... THE playgoers who have complained that the new piece at the ST. JAMES'S Theatre deals with an unpleasant theme, cannot at least pretend that they have been taken by surprise; for Mr. Philips, who in ...

... THE RUSSIAN OPERA COMPANY.-- Although the Russian Opera Company were perhaps unwise to make their début in London in such a work as M. Rubinstein's Demon, yet they succeeded far better than, under the ...

... SAYOY THEATBE. WHEN so gifted a composer as Sir Arthur Sullivan and a librettist so witty and accomplished as Mr. W. S. Gilbert collaborate in the production of a comic opera their joint handiwork is awaited with interest by all classes of society, and the Savoy Theatre was filled by a brilliant audience on Wednesday last, when The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and his Maid, was for ...

... . IT would be pleasant to congratulate Mr. Richard Mans field, a young actor of abundant capacity and strong individual ity, upon having confirmed in his second venture here the good opinion tentatively won by his treatment of the inartistic horrors which he chose for his first important experiment in England. Whatever he had not accomplished by his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-- at the best ...

... ROYAL ALBERT IIALL. The concerts given last week at the Albert Hall by the Russian Opera Company were but poorly attended, and the logical penalty for insufficiently frank advertisements and general bad management was paid. On Friday night the band struck, and after a wait of forty-five minutes patiently endured by a good-natured audience an announcement was made that the vocal music would be ...

... . THE high reputation of these concerts seems likely to be sustained throughout the thirty-third season, which opened With a characteristic concert; classical music being represented by Mozart and Beethoven, modern music by Liszt, Schumann, and Raff, and novel additions to the Crystal Palace repertory being included in the programme. Mr. Manns has, with infinite perseverance, arranged the ...

... . THAT Miss Wallis, who has had some success in the country as Rosalind, should have selected As You Like It for the open ing of her husband's new theatre was natural. Although Shakespeare does not necessarily imply prosperity, there is always the classical halo of the name, and an earnest attempt to do the poet justice is certain of attention and deserves it. There can be no doubt that there ...

... THE RUSSIAN OPERA COMPANY.-- This troupe concluded their concert engagement at the Albert Hall on Saturday, and, as nothing but miscellaneous works were attempted, we have nothing to add to the remark ...

... . With the exeeiition of Mr. Freeman Thomas's Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden, there have been for the last two months few musical topics for the consideration of metropoli tan amateurs, and there was nothing in the programmes of this week's Promenade Concerts to call for special comment. We must, however, say that the high reputation of these con certs has been maintained to the end of ...

... . AT a matinée on Wednesday, Blackmail, a piece by Mr. G. H. Roqué, which, it is understood, has already been acted in the country, was produced in the presence of an audience which could see nothing but good in it. That the general public would confirm the opinion of these demonstrative ladies and gentlemen is, we fear, not likely. The plot is complicated to a degree which speaks much for the ...

... HE VIEWS. The Life of Sims Reeves. Written by Himself. London; Simpkiu, Marshall, and Co., aud tlie Loudon Mitsic-Publisli- imr Co. 1888. THE autobiography written by Mr. Sims Reeves, and just issued, is likely to attract attention wherever music-lovers are to be found. For nearly fifty years Mr. Reeves has been before the public, and during the greater part of that time has been, as he still ...

... . SATURDAY last was a day to be marked with a white stone at the Crystal Palace, being the thirty-third anniversary of the opening of the Saturday Concerts, for which the Palace has long been famous all over the civilised world. Mr. Manns took this opportunity to reprint the programme of the first Saturday Concert, October 20th, 1855, which is an historically interesting record, worthy of ...