... THE FUTURE OF ITALIAN OPERA.-- The Continental papers are amusing themselves in the dull season by discussing the future of Italian Opera. On all hands it is admitted that Italian Opera (we do not ref ...

... Messrs. Marriott and WilliaiMS. A group of seven songs for the drawing-room consists of Under the Shadow, a sacred canzonet, written and composed by C. S. Burton and Walter Hay, a song of a very good ...

... Sir Arthur Sullivan. --The music of the new opera which Sir Artnur Sullivan is writing to a liDretto ny rar. w. s. Gilbert is now in so forward a state that the work will be placed regularly in rehear ...

... Messrs. Novello, Ewer, and Co.- Four clever songs, for wnicn t\. wenesiey Datson, ivius. tSac., Uxon, nas composed the music, are To Myra, words by Lord Lansdowne Friend Sorrow, words by Adelaide P ...

... . IT would be difficult to imagine a more unwholesome domestic atmosphere than that to which M. Dumas introduces us in Francillon, a three-act play produced by him in January, 1887, at the Comédie Française, but not until now presented before an English audience. The dramatis personal are for the most part detestable, failing to make up in good manners what they lack in good morals. The ...

... . Under the suggestive title A Woman's Sin; or, On the Verge, a drama by Messrs. France and Dobell was presented the other day at Sadler's Wells with considerable success. Its authors, while not neglecting the requirements of a thrilling plot which starts in the prologue with a robbery and murder, and ends with the rescue of a blind girl from a watery grave have spent more pains than are usual ...

... . THE fifth annual meeting of the corporation of this institu tion took place last week, Prince Christian in the chair. Amongst those present were the Duke of Westminster, Lords Aberdeen, Thring, and Tyneham, Sir George Grove, Sir John Stainer, Mr. W. G. Cusins, and Mr. Samson Fox. To the liberality and patriotism of this gentleman the college is in debted for the magnificent donation of £30 ...

... . LARGE audiences have been of late attracted to the Empire Theatre, one of the chief features of the entertainment being the grand ballet Dilara, arranged by Mme. Katti Lanner, with music expressly composed by M. Hervé, who conducts the orchestra. The scene of the ballet is an Eastern port, where the collector of taxes appears with a troop of guards to enforce payment. The heroine, unable to ...

... . COLONEL PALEY, of Cantley Hall, Doncaster, has generously offered to present Canon Fleming with an organ for the new church of St. Philip, Buckingham Palace-road, at a cost of £1,100. Such instances of well-applied liberality arc unhappily too rare in this country. Cocnod. The new Mass and To Deum by Gounod, which -ere performed at Rheims Cathedral, will be executed at Paris autumn in the ...

... . IN the race for priority of production, Mr. Mansfield's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde distanced Mr. Bandmann's by what wo suppose corresponds to a short head. In other respects the victory is still more complete, for while the Opera Comique piece seems likely to make its mark chiefly as a laughing stock, that at the Lyceum commands the serious appreciation even of those who cannot profess to enjoy ...

... . IT had been maliciously whispered about the lobbies of theatres that Mr. Bandmann's version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was intended to enter into direct and rather unkind com petition with Mr. Mansfield's on a neighbouring stage. Mon day night at the Opera Comique soon made it evident that the great Anglo-German actor had been wronged. The only stage rendering of Mr. Stevenson's story with ...

... . MR. JOSEPH ARTHUR'S Still Alarm, the latest American importation at the Princess's, is a very poor play with a very good fire engine for its great attraction. Dealing first with the latter we can honestly recommend any playgoer who would care to see how a real American fire station is worked to pay a visit to The Still Alarm. The trained horses slip into their harness as if by magic at the ...