Las Royal Italian Opera Company have given their last performance, and a most unsatisfactory season is thas brought to a close. It is difficalt to assign avy one reason, which would be universally accepted, for what has been a failure and a disappointment. The members of the troupe do not occupy the front rauk of their profession, it is trae; bub they are trained artists, they have fair voices, they are able to render difficult music creditably, and their repertory is by no menns limited. Of course they have been labouring under disadvantages whicl mast more or less affect all travelling companies. The scenic re. sources at their disposal have been few and meagre; their choruses have indisputable been poor, from sheer want of singers; and even Signor Goré's instru. mentation and that of his ce-operators could never make up for the absence of a proper orchestra, Allowing, however, for those unavoidable deficiencies, we think that the Company deserve every credit for Ube performances they have managed to give, besides cordial appreciation of the generous assistance they rendered on two occasions to philan-tropic objects. We regret their ill-success very sincerely, and think they deserved better at our hands, In case their amour propre have suffered in consequence, we need only mention the fact that when Arabella Goddard came to Shanghai some years ago she played to a more handful in the pit, and a particularly ang elect haudfal at that, The present opportunity may be taken advantage of for offering a few remarks on the subject of the opera generally, As operas are now written and por formed, they represent a crude and unsatisfactory condition of the lyric art, The combination of acting and singing,—in its present stage at all evonte,—is a barbarism. We hold it to be impossible for any man to act while he is singing, and equally impossible for the audience to enjoy the singing to the fall extent while distracted from it by bad acting. A comparison between the drama and the opera is perfectly legitimate in discussing this phase of art. A clever actor, whose business it is to bold the mirror up to nature, will speak, move, look, as the situation requires in a way to mako you forgot that he is act. ing. Every gesture, every expression, every utterance appears unpremeditated and natural, and the illusion produced upon the mind of the spectator is very nearly perfect. It matters not in what special line the actor may distinguish himself,—tengedy, drama, comedy, or or farce. If he be a man of talent, the result will be equally satisfying to the senso of art; and given a well. written play, with striking situations, a natural and witty dialogue, and an interesting plot, there is nothing to prevent the attainment of sheer perfection in the power of portraying nature. But in opera all is different. There, a man is handicapped so heavily by the exigencies of the music that it is simply impossible for him to do more than conform to the barest and most primitive requirements of the stage. Conventionality usurps the place of art, with results that, from an artistic standpoint, are grotesque in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.