which Vaughan now is) the almost only remaining pupils. The meeting was upon the Birmingham model, and for the benefit of the County Hospital. This example will spread, and we heartily wish that it may; for, independent of the ease with which the finances of public charities are thus recruited, such concentrations of art and of fashion create a circulation of money and a diffusion of science most beneficial to the places where they take place. Thus they are political and social, as well as technical benefits.

At Norwich the scale promised selection rather than inclusive grandeur. Madame Camporese, Mrs. Salmon, Mr. Sapio, and Mr. Beale, were the principal singers. Mr. Smart led, Mr. Peile was the violoncello, Mr. Williams the clarionet, Mr. Denman the bassoon, and Mr.

Card the flute. Some of these names, if not quite new to the public, at least, have never formed objects for our description. Committing, therefore, to the musical reader's judgment to fill out the morning performances with so much of the sacred works of Handel and Haydn, Graun and Pergolesi, and Mozart, as experience may suggest; and to complete the evening bills of fare by the help of airs with variations, Il Don Giovanni and Rossini, by wholesale, with something of Callcott, a French romance, and an English ballad or two sec. art. we shall proceed to the merits of our first novelty, Mr. Beale, who takes the part of the bass.

One of the most striking circumstances attending late English vocalists is, that there are few or none who possess original manner. Purcell, Handel, and Haydn (in his Creation), and Callcott, afford the grand sources of display for a voice of this kind. The style of the two first composers is allowed to be traditionary; and it has been handed down to this age by Bartleman, of whom we have before spoken so much at large. Haydn and Callcott afford greater scope for variety of expression, and for elegance of manner. When we allude to the want of originality, we do not speak in reference to those essential particu

lars which appertain to an entire school, but to direct personal imitation. Bartleman has been the model of the basses, Braham and Vaughan of the tenors; and, we are bold to say, general science has been stayed, if not corrupted, by this want of enterprize in their successors, however admirable these examples in their own persons; for direct imitation, it is selfevident, at once extinguishes all hope of exceeding the original, and consequently all endeavour at improvement. Mr. Beale has a very light voice; it possesses indeed so little volume that it can scarcely be called a barytone, and is, of course, still further removed in power and compass from a bass. It is completely a voice for the chamber, and makes no way in a theatre. We have seldom heard so absolute an imitation in every particular as Mr. Beale's singing conveys of Bartleman, except in the quantity of tone. As to quality, production, the manner of taking and leaving notes, the ornamental parts of his singing, and the peculiar energy, they are all pourtrayed "in little." There is, therefore, much finish; and moreover Mr. Beale has a great deal of the science with the manner of his school. But all fails for want of force.

Mr. Peile is the well-known second violoncello of the Opera hand, a delicate and elegant player, but wanting the fire, imagination, and execution of Lindley. Mr. Williams, the clarionet player, is an extraordinary man. His tone is the sweetest, the most finished, and the most nearly assimilated to the human voice, of any performer we ever remember to have heard. In the celebrated airs Gratias agimus, and Parto mu tu ben mio, in which he accompanied Mrs. Salmon and Madame Camporese, particularly in the former, nothing could well be more perfect than the conversation between the voice and the instrument. His taste is as fine as his mechanical command is complete. He appears to have a strong understanding of the beauties of his art, and there can be no doubt that he will rise to the highest rank. Mr. Denman is a bassoon player, possessing nearly the same requisites with Mr. Williams, except, perhaps, that he is neither so airy nor so imagina

tive; but his tone is not less imposing and finished, and his manner is sound and steady. Mr. Card's instrument is the flute; he has great execution, and very sweet tone. He is almost new to the metropolis, having come to town only at the end of last season; but the rapid improvement he has made indicates what time and industry will do for his natural talent. He is already as good a player as the French artist Tulon, the idol of Paris, and who was really better than the English allowed him to be; quite as delicate, when delicacy is necessary; and more forceful, when energy is requisite.

These Concerts afforded a curious illustration of our general sketch of the vocalists in our last report. The contest lay between Madame Camporese and Mrs. Salmon; and though neither Italian music nor the Italian language are at all generally understood in the city where the performances took place, yet Madame Camporese carried off the honours in spite of the superior beauty of Mrs. Salmon's voice, and the exquisite facility of her execution. Intellect and the heart for once overcame mere organic delight. Something perhaps is owing to the extraordinary grace with which Madame Camporese performs even the most trivial action. Person and manner are vast additions, or vast drawbacks. Catalani sings with her face quite as much as with her voice. Camporese, in an orchestra, presents a noble and elegant example of the "simplex munditiis." She enters, and takes her station, and retires from her place, with the polished ease of a person whose mind is informed with the purifying flame. She moves,

Like light all piercing, but not loud; and, from the first to the concluding note of the song, her whole soul is in her part. Every feature speaks its working; every fibre is aiding the design. Even the dullest of her hearers participates in the sensibility that identifies all her thoughts and feelings with the expression of the work in which she is engaged. Not so our English singer. The increasing bulk of her person, and the lack of animation that attends a ruddy complexion, light hair, light eyes,

and light eye-brows, are drawbacks not to be overcome. Besides which the dear creature will, in the midst of the tenderest, most melting, or most distressful passage, occasionally direct an idle glance towards the ends of her upturned and moving fingers, as if to assure the audience that the mind has no concern in what is going forward." Vox et preterea nihil' is not, however, a fair description of Mrs. Salmon's pretensions. She has certainly struck out a style for herself. Her peculiarity of tone and of ornament, and particularly her cadences appended to Handel's songs, in which she is as various and perfect as any singer we ever heard, bespeak qualities of intellect, which, if better cultivated, might have produced grander results. But when Mrs. Salmon received her musical education, the necessity for mental acquirement was by no means so universally acknowledged as at present; and her master (Mr. John Ashley) was not perhaps so supreme a judge in matters of literary attain ment as in the arrangements of an orchestra. As it is, she is the first of English singers, and, in her way, the first woman in Europe. Singing is an art not merely technical, as mere lawyers, mere mathematicians, and others who are devoted to one particular faculty or science, would have the world believe. The lady in question, we are told, meditates a trip to Paris, after the close of next season. We hope she will be more successful than poor Miss Corri, who visited the French metropolis last year. That girl was not appreciated in her own country, for she had very superior vocal ability. Her style was a beautiful miniature of Catalani's. The musical public will regret to hear that her father, Natali Corri, late teacher, music-seller, and lastly, the entrepreneur of music in Edinburgh, died in his bed in Italy, while conducting his two daughters, Frances and Angelina, through that country of art and feeling. Poor Corri was a very honest and industrious man, and was doomed, we lament to say, in the last hours of a long life, to severe misfortune, occasioned by speculating in the erection of buildings for public entertainment in the Scotch metropolis. He has

told us of a narrow escape he had from the guillotine in the most terrific part of the French Revolution. Having been to Italy for the purpose of engaging singers, he was returning from that country through France with Signora Jolivetti (the lady whom he afterwards married), when the municipality of one of the towns through which he passed took it into their heads to imagine that Corri and his party were noblesse in disguise. It happened that the authorities of the town were assembled at the time; and in order to put the matter to the test, they suspended their graver business, and desired the lady to give them a song, in order to discover whether the travellers were or were not professors. While she was singing, poor Natali, who was himself but a moderate performer, stood in desperate apprehension. He trembled for his fate, if it was to be decided by the superiority of his voice -but luckily Mr. Prefect and his coadjutors were satisfied by the talents of the lady; and the party were allowed to proceed on their journey. To the honour of Madame Catalani, be it told, that on her visit to this country last year, hearing of Corri's misfortune, and finding one of his daughters not engaged at the Opera, and the other wanting the advantages of good instruction, she generously volunteered to furnish him with the means of taking them both to the Continent.

The visit of this queen of singers to Dublin, where Mr. Harris contemplated the performance of Operas, is, it seems, prevented by an inflammation of the lungs, which it is stated will compel her to pass the winter in a milder climate. A great many consider this indisposition as a mere ruse, which is but the prelude to some deep-laid plan for her appearance in England during the coming season. It may be so; for when the habit of enjoying such homage as this wonderful artiste has so long received is fixed, common life must be but insipid without it; and from what we have seen of both Monsieur Vallebreque and Madame, they delight principally in one topic; namely, the vocal enthralments of Catalani. And, moreover, il faut de l'argent is an inevitable consequence

of such establishments as situation, or inclination, or both, engraft upon their domestic arrangements. Monsieur, however, assures his English visitants, that the money (ten thou-, sand pounds) which is said to have been the reward of her last exhibitions in England, was not worth Madame Catalani's consideration. If so, she is a very high-minded woman indeed.

Garcia is engaged for the King's Theatre next season.

Miss Paton rises daily in the public estimation, and really promises to become a first-rate ornament to the English stage. She has played Polly in the Beggar's Opera, with great success. Mr. Davis, a pupil of M. Pio Cianchettini, came out as Macheath; his style is the Mezzo Carattere, and he sings ballads and simple airs of feeling with good effect. But Macheath requires force, and a knowledge of stage effects. Incledon used to say, that to play the part, a man must be a man of understanding, (here an oath) a man of education(a more vehement oath), a gentleman, (an oath still more tremendous) in short, he must be (the climax of blasphemy) Charles Incledon. He dressed it like a country squire of the last age—a blue coat, buckskins, and boots; Mr. Braham gives it a more modern acceptation, and appears in white trowsers-the very HARDY VAUX of highwaymen. But we are straying beyond our limits; these matters are dramatic, not musical. They, however, serve to illustrate our vocalists, as portraits do our county histories.

The publications of the month are few, but with them we must conclude our discursive article.

.. Mr. Harris has published an introduction and rondo for the pianoforte. It is easy, but lively and melodious.

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A Fantasia, by M. Cianchettini, in which are introduced three favorite Scotch airs, is imaginative and brilliant; but the incessant changes of time are injurious to the effect, by destroying the rhythm.

When Love was a Child, arranged as a rondo. Mr. Ries has added many beauties, and given additional grace, to Mr. Moore's elegant air.

Mr. Turnbull has composed some ingenious and agreeable variations to the celebrated air, Turn again, Whittington.

Mr. Hummel's French air, with variations, is lively, but rather common-place.

Mr. Chipp has arranged We're a' Noddin, for the harp. The variations differ but little from the usual style of such things; they are, however, animated and showy. An ad libitum flute accompaniment adds to its effect.

Martini's overture to Henry the Fourth has been newly arranged by Mr. Little, with flute and violoncello accompaniment. Mr. Burrowes has published the sixth number of Handel's chorusses, arranged for the harp and pianoforte, with accompaniments for flute and violoncello. The subject is, Welcome, Mighty King, from Saul.

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From the vocal list, we can select only three ballads. 'Tis Sweet to hear, by Mr. Barnett, is a canzonet of some pretension, Mr. B. always puts his imagination forth; and if the traits are not very powerful, they still prove an activity of fancy, which, if fed with healthy aliment, may make him a composer of originality and strength. This song promises better things in future. Constancy, Mr. Cramer has arranged the a canzonet by G. F. Duval, Esq. is a French romance Portrait Charmant pleasing and rather elegant air; and as a rondo for the pianoforte. In its M. Kiallmark's When the Days of original shape, the air is both sweet the Summer were brightening is just and expressive; and its great popu- a pretty song. larity has, we imagine, recommended. October 22, 1822. it to Mr. C. as a subject. He has

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