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COUNSEL’S MOTTO (objected to in the Committee Rooms).—­“Absence makes the fees grow stronger.”

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[Illustration:  NOT CAUGHT YET!

MASTER LONDON-COUNTY-COUNCIL.  “IF I CAN ONLY GET NEAR ENOUGH!!!”]

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OPERATIC NOTES.

[Illustration:  “Oh, I mustn’t Catch the Speaker’s Eye!”]

The first night of the Mixed Italian Opera Season, 1891.  We open with GLUeCK’s Orfeo, and, in a strong opera-glass, we drink to DRURIOLANUS OPERATICUS, and say, “Here’s G-luck t’you!” Nothing can begin the season better than the appearance of GIULIA and SOFIA RAVOGLI—­specially GIULIA—­“There’s something ’bout GIULIA So werry peculia’”—­(Old Song)—­in this short Opera, that is to say, an Opera which should be short were it not for the “waits” between the Scenes and Acts, which, as it is in the nature of weights to do, must always make even the lightest Opera seem heavy.  Mlle. GIULIA sang and acted perfectly.  Her rendering of the last song was most pathetic.  This delicious melody the audience would have had over and over again, not in merry mood, for we are never merry in the hearing of such sweet music, but in appreciative sympathy with the woes of Orpheus so sweetly expressed.  The lines in Bombastes rise in my memory:—­

  “So ORPHEUS sang of old, or poets lie,
    And—­”

On consideration, however, I will not quote the remainder, but will say simply that we were all charmed.  Welcome, at the commencement of another season, to Mlle. BAUERMEISTER, appearing as Cupid.  To-morrow she will be Dame Marta!  Wonderful!  “Time cannot stale her infinite variety.”  How is it, O premiere danseuse, my pretty pretty Polly Hop-kino PALLADINO, Principal Shade among all these Happy but Shady characters, that thou didst not choose a classic dance in keeping with the character of the music and of the ideal—­I distinctly emphasise “ideal”—­surroundings?  What oughtest thou to represent in the Elysian Fields?  A Salvationised “Dancing Girl,” without bonnet and tambourine?  Nay, not so; but rather the very spirit of classic grace and elegance, moving rhythmically to melodious measure.  In such a Scene as this ought to be, we want as much idealism as your graceful art can lend, otherwise we are only among our old friends, “the ladies and gentlemen of the Chorus”—­bless em!—­representing most substantially the “Shades of the Blessed,” who appear to be Shades of every colour.  GIULIA RAVOGLI, however, kept us entranced in the ancient classic land where once we used to wander. “Vive Lempriere!”

[Illustration:  Talking about Marguerite behind her Back; or, “‘Tails’ out of School.”]