The Week.

to be desired , and in voice and in feeling , not mere noting of pass ' io , she ansivereA all the demands of the most fastidious aud exacting . The Manrico of Signor Giuglini was excellent , and Badiali was far above mediocrity . At the Haymarket , last night , the bill of fare was diversified by the eccentricities of Messrs . Compton and Buckstone , in the " Honeymoon , " which ive need hardly say was received with responsive laughter from their audience . The St . James ' s Theatre , we learn , is about to open under the management of Air . Augustus Braham and

Signor Marques , and new operas will be produced in succession , several on the list being by Mr . G . A . Macfarren . The day of opening is the 12 th of Juno , when the new opera of " Raymond and Agnes , " by E . Loder , will be performed , and the celebrated Spanish ballet troupe , immortalised by Alex . Dumas , will appear . At the Olympic on Monday , a new farce by Mr . Oxenford , called " Retained for the Defence , " received the applause of a very crowded house , and must be considered completely successful , since the audience were in a continual roar of laughter from the rising to the fall of the curtain . The character of one Pawl-ins ,

an honest but intensely stupid individual , who is accused of being a thief , and afterwards turns out to be honest and quite estimable , affords Mv . Robson tbe opportunity of producing those severe side-aohes among his audience , to ivhich he has been in the habit of treating them as Jem Bags or Jacob Earwig , He was excellently supported by Mr . Cook , Mr . G . Vlning , aud Air . H . AVigan , in their various character bits , aud by Miss Cottrell , who had nothing to do but to look pretty , and who did that remarkably well . That admirably conducted and commodious place of amusementthe Britannia Theatre in Hoxtonis

, , nightly crammed to the ceiling by an audience of the most demonstrative kind , who are roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by the singing of Mrs . Howard Paul , so long well known in AVest-end musical circles . -At the National Standard Theatre , Mr . Douglass has secured an enormous attraction in Miss Glyn . who next week will be reinforced by Mr . Phelps , fresh from his German trip .

CRYSTAL PALACE . THE first flower show of the season came off this day week , when the floral amateurs , strolled , flirted and dissertated among treasures that would have satiated even an oriental flower worshipper . Those entrusted with the arrangement certainly acquitted themselves with consummate taste . All along the nave were avenues of every hue , from central banks of heaths ivhich were disposed in the transept . All about the statues were charming groups , their brilliant colours

forcibly contrasting with the marble . AVe may speak with confidence and pleasure of the high gratification , to sight , smell and hearing derived from a happy hour or two ive passed , listening to the excellent bauds of the Palace , and the Guards iii tliis giant conservatory . As the time draws near for the Handel Festival , it is certain that the rush for places will be far beyond the extent available even at the Crystal Palace ; and as the occasion is one that cannot again offer , those who desire to attend will do well at once to secure tickets . At the last Saturday concert Herr Leopold de Meyer made his first appearance . The remarkable talents of this

player were fully recognised when he first came to London in 1845 , and was the rage of the season . In 1851 he paid a second visit to this country , but did not perform in public , the sole purport of his visit then being to witness the Great Exhibition . The redoubtable pianist has rather gained than lost in those qualities which , twelve years since , made him famous among the greatest instrumentalists .