THE ITALIAN OPERA.
The experiment of the Italian Opera having been fairly tried since the present company visited our shores, and hardly a doubt remaining of its successful permanent establishment in this city, we hope long to enjoy every opportunity of making that refined amusement, the subject of interesting comment in our pages.
It is fortunate for us that we have no national school of music, our country possesses no recollections of chivalry, of troubadours, feudal contentions or scenes of romance to hand down to us in song the deeds of heroism which such events naturally create. The broad ocean which rolls between us and Europe, is not only the interposing barrier in political relations, but it is also the means of removing us so far from local attachments and preferences that we can make our selection without prejudice and form our taste upon the best models without embarrassment. We were then prepared to receive the best impressions which could be made, and when in 1825 Garcia delighted us with his troupe he was astonished that his best points could be appreciated. Before this period we had heard little of Italian music. Some recollect the Buffo of Carmoglio, the violin of Burke, and the songs of Trajetta; yet there was not sufficient to give us a favorable impression of the great cultivation which existed in Italy. When therefore it was proposed by Mr. Dominick Lynch of this city, to transfer Garcia's troupe from the London Opera House to New-York, the English critics predicted the failure of an enterprise in a country where no evidence had as yet been furnished of any taste in the Fine Arts. "If London or Paris cannot support an Opera, said they, how can you expect success in the rude and uncultivated wastes of America." The solution of this problem is found in the fact that we had no national tastes to interfere with the great perfection of the art which was introduced among us. In England there are the melodies of Ireland and Wales, and the old ballads which were the foundation of a National School; and in Paris, the Conservatoire established for France the same predilections. These were to be subdued before the pure taste of Italy and Germany could be successful. The Italian Opera in England cannot succeed except it be assisted by the French Ballet, and in France it does not flourish from the great rivalry of the French Opera and its attractive decorations. When we hear Boildieu and Auber placed by the side of Rossinni, Webber, and Mozart, we cannot, for a moment, be at a loss to discover the reason that Italian Music in Paris requires the arm of Government to sustain it. We are free from all these embarrassments, and consequently the success of the Italian Opera in this country must be less equivocal than in any part of Europe.
The impulse which Garcia's Troupe gave to musical taste in New-York, is the most extraerdinary event which the era of Music can boast, and it determines a question very favorable to Italy, that cultivation to be good, must approach as near to nature as possible. This constitutes the perfection of taste—here the Italian School leaves in the distance the French and English Schools. They have reduced music to a code of principles, and not left it to the excursiveness of fancy. Whenever distances are fixed, comparison commences. The proportions of a Greek column became the standards to regulate design, and as our rule of beauty is deduced from its harmony, so are our notions of music derived from the expression of passion by simple intonation. Nature is then the idol of the Italian artist, and while he is corrected by its severity he is also chastised by its truth. To be successful the artist must have with him the skill to copy and the power to adorn a creation by grouping the scattered fragments of beauty, so as to form a standard originating in an equal mixture of judgment and feeling. It ceases then to be a matter of astonishment that our country is a ready recipient of good taste, and as soon as the unpractised ear recovers its tone, the power of appreciation will be more sensible and effective.
Again we have another troupe who came to seek their fortunes in the western world, and we venture to predict, if they bring the proper materials, the permanency of Italian Operas is placed beyond all hazard. The materials must be good or the labor is wasted. We do not ask that a Pasta, Sontag, or Malibran should constitute a part of these materials; but we expect that good singers will be given us. We might have been content with less if we had not heard Garcia, Malibran, and Angrisani, but their impressions have left with us standards that at least claim respectability in professional acquirement. The troupe of Montresor is good, but the sustaining powro is in Signora Pedrotti. This lady is above the usual height, yet she is so well proportioned, and likewise so graceful that she appears not too tall or too large—her face is one of expression without much beauty, but her eye is so fine that every feature is lighted up with great intelligence. Mind strong and powerful, so pervades every attitude and expression—while her face exhibits intellec-