... . MR. J. H. Leigh is evidently a firm believer in the theory that the way to command success is to deserve it, and for his devotion to the Bard, and his earnestness in the exploitation of his works he has the good wishes, and should have the support when possible, of all lovers of Shakespeare. A good many of these we know are grateful for the opportunity to witness the representation of that ...

... our CAPTIOUS critic. nnnWN THEATRE, PECKHAM. TO parody the country gentleman in Handy Andy, they have spoilt Peckham with their-- improvements. It is is only by looking for them now that one can find those pretty little dwellings among trees which, a few years ago, were as much a characteristic of the locality as was the tendency of their tenants to move off without paying their tradesmen. ...

... . The Spy is the name of a rather sad but very interesting little piece by Mr. Cecil Raleigh, now played at the Comedy Theatre before Uncles and Aunts. It has for its motive the self- sacrifice of a peasant girl who gives herself up to the death of a spy for the sake of the man whom she loves. The beauty and nobility of the act are enhanced by the fact that the heroine's love is not returned, ...

... . THE last Saturday .in, August is now a date of some importance to musical amateurs, as it is then that Mr. Robert Newman begins his series of promenade concerts at Queen's Hall. In the days of the Proms. at Covent Garden, it was the custom to begin active operations the Saturday before the August Bank Holiday, and there was essentially a holiday suggest harness about the musical ...

... . THE Royal Choral Society has at length dived into the deep flood of Wagnerian music, but, unused as it is to the whirling waters of modern polyphony, the venture has not proved altogether so happy as its well-wishers could desire. In the first place but a limited quantity of Wagner's work is well suited to the concert platform, and it cannot he said that the examples put forward by Sir ...

... FOR nearly forty years now has MM. Scribe and Legouvé's drama, Adrienne Lecouvreur, held the stage both in France and in this country, nor does there seem to be much chance of its ceasing to prove attractive whenever it is handled by capable players. It is no doubt a play of the stage, stagey; it is in tended to be acted and not to be read, and much of its elaborate intrigue is of the most ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. LA FILLE DU TAMBOUR-MAJOR, AT THE SHAFTESBURY THEATRE. TO hear Offenbach's works at his champagney best, it must be with a French company. France alone has the secret still of the period in and for which they were written. The traditions of their time have been kept up over there by almost continuous revival, while elsewhere they seem to be pretty nearly lost. Our own ...

... The writer, Mr. Max Rittenberg, and the artist, Mr. George Morrow, have collaborated very amusingly in the series of notes upon sport, which have been republished from various journals in the present shilling volume. Mr. Max Rittenberg has know ledge, observation, and humour, and writes of most of our popular recreations as one who, having actually participated in their pleasures and ...

... . PRESUMABLY by way of stopgap, until the promised version of Les Femmes Nerveuses is ready, there is put up at the Comedy one of the weakest and least intelligible farcical comedies that it has been our lot to see for some time. Queen's Counsel, as Mr. James Mortimer calls his piece-- which is, of course from the French-- is hardly up to matinée level, and was certainly not able to interest ...

... . THE additions made to the list contained in our columns last week-- of operas produced at Covent Garden-- have been considerable; including Bizet's I Pescatori di Perle, Lohengrin, IT Trovatore, Les Huguenots, and La Sonnambula. As Leila the heroine of the first mentioned work, Miss Ella Russell made a brilliant rentrée. Her fine voice was in first-rate order, and both in florid music and ...

... . MR. J. H. MAPLESON, endowed with the buoyancy of a cork, was no sooner dislodged from the Royal Italian Opera than he commenced preparations for another operatic campaign at Her Majesty's Theatre, and last Saturday invited the public to witness Lucia di Lammermoor. The public made but a feeble response, and the theatre wore a cheerless aspect, but the musical forces exhibited no sign of ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. HELD BY THE ENEMY. I HAVE before this put forward the view that action is the strong point of a drama and suspense one of the moat powerful levers to move the feelings of an audience. If once these latter can be aroused to a sense of fidget as to what is to come next, the success of the piece is pretty well assured. And to the fact of this pitch of excitement being ...