... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. DOROTHY. AGAIN this week the pencil has all the best of it, and the pen, to modify Sheridan's well- known example, can do little more than supply a subsidiary rivulet of text to meander around islands of illustration. The subject which my artistic colleague and my self have elected to deal with is one affording him a bet ter chance of dis playing his powers than it ...

... . AT the thirteenth of these concerts, given on Saturday last, Mr. Ebenezer prout's fourth symphony was performed for the first time in the metropolitan district since the fine performance cf it given last year, under the direction of the composer, at the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts. The work improves on further acquaintance. It is remarkably fresh and clear; the melodies-- especially in ...

... . ANY work produced by Dr. Stainer merits immediate and respectful attention. He writes little, but always writes well, and has composed admirable music of an ecclesiastical cha racter. He has also distinguised himself, both while organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, and during the fifteen years that he has been organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, by zealous and suc cessful efforts to improve ...

... . THE fifth concert of Messrs. Novello's second season pre sented great attractions in Mr. Cowen's cantata The Sleeping Beauty (conducted by the composer) and Beethoven's magni ficent Choral Symphony. Extra exertions had been made to ensure unusual excellence of execution. The choir of 300 selected voices had worked hard at rehearsals; the fine band had been increased in numbers, and was led ...

... . The Viennese Lady Orchestra on Monday last made their rentrec for the season at the Westminster Aquarium, and played dances and more important orchestral works with the spirit and expression for which they are renowned. They were aided by the band cf M. De Bono, who in their red uniforms formed a capital background to the ladies, who wore their customary dresses Of white muslin with sky blue ...

... DRAMA. OPERA COMIOUE. IF Miss Kate Vaughan is to make of her season at the Opera Comique the success which she fairly deserves, she must secure the services of some stronger and more judicious manager than any apparently associated with her productions. Her revivals are not cast as well as they ought to be, and sufficient care is not taken to make the rendering smooth, symmetrical, and ...

... Messrs. Reid Brothers. Of two songs written and com posed by W. C. Newsam and Claude Melville, Gwendoline and My Boyhood's Love, the former is by far the more pleasing and original it will be a favo ...

... DRAMA. OLYMPIC THEATRE. THE society of young players calling themselves Dramatic Students did something more than a creditable piece of work in their performance last Tuesday of A Woman Killed with Kindness. They afforded the first opportunity enjoyed by playgoers for some two hundred years of making the stage acquaintance of Heywood's beautiful and touching tragedy. Readers of the Elizabethan ...

... THE revival of Mr. Tom Taylor's Lady Clancarty at the ST JAMES'S Theatre will be memorable as well for the powerful acting of Mrs. Kendal as for the beauty and completeness of the historical setting w ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. HARD HIT. IT is all very well to be wise after the event-- to claim to have prognosticated an inevitable failure, or to add one's tributary brick to the laudatory pile erected over a secured success. A writer who has leisure to watch the course of events and nous to gauge the issue of paper before penning a criticism has a better opportunity of posing as a correct ...

... MUSIC. ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. ITALIAN OPERA dies hard, Four years ago we were informed by some of our German friends that two years later there would be no performances of Italian Opera in London, and that its place would be filled by German Opera. People should never prophesy unless they know, and in this instance the prophecy was ignominiously contradicted by events. German Opera lived through ...

... MR. SYDNEY GRUNDY'S farce in three acts, entitled The Snowball, originally produced at the Strand Theatre some years ago, has been revived at the Globe this week with some success. Its story, which co ...