Mons. JACOBI is a wonderful man. The undefeated hero of a hundred
ballets--there or thereabouts--still beats time and the record with
his baton at the Alhambra; and his music, specially composed for
_Fidelia_, is to be reckoned among his ordinary triumphs. _Fidelia_ is
"a new Grand Romantic Ballet," in four tableaux, and its performance
justifies its promise. It is "new," it is decidedly "grand," it is
absorbingly "romantic," and there's no denying that it is a _Ballet
d'action_. But, as in the oft-quoted reply when little _Peterkin_
asked "what it was all about," so will the ballet-case-hardened
spectator say, "'Why that I cannot tell,' quoth he, 'But 'twas a
splendid victory!'" Somebody, possibly one _Tartini_, played by
Signorina CORMANI, is in love with _Fidelia_, Signorina POLLINI, as
naturally anyone would be; when a comic servant, Mr. GEORGE LUPINO,
is frightened by a Demon Fiddler with his fiddle (both being played by
PAGANINI REDIVIVUS) who either assists the lovers or does his best to
prevent their coming together, I am not quite clear which. Up to the
last it seemed doubtful whether the Demon Doctor was a good or bad
spirit, or a little mixed. His appearance is decidedly against him,
as he looks the very deuce. But I am inclined to think that he was
a "_bon diable_," and was doing everything, as everybody else on the
stage and in the orchestra does, for the best. After all, and before
all, the show is the thing, and this will rank, as it does now, among
the best of the greatest attractions hitherto provided by the Alhambra
Company for an appreciative public and for