... THE second concert of the seventy-fifth season of this famous society was given last week under the direction of Mr. Frederic Cowen, vice Sir Arthur Sullivan, who was detained at Berlin by the preparations for the performance of his dramatic cantata. The Golden Legend, on Saturday last. Mr. Cowen proved himself (not for the first time) worthy to conduct a Philharmonic Concert, and secured good ...

... . THE procession of Mr. Mapleson's prime donne seems inter minable. Last week, with very little prefatory announcement, Mme. Mazzoli Orsini, a prima donna drammatica of some celebrity on the Continent, made her first appearance in Eng land as Leonora, the heroine of Donizetti's finest opera, La Farorita. On Thursday last La Sonnambula was announced for the début of Mlle. Nevada as Amina, and ...

... . It was, we believe, intended to introduce into tbe second edition of Monte Crista more new features than had been got ready for Easter. The illness, however, of Miss Marion Hood and Miss Barlow, for whom substitutes had to be provided, was no doubt accountable for the diminished number of the promised changes. This, however, was of the slightest possible moment, for the old songs and dances ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITia MONTE CEISTO JR. THE amiable but anonymous cor respondent who lately requested me to in form him and his fellow residents in the country what Monte Cristo Jr. was like, and at the same time adjured my colleague to portray for him Miss Farren and Mr. Fred Leslie, will I fear have some cause to complain of my attempt to gratify his desires. In the first plaoe so much has ...

... . IT is to be feared that Mr. Edouin will not do much good, at any rate in London, with the crude and childish piece produced by him at the Royalty. Ivy, as this piece is called, is classified by its author, Mr. Mark Melford, as a comedy-drama, a definition which, so far as it has any logical significance, seems curiously inappropriate to a play wholly farcical in its humour, and quite devoid ...

... THE puff preliminary has doubtless its advantages, but it is on the whole a dangerous mode of awakening expectation. Had Mrs. Brown-Potter, the American beauty and favourite of society, quietly take ...

... THE FLOWER AND THE SPIRIT, by Frederika Macdonald (2 vols.: Blackwood and Sons), opens with some verses about the pale blue flower of romance, followed by others about the spirit, which leads to i ...

... MR. TRISTRAM'S drama of modern Russian life with which Mr. Beerbohm-Tree has opened the Comedy Theatre in the double capacity of manager and leading actor is a clever play, but its cleverness is unfor ...

... MESSRS. PITT AND HATZFELD.-- A welcome addition to a musicians' library is Grieg's Album of Twenty-Three Songs, with English and Scandinavian Words, translated by Theo Marzials, Mrs. J. P. Morgan, & ...

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... SINCE our last notice of Mr. Mapleson's campaign at Covent Garden three operas have been added to the repertory of the season. ...

... Joseph Williams. From hence comes a batch of useful pianoforte pieces for the schoolroom. Most original of the group is Tarantelle in A, by Arthur W. Briggs, which is decidedly showy. Les Noces d'Or ...