gratitude, was, at that time, entrusted with the direction of the Beaux Arts. I asked his permission to play Amazily, in Fernand Cortez, a delicious part, entirely dependent on expression, and, apparently, quite opposed to the nature of the style I had cultivated up to that period. The part does not contain a single roulade; it was impossible to succeed in it except by feeling and simplicity. This second bold attempt proved even more successful than the first. I became a member of the Opéra, therefore, exceedingly proud of having obtained the suffrage of so eminent a composer as Spontini, and of so dramatic a singer as Mad. Branchu, for whom he had composed this admirable part twenty years previously. Here begins the second, and not the least happy, period of my theatrical career.

(To be continued.)

The Operas.

CINTI-DAMOREAU,

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.-The experiments now being made at both Italian houses to resuscitate the neglected works of acknowledged masters, are commendable as likely to lead to good results, if not to great successes. In all probability we shall hear little more this year of Orfeo e Eurydice, performed three times at the Royal Italian Opera, or of Il Matrimonio Segreto, performed twice at Her Majesty's Theatre, both of which were worthily and carefully put upon the stage; but we must not therefore conclude that nothing has been accomplished. It is something at all events for composers of the present day to gain some notion of what sort of music is calculated to please the public for whom they intend writing, and by what means popularity may be most surely achieved. It is something, too, even for the informed, to be reminded how old composers, like Gluck and Cimarosa, wrote in the olden times, and to contrast their compositions with those of writers of the present day. When Oberon was announced at Her Majesty's Theatre, we entertained serious doubts as to its success; nor were these doubts entirely removed when told that the cast would include the names of Titiens, Alboni, Mongini, Belart, Everardi, Gassier, and others: that the spectacle would be dazzling and transcendent; and that the music would be enriched by additions from Euryanthe, and accompanied recitatives by Mr. Jules Benedict, the accomplished musician, and favourite pupil and friend of Weber. We could not help thinking that there must have been some powerful cause for the failure of the opera on its first production. Oberon was first performed on the eleventh of April, 1826, when Weber was in the height of his popularity, and when the public, enraptured with their new favourite, would have been but too eager to take advantage of any opportunity afforded them of exhibiting their enthusiasm. The opera, nevertheless, ran but a few nights, and achieved a moderate success only. No doubt a good deal was owing to the absurdity and unfathomable purpose of the libretto, of which the author, Mr. Planché, one of the most elegant and correct of our dramatic writers, appears now to be thoroughly ashamed, since he acknowledges, in his preface to the Italian version, that "nothing but the genius of Weber could have preserved it from total oblivion." If variety and locomotion constituted a good book, Oberon would be the best ever written. There are kings, knights, caliphs, princes, sheiks, Arabs, eunuchs, emirs, Saracens, Moors, soldiers, nobles, negroes, ladies of the harem, slaves, dancing girls, sultanas, pirates, fairies, spirits of the four elements, mermaids, genii, &c., &c. Fairy-land and romance-land are commingled in one incongruous mass. The age of chivalry is bound up with the heathen mythology, and both made subservient to the wildest flights of the imagination. Puck, Oberon, Titania, and the fairies shake hands with Charlemagne, and make their salaams at the foot of the throne of Caliph Haroun el Raschid, the Commander of the Faithful. The diversity of places is even more extraordinary than the variety of characters. The first scene takes place in Oberon's bower-in Fairy-land, we may presume. The next scene involves the translation, by Puck, of Sir Huon from the banks of the Seine to the banks of the Tigris. From Bagdad to Ascalon is soon achieved by supernatural means; and thence to Tunis is but a short flight by the same process.

Finally, a single jump from Tunis to France brings all to an end in the presence of Charlemagne and his host of Paladins. Now, all these people appearing in quick rotation, and all these changes of locality taking place, create much entertainment; but the plot hangs together by a very slender thread, and astonishment is the natural feeling it inspires. The poetry, we may say, par parenthese, is admirable, better in fact than that of almost any operatic libretto with which we are acquainted; the story, however, is as extravagant, inconsistent, contradictory, and unaccountable, as is that of the Zauberflöte, or Matilda di Shabran, and yet Mozart composed music for the one and Rossini for the other.

Upon Mr. Benedict devolved the onerous and, however agreeable, not very grateful task of writing the accompanied recitatives and making such additions as were considered necessary to the success of the opera. This gentleman, perhaps more than any other living musician, was the most thoroughly competent to enter into Weber's notions and supply what was found wanting in the score. We cannot help thinking, however, that the interpolation of pieces from Euryanthe was a grave mistake, and by no means called for, notwithstanding the brilliant manner in which it enabled Mlle. Titiens to wind up the performance. Oberon is, or is not, a chef-d'œuvre. If it is, it was sacrilegious to meddle with it. If it is not, no excerpts from other works could make it so. Moreover, the public were desirous to hear Oberon in its integrity, and wanted nothing else-not even that Mlle. Titiens should be conciliated. With regard to the music, we are inclined to think that Weber composed the greater part of it under circumstances by no means favourable to inspiration; that he was unwell at the time, we may naturally infer, seeing that his death happened not long after. It is possible, too, that he was over anxious about his work, after the extraordinary and unprecedented sensation created by Der Freischütz, and did not give his inspiration fair play. Certainly, whatever may be the abstract merits of Oberon, no one will deny that it is inferior to Der Freischütz, not only as a work of imagination, but of art. That there are beautiful, nay, magnificent things in Oberon, everybody knows; but the music is not equal, and both the ear and the judgment are left unsatisfied at the end.

Of the performance we can speak highly, and shall, we have no doubt, be enabled to speak more highly after a few repetitions. On Tuesday night some of the artists were too nervous to do themselves anything like justice, and we may point especially to Signor Mongini (from whose grand voice and forcible style the greatest things were expected in Sir Huon) as being almost wholly incapacitated by anxiety to do too much. Moreover, he laboured under an ill-fitting helmet, from which he appeared to suffer as much as from the dread of attacking Weber's notes. An ill-fitting casque or headpiece, more particularly if worn on the head, is not, as may be imagined, conducive to the production of tone. Signor Mongini should have rehearsed with his helmet on. Mlle. Titiens, Mad. Alboni, and Signor Belart carried away the chief honors. Mad. Alboni (Fatima) obtained the only encore of the evening (except one) in the romance, "A lonely Arab maid," which she gave with incomparable grace, expression, and finish. Mlle. Titiens never sang more superbly, both in the air, "Haste, gallant knight !" and in the grand scena, "Ocean, thou mighty monster," creating a powerful sensation. Signor Belart sang the music of Oberon to perfection. The song "From boyhood trained in battle-field" in the original score belonged to Sir Huon, but was objected to by Braham, and “O, 'tis a glorious sight to see," substituted in its place. The original song is now restored, but assigned to Oberon in place of Sir Huon, by merely an alteration of the words from the first to the second person singular, whereby, as Mr. Planché observes, "the feeling of the composition is perfectly preserved, and the character of Oberon rendered of more musical importance without loss to that of Huon." To our thinking, this song is much more striking and beautiful than the bellicose scena written expressly for Braham, and which we have always considered to be so much overrated. Signor Belart sang it most admirably. We can hardly fancy Weber composing a regular bravura for the great English tenor. The part of Sherasmin was capitally acted and sung by Signor Everardi; and M. Gassier, by his energy and powerful vocalisation, did as much as the brief space of time he was before the public

permitted him to do in the character of the Saracen Prince Babekan. Mlle. Vaneri as Roshana, the jealous and infuriated cara sposa of Almanzor, and Mad. Lemaire as Puck, are entitled to honourable mention.

Since the production of Auber's Il Prodigo, some ten or twelve years since, no spectacle either in ballet or opera at Her Majesty's Theatre can be compared with Oberon. The eye indeed is dazzled by a series of pictorial illusions, changes, and transformations, such as we look for in our Christmas entertainments only. It would take more room than we can well spare, after all we have written, to describe the splendour and novelty of the tableaux, the richness and variety of the dresses, the magnificence of the appointments, and the brilliant assemblage of fairies, water-nymphs, dancinggirls, &c.—these and other things we may discuss by-and-bye.

We cannot close our remarks, however, without stating how admirably the band went under the direction of Mr. Benedict, and how well-deserved was the unanimous and loud encore accorded to the Overture.

Oberon was repeated on Thursday, and will be given for the third time, this evening.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.-On Saturday Orfeo e Eurydice, and the first act of Il Barbiere, were repeated; and on Tuesday the same performances were given, for the third time, by desire of Her Majesty, who attended with the Prince Consort.

Perhaps of all the characters in which Mad. Grisi has obtained celebrity that of Lucrezia Borgia (Norma itself not excepted) is the one upon which the slow but infallible encroachments of time have been able to produce the least sensible effect. We allude, of course, to her vocal execution of the part; for, judged from a histrionic point of view, years have only served to perfect a conception which, noble and vigorous from the first, now assumes the proportions of the loftiest tragedy. A more transcendent exhibition of dramatic power than her performance on Thursday night, when Donizetti's finest serious opera was presented (for the first time this season at the Royal Italian Opera) with the scenic attractiveness of former years, has rarely been witnessed. Not to recapitulate incidents with which our readers must be already too familiar, we may say, in a word, that the prominent situations the finale to the prologue, where Lucrezia, unmasked before Gennaro, is inspired with her terrible scene of retribution; the finale to the first act, where she forces the unwilling and incredulous Gennaro to swallow the antidote; and that to the second, where, to her utter dismay, she discovers that the one being she loves has been involved by her own wicked act in the fate of those whom she has injured, whom she hates, and by whom she has been insulted and reviled-were as grand, impressive, and forcible as ever; while the intervening details that help to develope and complete the portrayal were brought out with masterly skill, lighted up by flashes of genius that gave significance to many a subtle point which might not otherwise have arrested the sympathies of the spectator. Madame Grisi's singing, at times unequal (as in the cavatina, "Come è bello," the slow movement of which was irreproachable, the quick movement here and there unsatisfactory), was for the most part admirable, quite on a par, indeed, with her acting. The two great duets with Alphonso and Gennaro, and the powerfully dramatic trio ("Guai se ti sfugge un moto") which separates them, afforded instances of vocal excellence that even in her very best days this gifted lady has hardly surpassed. Worthy to stand side by side with such a Lucrezia were the Gennaro of Signor Mario and the Alphonso of Signor Ronconi - the first one of the most romantic and graceful, the last one of the most intellectual and wonderfully elaborated impersonations of the modern stage. Signor Mario's voice was in excellent order; he sang "Di pescatore ignobile" with a feeling no less exquisite for its unaffected simplicity than for its tenderness, and the interpolated air, "Io pur sentii le placide" to perfection. In a very critical moment of the final duet with Lucrezia, however, he seemed wholly at a loss; but the ready address of the orchestra (which Mr. Costa has trained to a state of discipline worthy of a musical Garibaldi) soon restored the equilibrium; and this temporary aberration was atoned for by a portrayal of the deathscene of Gennaro for picturesque beauty and abstract natural truthfulness worthy of the greatest actors. Signor Ronconi's

voice was in neither worse nor better order than usual; but his entire delineation of the character of Duke Alphonso was such as no predecessor has equalled and no contemporary even approached. His feigned courtesy to Gennaro, in the dialogue previous to handing him the poisoned cup, was a masterpiece of subdued irony the cloven foot, hidden from poor Gennaro, being just enough visible to the audience to perfect the dramatic verisimilitude. That with such elements the grand scene of the opera-the scene in which the poison and the antidote are successively administered to Gennaro, and Alphonso just rushes on the stage in time to see his intended victim escape unhurt-should create an extraordinary sensation was not surprising. The applause was deafening at the fall of the curtain, and one of the old triumphs revived. Mad. Nantier Didiée's Maffeo Orsini exhibited all those lively qualities for which it has been praised, and the brindisi, “Il segreto per esse felice," dashed off with her accustomed vigour, was followed by the accustomed "ovation." Signor Tagliafico's Gubetta, as the picture of a gloomy, unprincipled villain, is not less faultless and original than his Sparafucile; the poisoned cup to the one is evidently as genial and familiar as the assassin's knife to the other. No one can represent an unscrupulous bravo so thoroughly well as this versatile gentleman. Meyerbeer's Prophète is announced for Tuesday, with Mad. Csillag as Fides, Mad. Corbari as Bertha, and Signor Tamberlik (his first appearance) as Jean of Leyden.

STABAT-MATER, SEDEBAT-PATER.

(Letter to Mr. Punch.)

"SIR,-I was at Mr. Benedict's Concert, at Her Majesty's Theatre, and an admirable concert it was,-rich to excess with every soil of musical attraction that could justify a man in giving up four hours in the day to having his ears pleased'; but that's not the question now.

"The question is, Mr. Punch, whether you think that, because a woman comes late to a place of the kind, she has a right to expect a man who has come early to give up his seat to her? and whether she is justified in standing near him, like a standing reproach, and every now and then looking at him as if he were a brute, because he does not get up and resign his place ?

nothing to do, can just as well be punctual as not, and if they "Because that is the way many women behave. They, having were they would get a place; but they come in late, and with a sort of insolent notion that room is to be made for them, let them come when they like.

"Several women behaved in that way at Mr. Benedict's Concert; and as I happened to have an end seat, near the Stalls (did I say I went into the Pit, and never bestowed Seven Shillings I stood upon principle, and sat upon my seat. I would not move, better ?), I was the butt for a good deal of this sort of thing. Sir, and regarded the singers with fixed attention, turning adders' ears to mutterings behind and beside me about 'no notion of Gentlemen permitting Ladies to stand.' And in the intervals I the insolent and disappointed females. smiled very blandly (I have a bland smile, my friends say) upon The Stabat Mater was excellently sung by Alboni and Titiens, and I enjoyed myself

much.

force to turn me out of a place which I paid for and came early to "Was I not right, Sir? Has a woman a right to use moral secure? Unless you say she has, I shall pursue the same line of conduct, and

"I am, Sir, yours obediently,
"No CHERUB."
The women dared

"P.S.-And it's so mean to attack us men. not attack other women. They knew better. There was really plenty of room for everybody, for Mr. B. issued no more tickets than the place would hold; but the Crinolines were immoveably obstinate, and contemptuously rejected the slightest suggestion to move ever so little closer. Upon my honour, Mr. Punch, I think women are awfully selfish."

SIG. TAMBERLIK has arrived from Spain, and will make his first appearance on Tuesday, at the Royal Italian Opera, as Jean of Leyden, in the Prophète.

Advertisements.

nating quality), that no one in the social scale beneath an earl, a countess, or a bishop, is capable of appreciating a stringed quartet, and that, on the other hand, a stringed

on a summer morning, has been summarily upset by the Messrs. Chappell, who-under the very nostrils of the above-named theorist have established the Monday

R

OYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT GARDEN.First appearance of Signor TAMBERLIK.- Production of LE PROPHETE. On Tuesday next, July 10, will be produced, with new scenery, costumes, and decorations, Meyerbeer's Grand Opera, LE PROPHETE. Fides, Mile. CSILLAG; Bertha, Mile. CORBARI; Count Oberthal, Signor TAGLIAFICO; Zaccaria, M. ZELGER: Giona, Signor NERI-BARALDI; Mathisen, Signor POLONINI; Serjeant, Signor Rossi; Peasant, Signor LUCCHESI; Burghers, Signor VAIRO and Signor PATRIOSSI; and Jean of Leyden, Signor TAMBERLIK (his first appearance this season). Conductor, Mr. COSTA. The incidental Divertissement and Skating Scene will be supported by Mile. ZINA, Miles ESPER and MULOT, and M. DESPLACES, and comprise the celebrated Quadrille des Patineurs. The scenery by Mr. W. BEVERLEY; the costumes by M. HENNIER, of Paris, Mr. COOMBES, and Mrs. JAMES; the machinery by Mr. SLOMAN; the appointments by Mr. PRESCOTT; the dances arranged by M. DESPLACES; the Mise-en-Scène by Mr. A. HARRIS.

THE THE last three Monday Popular Concerts have taken place. The first was devoted to Beethoven, the second to Mozart, and the third, in the language of the advertisement, to "All the Great Masters"-although, in looking over the programme, we found the names of several "great masters" omitted. This, however, was inevitable, unless the concert was to last till sunrise; which, the judgment of the directors being (as experience has shown) in no way inferior to their enterprise, was not very likely to be intended, even at a performance instituted for their own benefit, into which they would naturally crowd all the good things possible.

The success of the Monday Popular Concerts is altogether without precedent. If anybody had maintained, some two years since, that, before two years more should have elapsed, nearly forty concerts would be held in the large music room of St. James's Hall, for the edification of audiences averaging between a maximum of 2500 persons and a minimum of 1500, with quintets, quartets, and pianoforte sonatas as the staple attractions, he would have been set down as a moon-struck enthusiast, if not as something still more forlorn and pitiable. Nevertheless, this has been brought about, and by those, too, whose previous undertakings had indicated no such staunch belief in the musical taste of the great public. The theory enforced (or endeavoured to be enforced) by a certain speculator (in whom bashfulness is not a predomi

tainments of the kind ever offered to the public.

One commendable feature in this undertaking is the total absence of "puff." The directors neither administer preparatory feelers in the shape of fulsome laudatory paragraphs, nor angry recriminations when critical exception happens to be taken with regard to any of the artists or works they bring forward. This is good alike for the patrons of the concerts, because it is honest and straightforward, and for the artists, because it does not compromise their self-respect by placing them in an undignified and ridiculous position before the public. At the Monday Popular Concerts the music of which the programme is composed, and the artists who are selected to perform, are allowed to appeal modestly on the strength of their intrinsic merits, and not put forth in flatulent paragraphs, as monstrous and unexampled phenomena. Herr Lubeck, for example, was just as courteously received, and thrice as warmly applauded, at St. James's Hall by gas-light, as at St. James's Hall by day-light; and yet, in one instance, he was presented simply as "Herr Ernst Lubeck," while, in the other, he was ticketed, labelled, and paraded, as "this unrivalled " &c.-stirred up, in short, with the long pole, like a drowsy "lion" prostrate and somnolent through overfeeding, or a "lion of irritable temperament, made refractory by the imposition of tasks wholly uncongenial to his leonine idiosyncracy.

AL

LL could appreciate the extent of the gap in public amusement occasioned by the decease of the late lamented Albert Smith. But few comparatively will be aware of the loss that is implied in the announcement that Robert Brough has rested so soon from his arduous toils. Widely celebrated as one of the most brilliant burlesque writers of the day, he had an earnest poetical side, which was seldom presented to the public, and we may fairly surmise that if Robert Brough had lived and prospered for twenty years more he would have been visibly identified with something very different from a writer of trivial papers and dramatic facetia. Perhaps he was the best of the class to which he would have been assigned by the public-his own best was revealed to few.

Well do we remember one evening when, in the lecture room of the Marylebone Institution, Robert Brough read a collection of his poems to an audience so scanty, as to dispel all intentions of repeating the experiment. But singular were the beauty and force of the poems themselves-some of them wildly passionate and exquisitely pathetic;-some sportively fantastic;-some impregnated with the spirit which we style." Bulwerian." But all were marked by a thorough mastery of language and of metre, and by a stern earnestness of purpose, while here and there (as for instance, in an imitation of the Raven of Edgar Poe) feats of great technical difficulty were performed. If ever there was a genuine poet it was Robert Brough, as he stood before that scanty audience at the Marylebone Institution. He appeared in a new character, but that character was evidently his own.

Of the novel which he published shortly before his death we are not in a position to speak; but how remarkable are those dramatic works by which his name is most familiarised to the public, if we take into the account all the circumstances of their production. Twelve years or so have elapsed since the "Brothers Brough" (that is, Robert and William) were made known to the London world as two young writers fresh from one of the Northern provinces, who at once leaped to the summit of facetious celebrity, by means of a burlesque Tempest. This Tempest, written by Robert Brough when he was less than 20 years of age! was a tremendous "hit," and from the time of its production at the Adelphi, the "Brothers Brough" have been in constant requisition to supply the London theatres with those entertaiments that recreate the public at holiday seasons. So prolific did they become, and so large was the demand which they supplied, that at one time there seemed considerable danger that they would "write themselves out." In the latest burlesque, however, a new vigor is apparent, and the pieces which Robert Brough wrote for Mr. Robson may be esteemed the best of his dramatic works. In the last of all-Alfred the Great there were indications of a new spirit. The dialogue was more than usually pointed, and was free from that slang of the fast school to which the author in his earlier life was somewhat too much addicted, and which it has ever been the merit of Messrs. Robson and Emden to discourage to the best of their power.

The "Savage Club" project an amateur performance for the benefit of the widow and children of Robert Brough. Might we suggest-in addition to this expedient-a publication by subscription of the select poems of the deceased, carefully and lovingly edited? A volume containing the pieces we heard at Marylebone, would not only be a vendible commodity, but it would show to the public what Robert Brough really was in his serious moments.

Aria, "Quando lasciai la Normandia"
(Robert le Diable), Miss Louisa Pyne. Meyerbeer
Overture, "Jubilee "
Weber

Conductor, Professor Sterndale Bennett, Mus. D. The admirable execution of Mozart's symphony-one of his finest, although one of his earliest, and written for a small band, without even clarionets-offered a fair specimen of the unsurpassed capabilities of the Philharmonic orchestra and the consummate talent of Professor Bennett as a conductor, in which capacity, where classical music has to be dealt with, he is at the present time without a superior. Calmly and unobtrusively, devoid of fuss, or show of any kind, thinking of the music he has to direct, and not at all

of himself, Professor Bennett does his work to perfection, adding, moreover, to the qualities we have specified, the taste and experience of an accomplished musician, combined with an intimate knowledge of all that is set before him. His own poetical and masterly overture, the Naiades, always welcome, and always in place, no matter of what materials the rest of the programme may be composed, was, perhaps, never more superbly given-even'at Leipsic or Berlin, where it forms a stock piece at the established musical institutions and certainly never received with greater heartiness. Both the members of the orchestra, who played so well, and the audience, who applauded so warmly, seemed inclined to express, in a significant and unmistakeable manner, whose able and zealous superintendence these time-honoured pertheir sense of the sterling merits of Professor Bennett, under formances have recovered all their ancient, and at one period slightly compromised, repute. The only novelty in the programme was the pianoforte concerto of Dussek-his sixth, in many respects his best, and one of those pieces which first elicited the attention of the ill-fated Prince Ferdinand of Prussia, who afterwards contracted such a close amity with the Bohemian musician that the two stood towards each other rather in the relationship of brothers than of patron and protegé. The attachment of any Prince, howDussek paid to Prince Ferdinand, in the Harmonic Elegy inscribed ever, would have been requited by such a tribute as that which to his memory. The increasing vogue which the too-long neglected works of Dussek have been obtaining of recent years, and in which the lady who played the concerto in & minor on Monday night has had some hand, is a sure sign (among others) of the healthy progress our amateurs are making. To give to Cæsar, however, what is Cæsar's due, it was Dr. Wylde who, at one of his new Philharmonic Concerts (in 1858), first resuscitated this splendid concerto in G minor-as, the following, he resuscitated another, its equal in year merit (No. 12, in E flat), from the same hand. On both occasions the pianist was Miss Arabella Goddard, to whom the music of Dussek has always been sympathetic, and who now, as before, did her very best to impart her enthusiasm to her hearers. That her efforts were not unappreciated was shown by the genuine marks of approval bestowed upon each movement of the work. The honours belonged, of course, to the old master; but Miss Goddard was entitled to a modest share of them as a sincere and ardent votary. Miss Lousia Pyne gave the noble scena of Spohr with a refinement and expression beyond praise, and was rewarded at the conclusion with unanimous applause. Of the second part of the programme (which ended appropriately with "God save the Queen," used with fine effect by Weber, as a climax to his Jubilee overture) it is unnecessary to speak in detail. Every lover of good music will be pleased to learn that next season there are to bein accordance with the practice of years gone by-eight Philharmonic concerts, instead of six. The return to the old constitutional figure will be hailed with universal satisfaction. In most cases it is admitted that adversity reads a lesson; but here we find the directors of the Philharmonic Society imbibing wisdom from

success.

MONDAY POPULAR CONCERTS.-The Monday Popular Concerts, "The People's Philharmonic" as they have been not inaptly styled, came to a close on Monday night with a performance "for the benefit of the directors." It is well known that the managers of these entertainments are the Messrs. Chappell, who certainly need not be ashamed of the undertaking with which their names have for two years past been associated-for never was speculation, of which art was the medium, planned and carried out with more undeviating artistic worthiness. The first promise of the scheme has been verified to the letter; the public has been invariably dealt with in good faith; and it is now no more than the elucidation of a plain fact to state that an institution has been established, on the most legitimate principles and the firmest basis, alike honourable to its projectors and advantageous to those who support it. The programme of the final concert (the twentyseventh of the second season), selected from the works of various masters, proved so attractive that St. James's Hall was hardly spacious enough to accommodate the crowd that besieged the doors. Those who take an interest in the musical progress of the masses (towards which poor Jullien effected so much, and with such untiring zeal) may not be displeased to learn that nearly