Of the third act had only yone as well as the two that preceded it' on Thursday night(3: d), we could justly have said thatthe representation of Offenbach's "military spectacular" opera by the Willar.l Company was great success. Unfortunately the third act was se slashed and made sv generally unrecognizable and unintelligible, that the good imp: ession made earlier in the evening was considerably impaired. The opera was very well cast, und very prettily dressed, and Mr. Zeplin played on a Brins~ mead concert grand piano, from Messrs. Kelly ana Walsh, which was " great improvement on the one previously used, Mr, Wentworth made a very amusing old Duke Della Volta, and Me. Hall was om sistently idiotic ws the Marquis Bambini Mr. Saxby was a soldierly eld Monthaubor, the Drum-Maj and Mr, Walshe was handsome C: sutlicient as penin Robert. Me Vernard was ambas, the inn-keeper, while Miss Vera Patey, in'an extremely becoming costume, was a most attractive Grivlet, the drummer-boy, and handled her drum in a most masterly way. Miss Bessie Royal doubled the parts of the Duchess and the Abbess, and this most reliable actress was very goodwin both characters, dissimilarastheyare. Miss Cissie Denver was a charming Claudine, the vicandiére, and Miss Trigge was equally lively us Lorenzo, the pupil at the convent, and as Theresa, waitress at the inn, The other pupils at the convent were represented by the other ladies of the company, who were equally at home subsequently as guests in the salon in the Palace Della olga, and as chorus inthe public place in Milan. Mr, Fearnley did very well what he had to do as Gregorio, and the prima dino, Miss St, John, was even better than usual as the heroine Stella, and it was hard to determine whether she was more charming in her simple school dress in the first act, or in the virandiére's costume which she adopted when she found that she was the daughter of the Drum-Major and not of the Duke.
Lack of space obliges us to deal briefly with the music, but we could only regret that it was not more generally realised how many good numbers there are in the opera, and how well their reles suited the artists engaged. Stella's gong with chorus, For-hidden Fruit, sung with evident appreciation, was the first piece that roused the enthusiasm of the audience, a enthusiasm which was hardly excited as it should have been by Robert's air, Honour and Glory. The ensemble, To mercy yor will be incline: t, their, Some people hare of soldiers a terror, and the antiphonal I kuotw where, were very much enjoyed. Miss Patey sang her ballad Cold as the Snow uncommonly well; but there was nothing better in the first act than Stella's Confession, with its somewhat profane interjaculations. The finales to ithe first and second acts went very well, Mise St. John being deservedly encored in [the latter, and the act drop had to be raised again for a repetition. In the third xe. Mr. Walshe introduced Love's golden dream with great success, and Miss St, John was much applauded for her singing of the familiar air, Iam alittle Jehu. The duet between the Duchess and Monthaubor, Ok what a strange feeling came o'er me, seemed delight the house, but the finale was reached so suddenly, that we were hardly prepared for the town band in the distance. Mr. Willard had an army on the stage on this occasion, but they did not sing much.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.