... THE OPERA.-- Mr. Augustus Harris on Wednesday issued the prospectus of the Royal Italian Opera, Drury Lane. He expressly states that he will produce no novelties, but will rely upon first-rate repre ...

... . MR. MAPLESON has this season set a good example to operatic managers in general by faithfully keeping the promises con tained in his prospectus, so far as fidelity was practicable. Gluck's Orfeo would have been given, had not the Euridice on whom he relied proved false to her troth. Of Leila we have already spoken, and have now to congratulate Mr. Mapleson on his successful revival of ...

... . WHEN a husband attempts to keep from his wife and from his mother-in-law such a secret as that in which the hero of A Tragedy involves himself, he ought to know pretty well how heavy will be the penalty of failure. This, however, is what Mr. Gregory Grayson never seems to realise until he is in the thick of the troubles resulting from the discovery of his theatrical freak. He writes a ...

... . IT is a pity that Mr. Mortimer did not see his way to giving more dramatic interest to his last adaptation from the French. A Parisian audience is satisfied with much less of story and situation than is demanded by English playgoers, and it would allow the cleverness of MM. Barriére and Capendu's character- isation and the wit of their dialogue to compensate for many deficiencies. The merit ...

... . Nothing could well have been more successful lhan the beuefi;; of Miss Farren at the Gaiety on Monday afternoon, when an audience representing over £400 closely packed the theatre. Miss Farren's Bhare in the performance was a triple one. She appeared as the wretched Smike in the second act of Mr. Halliday's version of Nicholas Nickleby, as the lad Sharpus in Our Clerks, and as Tilburina in ...

... . A. SOUND and vigorous performance of that capital comedy, The Road to Ruin, was that given last Saturday afternoon at the Strand Theatre, where the attendance proved that Messrs. Conway and Farren's excellent revivals are attracting the public attention that they honestly deserve. It was, no doubt, a serious drawback that Mr. Conway's own share in the repre sentation should be contributed ...

... . SINCE our last notice of the English opera at Drury Lane, three addition have been made to the repertory of the season. Ambroise Thomas's best opera, Mignon, was welcomed by a large audience, who bestowed abundant applause on the leading artists, especially on Mme. Julia Gaylord, whose impersonation of Mignon was as powerfully dramatic and affecting as ever. Her voice has had to pay the ...

... . IN every sense save one Mr. Maurice Noel's Tea proved, at the Criterion, to be an extremely weak brew. It is undeniably a strong measure for a lady to put a strong drug into the afternoon stimulant of her troublesome old brother in order that the may make him out to be a violent lunatic. is strong simply because Oculus Persicus, the imaginary herb in question, is powerful in its effects ...

... . Moths is not a very good play, nor is Vere Herbert a par ticularly good character for a young actress like MiBB Kenney, Most of the Eentiment borrowed by Mr. Hamilton without leave from Ouida is false, and most of what is not actually untrue is decidedly unhealthy. Vere, it will be recollected, is the ingenuous and unconventional daughter of the fast and wicked Lady Dolly, who makes her ...

... . IN perusing Mr. Augustus Harris's prospectus, it is im possible not to be struck with the illustration it affords of the irony of fate. It was at Drury Lane Theatre that the experiment of German opera for the English was tried on a grand scale four years ago. At that time we were assured by certain partisans of Wagner and his school that Italian opera was moribund, and would within ...

... . MR. F. C. GROVE, who it will be recollected was the coadjutor of Mr. Herman Merivale in the authorship of Forget me Not, has made out of the novel, As in a Looking Glass, a much better play than might have been expected. He has not purified, and is perhaps wise not to have tried to purify, the foul atmosphere which hangs round nearly all the dramatis persona. He hides none of the secrets ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIO. MRS. BERNARD BEERE, AS IN A LOOKING GLASS. SOME years ago there was set down for trial in the Divorce Court a case in which there happened to be no fewer than five co respondents. One of these was a baronet, holding an official appointment under Government. A late member for a Kentish borough, who enjoyed the two-fold honour of being a post captain in the Navy and a bar- ...