118 A MEMORIAL WORD. Most pleasant, too, was Halévy, just gone (March, 1862), respecting whom, therefore, some personal and memorial words may be now permitted-and none the less, because the same would especially commemorate the agreeable impression made on all who knew him when in this country. He was singularly pleasing and intelligent in intercourse.—He was able to get rid of himself and his operas; to take a courteous and clear-sighted pleasure in all the novelties that London offers to Parisian eyes.-In fact, after having read the Academical Discourses which, as the Secretary of the Institut, it was his business to prepare, it may be now fairly said-what during his time of life and artistic production could not have been said, without gratuitous incivility—that he had more general intelligence than special genius.— The musical talent which he possessed was exclusively Parisian.-Anywhere else, save in the capital of France, I have never heard his stage-works without a feeling of short-coming and weariness.— The very peculiarities of his style — an extreme illustration of that musical suspense in which the French delight;-calling the same, "distinction" -demand French text, French actors, French audiences. I recollect the man, in both capitals, as tenfold more frank and attractive than his music. The best singers in the company were assembled to give every possible strength and spirit to the 66 CALIBAN" AND 66 MIRANDA." 119 very drama. The Caliban of Lablache was alike remarkable as a piece of personation and of good taste. Had it not been So, the hazardous scenes of the Monster's persecution of Miranda could not have been allowed on the stage. In these, too, Madame Sontag's delicacy and reserve stood the drama in good stead. The rest of the company had worked with no less good will; the music had been studied to a nicety rarely attained since Signor Costa had left the theatre. There was rich and tasteful scenery.—But "La Tempesta" could not live. It was even received with less favour when it was subsequently given at the Italian Opera-house in Paris, though there (by way of improvement), the last act was entirely omitted.-In England, as yet, Halévy has no public. The disheartening lethargy which, in spite of every attempt to force applause, and to counterfeit the appearance of success, was creeping over the old Opera-house,-got hold of the ballet, too.-It seemed totally impossible to excite any interest or curiosity. But we still read, morning after morning, of triumph after triumph ;—of enormous gains and successes; and the farce, melancholy as it was, was kept up for still a year or two longer, as bravely as if the end had not been from the first to be clearly foreseen. THE YEAR 1850. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, OPERAS. "Massaniello."-Auber. "Lucrezia Borgia,' "L'Elisir." -Donizetti. "La Juive."*—Halévy. "Les Huguenots," "Robert le Diable," "Le Prophète."-Meyerbeer. "Don Giovanni."-Mozart. 66 Moise," "La Donna del Lago," "La Gazza Ladra," "Otello."—Rossini. "Nabucco." Verdi. "Il Franco Arciero."*-Weber. Principal Singers. Mdes. Castellan. Vera. De Meric. Grisi. Viardot.MM. Maralti.* Formes. Tamberlik.* Zelger.* Massol. Polonini, Mario. Tamburini. Ronconi. THE YEAR 1850. THIS was a season of splendid performances, memorable for many things. Year by year, the taste for grand Opera spread and increased in England. Year by year, the execution became finer and finer. "Der Freischütz" in its Italian dress, and with recitatives excellently adjusted by Signor Costa, was relished by others more than by myself. German music and Southern words do not agree; nor has the experiment of translation ever succeeded, whether the work be one of Spohr's, or "Fidelio,”—or this most German of German operas, a goblin tale. The terrors of the Wolf's Glen lose half their terror, when "done into Italian." Neither is recitative introduced in place of spoken dialogue often happy. A certain lightness and proportion are sacrificed, without any compensation in the form of solidity or grandeur being added. I have found this 122 -- "IL FRANCO ARCIERO." in M. Auber's "Fra Diavolo"-in M. Meyerbeer's "L'Etoile :"-in every other work thus stiffenedbut in no case so heavily as in the case of the ultraGerman popular legend. A like essay was made at Paris, with the incomprehensible recitatives of M. Berlioz ; - but there, the result was virtually the same as here.-At Covent Garden, however, "Il Franco Arciero" enjoyed one advantage, in not being sung by Italian artists, Mdlle. Vera excepted. The tenor, Signor Maralti, was Belgian. -The Caspar of Herr Formes has been always one of his favourite characters-the type of all he could do best in Opera, and with less left undone than in other parts.-Madame Castellan, on the other hand, was inefficient as the heroine ;-her style having a certain restlessness, which was especially ill-fitted for German music. She was always, moreover, slightly uncertain in tune.-On the whole, I have heard the opera produce far greater effect in a many fifth-rate German town, than it produced when given with the splendid band and chorus of Covent Garden Theatre.-There, it did not retain its place in the repertory. On recalling this careful performance, in conjunction with the Italian version of "Oberon,' presented during a later season at Her Majesty's Theatre, it seems clear to me, that the quality which makes a composer adaptable to a Southern language, |