DOI issue:
January 25, 1862
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16869#0045
January 25, 1862. ] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
OUR DRAMATIC CORRESPONDENT.
Second hearing, my dear
Punch, has not, raised my
opinion of Mr. Balfe’s
new Opera. That it con-
tains much pleasant music
I still readily admit; but
that, as has been stated,
it is really his best work, 1
am uow by no means quite
so ready to allow. The
ballads certainlyare charm-
ing, and most admirably
suited to the voices they
were written for; nor are
the concerted parts less
cleverly composed, or
adapted with less taste to
the dramatic situations;
while on the whole the
work is instrumented far
more skilfully than is com-
mon with composers of the
English school. What, then,
is amiss? Well, it is diffi-
cult to say; but there can
scarcely be that freshness
in the music I first fancied,
or J surely should have
more enjoyed a second
hearing.* A really good
work is relished more, the
more one knows it; the
fulness of its beauty is
rarely learnt at first. Who
ever tires of hearing Guillaume Tell, or Bon Giovanni ? and without com-
paring Balfe to Mozart or Rossini, his music may be not unfairly
judgedby the same test. Moreover, his new opera, in certain of the scenes
is rather noisy than melodious; and thougli the accompaniments are
skilful and elaborate, there is at times a rather VERDi-like prepon-
derance of brass. Still, there is no doubt that the work, if it do not
much enhance, will in no degree diminish his justly high repute; and
as little question is there it finds favour with the public, or it would
not have been played, as it has been, for upwards of six weeks.
“ Well as it may seem to pay, I question if this plan of running a
new opera without change or cessation, while its novelty attracts, be
not hurtful in the end to the pockets of a manager, as well as most
injurious to singers and to art. To sing nightly the same music for
upwards of a month becomes a strain upon the patience as well as on
the strength : and instead of singers growing perfect by such practice,
they are tempted to get careless, and to sing as though their singing
were a mere work of routine. Even Jenny Lind could scarcely throw
her soul into a song, were she for weeks restrained to singing that and
nothing pise; and besides the bad effect which the monotony produces,
there is in the case of the Royal English Opera the no less evil conse-
quence of vocal overwork. How Miss Pyne has contrived to sing six
nights a week, and retain still all the brilliancy and sweetness of her
voice, is a marvel that provokes my admiration and my wonder, and
makes me view her as the Grisi of the English stage. But for her
sake, and for Art’s sake, I wish she were relieved from so much wearing
over-labour, which can hardly fail to terminate in premature decay.
Miss Pyne’s delicious voice is of far too high a value thus to be im-
perilled ; and I for one protest against her so destructively and lavishly
employing it. Its riches rightly hoarded, ought twenty years tc come
to give a pleasure to the public; but if she squanders them, half that
time will hardly pass ere we may be lamenting the treasure we have lost.
“It is my fervent wish that English opera may flourish in the hands
that now support it, which makes me anxious that such faults as I have
noticed be removed. A harsh word now and then is in reality a kind
one; lor without it blots and blemishes would perhaps escape correc-
tion, which becomes an easy matter when the faults are pointed out.
“ Of the pantomime at this house I shall say more in my next. Bor
the present it suffices to remark that Mr. Payne, the prince of panto-
mimists, enacts the part of Gulliver in a way that adds new lustre to
Dean Swift’s immortal traveller; and after escaping from a Brob-
dingnag big lobster, reviews the volunteers of Lilliput, and lets them
march between his legs. I must add too, that if people who like trans-
formation scenes, allow the Covent Garden one to pass without their
seeing it, they will thoroughly deserve to find themselves the victims
of a lunacy commission, issued for the purpose of deciding on their
madness and devouring their estates.
“ I shall have, too, in my next to speak of the Olympic, more fully
* Could our friend have been a little play-bilious?—Ed.
than at present I. have the space to do. The burlesque is neatly
written and pleasantly performed, Miss Cottrell and Miss II tr i s
both doing their best to make their singing as pretty as their looks;
while _Mr. Robson charms the audience with one of those quaint songs,
in which the lungs are not more held in requisition than the legs,
Mr. Robson, although suffering severely from a cold, moreover plays
his part of Wormwood with ail his wonted humour; and people who
love laughing will find the Lottery Ticket provoke that healthy exercise
to their full heart’s content. « ahi, WTT„ p,YR >>
LAYS BOR AMERICAN LAWYERS.
THE INSTINCTS OF THE HEART.
There is an iron power
To which cold men succumb,
Before which worldlings cower
And selfish souls are dumb.
Let such revere proud Justice
And steer by her old chart,
My guides are, where no dust is—
The Instincts of the Heart.
If lured by yellow Avarice
To clutch Life’s sweetest balm,
Stand not on being overnice,
Nor check your tingling palm.
If urged by stern severity
With others’ goods to part,
Oh! pause and let your counsel be
The Instincts of the Hear!.
Mark Nature’s teaching, ruled by that
No qualm your mind perplexes,
The solemn salmon snaps the sprat,
The fox the fowl annexes.
Say popularity you prize,
The World’s an Auction Mart,
Go there, bid high, and don’t deny
The Instincts of the Heart.
THB GItEAT MORNING CALL NUISANCE
In little social matters it very often happeus that oui Brench frien Is
are ahead of us. Is it not so, Mr. Smith? Do, pray, just look at
this:—
“Two million visiting cards passed through the Paris Post-office the first three
days of the year, besides the ordinary letters.”
Now, why can’t we make calls by post in England, as they do in
Brance? Surely, to have one’s card delivered by the post would bn
just as good as having it delivered by a footman, supposing that one
goes one’s rounds in one’s own carriage, or by a cabman if a Hansom
be the vehicle employed. What can it matter to receivers of one’s
pasteboard whether it be handed by the servants of Her Majesty, or
simply by our own ? Of course, when one makes calls one hopes people
will be out, and goes just at the time it is most likely they will be so.
And supposing that unluckily they chance to be at home, of course one
always views it as a most untoward circumstance, and about the last
thing in the world that one would wish. As for making morning calls
with the intent to see one’s friends, clearly that is nowadays a quite
exploded notion. If they are at home the chances are they are em-
ployed in some more profitable work than merely chatting with chance
visitors ; and when this is the case your intrusion is a nuisance, as of
course you come with nothing particular to say. Your call is a mere
form, and might be just as well transacted by the post; and indeed far
better, as you would then take up. but half a moment of the time which
uo*v is wasted in exchanging stupid vapid common-placeities, if you are
ever so uulucky as to find your friends at home, when you do them the
great honour of a morning visit.
THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN STATES OB LONDON.
It seems that London, like America, is to be divided into a North
and a South, and that the two are to be rivals. President Thwaites
is the Constitutional Monarch in the North, and President Doultox
seems to be the Jeff Davis of the Borough; and, as over the sea, the
Banks are the great question of the day. Our sympathies are with
Thwaites ■ but we don’t wish to see him vanquish the South by force
of arms. The sooner the dirty street called after the name of the
Union is broken up the better, and we conclude with the outrageous
pun and fervent aspiration that the North, which has so long missed
tier sewer, will find a long Mister Seward to protect her.
OUR DRAMATIC CORRESPONDENT.
Second hearing, my dear
Punch, has not, raised my
opinion of Mr. Balfe’s
new Opera. That it con-
tains much pleasant music
I still readily admit; but
that, as has been stated,
it is really his best work, 1
am uow by no means quite
so ready to allow. The
ballads certainlyare charm-
ing, and most admirably
suited to the voices they
were written for; nor are
the concerted parts less
cleverly composed, or
adapted with less taste to
the dramatic situations;
while on the whole the
work is instrumented far
more skilfully than is com-
mon with composers of the
English school. What, then,
is amiss? Well, it is diffi-
cult to say; but there can
scarcely be that freshness
in the music I first fancied,
or J surely should have
more enjoyed a second
hearing.* A really good
work is relished more, the
more one knows it; the
fulness of its beauty is
rarely learnt at first. Who
ever tires of hearing Guillaume Tell, or Bon Giovanni ? and without com-
paring Balfe to Mozart or Rossini, his music may be not unfairly
judgedby the same test. Moreover, his new opera, in certain of the scenes
is rather noisy than melodious; and thougli the accompaniments are
skilful and elaborate, there is at times a rather VERDi-like prepon-
derance of brass. Still, there is no doubt that the work, if it do not
much enhance, will in no degree diminish his justly high repute; and
as little question is there it finds favour with the public, or it would
not have been played, as it has been, for upwards of six weeks.
“ Well as it may seem to pay, I question if this plan of running a
new opera without change or cessation, while its novelty attracts, be
not hurtful in the end to the pockets of a manager, as well as most
injurious to singers and to art. To sing nightly the same music for
upwards of a month becomes a strain upon the patience as well as on
the strength : and instead of singers growing perfect by such practice,
they are tempted to get careless, and to sing as though their singing
were a mere work of routine. Even Jenny Lind could scarcely throw
her soul into a song, were she for weeks restrained to singing that and
nothing pise; and besides the bad effect which the monotony produces,
there is in the case of the Royal English Opera the no less evil conse-
quence of vocal overwork. How Miss Pyne has contrived to sing six
nights a week, and retain still all the brilliancy and sweetness of her
voice, is a marvel that provokes my admiration and my wonder, and
makes me view her as the Grisi of the English stage. But for her
sake, and for Art’s sake, I wish she were relieved from so much wearing
over-labour, which can hardly fail to terminate in premature decay.
Miss Pyne’s delicious voice is of far too high a value thus to be im-
perilled ; and I for one protest against her so destructively and lavishly
employing it. Its riches rightly hoarded, ought twenty years tc come
to give a pleasure to the public; but if she squanders them, half that
time will hardly pass ere we may be lamenting the treasure we have lost.
“It is my fervent wish that English opera may flourish in the hands
that now support it, which makes me anxious that such faults as I have
noticed be removed. A harsh word now and then is in reality a kind
one; lor without it blots and blemishes would perhaps escape correc-
tion, which becomes an easy matter when the faults are pointed out.
“ Of the pantomime at this house I shall say more in my next. Bor
the present it suffices to remark that Mr. Payne, the prince of panto-
mimists, enacts the part of Gulliver in a way that adds new lustre to
Dean Swift’s immortal traveller; and after escaping from a Brob-
dingnag big lobster, reviews the volunteers of Lilliput, and lets them
march between his legs. I must add too, that if people who like trans-
formation scenes, allow the Covent Garden one to pass without their
seeing it, they will thoroughly deserve to find themselves the victims
of a lunacy commission, issued for the purpose of deciding on their
madness and devouring their estates.
“ I shall have, too, in my next to speak of the Olympic, more fully
* Could our friend have been a little play-bilious?—Ed.
than at present I. have the space to do. The burlesque is neatly
written and pleasantly performed, Miss Cottrell and Miss II tr i s
both doing their best to make their singing as pretty as their looks;
while _Mr. Robson charms the audience with one of those quaint songs,
in which the lungs are not more held in requisition than the legs,
Mr. Robson, although suffering severely from a cold, moreover plays
his part of Wormwood with ail his wonted humour; and people who
love laughing will find the Lottery Ticket provoke that healthy exercise
to their full heart’s content. « ahi, WTT„ p,YR >>
LAYS BOR AMERICAN LAWYERS.
THE INSTINCTS OF THE HEART.
There is an iron power
To which cold men succumb,
Before which worldlings cower
And selfish souls are dumb.
Let such revere proud Justice
And steer by her old chart,
My guides are, where no dust is—
The Instincts of the Heart.
If lured by yellow Avarice
To clutch Life’s sweetest balm,
Stand not on being overnice,
Nor check your tingling palm.
If urged by stern severity
With others’ goods to part,
Oh! pause and let your counsel be
The Instincts of the Hear!.
Mark Nature’s teaching, ruled by that
No qualm your mind perplexes,
The solemn salmon snaps the sprat,
The fox the fowl annexes.
Say popularity you prize,
The World’s an Auction Mart,
Go there, bid high, and don’t deny
The Instincts of the Heart.
THB GItEAT MORNING CALL NUISANCE
In little social matters it very often happeus that oui Brench frien Is
are ahead of us. Is it not so, Mr. Smith? Do, pray, just look at
this:—
“Two million visiting cards passed through the Paris Post-office the first three
days of the year, besides the ordinary letters.”
Now, why can’t we make calls by post in England, as they do in
Brance? Surely, to have one’s card delivered by the post would bn
just as good as having it delivered by a footman, supposing that one
goes one’s rounds in one’s own carriage, or by a cabman if a Hansom
be the vehicle employed. What can it matter to receivers of one’s
pasteboard whether it be handed by the servants of Her Majesty, or
simply by our own ? Of course, when one makes calls one hopes people
will be out, and goes just at the time it is most likely they will be so.
And supposing that unluckily they chance to be at home, of course one
always views it as a most untoward circumstance, and about the last
thing in the world that one would wish. As for making morning calls
with the intent to see one’s friends, clearly that is nowadays a quite
exploded notion. If they are at home the chances are they are em-
ployed in some more profitable work than merely chatting with chance
visitors ; and when this is the case your intrusion is a nuisance, as of
course you come with nothing particular to say. Your call is a mere
form, and might be just as well transacted by the post; and indeed far
better, as you would then take up. but half a moment of the time which
uo*v is wasted in exchanging stupid vapid common-placeities, if you are
ever so uulucky as to find your friends at home, when you do them the
great honour of a morning visit.
THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN STATES OB LONDON.
It seems that London, like America, is to be divided into a North
and a South, and that the two are to be rivals. President Thwaites
is the Constitutional Monarch in the North, and President Doultox
seems to be the Jeff Davis of the Borough; and, as over the sea, the
Banks are the great question of the day. Our sympathies are with
Thwaites ■ but we don’t wish to see him vanquish the South by force
of arms. The sooner the dirty street called after the name of the
Union is broken up the better, and we conclude with the outrageous
pun and fervent aspiration that the North, which has so long missed
tier sewer, will find a long Mister Seward to protect her.