Notwithstanding our war--to say nothing of our want--we have had the OPERA this winter; had it in great variety and perfection, and, as many a reader can testify, with by no means thin houses. Grau has been busy--the most courteous and indefatigable polyglot and active of impresarios, with the good-natured Gosche, heralding a troupe of all the stars, D'Angri, Hinckley, Kellogg, Brignoli, Susini, and all the rest, including divers new singing birds. Maretzek has led, and we have had a range from Mozart to Verdi, which was, on the whole, well-chosen. We have had Brignoli singing, if possible, better, and acting, if possible, worse than usual--a nightingale imprisoned in a pump; Mme. D'Angri, with her _embonpoint_ voice, pouring forth like an inexhaustible fountain of Maraschino; Miss Hinckley, pleasant and pretty as ever, steadily singing her way star-ward; and Susini, who combines German strength with Italian fire--a true _Tedesco Italiana-zato_. Something, too, we would say of Mancusi, whose clear and rapid execution, in _Figaro_, and whose real Spanish _majo_ rollicking style of acting were quite spirited enough, even for that very spirited part. Formes was indeed under the impression that he himself was the _Figaro Figarorum_, the incarnate half-Spanish ideal of that wonderful barbaresque conception; but then, the Formes _Figaro_ was 'developed from the depths of his subjective moral consciousness,' whereas the _Figaro_ of a Southern European is _the thing itself_--like Charles Mathews playing the part of Charles Mathews, or like the Greek comedian's imitation of a pig's voice, by pinching a veritable pork-let, which he bore concealed within his mantle. Perhaps no character is so little appreciated by Anglo-Saxon audiences as this of _Figaro_. To them he is little more than a buffoon. To Southern Europe, he is the bold, prompt, shrewd, popular ideal, suiting himself by craft to every superior, regarding all things with a shoulder-shrugging, quizzical philosophy; a democratic Mephistopheles; a lurking devil, equalizing himself, and the people with him, by wit and insolence, with nobility itself. Among the Latin races, as in the East, such Figaros often rise, like Oliver le Daim, to power, and the people understand it. Fast-Day, in Boston, was operatically fêted with 'the light and melodious _Martha_,' by that arch-thief of melodies, Flotow. Would not--considering the day in question--_I Puritani_ have been more appropriate for 'a day of fasting and prayer'? It has already been discovered (by the sagacious Ullman, we believe) that the _Huguenots_ was appropriate to sacred concerts. A friend suggests that _Masaniello_ for high mass, and _Don Giovanni_ for St. John's day would be a great advance in these dramatic unities. * * * * * We are indebted to a new contributor for the following sketch: