Friday Night.—First performance of I Rantzau, and first-rate performance, too. The Plot is simply a Plot of Land. Scene laid—laid for seven dramatis personæ—in a Vague Village of the Vosges; time, present century. The Rantzaus are the Capulets and Montagues of this district; the son of one faction is in love with the daughter of the other; but it doesn't end tragically, and the lovers marry. That's all. It was played as a Drama at the Français, with Got in it; when subsequently it was turned into an Opera, it had the "Go" taken out of it. De Lucia, Ancona, Castelmary, Bispham, and Corsi doing their very best, as do also the lamplighter and his assistant, who deftly perform their "Wagnerian watchman" "business" to characteristic music. Mlle. Bauermeister great in a small part; and Madame Melba does her very best with the singularly uninteresting part of Luisa, who is a very "Limited Loo." Signor Mascagni conducted the Opera, and was himself conducted on to the stage as often as possible in order to receive the congratulations of his "friends in front." I Rantzau not "in it" with Mascagni's Cavalleria, which, like the Rantzau family at the end of the piece, "still holds the field." Thermometer 95° in the stalls. House animated and appreciative.
Saturday.—Les Huguenots. Grand Cast. Thermometer down again.
A DITTY OF THE DOG-DAYS.
Ninety-one in the shade, by Negretti and Zambra!
'Tis O that I dwelt in an ice-crevasse,
Or rented a share in the Mer de Glace,
Or hired (ere I melt and resolve to gas)
That patio cool in the chill Alhambra
(Not "Lei-ces-ter Squarr," but Granada far),