Notes On Music And The Drama.

NOTES ON MUSIC AND THE DRAMA .

The neir opera " Anilefco " ( Hamlet ) , by a young composer , M . 3 ? . Faeeio , has just been brought owt at the Carlo Felice at Genoa . Mr . AVatts Phillips is writing a five act drama of the " Lady of Lyons" type for the Haymai-kefc , and the same author , in conjunction Avith M . Ludovic HaleVy , is

at Avork on a musical burlesque to be produced at ono of the Parisian theatres . The Handel Festival at tho Crystal Palace this year has been a greater success than any of its predecessors , in quality of performance as Avell as attendance . The choruses numbered nearly 3 , 000 , and the baud about

1 , 000 , and yet this immense orchestra seemed at times Aveak in the A-ast extent of the magnificent building . The principal soio vocalists Avere Mdlle . Patti , Mrs . Sherringl on , Madame Sainton-Dolby , Mr . Sims Reeves , Mr . Santlej' , Mr . "Weiss , and Herr Schmidt . The gem of the performances was tho glorious "Hallelujah

Chorus , " Avhich created a / wore never before equalled . A singular theatrical notice Avas posted a few clays back in the town of Cassel , stating the reasons for which no performance would take place at the opera . The bill Avas as folloAvs : — " In consequence of the sudden extinction of tho A oice of Mdlle . Grim , the continued indisposition of M . Gerso , tho cold of M . Besz , and the impossibility to find Mdlle . HcelF , the opera will be closed until further notice . "

Mr . and Mrs . Charles Keau ended their engagement at Pittsburg on the 3 rd of June . Ifc is said in Her Majesty's Theatre that tho idea of attempting " Tannhiiuscr" in Italian has been abandoned . The Orchestra assures us thafc Mr . Wallace ' s " Lurline " Avill certainly be given at the Grand Opera of Paris during the coming winter .

Literary Extracts.

LITERARY EXTRACTS .

THE HEADLESS INDIAN . —The corpse Avas in a sitting posture , Avith the legs crossed , and the arms clasped over the knees , bending forward over tho ashes of a miserable lire of small sticks . Tho ghastly figure ivas headless , and the cervical vertebral projected dry aud bare ; the skin , brown and shrivelled , stretched like

parchment tightly over the bony framework , so that the ribs shoAved through distinctly prominent ; the cavity of the chest and abdomen was filled with tho exuvias of chrysales , and the arms and legs resembled those of a mummy . The clothes consisting of woollen shirt and leggings , Avith a tattered blanket , still hung round the

shrunken form . Near the body were a small axe , firebag , large tin kettle , and two baskets made of birchbark . * * A heap of broken bones at tho skeleton's sidethe fragments of a horse ' s head—told the sad story of his fate . They were chipped into the smallest pieces , shoAving that the unfortunate man had died of starvation , and prolonged existence as far as possible by sucking every particle of nutriment out of the broken fragments .

= < * Tho similarity between the attempt of the Indian to penetrate through the pathless forest—his starvation , his killing of his horse for food—and our own condition Avas striking . His story had been exhibited before our eyes Avith unmistakable clearness by the spectacle we had just left : increasing weakness ; hopeless starvation

the effort to sustain the waning life by sucking the fragments of bones ; the death from want at last . We also had arrived at such extremity that Ave should be compelled to kill a horse . The Indian had started with one advantage over us ; he was in his OAVU country—we irere wanderers in a strange land . We were in the last

act of the play . Would the final scene be the same ?—The North-West Passage hj Land . LIFE IX THE HA . II . EM . —Ho tells me o'f his domestic affairs and talks about the women of his family , which he would not do to a man . He refused to speak to his brother , a very great dragoman , Avho was Avith the

Prince of Wales . This man came up to us in the hotel at Cairo and addressed Omar , who turned his back on him . I asked the reason , and Omar told me how his

brother had a wife , ' an old Avife . ' She had had three children , all dead ; all at once the dragoman , who is much older than Omar , declared he would divorce her and marry a young woman . Omar said , ' No , don't do that , keep her in your house as head of your household , and take one of your two black slave-girls as your hareem ;'

but tho other insisted , and married a young Turkish Avife ; whereupon Omar took his poor old sister-in-law to live Avith him aud his OAVU young wife , and cut his grand brother dead . See how characteristic 1 the urging his brother to take the young slave-girl' as his hareem , ' like a respectable man ; that Avould have been

all right ; but ivhafc he did was ' not good . ' 'I'll trouble you ( as Mrs . used to say ) to settle these questions to every one ' s satisfaction . Omar ' s account of the household of his other brother , a confectioner , Avith two wives , was very curious . He said his wife and they all live together ; one of the brother ' s wives has six children ;

three sleep wifcli their own mother and three Avith their other mother , aud all is quite harmonious . —Lady Duff Gordon .

WHITE A XEAV TUAGEDY . — " What have you to say to mo , Vallier , about my busying myself to write new tragedies F Tragedy is in our streets . If I set my foot across my threshold , I am in blood up to my heel . I do Avell to shake tho dust from my feet when I como home again . I say , as 'Macbeth' did ( Ducis translated

( ' Macbeth' ) , ' This blood cannot be effaced . ' Farewell , then , Tragedy ; I have seen too many Atrides in clogs to dare to put them on the stage . 'Tis a rude drama , in Avhich the people play the part ofthe tyrant , my friend , — a drama that can be only lvound up in the infernal regions . Believe me , Vallier , I Avould g ive half of the time

Avhich is left me to live to pass the rest in some other corner of tho world , where liberty is not a bloody fury . " After the campaign of Italy , Dacis had certain relations Avith General Buonaparte . He had applauded his ideas , his views , though Avithout approving his violent manner of proceeding in their application . Nevertheless , iu the first davs of the Consulate , Avhen Buonaparte tried to