... MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND CO.-- Part XI. Vol. II. of A Dictionary of Music and Musicians brings us from Opera to Palestrina; the former, contributed by F. H. Jenks, of Boston, U.S.A., is quite an ex ...

... THE WELLFIELDS: A Novel, by Jessie Fothergill (3 vols: Bentley and Son).-- Whatever loss of freshness may be apparent in the latest work of the authoress of Probation and The First Violin is com ...

... DRAMA. VAUDEVILLE THEATBE. THE new portion of the programme at the Vaudeville proves to be a comedietta, called Auld Acquaintance, in which the author, Mr. Joseph Dilley, has compressed the dramatic material formerly employed by him in a more pretentious piece acted by some amateurs a year or two since at St. George's Hall. The little piece is pretty, though not highly ingenious in motive. A ...

... . ANIMAL magnetism is a highly fascinating speculation, and one well worn in the appals of poetry and romance. It is par ticularly useful as a subject for a drama, wherein one bright particular star wishes to increase and diffuse his effulgence by doubling parts. I have long had an unaccountably strong interest in persons whom I have met, and who, through something more than ordinary close ...

... THE ROYALTY Theatre has reopened under the management of Miss Kate Lawler, who has invoked the assistance of Mr. Byron, and obtained from the pen of that fertile writer a new comedy, bearing the title ...

... . MR. ARMIT'S prospectus of the season of Italian opera about to be given under his management at Her Majesty's Opera merits favourable notice. Perhaps there is no portion of it more welcome than tho announcement that an entirely new choir of sixty-two voices has been engaged. For some years past the inefficiency of the choristers at Her Majesty's Opera has attracted attention, and last season ...

... LOVE AND LIFE: an Old Story in Eighteenth Century Costume, by Charlotte M. Yonge (2 vols.: Macmillan and Co.).-- Some years ago Miss Yonge published a novel, original both in idea and in execution, ...

... i I S LEEDS FESTIVAL.-- Rehearsals of some of the most important pieces included in the programme of the forthcoming Leeds Triennial Musical Festival were given on Monday and Tuesday, under the direct ...

... . As a rule revived burlesques have about as much life in them as reopened champagne. The old life is gone, and no amount of trouble can infuse a new one. But Mr. Reece's Half-Crown Diamonds, which have we are told been reset since they were originally exhibited at the Mirror Theatre, provide an exception to the law of burlesque nature which associates flatness with re suscitation. We do not ...

... . MISS KATE LAWLER has either profited by experience or gained from improved fortune, for there are those who hold that luck as much as judgment controls the fate of most theatrical experiments. The new programme at the Royalty is a very distinct improvement upon the old, and it bids fair to attract much larger audiences than have of late been drawn to the dingy district of Soho. Bow Bells, ...

... . MR. W. HOLLAND continues at the Surrey Theatre to give his patrons dramatic entertainment of divers kinds. It is not very long ago that Mr. Warner was horrifying his South London audience with Drink, and melodrama is now abruptly changed for tragedy of the most approved conventional description. That Mr. Oreswick will prove very attractive in Sheridan Knowles's once popular play is scarcely ...

... . ON Saturday last the first of the series of Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden organised by Mr. Samuel Hayes was given with remarkable success, the theatre being filled to over flowing. The quality of the band is the most important con sideration at promenade concerts, and on this head Mr. Hayes may be congratulated. The nucleus of the band appears to consist of the excellent body of ...