... . THE English Comedy Company began its season at the Strand Theatre on Monday last with a satisfactory per formance of a very interesting play. We are not quite sure whether, as a matter of fact, London playgoers have not of late had a little more old comedy than they want; and this may perhaps prevent Messrs. Conway and Farren from obtain ing the full encouragement that they deserve. But ...

... . THE sixteenth of these concerts brought the series to a close, and was worthy the occasion; the programme including Schubert's Great Symphony No. 9 in C, Raff's Jubilee Overture, Wagner's Emperor's March, and Lohengrin's Farewell scene. The orchestral works were capitally executed, under the skilful guidance of Mr. Henschel, who has during the season established himself in general esteem ...

... SIJRliEY TI1EATKE. A PASSAGE in a novel-- a very characteristic one-- by 51. Boisgobey, which has already blossomed into a Porte Saint Martin play called Les Estrangleurs de Paris, affords the founda tion of The Stranglers of Paris, a melodrama from the pen of Mr. Arthur Shirley produced last Monday at the Surrey. The Stranglers is rather straggling in plot, but possesses a long series of ...

... . THE red brick building hard by Simpson's Divan in the Strand, which has for some time been slowly approaching completion, was opened on Monday last as Terry's Theatre. Save for the convenience of its position, the site-- which is that of the old Occidental Tavern-- was not a particularly eligible one for a theatre, as it is very cramped, and is, of course, henmed in by adjoining houses. But ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIO. DEVlt CARE3F00T. IN course of a fairly long experience of the acted drama, I have noted two diametrically opposite tendencies on the part of play-writers equally carried to excess. The one is the tendency to tell you too much, and the other that to tell you too little. There are authors who insist upon explaining to you a great more than you really care a jot about ...

... . THE promenade concerts given at Her Majesty's Theatre, under the management of Mr. J. H. Mapleson, have not been largely patronised by the musical public; possibly because the programmes have been chiefly devoted to the lighter kinds of music, to the exclusion of those more sterling works for which there is a large demand amongst the music-lovers of the metropolis. At the moment when we ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. AND THE CHURCHWARDEN. THE pernicious practice of paragraphing the sayings and doings of actors and actresses in private life, so extensively carried on at present, has, I should venture to say, a great deal to do with the title of the piece now being performed at the Olympic Theatre. The prominence given in certain papers to the parochial functions locally exercised by Mr ...

... . Held by the Enemy is a drama that has steadily grown in public favour since Mr. Warner first produced it at a tentative matinee early in the season. It is not of course, in any sense of the word, a great play, least of all so far as literary quality it concerned nor has it such striking sketches of character as are found in The Silver Finy, and the best melodramas of the day. But it has a ...

... 1IER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. Undeterred by the failure of a recent scries of promenade concerts at tliis theatre, a second series has been organised, and the first concert of the current season was given on Satur day last with considerable success, the theatre being crowded. In the new undertaking greater spirit is shown than was exhi bited in the previous attempt. A band of sixty-five per formers ...

... THREE ITALIAN OPE IAS. London is the only oity in which at any time three great theatres have simultaneously given performances of Italian Opera. The competition of managers has in some instances led to the payment of preposterous salaries, and in this manner has had an injurious effect on the true interests of art. Enor mous gums cannot b3 nightly paid to two or three leading vocalists ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. AT THE CO VENT GARDEN CONCERTS. BY nature I am scarcely disposed, I might indeed almost write fitted, to play the part of a musical critic, though I have done so pretty frequently with more or less success, and trust in all honesty to be able to repeat the performance. Judicious circumlocution, and the adroit annexation of expert opinion, will go a very long way towards ...

... . MR. AUGUSTUS HARRIS is renowned for energy and activity, and these qualities were notably exhibited in the first week of his cur rent operatic season at Drury Lane. He was pre vented from carrying out his original intention to produce six different operas in the first six consecutive nights, but actually pro duced five, with costly ap pointments, and carefully rehearsed mises en scène. In ...