... . WITH a truly Hibernian ring that must surely emanate from the seething brain of Mr. Augustus Harris's literary adviser, Mr. Augustus M. Moore, we are informed that London is empty, Drury Lane is full. There is a pleasant suggestion of contradiction in this simple announcement, and if it is fraught with any degree of veracity it must be at least pleasing to the various persons who have ...

... J 1 . DUFF & STEWART, 147, Oxford-street, W.-- Exercises and Solfeggios for Contralto or Bass, by A. Gilardoni, price 6s. Here we have a work which ought to find a place in the libraries of all contralto and bass singers. Signor Gilardoni has honourably acquired a distinguished place among modern maestri di canto, and the valuable quality of his teaching has been attested by the successes ...

... GAIETY THEATRE. THOUGH the withdrawal of that capital Christmas piece, The Gaiety Gulliver, is on some grounds to be regretted, there are not lacking elements of popularity in the entertainment given by Mr. Hollingshead in its place. The burlesque, Robbing Roy, for instance, which deals, in Mr. Burnand's happiest spirit, with a subject excellently fitted for good-humoured caricature, is the ...

... . ON Monday evening last the bright and tuneful operetta, A United Pair, was followed, at St. George's Hall, by a new musical sketch, in which Mr. Corney Grain illustrates some recent experiences' of Aix les Bains. Beginning with the in evitable commencement of a continental holiday, he goes through Paris, I visits a café chantant, and hears the cafe chorus, which varies, but never really ...

... . THE sliglitness of the interest taken by the English public in French plays and performances is well indicated by the poor attendance which has been vouchsafed during the week to the representations of Divorçons and La Cigale at the Gaiety. These are, both of them, extremely witty comedies of the farcical kind, and they have been admirably performed-- especially the latter piece, which has ...

... . WE recently gave a full account of the plot of the grand opera Sigurd, written by MM. Du Locle and Blau, and composed by M Ernest Reyer, since the death of Berlioz musical critic of Le Journal des Débate, Paris. We have now to chronicle the successful production, on Tuesday last, of the Italian adaptation written by Signor Mazzucato, one of the most distinguished of modern Italian literati. ...

... . Lucifer, an oratorio written in Flemish by M. Emanuel Hiel, composed by M. Pierre Léonard Leopold Benoit, and fitted with an English translation by Mrs. Butterfield, was on Wed nesday last produced at the Albert Hall by the Royal Choral Society, under the direction of Mr. Barnby. The composer holds high rank among his musical fellow countrymen, and has for many years persevered in endeavours ...

... GLOBE THEATBE. True Colours is the name of a new first piece by Mr. J. P. Hurst, produced with fair success at the Globe on Monday evening. The little play is legitimately described as a comedy in one act, for it unfolds a neat miniature plot and keeps clear of the farcical alike in dialogue and action. Its weakness lies in its tendency to over-elaboration of story, and the rather rough and ...

... M„ p _ STB AND THEATBE. CHARLES THOMAS'S comedy The Paper Chase, presented by Mr. Lionel Brough at a Strand matinee the other day, de serves warmer Praise than is given to it when it is pronounced superior to the ordinary run of morning productions. It is, in fact, a merry and ingenious play, not, perhaps, particularly original in its plot and developments, but sufficiently fresh in its well ...

... PBINCE OF WALES'S THEATBE. MR. CAMPBELL RAE-BROWN did not manage to make much of the inspiration furnished to him by Lord Tennyson's Lady Clara Vere de Vere, a poem which in truth does not suggest a great deal of sustained dramatic interest. His notion seemed to be to provide the haughty damsel with an excuse for herrejection of herhumbly-born lover in the foolish andlacka daisical ...

... The Henry Irving Shakespeare. Edited by Henry Irving and Frank A. Marshall, with numerous illustrations by Gordon Browne. London Blaclrie and Son, 49 and 50, Old Bailey. 1S88. THE third volume of this work, which redounds so highly to the credit of all connected with it, includes Richard III., King John, The Merchant of Venice, and Parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV. No greater praise can be bestowed ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE TIMES. I READ in my newspapers that The Times is a wonderfully clever satire. My own idea is that it is a somewhat snobbish play upon a very ancient theme. Despite the vastness of the subject suggested by its title this work of Mr. Pinero does little more than restate the old world superstition that people have no light ill society who have made their money by ...