of genius such as these, that the "anarchy of the arts," as Mad. De Stael calls the opera, becomes the true representation of the classic drama, the accompaniment acting as chorus, without the absurdity of a set of personage being always present on the stage. The accompaniment, like the chorus, may be always in the confidence of the audience; but what an audience would such a state of the musical drama require? that of Naples certainly, not London. In the year 1817, Rossini produced the Cenerentola, the Gazza Ladra, and the Armide, each at an Italian Capital, the first at Rome, the second at Milan, and the Armide at Naples. There is nothing so utterly unaccountable, as that the sensitive people of Italy should be so utterly devoid of all literary taste, as to tolerate such dramas even as accompaniments for music; still more unaccountable is it, that men of genius like Rossini, should feel no disgust in having their compo sitions linked to such nonsense as the libretto. But every thing seems equal to them; good, bad, or indifferent, all is welcome, provided it escapes the censor's claws. See Rossini in December composing his Otello, and excited to rival the greatest of poets in tragic and passionate strains: in January he is at Rome, he sits down as contentedly, and composes as happily, for what-for Cinderella, or the glass slipper, for the Cenerentola is no other than this old friend of our childhood. This opera, in De Stendhall's eyes, wants beau idéal; the criticism is amusing, Cinderella wants beau idéal. "On seeing the Cenerentola announced, I said to myself, like the Marquis de Moncade; C'est ce soir que je m'en canaille. The music of this piece fixes my imagination eternally on the pains and pleasures of vanity, on the delights of going to a ball in fine clothes, and being inade maître de hotel to a prince. Now, native of France as I am, and having inhabited it long, I must confess myself a little weary of vanity and its disappointments, of the Gascon character, and of from five to six hundred vaudeville's that it has been my luck to encounter on the subject of vanity. Society itself, at least nineteen twentieths of it, with all the vulgar it includes, is put in action but by vanity. So that, I think, without ceasing at all to be sufficiently patriotic and fond of one's country, we may be permitted to be somewhat tired of this passion, which amongst us replaces every other." The author may justly say, he finds little new in the Cenerentola, for who accustomed to French music can find any thing new elsewhere expressive of vanity. It is enthroned in the French Opera, and the true peacock's court is the Feydeau. But de Stendhall, in the sequel of his criticism, is wrong we VOL. I. NO. I. N think in asserting that melody cannot paint shades of passion, that it is but capable of broad strokes. The very contrary seems to us the truth. National music, melody in its state of nature, may paint simple broad passion, but opera music owes all its novelty and originality to its nicety, its nuances, its straying from the broad streams of passion, into the channels of whim and fantasy. Experience is against what he advances, that melody can give alone the broad strokes of passion, while harmony must be depended upon for the delicate traits, and comic touches. Mozart, like his countrymen, was a great harmonist, Cimarosa was a great melodist, yet, contrary to De Stendhall's hypothesis, does not Mozart excel in broad strokes of passion, Cimarosa in the mixed, the shadowy graceful, and the comic. De Stendhall was present at the first representation of the Gazza Ladra at Milan, the inhabitants of which city, in order to shew their contempt for and independence of Neapolitan taste, hurried to the Scala with honest intentions of hissing the author of the Elisabetta upon any sufficient grounds. This is one of the great obstacles to talent of any kind in Italy; it must run the gauntlet of nine or ten different publics and metropolises, in each of which fame at all the others is a good cause for jealousy and dislike. The Gazza Ladra however overcame all municipal peevishness; " its success was so outrageous, and created such a rage, that every instant the whole audience stood to overwhelm the composer with acclamations." In England the opera is known as containing the " Di piacer," a basis quite sufficient for its renown, but with the exception of this air, we must confess we prefer seeing Miss Kelly in the little English Opera on the same subject, to hearing even the sweet voice of Madame Bello pouring forth the notes of Rossini. The Armide, given this same year at Naples, is remarkable for the duet of "Amor, possente nume." It is an example how near music can approach, in effect perhaps surpass, its sister arts, without incurring the charge of indelicacy. "L'extreme volupte qui, aux depens du sentiment, fait souvent le fond des plus beaux airs de Rossini, est tellement frappante dans le duetto d'Armide, qu'un dimanche matin qu'il avoit été exécuté d'une manière vraiment sublime au Casin de Bologne, je vis les femmes embarassées de le louer." Rossini composed four operas in 1818, none of which are worthy of much notice, except the Mose in Egitto, which we have had here; the Plagues of Egypt, as well as the crossing of the Red Sea, being left out by particular desire. This was the best paid of Rossini's operas; it is considered by the Germans, says De Stendhall, the chef d'œuvre of the composer. The year 1819 produced the Donna del Lago, "opera tiré d'un mauvais poëme de Walter Scott." The impudence of this information is amusing, although the author elsewhere declares Scott to be the first living genius. The dilettanti of Naples were of opinion, that in the Donna del Lago Rossini had taken a retreating step to his early style. The composer was obliged to leave Naples for Milan on the night of its first representation; it was hissed, hooted, in short utterly unsuccessful, and he set off on his journey with the certainty of its irrecoverable failure. Nevertheless, the wag spread every where the news of its unbounded success, and to his agreeable disappointment he found he had been speaking truth, the public having altered its opinion on the second night, and received the Donna del Lago with all sorts of acclamation and applause. In 1820, Rossini gave the Maometto secondo at Milan, in which part Galli was eminently successful; in 1822 Zelmira, and 1823 the unfortunate Semiramide, which brought down on his head the hisses and vengeance of the Venetians. But since Rossini's marriage with Mademoiselle Colbrand (1821,) he has become idle and independent of his fame and engagements. As the maestro's engagement here by our opera may oblige us to future disquisitions and remarks, we shall conclude with M. De Stendhall's " dernier mot." "Lively, light, piquant, never wearisome, seldom sublime, Rossini seems expressly formed to afford delight to people of the common run of taste and talent. Nevertheless, far surpassed by Mozart in the tender and melancholique, by Cimarosa in the comic and the passionate, he is the first without a rival for vivacity, rapidity, piquancy, and all the beauties thereon depending. No opera buffa is written like his Pietra del Paragone. No serious opera like his Otello, or Donna del Lago. Otello resembles the Horaces as little as it does the Don Giovanni-it is a work apart. Rossini has painted a hundred times the pleasures of happy love, and in the duet of Armide, in a way till then unheard of; he has sometimes been absurd, but never devoid of genius, even in the gay air at the end of Gazza Ladra. In fine, till this hour, equally incapable of composing without blunders, or without betraying the presence of genius, Rossini, since the death of Cimarosa, finds himself the first of living artists. What rank will posterity give him I am ignorant. ་་ "Si vous vouliez me promettre le secret, je dirais que le style de Rossini est un peu comme le Français de Paris, vain et vif plutôt que gai; jamais passionné, toujours spirituel, rarement ennuyeux, plus rarement sublime." L'Egypt sous Méhémed Ali; ou Aperçu Rapide de l'Administration Civile et Militaire de ce Pacha, publié par F. J. JOLY sur le 8vo. THIS work contains a very favourable description of the talents and government of Méhémed Ali, the present Vice-Roi of Egypt, whose object appears to be, to restore Egypt to the splendour, magnificence, and opulence which it enjoyed under the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. Egypt, where Moses was appointed to become the legislator of a great people, was also the school of Orpheus and of Homer, of Pythagoras and Plato, of Solon and Lycurgus. Egypt gave laws to the East; and rites and institutions to the Greeks, who distributed them to the various peoples of the earth. Conquered by Selim I., who received at the same time the keys of the temple of Mecca, and the investiture of the Khalifat, it was afterwards possessed by the Sultans of Constantinople, his successors. This conquest and possession united the sacerdotal with the civil power of the Ottomans, who have retained them ever since. Egypt is said by some ancient authors to have contained 20,000 towns under Amasis, 30,000 under Ptolemy, and even 33,030 under Ptolemy Philadelphus. Cato gives the same population, Ægyptum habuisse pagos 33,030, hominum vero 7,000,000: vide Joannis Marshami Canon Chronicus, p. 421. But notwithstanding these authorities, it is not credible that Egypt, at least with its present limits, ever contained half so many towns, since both upper and lower Egypt does not contain so many square miles. Rather, however, than impeach the veracity of Herodotus, or that of some writers who limit the number of towns to 18,000, we are willing to admit that the government of Egypt was then much more extensive than it is now, and might have included Nubia, part of Abyssinia, Arabia, and the country east of Palestine. The calculation of the Arabian authors mentions the number of towns and villages at 2,696, and the Geographical Index annexed to the life of (Salh-ed-dine) Saladin, records the number to be 2,496, of which 957 are in the Säid or upper Country, and 1,539 in the lower, and this latter we think the most authen tic, most probable, and most correct calculation of the population of the territory of Egypt according to its present limits. When Méhémed Ali arrived in Egypt, he viewed it with a comprehensive eye, and after investigating its wants, and anticipating its resources, he spoke as follows: "Je veux illustrer cette terre, la rendre heureuse et y laisser des brillans souvenirs." Méhémed Ali first began by improving the fortifications of Cairo and Alexandria, giving to the latter a double enclosure or fortification, enlarging and disposing the moats, constructing bastions, and elevating redoubts in every part, liable to be attacked on the sea or the land side. The castle of Aboukir has likewise been better defended; this important position has been fortified in the European manner, and now presents an imposing and military aspect. The lakes Mareotis and Aboukir have been secured from inundations from the sea, by a dyke nine miles in length, extending along the shores of the Mediterranean, thus protecting the submerged country, which is below the level of the sea, from inundation, and gaining it for cultivation; the heat of the sun converting, by exhalation, this submerged country into one of abundant fertility and production. Works of greater importance became now the object of Mehemed Aly. The great canal which should communicate from Foua to Alexandria, passing by Ramanhiez, was restored by him; 100,000 workmen constantly employed, soon effected this great work, which has for these last two years facilitated the water communication to several parts of Egypt, so that every day witnesses the value and importance of this great restoration. This canal, formerly called the Canal of Alexandria, is now called Mahmoudhie, so named in honour of the present Emperor of the Ottomans, Mahmoud II., a homage rendered by Méhémed Ali to his sovereign. The country, through which this canal passes, is now a barren desert, but the continual passage of the waters, with the fructifying deposit which they leave in their passage, will soon give it the appearance of the old canal, as described by Abulfeda the Arabian geographer. "Nothing," says he, " can be seen more agreeable, the banks of the canal bordered with gardens, are covered with a perpetual green." And the Arabian poet Dufard, el Haddad thus described it. "The woods which shade this canal give to the sailors who row along its surface, a spreading mantle of green. The cool north wind refreshes the surface of the waves; the superb date tree, with its high moving and majestic tufted top, crowned with its cluster of yellow red fruit, leans gently like the head of a beautiful virgin asleep." The graces of the spring, the |