... MTJSICJ. SPOHR'S CALVARY. THE Novello Oratorio Concerts, established last year, have taken their place amongst the most valuable of our musical institutions. During the current season modern works of great importance have been for the first time presented to metro politan audiences, and on Tuesday last a welcome addition was made to the Novello concert repertory, in Spohr's second oratorio, ...

... . IT was a very odd dramatic mixture that was presented at a tentative matinée at the Royalty last Tuesday, under the title, The Professor's Wooing. The play is classified as a comical pastoral, and has enjoyed a considerable run on the American continent-- which latter fact only shows how different is American taste from English. A good notion underlies the piece, which has for its hero a ...

... . It was not to he expected that a successful sensation such as that achieved by the great Ileniey Regatta or tank scene last October at the Standard would be dropped after the com paratively short run allowed to it by the exigencies of panto mime. The moment accordingly that Christmas entertainment here is done with, Mr. John Douglass revives A Dark Secret, the drama into which Henley Regatta ...

... DRAMA. OPERA COMIQUE THEATRE WHERE the performance of old English comedy is concerned, the presence of a fashionable audience cannot make up for the absence of a pit. The players want the sympathy of out spoken playgoers to react upon them. They need hearty laughter rather than languid applause, no matter how dis tinguished be the applauders. Now, Miss Vaughan's patrons at the Opera Comique on ...

... . NO one would think from merely reading a précis of the plot of Jack in the Box that in this piece Messrs. Sims and Scott have provided Miss Fannie Leslie with a variety drama of the approved pattern. The main thread of the story is hung upon a murder committed before the play begins, which murder is supposed to implicate one Edward Moreland, the prodigal son of a rich Australian. Edward ...

... MUSIC. ALBERT PALACE. A NOVEL experiment was made at the Albert Palace on Saturday last, when Handel's Messiah was substituted for the miscellaneous entertainments usually provided here for Satur day night visitors. Oratorios have been given at the Albert Palace occasionally on Good Fridays, and on other suitable days, but never until Saturday last as an appeal to popular musical taste. The ...

... DRAMA. COURT THEATRE. THERE can he no question as to the cleverness of Mr. Pinero's new play, Dandy Dick, produced last week with such marked success at the Court Theatre. Some of us may wish that a dramatist so fertile and witty as this would widen his sphere of observation, and would give us studies of men and women as they are instead of whimsical caricatures. Others may regret to see the ...

... music. NOEDIS A. EVER since this year commenced there has been excitement in musical circles throughout the civilised world respecting the production of Verdi's Otello, produced last Saturday at La Scala, Milan, in presence of an audience gathered from all quarters of the globe. The opera will probably be the crown ing effort of a long and splendid career, but it should not be forgotten that ...

... . Horse-Boeing in France a. History. By Robert Black, M.A. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Riving- ton, 188, Fleet-street. MANY English sportsmen are still accustomed to speak with something of contempt about racing in France, and no doubt to English eyes odd things are to be seen on French race courses. It is, nevertheless, a fact that the animal which not a few judges esteem the ...

... DRAMA. PRINCE OF WALES'S THEATRE. MESSRS. CELLIER AND STEPHENSON'S Dorothy differs from most of the comic operas of the day in that it bears hearing over and over again. Its delightful music grows upon the ear, and the listener is pretty sure to like it a second time better than he did the first. It was a pity on Saturday last, when a good many people had visited the Prince of Wales's Theatre ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. MYNHEER JAN. THE pen, it has been remarked, is mightier than the sword. In some instances though, the pencil is far superior to the pen. For example, a single glance at the illustra tions adorning this page will enable the glancer to seize in stantaneously and without difficulty on the idea which I am slowly and painfully striving to put for ward in the accom panying ...

... . A NEW and original comic opera m three acts, entitled Mynheer Jan, written by Harry Paulton and Mostyn Tedde, music by Edward Jakobowski, was produced at the Comedy Theatre on Monday last, with those signs of success which are almost always visible on first nights of new pieces, unless they prove to be downright failures. The new opera was produced last week at Birmingham, where it met ...