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    Untitled Article

    LA JTJIVE . As an imposing and varied spectacle La Juive surpasses everything hitherto presented on the London boards ; as an opera , it is essentially a meagre and uninteresting work . The ears are assailed by a clang and uproar of sound for four mortal hours , and at the close you are tempted to ask , " When is the micsic to begin ? " It is easy enough to talk about the " French school , " and to point to a certain ingenuity

    and piquancy of instrumentation ; but there is no * ' school" in incompetence , and no tricks of orchestral ingenuity can supply the place of invention , grandeur , and grace . Haievy ' s music is ponderous ¦ without massiveness , noisy -without brio , cumulative without grandeur ; there is an absolute poverty of melodious ideas , and this poverty is compensated , by no other richness , unless fatiguing the voices with overloaded accompaniments be regarded as a sign of

    g . But the spectacle is magnificent . The scene is laid in Constance in 1414 , and the opening is a day of fete , for the arms of the *• Emperor Sigismund , " led on by his son the ** Prince Leopold " ( Tamberlik ) , have defeated the followers of JohnHuss , and in the midst of solemn councils and popular joy , the full power , and holiness , and infallibility of the holder of St . Peter ' s keys are to be nationally acknowledged . But in the midst of the festive uproar sounds the busy clink of an artificer ' s hammer . Who dares work upon so holy , so joyful a day ? Who but the stern Jew

    ** Eleazer " ( Mario ) , the rich goldsmith , and the father of " Rachel " ( Mdlle . Viardot ) , the Jewess . The incensed mob dash into the house , and seize father and daughter ; and " Ruggiero" ( Massol ) , the Provost of the City , has just passed a severe and hasty judgment on both , when they are rescued by the appearance of the " Cardinal de Brogni" ( Herr Formes ) , a wise , austere , and merciful prelate , who has known the Jew in earlier days in Rome , when he was not of the church , and when he was happy in the possession of a wife and daughter , the first of whom was killed , the other of whom disappeared

    during a conflagration and night attack upon the city . The >* Cardinal" sets the Jew and his daughter at liberty , and the fete proceeds . The choral peals of thanksgiving from the churches unite with the bacchanalian songs of the people , as they swarm round the quaint fountains , running with richest wine ; and it is only in a pause of the festive din that we find that a cavalier muffled in a cloak , who serenades the fair Jewess , and to meet whom she eagerly rushes into the street , is no less a person than the " Prince Leopold , " who , under the name of "

    Samuel " and the pretence of being a Jewish artist , has found admission to " Eleazer ' s " hearth , and has won the heart of his daughter , although he is betrothed , and shortly to espouse , the " Princess Eudosia , " the niece of the " Emperor . " The festival proceeds" Eleazer" and his daughter are again attacked by the mob , and rescued by the prowess of " Samuel "; and the act closes with the appearance of the grand procession in honour of the victories over heresy achieved by the " Prince , " who is rapturously in in love with a Jew goldsmith ' s daughter .

    In this act we may notice Tamberlik's masterly singing of a poor serenade in A minor , " Lontan dall' amante , " and an effective though made up drinking chorus , admirably performed ; nor should Mario ' s splendid burst at the close be forgotten . The second act opens with the feast of unleavened bread in the houso of " Eleazer . " The solemn Hebrew ceremony , arranged with great care so as to present a fine and impressive picture of the inner life of a Jewish family , produced a very great and significant effect . " Eleazer" chanting a solemn pascal hymn , responded to in measured strains of auaint harmony by the guests , distributes the

    unleavened cakes to all the household . Mario sang this deliciously . The feast is interrupted by the arrival of " Eudosia , " niece of the " Emperor , " who purchases a chain of great value from " Lazarus , " nnd commands him to engrave upon it the names of herself and her husband , " Prince Leopold , " and to bring it to her at the imperial banquet on the following day . "Leopold" overhears the conversation , and , touched by remorse , at a subsequent interview with " Rachel , " confesses that he is a Christian . Love prevails over faith , however , in the heart of the Jewess , and she consents to elope with her deceiver , when the unexpected appearance of " Lazarus " frustrates their design , and an explanation takes

    place . The Jew , at first furious , vows vengeance on the head of tho infidel , but , moved hy the entreaties of " Rachel , " ho consents to overlook tho past , and to receive "Leopold" ( of whoso actual rank and identity both arc ignorant ) as a son-in-law . "Leopold , " however , to their great astonishment , declarcs this to be impossible ; " Lazarub" curses him , " Rachel ' is overwhelmed with despair , find the curtain drops upon a scene of intense excitement . This is the only dramatic scene in the opera , and it owes its great effect to the impassioned singing of

    Yiardot , Mario , and Tamberlik . The clang and riot of brassy turbulence during the duet between Tamberlik and Viardot was such , that these two powerful voices might as well have been silent—scarcely a note was heard . It is the fashion to overpraise Costa ; surely a conductor who allows his orchestra to nullify two such singers wants one essential quality ? When at the close of the duet the orchestra ceased for a second or two , the thrilling chest notes of Tamberlik , climbing upwards in a glorious ascent emulous of Viardot , produced a tremendous burst of applause ; the duet was followed by a trio which would have saved a heavier opera , " Ah padre ! oh ciel fermate !" The third act , in which takes place the grand banquet of the " Emperor , " exhibits a spectacle which has never been surpassed . The stage is thrown open back to the very outer walls , the long array ^ of crowded galleries , thrones and chairs of state , giving way to a vista of trees , among which glistens the armour of a double line of mounted knights , surrounded by a gorgeous throng of nobles and their attendants . The " Emperor " is seated , with " Cardinal Broni" on his right hand , as the representative of the Church , " Eudosia" and " Leopold" at either side of him . " Lazarus " brings the chain , according to promise , and Eudosia hangs it round the neck of her husband , " Leopold , " who is now recognized by the Jew and his daughter as the supposed " Samuel . " " Rachel , " outraged beyond measure , openly accuses him of having had intercourse with a Jewish woman , a crime punishable by death , and owns herself the accomplice of his guilt . " Leopold , " in dismay , confirms the truth of her accusation , the " Cardinal " pronounces an anathema upon the three , and " Lazarus , " " Rachel , " and " Leopold" are led off to prison amidst a scene of general consternation . In the fourth act "Eudosia , " the distracted wife of " Leopold , " obtains an interview with " Rachel , " and endeavours to persuade her to recant her accusation against " Leopold . " The love of the Jewess for the Christian is sublime ; she declares the innocence of " Leopold , " and resolves to die alone . The " Cardinal , " whose sympathy for " Lazarus" hangs upon the fate of a daughter lost to him in early childhood , of whose fortunes he has reason to suppose the Jew is in some way cognizant , tries to glean from him the desired information , promising him a full pardon on condition that " Lazarus" embraces the Christian faith . The latter , however , obstinately refuses to abjure his religion , and at the fatal moment when " Rachel " is plunged into the burning cauldron , he points her out to the " Cardinal " as the ohject of his search , his long lost daughter . " Lazarus then immediately follows to execution , and the curtain falls . The triumph of vocalization was Mario ' s long scena in the fourth act— " Rachele , ah quando a me "where his mind is distracted by contending emotions , and he finally resolves that " Rachel" shall die . Never did he sing with finer expression , and only the lateness of the hour prevented an encore . We cannot agree with some of our contemporaries in the way they distribute their praise . Viardot , our readers know , is a great favourite with us , nor have we any exception to take against her performance , otherwise than to protest against its being compared with " Fides , " or " Valentine . " Formes we could not greatly admire : his acting was dignified , but his singing coarse and unpleasant . Bellowing , we submit , is not passion . Tamberlik , whom we find passed over with scarcely a word of commendation , sang an ungrateful part as no one else could sing it ; the music lies too low lor his voice , and only in the great scene of the second act had he any opportunity for display ; but he produced a greater effect with one phrase than Formes throughout the whole opera . Mario was in admirable voice and sang—like Mario ! But his acting was generally indifferent , and his " make-up " wretched , —he seemed as if , even in playing the old Jew , he could not consent to sacrifice his beauty . Magnificence unparelieled , and distributed with an eye to artistic effect not of ten exhibited in gorgeous spectacles , makes La Juive a thing to be seen / but , to our tastes , this subordination of music to spectacle is a senseless and degrading procedure which must ruin art if it be permitted to continue . In Meyerbeer ' s operas there is a certain correspondence between the highly-coloured music and the elaborate spectacle , so that one seems to heighten the effect of the other ; but , although Meyerbeer ' s genius may dazzle the judgment , and prevent the original sin from becoming visible , it is not so with his imitators .

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    THE OLD AND MODERN DRAMATISTS . Apropos of Marston ' s Malcontent , which was revived at the Olympic last Monday , and there mercilessly murdered by the most incompetent company in London , wo wish to say a word respecting our much-praised Old English Dramatists . Light the fagots ! clear your throats for execration ! ransack your memory for epithets like stones to cast at our heretical heads ! we are about to utter heresy of so black a dye that it will take the breath from some of you ! It is nothing less than a

    conviction that the greatest injury yet sustained by the English drama ' teas the revival of admiration for the Old EnglisJi Dramatists . They were forgotten—justly so— " Denn alles das entsteht 1 st werth dass es zu ende geht , " ( " Nothing perishes but it deserves to perish , "Goethe ) forgotten in spite of their marvellous passages and lines of beauty , until Charles Lamb and his friends , struck with the brilliancy of the jewels cast upon these dunghills , cried out with all the quick delight of discoverers , " Here is anew world !" The old English dramatists were exhumed from the dust of oblivious ages , and were studied by our poets as models . Now we venture to say that more detestable models were never held up before a student ' s reverence ; their very excellences being fatal lures . This is not the occasion for a survey of their characteristics , or a display of their peculiar infelicity as dramatists ; but whoever has more than a secondhand acquaintance with Kyd , Peele , Marlowe , Webster , Dekker , Ford , Marston , Chapman , Heywood , Middleton , Shirley , Cyril Tourneur , and the rest , will probably agree with us that their plays are as poor in construction ( artistic as well as theatric ) as they are resplendent in imagery and weighty lines—that their characters are sketched rather than developed—that their situations for the most part are violent , horrible , and clumsily prepared , and that , besides being wearisome in reading , they are essentially unfit for the modern stage . If this be soor but partially so—it follows that they cannot be good models for our living dramatists . The drama should be a reflex of our life , idealized , of course , but issuing out of the atmosphere we breathe . It was so when these writers lived : it was so in the reigns of Charles and Anne ; it was so in the last century , when the British tar and British merchant were the claptraps of the stage . These last century tragedies and comedies are wearisome enough , ' tis true , and any escape from them might , to our young poets , have seemed an issue into a freer , healthier world . But the escape into the Old Drama was a brilliant . fallacy : it was the Young Englandism of Art : disgusted with the Present , yet without faith in the Future , it flew into the Past . Unhappily all our poets could learn in that Old Drama was precisely that of which ( if they were poets ) they stood in least need , viz ., poetry ; finding that there they learned to think that poetry was enough to make a drama ! Whereas , if they had never known this Old Drama , they must perforce have created anew form , and instead of the thousand-and-one imitations of the old dramatists , which the last twenty years have produced , we might have had some sterling plays . Who are the successful dramatists of our day ? Precisely those who do not imitate the Elizabethan form ! Perhaps Knowles may be cited as an exception ; but his imitation really consists in quaintness of diction , not in the nature of his plots and arrangement of his subject . He succeeds by his strong domestic element . To appeal to the public taste , to move the general heart of men , you must qxiit the study , and try to image forth some reflex of the world that all men know , speaking their language , uttering their thoughts , espousing their idealisms . Racine has been blamed by short-sighted critics for making his Greeks speak and think like Frenchmen : ho did so because ho was a poet , not an antiquary ! Had he pictured Greeks ( and how easy for one so learned to have done so !) he would have committed the mistake of our modern dramatists , viz ., sacrificed the present to the past . We foresee an objection drawn from the continued success of Shakspeare and Racine ; and we will answer it . Not becatise of their form—of whatis temporal and peculiar to their epochs in themdo these masters hold us in their spell , but in spite of it . If they were born into this century they would not adopt the tone of two centuries past , but do now what they did then—reflect their age . This remark will also anticipate any question as to whether we wish drawing ' room and cottage life to be the only sphere for a modern dramatist . We do not wish it . There is no need of abjuring the picturesque adjuncts of dress , scene , and distant time . Poetry moves more freely in a world of beauty and magnificence . But we do wish that the dramatist should not be an archccologist , that he should not strive to revive defunct forms , but produce a nineteenth century drama : something that will appeal to a wider audience than that of a few critics and black letter students . What has prevented our poets from attempting this ? A preconceived notion of the excellence of the old English dramatists ! The Kcans are to open a theatre confessedly with the intention of bringing out new plays . It is the only chance loft for a theatre ; but it will require some courage to persevere , and not be frightened at * the first non-success . But , if our voice can pierce through ancient prejudices , we would earnestly counsel all aspiring dramatists to forget , if possible , that Shakupeare had contemjjoraries , to shun the old writers as they would the plague ; and we would whisper soltly in the managerial ear , Beware of works which in critical compliment are said to be " worthy of a place beside productions of tho Elizabethan ago" ! Verbumsat ,

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    Aug . 3 , 1850 . ] 5 tf ) £ & £ && £¥ + 451

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 3, 1850, page 451, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1849/page/19/