ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

L'Etoile du Nord sustained its attractiveness up to the last night of the season. It was given on Monday, and was so successful as to justify the management in repeating it on Thursday, although Il Trovatore had been previously announced for the final performance.

The second representation of the Prophète on Saturday was better attended than the first. It is doubtful whether the production of this grand work so late in the season was wise. The subscribers, however, look for novelty at the last moment, and their tastes could hardly have been more appropriately consulted. Madame Viardot's Fides is beyond a doubt her finest assumption, and the Jean of Leyden of Signor Tamberlik one of the most vigourous impersonations of the modern lyric stage. This admirable artist sang with his usual power and effect on Saturday. The opera in other respects was well done, but the whole of the tent scene was again omitted, although Signor Albucini was substituted for Signor Mei. Mdlle. Marai sings the music of Berta most charmingly, and looks and acts the part to perfection. This young artist has become a great favourite with the visitors of the Royal Italian Opera, and justly. Where was Signor Luchesi ? Surely he knows the music of the tenor Ana baptist, and would readily have undertaken the part.

The one performance of Rossini's Otello on Tuesday, but for Signor Tamberlik's representation of the Moor, would be open to criticism. The cast was not what it might have been. We remember when it was considered worth while to assign nearly every character in this opera to a first-rate artist. Rubini, Mario, Tamburini, Lablache, and Grisi have appeared together in Otello, at her Majesty's Theatre. Madame Viardot is not the gentle Desdemona." Of course, the usual skill and intelligence are there, but neither the music nor the character are in her way. Signor Tamberlik is eminently fitted for Otello. In no other part-not even Masaniello, Florestan, and Jean of Leyden-does he appear to such advantage. The music suits his voice, and the fiery passion of the Moor is just what he can pourtray with surpassing truth and vigour. From the first scene, in which occurs the scena, "Ah! si per voi," to the last, in which he stabs Desdemona, the performance of Signor Tamberlik was beyond reproach. We have great hopes of Signor Graziani, whose voice is one of the finest barytones ever heard; but Iago is out of his way, too. Signors Tagliafico and Luchesi were both good in Elmiro and Roderigo, and Mdlle Bellini played Emilia with intelligence. The performance was received with great favour, Madame Viardot and Signor Tamberlik being recalled at the end of the second and third acts.

The season was brought to a termination on Thursday, with L'Etoile du Nord, but an extra performance of the same opera, at reduced prices, will be given this evening, for the benefit of Mr. A. Harris, the able and zealous régisseur, whose exertions in getting up the L'Etoile du Nord, were worthy of the greatest praise.

RÉSUMÉ OF THE SEASON.

THE ninth season of the Royal Italian Opera has proved one of the most successful since the opening in 1847. Such a result was hardly to be anticipated. The army in the Crimea had taken away many subscribers to boxes and stalls; the public was rendered apathetic by the war, and the general attention diverted from amusement to matters of more absorbing interest. The untimely fate of so many of our brave officers must, it was considered, be a serious obstacle to success, since, as whole families would be forced into mourning, they would be prevented from attending the theatre. The additions to the income and other taxes, moreover, would leave no money to spend on public amusements. This reasoning, though good, however, was not confirmed by the upshot. In spite of the absence of subscribers and habitués, in spite of deaths in the Crimea and families in mourning, and in spite of additional taxation, the operatic season has been unusually prosperous. This is not altogether unaccountable. The 66 great fact" of the season- L'Etoile du Nord-must only be taken into limited consideration, since,

however, triumphant its success, it came too late to materially affect the treasury, though, had it been produced earlier, it might have made the fortune of the establishment. The unexpected reappearance of Mad. Grisi was an important step, since it brought back a great public favourite, and, with her, certain operas that, when well cast, never fail to draw.

Signor Verdi's new opera, Il Trovatore, must equally be taken into account. It was admirably performed and decidedly attractive. The new German prima donna, Mdlle. Jenny Ney, made a "hit," and the universally popular Tamberlik reaped new laurels in this work. Signor Mario, who was a greater "card" than ever for the theatre, sang still better than last year, and resumed some of his old parts (among others, Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Conte, Almaviva in Il Barbiere), as if he was determined to go back to his original répertoire. Don Giovanni and Il Barbiere-with the assistance of Signor Tamburini, who was engaged expressly to play Don Giovanni and Figaro both drew good houses. The re-engagement of Signor Lablache was of vital consequence; but the secession of Signor Ronconi was irreparable. The operas which, next to the Etoile du Nord, turned out the most attractive were Les Huguenots, Lucrezia Borgia, La Favorita, Norma, Il Conte Ory, and Il Trovatore. We must look, however, to causes unconnected with operas and singers, for the great success this year. Circumstances which would naturally be supposed to militate against a favourable result rather tended, on the contrary, to produce it. The disasters at Sebastopol, which placed so many families in mourning, precluded, in a great measure, balls, fêtes, and réunions, and drove people to the theatre for recreation. The subscription list was less promising than in former years, but more boxes and stalls were let nightly, and a greater number of single tickets sold.

The shortness of the season may also count for something. The theatre opened on the 12th of April, and closed on the 9th of August-embracing a period of barely four months, while former seasons have extended to five, six, and even seven. It remains for directors to ascertain whether a long or short season is most remunerative. An example in favour of the latter may be deduced from the present year.

Rossini's Il Conte Ory began the season with great éclat, and introduced Signor Gardoni to the Royal Italian Opera in the character of the Count. This masterpiece was performed three times in succession with increasing favour, Madame Bosio singing delightfully, Mdlle. Marai appearing to great advantage as Gardoni was as successful as his warmest admirers could have the page, Mdlle. Nantier Didiée as the Chatelaine. Signor

wished.

On Thursday, the 19th, Fidelio was commanded by the Queen, who attended in state with the Emperor and Empress of the French. The house was gorgeously decorated, and the royal box was a prodigy of taste and magnificence. Fabulous prices were given for places, and an enormous crowd assembled. Little attention, however, was paid to the opera, the illustrious visitors absorbing all attraction. Mdlle. Jenny Ney, who subsequently made so favourable an impression in Verdi's Leonora, was by no means the beau idéal of Beethoven's. Her fine strong soprano voice was admired, but the poetical element, so indispensable in Fidelio, was found wanting. Signor Tamberlik and Herr Formes played Florestan and Rocco with the same effect as before, and Mdlle. Marai was a capital Marcellina. Mdlle. Fanny Cerito made her first appearance at the Royal Italian Opera in a scene from the new ballet of Eva, on the same night, and was received with distinguished favour. The engagement of this eminent danseuse was a highly politic step of the director. The ballet had for a long time been unwisely neglected, although a sure means of attraction.

On Thursday, April 26th, Signor Graziani, a new barytone, made his first appearance in Ernani, and displayed a splendid voice, without much talent as an actor or great experience as a singer. Madame Bosio and Signor Tamberlik were as good as ever in Elvira and Ernani.

Signor Lablache made his rentrée, as Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore, on Saturday, May the 5th, with Madame Bosio as Adina, and Signor Gardoni as Nemorino, than which nothing

PARIS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

"NOTHING new in the musical world. The condition of the Opéra is excellent." Such-to borrow a stereotyped Sebastopol despatch-is the condition of affairs in Paris. Both Operas are full to the roof every night, and no novelty will be produced before the Queen of England pays her long-expected visit. Meanwhile the Exhibition is complete, and Paris is regularly taken by assault, by thousands upon thousands of foreigners and provincials. Every language may be heard in the streets, every form of patois may be studied by those who are curious in the various peculiarities of Gallic speech. The weather is lovely, and your Queen will probably enjoy the sunshine which never seems to fail her at every fête and solemnity.

Meanwhile all the world rushes to the theatre of the PorteSaint-Martin. The attraction consists in a new drama entitled Paris, in twenty-six tableaux, and with prologue and epilogue. Polonius might well describe it as "tragical, comical, historical, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene indivisible, and poem unlimited." All writers, whether of time, or place, or character, are laughed at, disregarded, and set at nought. Part of the action takes place on earth, part under the earth; one portion in heaven, another in hell. Statues walk about and converse gravely; tombs open for the convenience of venerable spectres who can a tale unfold; age jostles age; events jibe the heels of events, and historical personages of all sorts elbow each other, amidst the magnificence of a mise-en-scène unprecedented in splendour and brilliancy, and in a piece, the action of which extends somewhat over two thousand years. M. Paul Meurice is the author of this play, in the production of which the manager, M. Marc Fournier, has expended upwards of £4,000, independently of the incessant labour he has bestowed on it during the whole of the past six months. The curtain rises on the foyer of the Opéra, in the year of grace 1855. Two youths, with more valour than discretion, quarrel about a domino, who is intriguing all comers, and fix the Bois de Boulogne as the rendezvous for a duel to be held the following day. "L'Ame de Paris," present among the masques, is determined to prevent this unnecessary waste of courage, and can hit on no better plan than that of parading before them in a dream the bloody battles and fratricidal combats of which France has been the theatre from earliest times. The idea is taken from an old friend, Victorine; ou, La Nuit porte conseil, but the execution is both beautiful and poetical. "L'Ame de Paris quits her domino, and reassumes her garb of marble. The foyer disappears, and the city is beheld, calm and peaceful in the stillness of night. "L'Ame de la France" descends from her pedestal in front of the Pantheon, and arranges the order of the spectacle with "L'Ame de Paris." Both statues then vanish, and the dream begins.

First we have Velléda and Merlin the enchanter. The druidess has two children, of whom the elder, Herimann, is legitimate, and the younger, Fulvius-Marcius is a bastard. The family lives in the midst of constant brawls, and a Druid, delighting in mischief, encourages the paternal quarrels. "Behold the son of your mother's seducer," says he to the Gaul; "regard the son of your father's murderer," he whispers to the Roman, and the brothers are about to engage in deadly fight. Velleda interferes, and offers up herself as an expiating sacrifice, and the enchanter Merlin gives excellent advice to the reconciled brothers.

The next tableau represents the dawn of the Merovingian age. The Roman rule has proved fatal to poor Lutece, and the Parisians are starving. The people murmur, but St. Généviève comes to the succour of her good city, and arrives with corn in abundance. Nevertheless the conquerors hold high orgy at the palace des Thermes, and we have a splendid tableau of the Romans of the decadence. The courtezan Impéria, reclining on a tiger-skin, offers her cup to the drunken Consul, and the Monads, waving their thyrsi, assume every variety of lascivious pose and gesture. Meanwhile Attila thunders at the gates of

Paris, but, touched by the beauty and grace of Généviève, protectress of the city, bows the knee before her, and withdraws his barbarian hordes.

Thus ends the first act. The second opens in the Middle Ages, with a fête of asses, a fête of which the tradition alone now exists, but which is inexpressibly amusing with its asinine herd wagging their ears and braying in chorus. The scene, which is charmingly painted, represents old Paris at daybreak, and the stage is alive with the clerks, scholars, bourgeois, and gallants of the Middle Ages. Abélard and Héloise serve the purposes of the drama; but truth to tell, the charming story, so poetically told by Pope, is lowered to the level of a vulgar intrigue. Abelard, as he coolly announces, has had his youthful escapades, and is father of a natural son called Alienor. Héloise hates this offspring of his love with another, and he is killed in a duel with Goutrad. The departure for the Crusades puts an end to the woes of Abélard, and the curtain fortunately falls before Fulbert takes his well-known vengeance.

Joan of Arc follows next in order, and never on any stage has a more magnificent pageant been presented than that representing the cortége of Charles VII. proceeding to Notre Dame. No less than five hundred persons appear on the stage, and the costumes are perfect, both as regards historical accuracy and colour and effect. Madame Marc Fournier, who is an admirable antiquarian, and second only to Mr. Planché in knowledge of all belonging to the history of costume, herself designed the dresses and superintended their preparation. The scene terminates with a ballet of Les Villes de France, and the Opéra in its best days never produced anything more graceful or charming.

The third act brings us to the Renaissance, and M. Paul Meurice, deeming it essential that royalty and commonalty should have been suckled at the same breast, informs us that the mother of Henry IV. was the nurse of Jean Goujon. We see Catherine de Medicis poison Jeanne d'Albret, with a glove prepared by the perfumer René, of execrable memory. Nothing can be more striking than the apparition of phantoms after the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Catherine, seated at the balcony of the Louvre, silently gazes on the waters of the Seine, running red with French blood shed by French hands. The ghosts rise in their winding sheets, and pass before her in ghastly and silent array. The Queen, terrified and alarmed, shrieks, and falls fainting to the ground. A splendid transparency of the entry of Henry IV. succeeds this spectral tableau, and finishes the act with éclat.

Louis XIV. and La Vallière, Molière and his servant, the gardens of Versailles and the fountains, represent the age of the Grand Monarque. The universal armament of '92, Charlotte Corday, Madame Roland, the distribution of eagles at the Champs-de-Mars, that of the Revolution, of the Empire, and the dream is finished. The youths, whose quarrel commenced the piece, are reconciled, and France receives all the nations of the world in a wonderful apotheosis.

To produce this drama and its wonderful mise-en-scène, no less than eight painters of no small merit have been at work night and day during several months. Eighteen hundred costumes are due to the charming designs of Madame Fournier, and the numerous ballets sown broadcast through the piece are models of all that is graceful and pretty.

Madame Guyon fills the various rôles of Velléda, Héloise, Jeanne D'Albret, and Madame Roland, and is admirable in all. Her death scene, as Jeanne D'Albret shewed to what purpose she had studied Rachel in Adrienne Lecouvreur. She was recalled amidst a tempest of applause in this scene. Mad. Lucie Mabire was an excellent representative of passion, fury, and hate, in the parts of Impéria, Mélusine, and Catherine de Medicis. Madame Naptal-Arnaud was a becoming and graceful type of Généviève, Jeanne D'Arc, and Charlotte Corday. Madame Delphine-Baron, successively Flamette, Gallina, Marotte, Laforest, Babet, and Grenade, was the true grisette of all times and all régimes, loving, laughing, gay, careless, pretty, agaçante, and immortal. Boutin was an excellent image of the bourgeois of all ages; Colbrun, the gamin, the scholar, and the page; Vannay, the hypocrite and the traitor; and, lastly, Deshaies, natural, vivacious, and hilarious, was a charming Jaques Bonhomme. The

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

piece is now in the full tide of success, and will probably run for two or three hundred nights.

At the Italiens, Madame Ristori has appeared in a lugubrious tragedy entitled Pia di Tolomei, written by a modern Italian author on an episode of the Divina Comedia of Dante. The same subject had already inspired the Marquis de Bellay, who, some two years ago, wrote a drama which was represented with some success at the Théâtre-Français, under the title of La Malaria. The French author wisely presented a short drama to the public; the Italian scribe spins out his action through five dreary acts. A species of Brummagem Iago, in love with Pia, and whose addresses are rejected, determines on revenging himself, and denounces her to her husband as guilty of adultery with some gentleman unknown. The Italian Othello forthwith immures his wife in an old baronial castle, surrounded by pestilential marshes. Here consumption soon sets its grasp upon her, and when the husband, too late enlightened as to his wife's innocence, flies to her rescue, it is too late, and she expires in his arms pronouncing his pardon. The Italian author, Signor Carlo Marenco, during the first four acts presents us with the somewhat revolting spectacle of a husband duped through the most transparent artifices by a low bravo; the last act alone is interesting and dramatic. The Frenchman compressed the first four acts into one, and led at once to the dénouement. Madame Ristori has added nothing to her laurels by this new impersonation. Her death scene was too violent, and she seemed to have taken too servile a copy of Rachel. She evidently forgot that while Adrienne Lecouvreur dies from the effect of an active poison, Pia expires after months of gradual exhaustion from consumption. Madame Ristori will do well to return to Mirrha and parts of that description, which afford full scope for her fine

talent.

At the Variétés, Bouffé continues successful with the réprise of the Abbé Galant, a part he created at the Gymnase some fifteen years ago. He is the same unrivalled comedian as ever, and presents us with a charming sketch of an Abbé, sincere, graceful, and candid.

TO MADLLE. RACHEL.

YOUNG foreigner, in whose dark eyes
So much of thought and feeling lies,-
When cheers of triumph swell the while,
How trembling, yet how pleased, thy smile!
Ah! may the laurel wreath which now
So lightly binds thy youthful brow,
Unmixed with thorns,-unstained by tears,-
Be precious still in after years;

May Fate forbear thy hopes to tame,
Nor sever Happiness from Fame;
Thine early day in glory rose,—
Bright as a sunset be its close!

[Addressed to the celebrated French actress, on her first visit to this country, by Mrs. Norton, and published in the "PocketAlbum" of Mr. Albert Schloss.-ED. M. W.]

MISS ARABELLA GODDARD. This distinguished pianiste has been giving two concerts at Lubiana with the violinist Strauss, which have been beyond measure successful. All the authorities of the city, amongst whom was the governor, and all the nobility assisted at it, testifying their unbounded satisfaction. Miss Goddard played several pieces, but the themes with variations on airs from Mosè and I Puritani excited the enthusiasm of the audience, who after the concert, assembled to greet the eminent artiste with expressions of esteem and sympathy. She was, moreover, elected an honorary member by the Philharmonic Society. Miss Goddard is now gone to Roitsch, and will thence proceed to Klagenfurt, Marburg, and Ischl, with the intention of giving a series of concerts.-(Giornale di Trieste.)

STRAND.-A group of the Spanish dancers, with Senor Marcos Diaz and Mdlle. Anna della Fuerte at their head, have been transferred to this theatre and have proved highly attractive. The lady, a pretty and graceful inferiority to La Nena, is nightly complimented, like her compeer, with a coronal of bouquets.

ITINERANT MUSIC-SELLERS.
To the Editor of the Musical World.

SIR,-I have read the letter signed "A Professor of Fourteen Years' Standing" with considerable pleasure. If the profound respect which he entertains for himself and his brother professors is commensurate with the profits he derives by selling music, he is much to be envied, and I should be the last person to advise him to abandon his trade. But he has misunderstood the nature of my remarks: they were not meant as an attempt to raise a cry against my profession-on the contrary, it was their interest which prompted my short note. My purpose was to suggest a course which it appears to me the musical profession must inevitably adopt sooner or later. If they take the initiative, it will be an act of grace on their part; but, if they are compelled to follow the stream against their own efforts, it will be an act of disgrace. We are all commercial men, and I wish the subject of selling music to our pupils to be regarded in a commercial light. This view my respondent evidently takes; his enthusiasm for his fellow craftsmen is to be viewed in the same light as the cry of the poor silversmiths of Ephesus when their trade was threatened

"Great is Diana of the Ephesians."

Passing over his excusable tenderness, I will proceed to explain what I hinted in four words: "The manner now customary," and which, notwithstanding fourteen years' experience in trading, my brother cannot, or will not, understand.

It is very well known that musical publications can at the present time be bought by professors at something like half the price they paid for them a very few years ago. What enviable profit there must be, the initiated know very well-and the uninitiated will guess. The reduc tion is to be ascribed principally to competition of trade, aided by the destruction of foreign musical copyrights which the House of Lords which involved no outlay but the plates would fall in price to the effected last year. It would naturally be supposed that a piece of music public. But no; the teachers of music-one and all-raised such a clamour at the suggestion made by some houses to reduce their publications fifty per cent., that the proposition was soon abandoned. Nevertheless the pressure of the public for cheap music was very considerable, and some of the music-sellers, at the risk of losing their professional customers (who threatened to withdraw their account if any concession were made), were bold enough to make an allowance to their retail customers on all their purchases. Others, who were desirous of pleas ing both professor and amateur, printed their publications with two title pages. On one a low price was affixed for retail sale; on the other a double price was printed for disposal to the profession. I mention these facts to show that publishers could afford to reduce their prices, and that there was a general demand for it by the public. If the price of music is not generally reduced, and if a disgraceful system of trade is engendered, the musical professor is responsible for both state of things. He is not satisfied with a handsome profit (double the profit on books to the dealer), but, on an opportunity presenting itself when the world may have the advantage of cheap music without disadvantage to him, he, by threats and intriguing, endeavours to maintain an unnecessary high price; and, when at last the man of business gives way him to print a publication with a fictitious price to enable him to to public demand, he compels

swallow a dishonest commission, which he would be ashamed to avow. I say dishonest, because the price he charges is not the publisher's price, as it professes to be. I found that a servant of mine-whom I entrusted to make purchases for me-cajoled shopkeepers into writing out accounts at a rate of fifty per cent. above the value of the items, to enable him to pocket that difference. I should certainly not view his conduct as honest, and, without any compunction, dismiss him. There is no difference, in my eyes, between the dishonest steward and the professor who sells music at an unreal price. The pupils will soon discover his cupidity. Many have done it already, but "etiquette" forbids them to notice it. I think I am, therefore, justified in saying "the manner now customary" will turn out neither honourable nor profitable to those who continue to practise it.

As to whether much music is not unnecessarily foisted on pupils, I leave those to judge who have brought up children. Ask any such person whether they have not had to pay for dozens and dozens of expensive pieces which the pupil has never played. It is not uncommon for a young lady to return from school with a portfolio laden with music. The delighted mother views it with joy, and is charmed to think what progress her daughter has made. But when the piano is opened and the infant genius is requested to show off, it turns out she

can hardly play one quarter of the musical library her master has so liberally supplied her with. The remainder is for "practice in the holidays;" but, at the end of the vacation, it is apparent to the disappointed parents that the surplus music was not intended for use (like the razors), but was only a piece of "sharp practice" on the part of the musician.

When the teacher is a composer, the pupil has a good opportunity of fully appreciating her master's original ideas. But, if his works are dull and meaningless, woe betide his unlucky protégée. "A Professor of Fourteen Years" does not believe that the composer would ever inflict his effusions on his pupils in this case. Unsophisticated man! has he never been inspired during the fourteen years he has taught the young idea! Perhaps not-and so much the better for his pupils.

I have a friend who believes himself a genius, but who is regarded by his friends as a good fellow without an idea. Well, he spends his leisure moments in composing works, which, but for his pupils, would be entirely devoted to "posterity." He generally brings out three heavy" works in the course of the year, and his last production was a "Third Symphony," for pianoforte, four hands, dedicated to his pupils, Opus 146. He sold thirty-six copies of it to his pupils, and not one to the public. Is it to be assumed that every one of these bought the symphony from real choice, or from a desire to give their master "a turn ?" 146 works have been taken up in the same way by generation after generation of students, and as they are all equally meritorious, I leave to calculate the amount of taxes which this man's pupils have paid him because he has a mania to write. I will conclude, trusting that my brother will have changed his mind on the subject of our difference long before he can call himself,

A PROFESSOR OF TWENTY-THREE YEARS STANDING.

To the Editor of The Musical World. SIR,-You have a paragraph in your present number, "abridged from the Manchester Courier," which affords us immense delight. Will you indulge us with a little space that we may make mirthful comment on the occasion? We are rejoiced to find that musical degrees are so cheap, on the one hand, that even we shall be able to get one; and so dear, on the other, that genius itself will not be likely to afford the price. To explain. We have got through a "Te Deum," a Jubilate," and an Anthem, and, as a natural consequence, we shall proceed to the Examination Hall of Trinity College, Dublin, and accumulate the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor in Music, "when our money-tree blows," and its fruits accumulate to the requisite amount. This is what we call the easy part of the business, and "Manchester" doubtless agrees with us thus far, seeing that he leads off with Dublin in order, be it supposed, that he may lead on to Oxford with the greater effect-to Oxford, whose effectual test is to try the merits of future candidates-to Oxford, whose standard of musical degrees is now to be raised (in proof that it required raising)-to Oxford, which needs to be saved from its friend, "Manchester," lest it should be thought to adopt the inflated idea of recommending "Cambridge" to look out, if it wishes its degrees to be worth having-because, forsooth, it has just looked out of its own candle-box, and discovered a much larger world beyond than it ever dreamed of, and all lighted with gas into the bargain!

But Manchester says "it has long been a matter of complaint that musical degrees have been no sign of merit." To make this

sentence clear, some one or other of the localities named a little further on should have been inserted after the words "Musical Degrees." As it is, we are free to imagine that musical degrees at Oxford, or Dublin, or Lambeth, or York, or Halifax if you please, have been no sign of merit; but nobody in his senses would imagine that Cambridge needs be called upon "to look out" of such a quagmire. We abstain from naming individuals, living or deceased, but we have the happiness of knowing that there are and have been men whose merits were so tested at Cambridge before they received their honour. able diplomas, as to leave little doubt on the minds of real musicians that Genius and Art might safely publish there their marriage-banna, and there receive connubial benediction, no man forbidding; whilst many a licensed aspirant, with only his purse to recommend him, would be sent empty away-a fact too honourable to Cambridge to be forgotten or blown to the winds by the first or the fiftieth puff put forth on behalf of Oxford regenerators.

But we have hinted at the dearness of a degree at the place for effectually testing the merits of the candidates:-and what do we mean? Simply this, that a man of genius may take his exercise to Oxford, quail under the sublime ordeal, and sneak away again, with only the world to appreciate what Oxford may chance to scorn, if the said genius be not rich enough in technical lore, and fishy coolness to work out "in his presence" (the Professor's), and in the required number of parts, a fugue on a subject then to be administered. Who shall say that a man without ears might not stand the best chance of a triumph? Nay, even a man without hands-for there sits a man in Orford Street, who, with only a pair of arm-stumps, daily "works out" equally clever things for his subsistence.

If this is to be the method of raising the musical degrees at Oxford, we shall long have to hold on our note of congratulation for Cambridge, while she pursues her even tenor, unabashed by supercilious neighbours, and happy in the love of goodly children who shall still go forth to chant the praises of Alma Mater, in strains that English hearts at least will ever welcome.

FOREIGN MISCELLANEOUS.

ITALY.-At Naples, Signor Battista's opera, Anna la Prie, has vehement in their condemnation of the singers, who were Mad. been re-produced with success, although the papers are loud and Beltramelli, Signori Cecchi, Mongini, and Brignole. They lament the ancient times of San Carlo, when the same opera was written, in 1843, for such singers as Mad. Griutz and Signori Tamberlik, Fraschini, and Beneventano.-At Milan we find that La Scala, which had so long gone a-begging, has at last been taken by a company composed of forty members of the orchestra, represented by Signor Mazzucato, to be assisted by five of their own body. The Gazzetta Musicale is enthusiastic on the matter, and predicts immense profits, public favour, and gratitude. The latter are all very well in their place, but we doubt about the profits, and have a strong feeling that the question lies between a theatre and no theatre-that is, bread or no bread—and we have a further opinion that the screw has been twisted pretty tight to bring about the present arrangement, by the paternal government of the Emperor, represented in Milan by the gracious and gentle Radetzki. In vain the unfortunate forty pleaded for a further subvention of 35,000 lire (Austrian); it was refused. We, however, heartily wish them success, and shall be delighted to their hard-earned savings in the hands of the government to see these forty poor musicians-who have been obliged to deposit furnish the caution-money necessary to work the Scala-reap an abundant harvest out of the speculation. - The Carcano has closed once more. So much for Austria again. King Cliquot and King Bomba are at least national curses; but Austria in Italy— pshaw !-At the Teatro Rè the Gazza Ladra has been followed by Cenerentola, but with the same want of success. Apparently, the present race of Italian singers cannot sing Rossini's music. BERLIN.-The Neue Berliner-Liedertafel gave a grand festival, last week, at the Tegeler See, when they performed compositions by Mendelssohn, and others, under the direction of Herr Hermann Krigar. The festival concluded with a display of fireworks.

EMS.-Mad. Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt lately gave, in conjunction with Mad. Clara Wieck-Schumann, a concert for the benefit of Herr Robert Schumann, who is again in a state of almost hopeless insanity.