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diff --git a/17464.txt b/17464.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51ce065 --- /dev/null +++ b/17464.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5320 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Great Singers, First Series, by George T. Ferris + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Singers, First Series + Faustina Bordoni To Henrietta Sontag + +Author: George T. Ferris + +Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17464] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT SINGERS, FIRST SERIES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +GREAT SINGERS + +FAUSTINA BORDONI TO HENRIETTA SONTAG + +FIRST SERIES + +BY + +GEORGE T. FERRIS + + +1891 + +Copyright, 1879, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +NOTE. + +In compiling and arranging the material which enters into the following +sketches of distinguished singers, it is only honest to disclaim any +originality except such as may be involved in a picturesque presentation +of facts. The compiler has drawn freely from a great variety of sources, +and has been simply guided by the desire to give the reading public +such a digest of the more important incidents in the careers of +the celebrities treated of as should be at once compact, racy, and +accurate. To serve this purpose the opinions and descriptions of writers +and critics contemporary with the subjects have been used at length, and +no means overlooked to give the sketches that atmosphere of freshness +which is the outcome of personal observation. All that a compilation of +this kind can hope to effect is best gained in preserving this kind +of vividness, instead of revamping impressions and opinions into +second-hand forms. Pains have been taken to verify dates and facts, and +it is believed they will be found trustworthy. + +It will be observed that many well-known singers have been omitted, or +treated only incidentally: among the earlier singers, such as Anas-tasia +Robinson, Mingotti, Anna Maria Crouch, and Anna Selina Storace; among +more recent ones, such as Mmes. Fodor, Cinti-Damoreau, Camperese, +Pisaroni, Miss Catherine Stephens, Mrs. Paton-Wood, Mme. Dorus-Gras, and +Cornelie Falcon. This omission has been indispensable in a work whose +purpose has been to cover only the lives of the very great names +in operatic art, as the question of limit has been inflexible. A +supplementary volume will give similar sketches of later celebrities. + +The works from which material has been most freely drawn are as follows: +Bernard's "Retrospection of the Stage"; Dr. Burney's various histories +of music; Chorley's "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections"; Dibdin's +"Complete History of the English Stage"; Ebers's "Seven Years of the +King's Theatre"; Fetis's "Biographie des Musiciens"; Hogarth's "Musical +Drama"; Sutherland Edwards's "History of the Opera"; Arsene Houssaye's +"Galerie des Portraits"; Michael Kelly's "Reminiscences"; Lord Mount +Edgcumbe's "Musical Reminiscences"; Oxberry's "Dramatic Biography and +Histrionic Anecdotes"; Mrs. Clayton's "Queens of Song"; Arthur Simpson's +"Memoirs of Catalani"; and Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians." + + + + +CONTENTS. + +FAUSTINA BORDONI. + +The Art-Battles of Handel's Time.--The Feud between Cuzzoni +and Faustina.--The Character of the Two Rivals as Women and +Artists.--Faustina's Career.--Her Marriage with Adolph Hasse, and +something about the Composer's Music.--Their Dresden Life.--Cuzzoni's +Latter Years.--Sketch of the Great Singer Farinelli.--The Old Age of +Hasse and Faustina + + +CATARINA GABRIELLI. + +The Cardinal and the Daughter of the Cook.--The Young Prima Donna's +_Debut_ in Lucca.--Dr. Burney's Description of Gabrielli.--Her +Caprices, Extravagances, and Meeting with Metastasio.--Her Adventures +in Vienna.--Bry-done on Gabrielli.--Episodes of her Career in Sicily +and Parma.--She sings at the Court of Catharine of Russia.--Sketches +ol Caffarelli and Pacchierotti.--Gabrielli in London, and her Final +Retirement from Art + + +SOPHIE ARNOULD. + +The French Stage as seen by Rousseau.--Intellectual Ferment of the +Period.--Sophie Arnould, the Queen of the most Brilliant of Paris +Salons.--Her Early Life and Connection with Comte de Lauraguais.--Her +Reputation as the Wittiest Woman of the Age.--Art Association with the +Great German Composer, Gluck.--The Rivalries and Dissensions of the +Period.--Sophie's Rivals and Contemporaries, Madame St. Huberty, +the Vestrises Father and Son, Madelaine Guimard.--Opera during the +Revolution.--The Closing Days of Sophie Arnould's Life.--Lord Mount +Edgcumbe's Opinion of her as an Artist + + +ELIZABETH BILLINGTON AND HER CONTEMPORARIES. + +Elizabeth Weichsel's Runaway Marriage.--__Debut__ at Covent +Garden.--Lord Mount Edgcumbe's Opinion of her Singing.--Her Rivalry with +Mme. Mara.--Mrs. Billington's Greatness in English Opera.--She sings in +Italy in 1794-'99.--Her Great Power on the Italian Stage.--Marriage with +Felican.--Reappearance in London in Italian and English Opera.--Sketch +of Mme. Mara's Early Life.--Her Great Triumphs on the English +Stage.--Anecdotes of her Career and her Retirement from +England.--Grassini and Napoleon.--The Italian Prima Donna disputes +Sovereignty with Mrs. Billington.--Her Qualities as an Artist.--Mrs. +Billington's Retirement from the Stage and Declining Years + + +ANGELICA CATALANI. + +The Girlhood of Catalani.--She makes her __Debut__ in Florence. +--Description of her Marvelous Vocalism.--The Romance of Love and +Marriage.--Her Preference for the Concert Stage.--She meets Napoleon in +Paris.--Her Escape from France and Appearance in London.--Opinions +of Lord Mount Edgcumbe and other Critics.--Anecdotes of herself and +Husband.--The Great Prima Donna's Character.--Her Gradual Divergence +from Good Taste in singing.--_Bon Mots_ of the Wits of the Day.--The +Opera-house Riot.--Her Husband's Avarice.--Grand Concert Tour through +Europe.--She meets Goethe.--Her Return to England and Brilliant +Reception.--She sings with the Tenor Braham.--John Braham's Artistic +Career.--The Davides.--Catalani's Last English Appearance, and the +Opinion of Critics.--Her Retirement and Death + + +GIUDITTA PASTA. + +Greatness of Genius overcoming Disqualification.--The Characteristic +Lesson of Pasta's Life.--Her First Appearance and Failure.--Pasta +returns to Italy and devotes herself to Study.--Her First Great +Successes in 1819.--Characteristics of her Voice and Singing.--Chorley's +Review of the Impressions made on him by Pasta.--She makes her Triumphal +_Debut_ in Paris.--Talma on Pasta's Acting.--Her Performances of +"Giulietta" and "Tancredi."--Medea, Pasta's Grandest Impersonation, is +given to the World.--Description of the Performance.--Enthusiasm of the +Critics and the Public.--Introduction of Pasta to the English Public in +Rossini's "Otello."--The Impression made in England.--Recognized as +the Greatest Dramatic Prima Donna in the World.--Glances at the Salient +Facts of her English Career.--The Performance of "Il Crociato in +Egitto."--She plays the Male _Role_ "Otello."--Rivalry with Malibran +and Sontag.--The Founder of a New School of Singing.--Pasta creates the +Leading _Roles_ in Bellini's "Sonnambula" and "Norma" and Donizetti's +"Anna Bolena."--Decadence and Retirement + + +HENRIETTA SONTAG. + +The Greatest German Singer of the Century.--Her Characteristics as an +Artist.--Her Childhood and Early Training.--Her Early Appearances in +Weimar, Berlin, and Leipsic.--She becomes the Idol of the Public.--Her +Charms as a Woman and Romantic Incidents of her Youth.--Becomes +affianced to Count Rossi.--Prejudice against her in Paris, and her +Victory over the Public Hostility.--She becomes the Pet of Aristocratic +_Salons_.--Rivalry with Malibran.--Her _Debut_ in London, where she +is welcomed with Great Enthusiasm.--Returns to Paris.--Anecdotes of her +Career in the French Capital.--She becomes reconciled with Malibran in +London.--Her Secret Marriage with Count Rossi.--She retires from the +Stage as the Wife of an Ambassador.--Return to her Profession after +Eighteen Years of Absence.--The Wonderful Success of her Youth +renewed.--Her American Tour.--Attacked with Cholera in Mexico and dies. + + + + +GREAT SINGERS, FROM FAUSTINA BORDONI TO HENRIETTA SONTAG. + + + + +FAUSTINA BORDONI. + +The Art-Battles of Handel's Time.--The Feud between Cuzzoni +and Faustina.--The Character of the Two Rivals as Women and +Artists.--Faustina's Career.--Her Marriage with Adolph Hasse, and +something about the Composer's Music.--Their Dresden Life.--Cuzzoni's +Latter Years.--Sketch of the Great Singer Farinelli.--The Old Age of +hasse and Faustina. + +I. + +During the early portion of the eighteenth century the art of the stage +excited the interests and passions of the English public to a degree +never equaled since. Politics and religion hardly surpassed it in the +power of creating cabals and sects and in stirring up animosities. This +was specially marked in music. The great Handel, who had not then found +his true vocation as an oratorio composer, was in the culmination of +his power as manager of the opera, though he was irritated by hostile +factions. The musical quarrels of the time were almost as interesting as +the Gluck-Piccini war in Paris in the latter part of the same century, +and the _literati_ took part in it with a zest and wit not less piquant +and noticeable. Handel, serenely grand in his musical conceptions, was +personally passionate and fretful; and the contest of satire, scandal, +and witticism raged without intermission between him and his rivals, +supported on each hand by princes and nobles, and also by the great +dignitaries of the republic of letters. In this tumult the singers +(always a _genus irritabile_, like the race of poets) who belonged to +the opera companies took an active part. + +Not the least noteworthy episode of this conflict was the feud between +two foremost sirens of the lyric stage, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina +Bordoni. When the brilliant Faustina appeared in London, as a fresh +importation of Handel, who was as indefatigable in purveying novelties +as any modern Mapleson or Strakosch, Cuzzoni was the idol of the public, +having succeeded to that honor after Anastasia Robinson retired from +the stage as Countess of Peterborough. Handel some years before had +introduced Cuzzoni to the English stage, and, though kept in constant +turmoil by her insolence and caprice, had taken great pains to display +her fine voice by the composition of airs specially suited to her. It is +recorded that one morning, after she had refused at rehearsal to sing a +song written for her by the master, such rage took possession of Handel +that he seized her fiercely, and threatened to hurl her from the window +unless she succumbed. One of the arias composed for this singer extorted +from Main-waring, a musician bitterly at odds with Handel, the remark, +"The great bear was certainly inspired when he wrote that song." + +Cuzzoni's popularity with the public had so augmented her native conceit +and insolence as to make a rival unbearable. Though she was ugly and ill +made, of a turbulent and obstinate temper, ungrateful and capricious, +she deported herself as if she possessed all the graces of beauty, art, +and genius, and regarded the allegiance of the public as her native +right. London had indeed given her some claim to this arrogance, as +from the first it had treated her with brilliant distinction, so that +fashionable ladies had adopted the style of her stage dresses, and duels +were fought by the young "bucks" and "swells" of the time over the right +to escort her to her carriage. The bitterness with which Cuzzoni hated +Faustina was aggravated by the fact that the latter, in addition to her +great ability as a singer, was younger, far more beautiful, and of most +fascinating and amiable manner. Handel and the directors of the King's +theatre were in ecstasies that they had secured two such exquisite +singers; but their joy was destined to receive a sudden check in the +bitter squabbles which speedily arose. Indeed, the two singers did not +meet in battle for the first time, for seven years before they had +been rival candidates for favor in Italy. Faustina Bordoni possessed +remarkable beauty of figure and face, an expression full of fire and +intelligence, to which she united tact, amiability, and prudence. As +singers the rivals were nearly equal; for Faustina, while surpassing the +Cuzzoni in power of execution, had not the command of expression which +made the latter's art so pathetic and touching. Dr. Barney, the musical +historian, and father of Madame d'Arblay, describes Cuzzoni in these +words: "A native warble enabled her to execute divisions with such +facility as to conceal every appearance of difficulty; and so soft and +touching was the natural tone of her voice, that she rendered pathetic +whatever she sang, in which she had leisure to unfold its whole volume. +The art of conducting, sustaining, increasing, and diminishing her +tones by minute degrees, acquired for her among professors the title of +complete mistress of her art. In a canta-bile air, though the notes she +added were few, she never lost a favorable opportunity of enriching the +cantilena with all the refinements and embellishments of the time. +Her shake was perfect; she had a creative fancy, and the power of +occasionally accelerating and retarding the measure in the most +artificial manner by what the Italians call _tempo rubato_. Her high +notes were unrivaled in clearness and sweetness, and her intonations +were so just and fixed that it seemed as if it were not in her power +to sing out of tune." The celebrated flute-player Quantz, instructor of +Frederick II., also gave Dr. Burney the following account of Faustina's +artistic qualities: "Faustina had a mezzo-soprano voice, that was less +clear than penetrating. Her compass now was only from B flat to G in +alt; but after this time she extended its limits downward. She possessed +what the Italians call _un cantar granito_; her execution was articulate +and brilliant. She had a fluent tongue for pronouncing words rapidly +and distinctly, and a flexible throat for divisions, with so beautiful a +shake that she put it in motion upon short notice, just when she would. +The passages might be smooth, or by leaps, or consisting of iterations +of the same note; their execution was equally easy to her as to any +instrument whatever. She was, doubtless, the first who introduced with +success a swift repetition of the same note. She sang adagios with great +passion and expression, but was not equally successful if such deep +sorrow were to be impressed on the hearer as might require dragging, +sliding, or notes of syncopation and _tempo rubato_. She had a very +happy memory in arbitrary changes and embellishments, and a clear and +quick judgment in giving to words their full value and expression. In +her action she was very happy; and as her performance possessed that +flexibility of muscles and face-play which constitute expression, she +succeeded equally well in furious, tender, and amorous parts. In short, +she was born for singing and acting." + +Faustina's amiability would have kept her on good terms with a rival; +but Cuzzoni's malice and envy ignored the fact that their respective +qualities were rather adapted to complement than to vie with each other. +Handel, who had a world of trouble with his singers, strove to keep them +on amicable terms, but without success. The town was divided into two +parties: the Cuzzoni faction was headed by the Countess of Pembroke, and +that of Faustina by the Countess of Burlington and Lady Delawar, while +the men most loudly declared for the Venetian beauty. + +At last the feud came to a climax. On the 20th of June, 1727, a +brilliant gathering of rank and fashion filled the opera-house to hear +the two _prime donne_, who were to sing together. On their appearance +they were received with a storm of mingled hissing and clapping of +hands, which soon augmented into a hurricane of catcalls, shrieking, +and stamping. Even the presence of royalty could not restrain the +wild uproar, and accomplished women of the world took part in these +discordant sounds. Dr. Arbuthnot, in alluding to the disgraceful scene, +wrote in the "London Journal" this stinging rebuke: "AEsop's story of the +cat, who, at the petition of her lover, was changed into a fine woman, +is pretty well known; notwithstanding which alteration, we find that +upon the appearance of a mouse she could not resist the temptation of +springing out of his arms, though it was on the very wedding night. +Our English audience have been for some time returning to their cattish +nature, of which some particular sounds from the gallery have given us +sufficient warning. And since they have so openly declared themselves, I +must only desire that they must not think they can put on the fine woman +again just when they please, but content themselves with their skill in +caterwauling." The following epigram was called out by the proceedings +of the evening, which were mostly stimulated by the Pembroke party, who +supported Cuzzoni: + + "Old poets sing that beasts did dance + Whenever Orpheus played: + So to Faustina's charming voice + Wise Pembroke's asses brayed." + +The two fair cantatrices even forgot themselves so far as to come to +blows on several occasions, and the scandalous chronicle of the times +was enlivened with epigrams, lampoons, libels, and duels in rapid +succession. This amusing but disgraceful feud was burlesqued in a +farce called "Contretemps, or The Rival Queens," which was performed at +Heidigger's theatre. Faustina as the _Queen of Bologna_ and Cuzzoni +as _Princess of Modena_ were made to seize each other by the hair, and +lacerate each other's faces. Handel looks on with cynical attention, and +calmly orders that the antagonists be "left to fight it out, inasmuch as +the only way to calm their fury is to let them satisfy it." + +The directors of the opera finally solved the difficulty in the +following manner: Cuzzoni had solemnly sworn never to accept a guinea +less than her rival. As Faustina was far more attractive and manageable, +she was offered just one guinea more than Cuzzoni, who learning the fact +broke her contract in a fury of indignation, and accepted a Viennese +engagement. The well-known Ambrose Philips addressed the following +farewell lines to the wrathful singer: + + "Little siren of the stage, + Charmer of an idle age, + Empty warbler, breathing lyre, + Wanton gale of fond desire; + Bane of every manly art, + Sweet enfeebler of the heart; + Oh! too pleasing is thy strain. + Hence to southern climes again, + Tuneful mischief, vocal spell; + To this island bid farewell: + Leave us as we ought to be-- + Leave the Britons rough and free." + + +II. + +Faustina Bordoni, who from the time of her radiant _debut_ was known as +the "New Siren," was the daughter of a noble Venetian family, formerly +one of the governing families of the republic. Born in the year +1700, she began to study her art at an early age under Gasparoni, who +developed a beautiful and flexible voice to the greatest advantage. +She made her first appearance at the age of sixteen in Pollarolo's +"Ariodante," and her beauty, which was ravishing, her exquisite voice, +dramatic power, and artistic skill, gave her an immediate place as one +of the greatest ornaments of the lyric stage. She came into rivalry with +Cuzzoni even at this early period, but carried off the palm of victory +as she did in after-years. Venice, Naples, Florence, and Vienna were +successively the scenes of her triumphant reign as an artist, and she +became acknowledged as the most brilliant singer in Europe. At Vienna +she was appointed court singer at a salary of fifteen thousand thalers. +Here she was found by Handel, who carried her to London, where she made +her _debut_ May 5,1726, in that great composer's "Alessandro," very +appropriately singing _Statira_ to the _Roxana_ of Cuzzoni. Faustina's +amiable and unobtrusive character seems to have made her an unwilling +participant in the quarrels into which circumstances forced her, and +to have always deserved the eulogium pronounced by Apostolo Zeno on her +departure from Vienna: "But whatever good fortune she meets with, she +merits it all by her courteous and polite manners, as well as talents, +with which she has enchanted and gained the esteem and affection of the +whole court." Throughout life a sweet temper and unspotted purity of +character made her the idol of her friends as well as of the general +public. Faustina seems to have left London gladly, though her short +career of two years there was a brilliant artistic success. The +scandalous bickerings and feuds through which she passed made her +departure more of a pleasure to herself than to the lovers of music in +turbulent London. + +She returned to Venice in 1728, where she met Adolph Hasse, who was +leader of the orchestra at the theatre in which she was engaged. +Faustina, in the full bloom of her loveliness, was more than ever the +object of popular adulation; and many of the wealthy young nobles of +Venice laid their names and fortunes at her feet. But the charming +singer had found her fate. She and Hasse had fallen in love with each +other at first sight, and Faustina was proof against the blandishments +of the gilded youth of Italy. Hasse was the most popular dramatic +composer of the age, and had so endeared himself to the Italian public +that he was known as "_il caro Sassone_," a title which had also been +previously given to Handel. Hasse had commenced life as a tenor singer, +but his talent for composition soon lifted him into a higher field of +effort. His first opera was produced at Brunswick, but its reception +showed that he must yet master more of the heights and depths of musical +science before attaining any deserved success. So he proceeded to Italy, +and studied under Porpora and Alessandro Scarlatti. In a few years he +became a celebrity, and the opera-houses of Italy eagerly vied with each +other in procuring new works from his fecund talent. Faustina, then +at the zenith of her powers and charms, and Hasse, the most admired +composer of the day, were congenial mates, and their marriage was not +long delayed. + +Of this composer a few passing words of summary may be interesting. His +career was one long success, and he wrote more than a hundred operas, +besides a host of other compositions. Few composers have had during +their lifetime such world-wide celebrity, and of these few none are +so completely forgotten now. The facile powers of Hasse seem to have +reflected the most genial though not the deepest influences of his time. +He had nothing in common with the grand German school then rising into +notice, or with the simple majesty of the early Italian writers. Himself +originally a singer, and living in an age of brilliant singers, he was +one of the first representatives of that school of Italian opera which +was called into being by the worship of vocal art for its own sake. He +had an inexhaustible flow of tunefulness, and the few charming songs +of his now extant show great elegance of melodic structure, and such +sympathy with the needs of the voice as make them the most perfect +vehicle for expression and display on the part of the singer. For ten +years, that most wonderful of male singers, as musical historians unite +in calling Farinelli, charmed away the melancholy of Philip V. of Spain +by singing to him every evening the same two melodies of Hasse, taken +from the opera of "Artaserse." + +In 1731 the celebrated couple accepted an offer from the brilliant Court +of Dresden, presided over by Augustus II., as great a lover of art and +literature as Goethe's Duke of Saxe-Weimar, or as the present Louis of +Bavaria. This aesthetic monarch squandered great sums on pictures and +music, and gave Hasse unlimited power and resources to place the Dresden +opera on such a footing as to make it foremost in Europe. His first +opera produced in Dresden was the masterpiece of his life, "Alessandro +dell' Indie," and its great success was perhaps owing in part to the +splendid singing and acting of Faustina, for whom indeed the music had +been carefully designed. As the husband of the most fascinating prima +donna of her age, Hasse had no easy time. His life was still further +embittered by the presence and intrigues of Porpora, his old master and +now rival, and jealousy of Porpora's pupil, Mingotti, who threatened to +dispute the sway of his wife. Hasse's musical spite was amusingly shown +in writing an air for Mingotti in his "Demofoonte." He composed the +music for what he thought was the defective part of her voice, while the +accompaniment was contrived to destroy all effect. Mingotti was nothing +daunted, but by hard study and ingenious adaptation so conquered the +difficulties of the air, that it became one of her greatest show-pieces. +A combination of various causes so dissatisfied the composer with +Dresden, that he divided his time between that city, Venice, Milan, +Naples, and London, though the Saxon capital remained his professed +home. One of his diversions was the establishment of opera in London in +opposition to Handel; but he became so ardent an admirer of that great +man's genius, that he refused to be a tool in the hands of the latter's +enemies, though several of his operas met with brilliant success in the +English capital. + +Dresden life at last flowed more easily with Hasse and Faustina on the +advent of Augustus III., who possessed his father's connoisseurship +without his crotchets and favoritism. Here he remained, with the +exception of a short Venetian sojourn, till late in life. On the evening +of Frederick the Great's entrance into Dresden in 1745, after the battle +of Kesselsdorf, Hasse's opera of "Arminio" was performed by command of +the conqueror, who was so charmed with the work and Faustina's singing +that he invited the composer and wife to Berlin. During the Prussian +King's occupation he made Faustina many magnificent gifts, an +exceptional generosity in one who was one of the most penurious of +monarchs as well as one of the greatest of soldiers. Faustina continued +to sing for eight years longer, when, at the age of fifty-two, she +retired from the long art reign which she had enjoyed, having held her +position with unchanged success against all comers for nearly forty +years. + + +III. + +In notable contrast to the career of Faustina was that of her old-time +rival, Cuzzoni. After the Venetian singer retired from London, Cuzzoni +again returned to fill an engagement with the opposition company formed +by Handel's opponents. With her sang Farinelli and Senesino, the former +of whom was the great tenor singer of the age--perhaps the greatest +who ever lived, if we take the judgment of the majority of the musical +historians. Cuzzoni was again overshadowed by the splendid singing of +Farinelli, who produced an enthusiasm in London almost without parallel. +Her haughty and arrogant temper could not brook such inferiority, and +she took the first opportunity to desert what she considered to be an +ungrateful public. We hear of her again as singing in different parts of +Europe, but always with declining prestige. In the London "Daily Post" +of September 7, 1741, appeared a paragraph which startled her old +admirers: "We hear from Italy that the famous singer, Mrs. C-z-ni, is +under sentence of death, to be beheaded for poisoning her husband." If +this was so, the sentence was never carried into execution, for she +sang seven years afterward in London at a benefit concert. She issued +a preliminary advertisement, avouching her "pressing debts" and her +"desire to pay them" as the reason for her asking the benefit, which, +she declared, should be the last she would ever trouble the public with. +Old, poor, and almost deprived of her voice by her infirmities, +her attempt to revive the interest of the public in her favor was a +miserable failure; her star was set for ever, and she was obliged +to return to Holland more wretched than she came. She had scarcely +reappeared there when she was again thrown into prison for debt; but, +by entering into an agreement to sing at the theatre every night, under +surveillance, she was enabled to obtain her release. Her recklessness +and improvidence had brought her to a pitiable condition; and in her +latter days, after a career of splendor, caprice, and extravagance, +she was obliged to subsist, it is said, by button-making. She died in +frightful indigence, the recipient of charity, at a hospital in Bologna, +in 1770. + + +IV. + +Associated with the life and times of Faustina Bordoni, and the most +brilliant exponent of the music of her husband, Hasse, Carlo Broschi, +better known as Farinelli, stands out as one of the most remarkable +musical figures of his age. This great artist, born in Naples in 1705, +was the nephew of the composer Farinelli, whose name he adopted. He was +instructed by the celebrated singing-master Porpora, who trained nearly +all the great voices of Europe for over half a century; and at his first +appearance in Rome, in 1722, common report had already made him famous. +So wonderful was his execution, even at this early age, that he was +able to vie with a trumpet-player, then the admiration of Rome for his +remarkable powers. Porpora had written an obligato part to a song, in +which his pupil rivaled the instrument in holding and swelling a note of +extraordinary purity and volume. The virtuoso's execution was masterly, +but the young singer so surpassed him as to carry the enthusiasm of the +audience to the wildest pitch by the brilliance of his singing and the +difficult variations which he introduced. Farinelli left the guidance +of Porpora in 1724, and appeared in different European cities with a +success which made him in three years a European celebrity. In 1727, +while singing in Bologna, he met Bernacchi, at that time known as the +"king of singers." The rivals were matched against each other one night +in a grand duo, and Farinelli, freely admitting that the veteran artist +had vanquished him, begged some lessons from him. Bernacchi generously +accorded these, and took great pains with his young rival. Thus was +perfected the talent of Farinelli, who, to use the words of a modern +critic, was as "superior to the great singers of his own period as they +were to those of more recent times." + +After brilliant triumphs at Vienna, Rome, Naples, and Parma, where he +surpassed the most formidable rivals and was heaped with riches and +honors, he appeared before the Emperor Charles VI. of Germany, a +momentous occasion in his art-career. "You have hitherto excited only +astonishment and admiration," said the imperial connoisseur, "but +you have never touched the heart. It would be easy for you to create +emotion, if you would but be more simple and natural." The singer +adopted this counsel, and became the most pathetic as he continued to be +the most brilliant of singers. + +The interest of Farinelli's London career will be augmented for the +lovers of music by its connection with the contests carried on between +Handel and his rivals, with which we have seen Faustina and Cuzzoni also +to have been intimately associated. When Handel went on the Continent +to secure artists for the year 1734, some prejudice operated against his +negotiation with Farinelli, and the latter took service with Porpora, +who had been secured by the Pembroke faction to lead the rival opera. +Farinelli's singing turned the scale in favor of Handel's enemies, who +had previously hardly been able to keep the enterprise on its feet, and +had run in debt nineteen thousand pounds. He made his first appearance +at the Lincoln's Inn Opera in "Artaserse," one of Hasse's operas. +Several of the songs, however, were composed by Riccardo Broschi, +the singer's brother, especially for him, and these interpolations +illustrated the powers of Farinelli in the most effective manner. In one +of these the first note was taken with such delicacy, swelled by minute +degrees to such an amazing volume, and afterward diminished in the same +manner to a mere point, that it was applauded for full five minutes. +Afterward he set off with such brilliance and rapidity of execution that +the violins could not keep pace with him. An incident commemorated +in Hogarth's "Rake's Progress" occurred at this time, A lady of rank, +carried beyond herself by admiration of the great singer, leaned out of +her box and exclaimed, "One God and one Farinelli!" The great power of +this singer's art is also happily set forth in the following anecdote: +He was to appear for the first time with Senesino, another great singer, +who of course was jealous of Farinelli's unequaled renown. The former +had the part of a fierce tyrant, and Farinelli that of a hero in chains. +But in the course of the first song by his rival, Senesino forgot his +assumed part altogether. He was so moved and delighted that, in front of +an immense audience, he rushed forward, clasped Farinelli in his arms, +and burst into tears. Never had there been such a ferment among English +patrons of opera as was made by Farinelli's singing. The Prince of Wales +gave him a gold snuff-box set with diamonds and rubies, in which were +inclosed diamond knee-buckles, and a purse of one hundred guineas. +The courtiers and nobles followed in the wake of the Prince, and the +costliest offerings were lavished on this spoiled favorite of art. His +income during three years in London was five thousand pounds a year, +to which must be added quite as much more in gratuities and presents +of different kinds. On his return to Italy he built a splendid mansion, +which he christened the "English Folly." + +Farinelli's Spanish life was the most important episode in his career, +if twenty-five years of experience may be called an episode. His purpose +in visiting Madrid in 1736 was to spend but a few months; but he arrived +in the Spanish capital at a critical moment, and Fate decreed that +he should take up a long residence here--a residence marked by +circumstances and honors without parallel in the life of any other +singer. Philip V. at this time was such a prey to depression that he +neglected all the affairs of his kingdom. "When Farinelli arrived, +the Queen arranged a concert at which the monarch could hear the great +singer without being seen. The effect was remarkable, and Farinelli +gained the respect, admiration, and favor of the whole court. When he +was asked by the grateful monarch to name his own reward, he answered +that his best recompense would be to know that the King was again +reconciled to performing the active duties of his state. Philip +considered that he owed his cure to the powers of Farinelli. The final +result was that the singer separated himself from the world of art for +ever, and accepted a salary of fifty thousand francs to sing for the +King, as David harped for the mad King Saul. Farinelli told Dr. Burney +that during ten years he sang four songs to the King every night without +any change." When Ferdinand VI., who was also a victim to his father's +malady, succeeded to the throne, the singer continued to perform his +minstrel cure, and acquired such enormous power and influence that +all court favor and office depended on his breath. Though never prime +minister, Farinelli's political advice had such weight with Ferdinand, +that generals, secretaries, ambassadors, and other high officials +consulted with him, and attended his levee, as being the power behind +the throne. Farinelli acquired great wealth, but no malicious pen has +ever ascribed to him any of the corrupt arts by which royal favorites +are wont to accumulate the spoils of office. In his prosperity he never +forgot prudence, modesty, and moderation. Hearing one day an old veteran +officer complain that the King ignored his thirty years of service while +he enriched "a miserable actor," Farinelli secured promotion for the +grumbler, and, giving the commission to the abashed soldier, mildly +taxed him for calling the King ungrateful. According to another +anecdote, he requested an embassy for one of the courtiers. "Do you not +know," said the King, "that this grandee is your deadly enemy?" "True," +replied Farinelli; "and this is the way I propose to get revenge." Dr. +Burney also relates the following anecdote: A tailor, who brought him +a splendid court costume, refused any pay but a single song. After long +refusal Farinelli's good nature yielded, and he sang to the enraptured +man of the needle and shears, not one, but several songs. After +concluding he said: "I, too, am proud, and that is the reason perhaps of +my advantage over other singers. I have yielded to you; it is but just +that you should yield to me." Thereupon he forced on the tailor more +than double the price of the clothes. + +Farinelli's influence as a politician was always cast on the side of +national honor and territorial integrity. When the new King, +Charles III., ascended the throne, being even then committed to the +Franco-Neapolitan imbroglio, which was such a dark spot in the Spanish +history of that time, Farinelli left Spain at the royal suggestion, +which amounted to a command. The remaining twenty years of his life he +resided in a splendid palace near Bologna, where he devoted his time and +attention to patronage of learning and the arts. He collected a noble +gallery of paintings from the hands of the principal Italian and +Spanish masters. Among them was one representing himself in a group with +Metastasio and Faustina Bordoni, for whose greatness as an artist and +beauty of character he always expressed the warmest admiration. Though +Farinelli was all his life an idol with the women, his appearance was +not prepossessing. Dibdin, speaking of him at the age of thirty, says +he "was tall as a giant and as thin as a shadow; therefore, if he +had grace, it could only be of a sort to be envied by a penguin or a +spider." + +To his supreme merit as an artist we have, however, overwhelming +testimony. Out of the many enthusiastic descriptions of his singing, +that of Mancini, after Porpora the greatest singing-master of the age, +and the fellow pupil with Farinelli under Bernacchi, will serve: "His +voice was thought a marvel because it was so perfect, so powerful, so +sonorous, and so rich in its extent, both in the high and low parts of +the register, that its equal has never been heard. He was, moreover, +endowed with a creative genius which inspired him with embellishments so +new and so astonishing that no one was able to imitate them. The art +of taking and keeping the breath so softly and easily that no one could +perceive it, began and died with him. The qualities in which he excelled +were the evenness of his voice, the art of swelling its sound, the +portamento, the union of the registers, a surprising agility, a graceful +and pathetic style, and a shake as admirable as it was rare. There was +no branch of the art which he did not carry to the highest pitch of +perfection.... The successes of his youth did not prevent him from +continuing to study, and this great artist applied himself with so much +perseverance that he contrived to change in some measure his style, and +to acquire another and superior method, when his name was already famous +and his fortune brilliant." + + +V. + +Let us return from the consideration of Faustina's most brilliant +contemporary to Hasse and his wife. We have already seen that this great +prima donna retired from the stage in 1753, at the age of fifty-two. The +life of the distinguished couple during this period is described with +much pictorial vividness in a musical novel, published several years +since, under the name of "Alcestis," which also gives an excellent idea +of German art and music generally. In 1760 Hasse suffered greatly from +the bombardment of Dresden by the Prussians, losing among other property +all his manuscripts in the destruction of the opera-house--a fact +which may partly account for the oblivion into which this once admired +composer has passed. The loss was peculiarly unfortunate, for the +publication of Hasse's works was then about to commence at the expense +of the King. He and his wife removed to Vienna, where they remained +till 1775, when they retired to Venice, Faustina's birthplace. Two +years before this Dr. Burney visited them at their handsome house in the +Landstrasse in Berlin, and found them a humdrum couple--Hasse groaning +with the gout, and the once lovely Faustina transformed into a jolly old +woman of seventy-two, with two charming daughters. As he approached the +house with the Abate Taruffi, Faustina, seeing them, came down to meet +them. Says the Doctor: "I was presented to her by my conductor, and +found her a short, brown, sensible, lively old lady, who expressed +herself much pleased to meet a _cavaliere Inglesi_, as she had been +honored with great marks of favor in England. Signor Hasse soon entered +the room. He is tall and rather large in size, but it is easy to imagine +that in his younger days he must have been a robust and fine figure; +great gentleness and goodness appear in his countenance and manners." + +Going to see them a second time, the Doctor was received by the whole +family with much cordiality. He says Faustina was very intelligent, +animated, and curious concerning what was going on in the world. She had +a wonderful store of musical reminiscences, and showed remains of the +splendid beauty for which her youth was celebrated. But her voice was +all gone. Dr. Burney asked her to sing. "Ah! Non posso; ho perduto +tutte le mie facolta." ("Alas! I am no longer able; I have lost all +my faculty.") "I was extremely fascinated," said the Doctor, "with the +conversation of Signor Hasse. He was easy, communicative, and rational, +equally free from pedantry, pride, and prejudice. He spoke ill of +no one, but on the contrary did justice to the talents of several +composers, among them Porpora, who, though he was his first master, was +afterward his greatest rival." Though his fingers were gouty, he played +on the piano for his visitor, and his beautiful daughters sang. One was +a "sweet soprano," the other a "rich and powerful contralto, fit for +any church or theatre in Europe "; both girls "having good shakes," and +"such an expression, taste, and steadiness as it is natural to expect in +the daughters and scholars of Signor Hasse and Signora Faustina." + +There are two pictures of Faustina Bordoni in existence. One is in +Hawkins's "History," showing her in youth. Brilliant large black +eyes, splendid hair, regular features, and a fascinating sweetness of +expression, attest how lovely she must have been in the heyday of +her charms. The other represents her as an elderly person, handsomely +dressed, with an animated, intelligent countenance. Faustina died in +1793, at the age of ninety-two, and Hasse not long after, at the age of +ninety-four. + + + + +CATARINA GABRIELLI. + +The Cardinal and the Daughter of the Cook.--The Young Prima Donna's +_Debut_ in Lucca.--Dr. Barney's Description of Gabrielli.--Her Caprices, +Extravagances, and Meeting with Metastasio.--Her Adventures in Vienna.-- +Brydone on Gabrielli.--Episodes of her Career in Sicily and Parma.--She +sings at the Court of Catharine of Russia.--Sketches of Caffarelli and +Paochicrotti.--Gabrielli in London, and her Final Retirement from Art. + + +I. + +One of the great dignitaries of the Papal Court during the middle of the +eighteenth century was the celebrated Cardinal Gabrielli. He was one day +walking in his garden, when a flood of delicious, untutored notes burst +on his ear, resolving itself finally into a brilliant _arietta_ by +Ga-luppi. The pretty little nymph who had poured out these wild-wood +notes proved to be the daughter of his favorite cook. Catarina's beauty +of person and voice had already excited the hopes of her father, and he +frequently took her to the Argentina Theatre, where her quick ear caught +all the tunes she heard; but the humble cook could not put the child +in the way of further instruction and training. When Cardinal Gabrielli +heard that enchanting but uncultivated voice, he called the little +Catarina and made her sing her whole stock of arias, a mandate she +willingly obeyed. He was delighted with her talent, and took on himself +the care of her musical education. She was first placed under the charge +of Garcia (Lo Spagnoletto), and afterward of Porpora. The Cardinal kept +a keen oversight of her instruction, and frequently organized concerts, +where her growing talents were shown, to the great delight of the +brilliant Roman society. Catarina's training was completed in the +conservatory of L'Ospidaletto at Venice, while it was under the +direction of Sacchini, who succeeded Galuppi. + +"La Cuochettina," as she was called from her father's profession, made +her first appearance in Galuppi's "Sofonisba" in Lucca, after five +years of severe training. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, full +of liveliness and grace, with an expression full of coquettish charm and +_espieglerie_. Her acting was excellent, and her singing already that of +a brilliant and finished vocalist. It is not a marvel that the excitable +Italian audience received her with the most passionate plaudits of +admiration. Her stature was low, but Dr. Burney describes her in the +following terms: "There was such grace and dignity in her gestures and +deportment as caught every unprejudiced eye; indeed, she filled the +stage, and occupied the attention of the spectators so much, that they +could look at nothing else while she was in view." No indication of +her mean origin betrayed itself in her face or figure, for she carried +herself with all the haughty grandeur of a Roman matron. Her voice, +though not powerful, was of exquisite quality and wonderful extent, +its compass being nearly two octaves and a half, and perfectly equable +throughout. Her facility in vocalization was extraordinary, and her +execution is described by Dr. Burney as rapid, but never so excessive as +to cease to be agreeable; but in slow movements her pathetic tones, as +is often the case with performers renowned for "dexterity," were not +sufficiently touching. + +The young chevaliers of Lucca were wild over the new operatic star; for +her talent, beauty, and fascination made her a paragon of attraction, +and her capricious whims and coquetries riveted the chains in which she +held her admirers. Catarina, however she may have felt pleased at lordly +tributes of devotion, and willing to accept substantial proofs of +their sincerity, lavished her friendship for the most part on her own +comrades, and became specially devoted to the singer Guardagni, whose +rare artistic excellence made him a valuable mentor to the young prima +donna. Three years after her _debut_ her reputation had become national, +and we find her singing at Naples in the San Carlo. The aged poet +Metastasio, a name so imperishably connected with the development of the +Italian opera, became one of her bond slaves. Gabrielli was wont to use +her admirers for artistic advantage, and she learned certain invaluable +lessons in the delivery of recitative and the higher graces of her art +from one whose experience and knowledge were infinitely higher and more +suggestive than those of a mere singing-master. The courtly poet, the +pet of rank and beauty for nearly fifty years, sighed in vain at the +feet of this inexorable coquette, and shared his disappointment with a +host of other distinguished suitors, who showered costly gifts at the +shrine of beauty, and were compelled to content themselves with kissing +her hand as a reward. + +Metastasio's interest, unchecked by the disdain of the capricious +beauty, succeeded in obtaining for her the position of court singer at +Vienna, where the Emperor, Francis I., was one of her admirers. She soon +created as great a furor among the gallants of the Austrian capital as +she had in Italy. Swords were drawn freely in the quarrels which she +delighted to foster, and dueling became a mania with those who aspired +to her favor. The passions she instigated sometimes took eccentric +courses. The French Ambassador, who loved her madly, suspected the +Portuguese Minister of being more successful than himself with the +lovely Gabrielli. His suspicions being confirmed at one of his visits, +he drew his sword in a transport of rage, and all that saved the +operatic stage one of its most brilliant lights was the whalebone +bodice, which broke the point of the furious Frenchman's rapier. The +sight of the bleeding beauty--for she received a slight scratch--brought +the diplomat to his senses. Falling on his knees, he poured forth his +remorse in passionate self-reproaches, but only received his pardon on +the most humiliating terms, namely, that he should present her with +the weapon which had so nearly pierced her heart, on which was to be +inscribed this memento of the jealous madness of its owner: "_Epee de +M------, qui osa frapper La Gabrielli_." Only Metastasio's persuasions +(for Gabrielli prized his friendship and advice as much as she trifled +with him in a different _role_) persuaded her to spare the Frenchman the +insufferable ridicule which her retention of the telltale sword would +have imposed on one whose rank and station could ill afford to be made +the laughing-stock of his times. + +The siren's infinite caprices furnished the most interesting _chronique +scandaleuse_ of Vienna. Brydone in his "Tour" tells us that it was +fortunate for humanity that the fair cantatrice had so many faults; for, +had she been more perfect, "she must have made dreadful havoc in the +world; though, with all her deficiencies," he says, "she was supposed to +have achieved more conquests than any one woman breathing." Her caprice +was so stubborn, that neither interest, nor threats, nor punishment had +the least power over it; she herself declared that she could not command +it, but that it for the most part commanded her. The best expedient to +induce her to sing when she was in a bad humor was to prevail upon her +favorite lover to place himself in the principal seat of the pit, or the +front of a box, and, if they were on good terms--which was seldom the +case, however--she should address her tender airs to him, and exert +herself to the utmost. When Brydone was in Sicily, her lover promised +to give him an example of his power over her. "He took his seat +accordingly; but Gabrielli, probably suspecting the connivance, would +take no notice of him; so even this expedient does not always succeed." + + +II. + +When Gabrielli left Vienna for Sicily in 1765, she was laden with +riches, for her manifold extravagances were generally incurred at +the expense of somebody else; and she continued at Palermo the same +eccentric, capricious, and flighty conduct which had made her name +synonymous with everything reckless and daring in contravening +propriety. She treated the highest dignitaries with the same insolence +which she displayed toward operatic managers. Even the Viceroy of +Sicily, standing in the very place of royalty, was made the victim of +wanton impertinence. The Viceroy gave a dinner in honor of La Gabrielli, +to which were invited the proudest nobles of the court; and, as she did +not appear at the appointed hour, a servant was sent to her apartments. +She was found _en deshabille_ dawdling over a book, and affected to +have forgotten the viceregal invitation--a studied insult, hardly to be +endured. This insolence, however, was overlooked by the representative +of royal authority, and it was not till the proud beauty's caprices +caused her to seriously neglect her artistic duties that she felt the +weight of his displeasure. When he sent a remonstrance against her +singing _sotto voce_ on the stage, she said she might be forced to +_cry_, but not to _sing_. The exasperated ruler ordered her to prison +for twelve days. Her caprice was here shown by giving the costliest +entertainments to her fellow prisoners, who were of all classes from +debtors to bandits, paying their debts, distributing great sums among +the indigent, and singing her most beautiful songs in an enchanting +manner. When she was released she was followed by the grateful tears +and blessings of those she had so lavishly benefited in jail. This +fascinating creature seems all through life to have been good on impulse +and bad on principle. Three years after this Gabrielli was singing in +Parma, where she made a speedy conquest of the Infante, Don Ferdinand. +His boundless wealth condoned the ugliness of his person in the eyes of +the singer, and the lavish income he placed at her disposal gratified +her boundless extravagances, while it did not prevent her from being +gracious to the Infante's many rivals and would-be successors. +Bitter quarrels and recriminations ensued, and the jealous ravings +of Catarina's princely admirer were more than matched by the fierce +sarcasms and shrill clamor of the beautiful virago. One day Don +Ferdinand, justly suspecting her of gross unfaithfulness, assailed +her with unusual fury, to which she replied by terming him a _gobbo +maladetto_ (accursed hunchback). On this the Prince, carried beyond +all control, had her imprisoned on some legal pretext, though Gabrielli +found proofs of love struggling with his anger in the magnificence of +the apartment and luxuriance of the service bestowed on her. But he +strove in vain to make his peace. The offended coquette was implacable, +and disdained alike his excuses and protestations of devotion. One night +she escaped from her prison, scaled the garden-wall, and fled, leaving +her weak and disconsolate lover to cool his sighs in tears of unavailing +regret. + +The court of the Semiramis of the North, Catharine II. of Russia, who +strove to expunge the contempt felt for her as a woman by Europe through +the imperial munificence with which she played at patronizing art and +literature, was the next scene of the fair Italian's triumph. Gabrielli +was received with lavish favor, but the Empress frowned when she heard +the pecuniary demands of the singer. "Five thousand ducats!" she +said, in amazement. "Why, I don't give more than that to one of my +field-marshals." "Very well," replied the audacious Gabrielli; "your +Majesty may get your field-marshals to sing for you, then." Catharine, +who, however cruel and unscrupulous when need be, was in the main +good-natured, laughed at the impertinence, and instead of sending +Gabrielli to Siberia consented to her demands, adding special gratuities +to the nominal salary. Two countrymen of the beautiful cantatrice, +Pai-siello and Cimarosa, were afterward treated with equal honor and +consideration by the imperial _dilettante_. Catharine's favor lasted +unimpaired for several years, and it only abated when Gabrielli's lust +for conquest and the honor of rivalry with a sovereign tempted her to +coquet with Prince Po-temkin. An intimation from the court chamberlain +that St. Petersburg was too hot for one of her warm southern blood, +and that Siberia or some other place at her will would better suit +her temperament, sufficed when backed by an imperial endorsement. La +Gabrielli returned from Russia, loaded with, diamonds and wealth, +for Catharine did not dismiss her without substantial proofs of her +magnificence and generosity. + +At this period Gabrielli was invited to England; and after considerable +haggling with the London manager, and compelling him to employ her +favorite of the hour, Signor Manzoletto, as principal tenor, the +negotiation was consummated. Gabrielli still preserved all her +excellence of voice and charm of execution; but her rare beauty, which +had been as great a factor in her success as artistic skill, was on the +wane. The English engagement had been made with some reluctance; for +the stern and uncompromising temper of the island nation had been widely +recognized with exaggerations in Continental Europe. "I should not be +mistress of my own will," she said, "and whenever I might have a fancy +not to sing, the people would insult, perhaps misuse me. It is better +to remain unmolested, were it even in prison." She, however, changed her +mind, and her experiences in London were such as to make her regret that +she had not stood firm to her first resolution. + + +III. + +Among the remarkable male singers of Gabrielli's time was Caffarelli, +whom his friends indeed declared to be no less great than Farinelli. +Though never closely associated with La Cuochet-tina in her stage +triumphs (a fact perhaps fortunate for the cantatrice), he must be +regarded as one of the representative artists of the period when she was +in the full-blown and insolent prime of her beauty and reputation. Born +in 1703, of humble Neapolitan parentage, he became a pupil of Porpora at +an early age. The great singing-master is said to have taught him in a +peculiar fashion. For five years he permitted him to sing nothing +but scales and exercises. In the sixth year Porpora instructed him in +declamation, pronunciation, and articulation. Caffarelli, at the end of +the sixth year, supposing he had just mastered the rudiments, began to +murmur, when he was amazed by Porpora's answer: "Young man, you may now +leave me; you are the greatest singer in the world, and you have nothing +more to learn from me." Hogarth discredits this story, on the ground +that "none but a plodding drudge without a spark of genius could have +submitted to a process which would have been too much for the patient +endurance even of a Russian serf; or if a single spark had existed at +first, it must have been extinguished by so barbarous a treatment." +Caffarelli did not rise to the height of his fame rapidly, and, when +he went to London to supply the place of Farinelli in 1738, he entirely +failed to please the English public, who had gone wild with enthusiasm +over his predecessor. Farinelli's retirement from the artistic world +about this period removed from Caffarelli's way the only rival who could +have snatched from him the laurels he soon acquired as the leading +male singer of the age. After Caffarelli's return from England, his +engagements in Turin, Genoa, Milan, and Florence were a triumphal +progress. At Turin he sang before the Prince and Princess of Sardinia, +the latter of whom had been a pupil of Farinelli, as she was a Spanish +princess. Caffarelli, on being told that the royal lady had a prejudice +in favor of her old master, said haughtily, "To-night she shall hear +two Farinellis in one," and exerted his faculties so successfully as +to produce acclamations of delight and astonishment. He always seems +to have had great jealousy of the fame of Farinelli, and the latter +entertained much curiosity about his successor in public esteem. +Metas-tasio, the friend of the retired artist, wrote to him in 1749 from +Vienna about Caffarelli's reception: "You will be curious to know +how Caffarelli has been received. The wonders related of him by his +adherents had excited expectations of something above humanity." After +summing up the judgments of the critics who were severe on Caffarelli's +faults, that his voice was "false, screaming, and disobedient," that +his singing was full of "antique and stale flourishes," that "in his +recitative he was an old nun," and that in all that he sang there was +"a whimsical tone of lamentation sufficient to sour the gayest allegro," +Metastasio says that in his happy moments he could please excessively, +but the caprices of his voice and temper made these happy moments very +uncertain. + +Caffarelli's arrogant, vain, and turbulent nature seems to have been the +principal cause of his troubles. The numerous anecdotes current of him +turned mainly on this characteristic, so different from the modesty and +reticence of Fari-nelli. Metastasio, in a lively letter to the Princess +di Belmonte, describes an amusing fracas at the Viennese Opera-House. +The poet of the house, Migliavacca, who was also director of rehearsals, +became engaged in altercation with the singer, because the latter +neglected attendance. He rehearsed to Caffarelli in bitter language +the various terms of reproach and contempt which his enemies throughout +Europe had lavished on him. "But the hero of the panegyric, cutting the +thread of his own praise, called out to his eulogist, 'Follow me if +thou hast courage to a place where there is none to assist thee,' and, +moving toward the door, beckoned him to come out. The poet hesitated +a moment, then said with a smile: 'Truly, such an antagonist makes me +blush; but come along, since it is a Christian act to chastise a madman +or a fool,' and advanced to take the field." Suddenly the belligerents +drew blades on the very stage itself, and, while the bystanders were +expecting to see poetical or vocal blood besprinkle the harpsichords +and double basses, the Signora Tesi advanced toward the duelists. "Oh, +sovereign power of beauty!" writes Metastasio with sly sarcasm; "the +frantic Caffarelli, even in the fiercest paroxysms of his wrath, +captivated and appeased by this unexpected tenderness, runs with rapture +to meet her, lays his sword at her feet, begs pardon for his errors, +and, generously sacrificing to her his vengeance, seals, with a thousand +kisses on her hand, his protestations of obedience, respect, and +humility. The nymph signifies her forgiveness with a nod, the poet +sheathes his sword, the spectators begin to breathe again, and the +tumultuous assembly breaks up amid sounds of laughter. In collecting the +numbers of the wounded and slain, none was found but the poor copyist, +who, in trying to part the combatants, had received a small contusion +in the clavicula of the foot from an involuntary kick of the poet's +Pegasus." + +Once, while Caffarelli was singing at Naples, he was told of the arrival +of Gizzielo, a possible rival, at Rome. Unable to check his anxiety, he +threw himself into a post-chaise and hastened to Rome, arriving in +time to hear his young rival sing the _aria d'entrata_. Delighted with +Gizzielo's singing, and giving vent to his emotion, he cried in a loud +voice: "_Bravo, bravissimo, Gizzielo! E Caffarelli che te lo dice_." So +saying, he rushed out and posted back to Naples, arriving barely in time +to dress for the opera. By invitation of the Dauphin, he went to Paris +in 1750, and sang at several concerts, where he pleased and astonished +the court by his splendid vocalism. Louis XV. sent him a snuff-box; +but Caffarelli, observing its plainness, said disdainfully, showing a +drawerful of splendid boxes, that the worst was finer than the French +King's present. "If he had only sent me his portrait in it," said the +vain' artist. "That is only given to ambassadors and princes," was +the reply of the King's gentleman. "Well," was the reply, "all the +ambassadors and princes in the world would not make one Caffarelli." The +King laughed heartily at this, but the Dauphin sent for the singer +and presented him with a passport, saying, "It is signed by the King +himself--for you a great honor; but lose no time in using it, for it is +only good for ten days." Caffarelli left in high dudgeon, saying he had +not made his expenses in France. + +Mr. Garrick, the great actor, heard Caffarelli in Naples in 1764, when +he was turned of sixty, and thus writes to Dr. Burney: "Yesterday we +attended the ceremony of making a nun; she was the daughter of a duke, +and everything was conducted with great splendor and magnificence. The +consecration was performed with great solemnity, and I was very much +affected; and, to crown the whole, the principal part was sung by the +famous Caffarelli, who, though old, has pleased me more than all the +singers I ever heard. He _touched_ me, and it is the first time I +have been touched since I came to Italy." At this time Caffarelli had +accumulated a great fortune, purchased a dukedom, and built a splendid +palace at San Dorato, from which he derived his ducal title. + +Over the gate he inscribed, with characteristic modesty, this +inscription: "_Amphion Thebas, ego domum._" * A wit of the period added, +"_Ille cum, sine tu_." ** Caffarelli died in 1783, leaving his title +and wealth to his nephew, some of whose descendants are still living in +enjoyment of the rank earned by the genius of the singer. By some of +the critics of his time Caffarelli was judged to be the superior of +Farinelli, though the suffrages were generally on the other side. He +excelled in slow and pathetic airs as well as in the bravura style; and +was unrivaled in the beauty of his voice, and in the perfection of his +shake and his chromatic scales, which latter embellishment in quick +movements he was the first to introduce. + + * "Amphion built Thebes, I a palace." + + ** "He with good reason, you without." + + +IV. + +When Gabrielli was on her way to England in 1765, she sang for a few +nights in Venice with the celebrated Pacchierotti, a male soprano singer +who took the place of Caffarelli, even as the latter filled that vacated +by Farinelli. Gabrielli was inspired by the association to do her +utmost, and when she sang her first _aria di bravura_, Pacchierotti gave +himself up for lost. The astonishing swiftness, grace, and flexibility +of her execution seemed to him beyond comparison; and, tearing his hair +in his impetuous Italian way, he cried in despair, "_Povero me, povero +me! Vuesto e un portento!_" ("Unfortunate man that I am, here indeed is +a prodigy!") It was some time before he could be persuaded to sing; but, +when he did, he excited as much admiration in Gabrielli's breast as that +fair cantatrice had done in his own. Pac-chierotti is the third in the +great triad of the male soprano singers of the eighteenth century, and +the luster of his reputation does not shine dimly as compared with the +other two. He commenced his musical career at Palermo in 1770, at the +age of twenty, and when he went to England in 1778 expectations were +raised to the highest pitch by the accounts given of him by Brydone in +his "Tour through Sicily and Malta." His first English season was very +successful, and he returned again in 1780, to remain for four years and +become one of the greatest favorites the London public had ever known, +his last appearance being at the great Handel commemoration. The details +of Pacchierotti's life are rather scanty, for he was singularly modest +and retiring, and shrank from rather than courted public notice. We know +more of him from his various critics as an artist than as a man. + +"Pacchierotti's voice," says Lord Mount Edgcumbe, who contributed so +richly to the literature of music, "was an extensive soprano, full and +sweet in the highest degree; his powers of execution were great, but he +had far too good taste and good sense to make a display of them where +it would have been misapplied, confining it to one bravura song in each +opera, conscious that the chief delight of singing and his own supreme +excellence lay in touching expression and exquisite pathos. Yet he was +so thorough a musician that nothing came amiss to him; every style was +to him equally easy, and he could sing at first sight all songs of the +most opposite characters, not merely with the facility and correctness +which a complete knowledge of music must give, but entering at once into +the views of the composer and giving them all the spirit and expression +he had designed. Such was his genius in his embellishments and cadences +that their variety was inexhaustible.... As an actor, with many +disadvantages of person--for he was tall and awkward in his figure, and +his features were plain--he was nevertheless forcible and impressive; +for he felt warmly, had excellent judgment, and was an enthusiast in his +profession. His recitative was inimitably fine, so that even those who +did not understand the language could not fail to comprehend from his +countenance, voice, and action every sentiment he expressed." + +An anecdote illustrating Pacchierotti's pathos is given by the +best-informed musical authorities. When Metastasio's "Artaserse" was +given at Rome with the music of Bertoni, Pacchierotti performed the +part of Arbaces. In one place a touching song is followed by a short +instrumental symphony. When Pacchierotti had finished the air, he turned +to the orchestra, which remained silent, saying, "What are you about?" +The leader, awakened from a trance, answered with much simplicity in a +sobbing voice, "We are all crying." Not one of the band had thought +of the symphony, but sat with eyes full of tears, gazing at the great +singer. + + +V. + +Gabrielli's career, which will now be resumed, had been full of romantic +adventures, _affaires d'amour_, and curious episodes, and her vanity +looked forward to the continuance in England of similar social +excitements. She had accepted the London engagement with some scruple +and hesitation, but her anticipation of brilliant conquests among +the _jeunesse doree_ of Britain overcame her fear that she would find +audiences less tolerant than those to which she had been accustomed in +her imperious course through Europe. But the beautiful Gabrielli was +then a little on the wane both in personal loveliness and charm of +voice; and, though her fame as a coquette and an artist had preceded +her, she met with an indifference that was almost languor. The young +Englishmen of the period, though quick to draw blade as any gallants in +Europe, did not feel inspired to fight for her smiles, as had been the +case with their compeers in the Continental cities, which rang with the +scandals, controversies, and duels engendered by her numerous conquests. +This sort of social stimulus had become necessary from long use as +an ally of professional effort; and, lacking it, Gabrielli became +insufferably indolent and careless. She would not take the least trouble +to please fastidious London audiences, then as now the most exacting in +Europe. She chose to remain sick on occasions which should have drawn +forth her finest efforts, and frequently sent her sister Francesca to +fill her great parts. One night her manager, mistrusting her excuses of +illness, proceeded to her apartments, and found them ablaze with light +and filled with a large company of gay and riotous revelers. Of course +this condition of affairs could not long be endured. Stung by the slight +appreciation of her talents in England, and not choosing to endure the +want of patience which made the public grumble when she chose to sing +badly or not at all, she quitted England after a very brief stay. Lord +Mount Edgcumbe saw her in the opera of "Didone," and avows bluntly that +he could see nothing more of her acting than that she took the greatest +possible care of her enormous hoop when she sidled out of the flames of +Carthage. Dr. Burney, on the other hand, is a more chivalrous critic, or +else he was unduly impressed with the lady's charms; for she appeared to +him "the most intelligent and best-bred _virtuoso_ with whom he had +ever conversed, not only on the subject of music, but on every subject +concerning which a well-educated female, who had seen the world, might +be expected to have information." Furthermore, he extols the precision +and accuracy of her execution and intonation, and the thrilling quality +of her voice. + +Brydone, who appears to have been fascinated with this siren, has an +amusing apology for her carelessness of her duties in England, which he +insists was not caprice, but inability to sing. He says: "And this I can +readily believe, for that wonderful flexibility of voice, that runs +with such rapidity and neatness through the most minute divisions, and +produces almost instantaneously so great a variety of modulation, must +surely depend on the very nicest tones of the fibers; and if these are +in the smallest degree relaxed, or their elasticity diminished, how is +it possible that their contractions and expansions can so readily obey +the will as to produce these effects? The opening of the glottis which +forms the voice is so extremely small, and in every variety of tone its +diameter must suffer a sensible change; for the same diameter must ever +produce the same tone. So _wonderfully_ minute are its contractions and +dilatations, that Dr. Kiel, I think, computed that in some voices its +opening, not more than the tenth of an inch, is divided into upward +of twelve hundred parts, the different sound of every one of which is +perceptible to the exact ear. Now, what a nice tension of fibers must +this require! I should imagine even the most minute change in the air +causes a sensible difference, and that in our foggy climate fibers would +be in danger of losing this wonderful sensibility, or, at least, that +they would very often be put out of tune. It is not the same case with +an ordinary voice, where the variety of divisions run through and the +volubility with which they are executed bear no proportion to that of a +Gabrielli." + +Gabrielli sang in various cities of Italy for several years more, still +retaining her hold on the hearts of her countrymen. In 1780 she finally +retired from the stage and began to live a regular and orderly life, +though still extravagant and lavish in her indulgence both of freaks of +luxury and generosity. During her residence at Rome the noblesse of +that city held her in high esteem, and her concerts gathered the most +distinguished and wealthy people. Her prodigality had considerably +reduced her income, and when she retired from her profession it amounted +to little more than twenty thousand francs. The state in which Gabrielli +had lived suited a princess of the blood rather than an operatic singer. +Her traveling retinue included a little army of servants and couriers, +and, both at home and at the theatre, she exacted the respect which was +rather the due of some royal personage. A Florentine nobleman paid her +a visit one day, and tore one of his ruffles by catching in some part of +her dress. Gabrielli the next day, to make amends, sent him six bottles +of Spanish wine, with the costliest rolls of Flanders lace stuffed into +the mouths of the bottles instead of corks. But, if she was extravagant +and luxurious, she was also generous; and, in spite of the cruel +caprices which had marked her life, she always gave tokens of a +naturally kind heart. She gave largely to charity, and provided +liberally for her parents, as also for her brother's education. Of this +brother, who appeared at the Teatro Argentina in Rome as a tenor, +but who sang as wretchedly as his sister did exquisitely, an amusing +anecdote is narrated. The audience began to hoot and hiss, and yells of +"Get out, you raven!" sounded through the house. With great _sang-froid_ +the unlucky singer said: "You fancy you are mortifying me by hooting me; +you are grossly deceived; on the contrary, I applaud your judgment, for +I solemnly declare that I never appear on any stage without receiving +the same treatment, and sometimes worse." + +Gabrielli's closing years were spent at Bologna, where she won the +esteem and admiration of all by her charities and steadiness of life, a +notable contrast to the license and extravagance of her earlier career. +She died in 1796, at the age of sixty-six. + + + + +SOPHIE ARNOULD. + +The French Stage as seen by Rousseau.--Intellectual Ferment of the +Period.--Sophie Arnould, the Queen of the most Brilliant of Paris +Salons.--Her Early Life and Connection with Comte de Lauraguais.--Her +Reputation as the Wittiest Woman of the Age.--Art Association with the +Great German Composer, Gluck.--The Rivalries and Dissensions of the +Period.--Sophie's Rivals and Contemporaries, Madame St. Huberty, +the Vestrises Father and Son, Madelaine Guimard.--Opera during the +Revolution.--The Closing Days of Sophie Arnould's Life.--Lord Mount +Edgcumbe's Opinion of her as an Artist. + + +I. + +Rousseau, a man of decidedly musical organization, and who wrote so +brilliantly on the subject of the art he loved (but who cared more for +music than he did for truth and honor, as he showed by stealing the +music of two operas, "Pygmalion" and "Le Devin du Village," and passing +it off for his own), has given us some very racy descriptions of French +opera in the latter part of the eighteenth century in his "Dictionnaire +Musicale," in his "Lettre sur la Musique Francaise," and, above all, +in the "Nouvelle Heloise." In the mouth of Saint Preux, the hero of the +latter novel, he puts some very animated sketches: + +"The opera at Paris passes for the most pompous, the most voluptuous, +the most admirable spectacle that human art has ever invented. It is, +say its admirers, the most superb monument of the magnificence of Louis +XIV. Here you may dispute about anything except music and the opera; on +these topics alone it is dangerous not to dissemble. French music, +too, is defended by a very vigorous inquisition, and the first thing +indicated is a warning to strangers who visit this country that all +foreigners admit there is nothing so fine as the grand opera at Paris. +The fact is, discreet people hold their tongues and laugh in their +sleeves. It must, however, be conceded that not only all the marvels of +nature, but many other marvels much greater, which no one has ever seen, +are represented at great cost at this theatre; and certainly Pope must +have alluded to it when he describes a stage on which were seen gods, +hobgoblins, monsters, kings, shepherds, fairies, fury, joy, fire, a jig, +a battle, and a ball.*... + + * Addison gives some such description of the French opera in + No. 29 of the "Spectator." + +Having told you what others say of this brilliant spectacle, I will +now tell you what I have seen myself. Imagine an inclosure fifteen feet +broad and long in proportion; this inclosure is the theatre. On its two +sides are placed at intervals screens, on which are grossly painted +the objects which the scene is about to represent. At the back of the +inclosure hangs a great curtain painted in like manner, and nearly +always pierced and torn, that it may represent at a little distance +gulfs on the earth or holes in the sky. Every one who passes behind this +stage or touches the curtain produces a sort of earthquake, which has a +double effect. The sky is made from certain bluish rags suspended +from poles or from cords, as linen may be seen hung out to dry in any +washerwoman's yard. The sun (for it is seen here sometimes) is a lighted +torch in a lantern. The cars of the gods and goddesses are composed of +four rafters, squared and hung on a thick rope in the form of a swing or +seesaw; between the rafters is a cross-plank on which the god sits down, +and in front hangs a piece of coarse cloth well dirtied, which acts the +part of clouds for the magnificent car. One may see toward the bottom of +the machine two or three stinking candles, badly snuffed, which, while +the great personage dementedly presents himself, swinging in his seesaw, +fumigate him with an incense worthy of his dignity. The agitated sea +is composed of long lanterns of cloth and blue pasteboard, strung on +parallel spits which are turned by little blackguard boys. The thunder +is a heavy cart, rolled over an arch, and is not the least agreeable +instrument one hears. The flashes of lightning are made of pinches of +rosin thrown on a flame, and the thunder is a cracker at the end of +a fusee. The theatre is furnished, moreover, with little square +trap-doors, through which the demons issue from their cave. When they +have to rise into the air, little devils of stuffed brown cloth are +substituted, or perhaps live chimney-sweeps, who swing suspended and +smothered in rags. The accidents which happen are sometimes tragical, +sometimes farcical. When the ropes break, then infernal spirits and +immortal deities fall together, laming and sometimes killing each other. +Add to all this the monsters which render some scenes very pathetic, +such as dragons, lizards, tortoises, and large toads, which promenade +the theatre with a menacing air, and display at the opera all the +temptations of St. Anthony. Each of these figures is animated by a lout +of a Savoyard, who has not even intelligence enough to play the beast." +Saint Preux is also made to say of the singers: "One sees actresses +nearly in convulsions, tearing yelps and howls violently out of their +lungs, closed hands pressed on their breasts, heads thrown back, faces +inflamed, veins swollen, and stomach panting. I know not which of the +two, eye or ear, is more agreeably affected by this display.... For my +part, I am certain that people applaud the outcries of an actress at the +opera as they would the feats of a tumbler or rope-dancer at a fair.... +Imagine this style of singing employed to express the delicate gallantry +and tenderness of Quinault. Imagine the Muses, the Graces, the Loves, +Venus herself, expressing themselves this way, and judge the effect. As +for devils, it might pass, for this music has something infernal in it, +and is not ill adapted to such beings." + +From this and similar accounts it will be seen that opera in France +during the latter part of the eighteenth century had, notwithstanding +Jean Jacques's garrulous sarcasms, advanced a considerable way toward +that artificial perfection which characterizes it now. Music was a topic +of discussion, which absorbed the interest of the polite world far more +than the mutterings in the politi-cal horizon, which portended so fierce +a convulsion of the social _regime_. Wits, philosophers, courtiers, and +fine ladies joined in the acrimonious controversy, first between the +adherents of Lulli and Rameau, then between those of Gluck and Piccini. +The young gallants of the day were wont to occupy part of the stage +itself and criticise the performance of the opera; and often they +adjourned from the theatre to the dueling-ground to settle a difficulty +too hard for their wits to unravel. The intense interest appertaining to +all things connected with music and the theatre noticeable in the French +of to-day, was tenfold as eager a century ago. Passionate curiosity, +even extending to enthusiasm, with which that worn-out and utterly +corrupt society, by some subtile contradiction, threw itself into all +questions concerning philosophy, science, literature, and art, found +its most characteristic expression in its relation to the music of the +stage. + +It was at this strange and picturesque period, when everything in +politics, society, literature, and art was fermenting for the terrible +Hecate's brew which the French world was soon to drink to the dregs, +that there appeared on the stage one of the most remarkable figures +in its history, a woman of great beauty and brilliancy, as well as an +artist of unique genius--Sophie Arnould. Her name is lustrous in French +memoirs for the splendor of her wit and conversational talent; and +Arsene Houssaye has thought it worthy to preserve her _bon-mots_ in +a volume of table-talk, called "Arnouldiana," which will compare with +anything of its kind in the French language. For a dozen years prior to +the Revolution Sophie Arnould was a queen of society as well as of +art; and in her elegant _salon_, which was a museum of art _curios_ +and bric-a-brac, she held a brilliant court, where men of the highest +distinction, both native and foreign, were proud to pay their homage +at the shrine of beauty and genius. There might be seen D'Alembert, the +learned and scholarly, rough and independent in manner, who deserted the +drawing-rooms of the great for saloons where he could move at his ease. +There, also, Diderot would often delight his circle of admirers by the +fluency and richness of his conversation, his friends extolling his +disinterestedness and honesty, his enemies whispering about his cunning +and selfishness. The novelist Duclos, with his keen power of penetrating +human character, would move leisurely through the throng, picking +up material for his romances; and Mably would talk politics and drop +ill-natured remarks. The learned metaphysician Helvetius, too, was +often there, seeking for compliments, his appetite for applause being +voracious; so insatiable, indeed, that he even danced one night at the +opera. It was said that he was led to study mathematics by seeing a +circle of beautiful ladies surrounding the ugly geometrician Maupertuis +in the gardens of the Tuileries. Dorat, who wasted his time in +writing bad tragedies, and his property in publishing them; the gay, +good-hearted Marmontel; Bernard--called by Voltaire _le gentil_--who +wrote the libretto of "Castor et Pollux," esteemed for years a +masterpiece of lyric poetry; Rameau, the popular composer, in whose +pieces Sophie always appeared; and Francoeur, the leader of the +orchestra, were also among her guests. J. J. Rousseau was the great +lion, courted and petted by all. When Benjamin Franklin arrived in +Paris, where he was received with unbounded hospitality by the most +distinguished of French society, he confessed that nowhere did he find +such pleasure, such wit, such brilliancy, as in the _salon_ of Mile. +Arnould. M. Andre de Murville was one of the more noteworthy men of wit +who attended her _soirees_, and he became so madly in love with her that +he offered her his hand; but she cared very little about him. One day +he told her that if he were not in the Academie within thirty years, he +would blow out his brains. She looked steadily at him, and then, smiling +sarcastically, said, "I thought you had done that long ago." Poets +sang her praises; painters eagerly desired to transfer her exquisite +lineaments to canvas. All this flattery intoxicated her. She wished +to be classed with Ninon, Lais, and Aspasia, and was proud to be the +subject of the verses of Dorat, Bernard, Rulhiere, Marmontel, and +Favart. Sophie's wit never hesitated to break a lance even on those she +liked. "What are you thinking of?" she said to Bernard, in one of his +abstracted moods. "I was talking to myself," he replied. "Be careful," +she said archly; "you gossip with a flatterer." To a physician, whom she +met with a gun under his arm, she laughed aloud, "Ah, doctor, you are +afraid of your professional resources failing." Her racy repartees were +in every mouth from Paris to Versailles, and she was in all respects a +brilliant personage among the intellectual lights of the age. + +In the Rue de Bethisy, Paris, stood a house, the Hotel de Chatillon, +from the window of one of whose rooms assassins flung the gory head of +the great Admiral de Coligni down to the Duke de Guise on the night of +Saint Bartholomew, 1572. In that same room was born, February 14, 1744, +Sophie Arnould, the daughter of the proprietor, who had transformed the +historic dwelling into a hostelry. She grew up a bright, lively, and +beautiful child, and was conscious from an early age of the value of her +talents. Anne, as she was then called (for the change to Sophie was made +afterward), would say with exultation: "We shall be as rich as princes. +A good fairy has given me a talisman to transform everything into gold +and diamonds at the sound of my voice." + +Accident brought her talent to light. It was then the fashion for +ladies, after confessing their sins in Passion Week, to retire for some +days to a religious house, there to expiate by fasting the faults and +misdemeanors committed during the gayeties of the Carnival. It chanced +that when Anne was about twelve years old the Princess of Modena retired +to the convent of Val-de-Grace, and in attending vespers heard one voice +which, for power and purity, she thought had never been surpassed. +Fine voices were at a premium then in France, and the Princess at once +decided that she had discovered a treasure. She inquired who was the +owner of this exquisite organ, and was informed that it was little Anne +Arnould. The Princess sent for the child, who came readily, and was not +in the least abashed by the presence of the great lady, but sang like a +nightingale and chattered like a magpie. The wit and beauty of the girl +charmed the Princess, and she threw a costly necklace about her throat. +"Come, my lovely child," said she; "you sing like an angel, and you +have more wit than an angel. Your fortune is made." As a result of the +praises so loudly chanted by the Princess of Modena, the child was +sent for to sing in the King's Chapel, and, in spite of the aversion of +Anne's pious mother, who was afraid with good reason of the influences +of the dissipated court, she was placed thus in contact with power and +royalty. The beautiful Pompadour heard her charming voice, and remarked, +with that effusion of sentiment which veneered her cruel selfishness, +"Ah! with such a talent, she might become a princess." This opinion of +the imperious and all-powerful favorite decided the girl's fate; for it +was equivalent to a mandate for her _debut_. The precocious child knew +the danger of the path opened for her. To the remonstrances of her +mother she said with a shrug of her pretty shoulders: "To go to the +opera is to go to the devil. But what matters it? It is my destiny." +Poor Mme. Arnould scolded, shuddered, and prayed, and ended it, as she +thought, by shutting the girl up in a convent. But Louis XV. got wind +of this threatened checkmate, and a royal mandate took her out of the +convent walls which had threatened to immure her for life. Anne was +placed with Clairon, the great tragedienne, to learn acting, and with +Mlle. Fel to learn singing. As a consequence, while she had some +rivals in the beauty of her voice, her acting surpassed anything on the +operatic stage of that era. + + +II. + +When Anne Arnould made her first appearance, she assumed the name of +Sophie on account of the softer sound of its syllables. Her _debut_, +September 15, 1757, was one of most brilliant success, and in a +night Paris was at her feet. Her genius, her beauty, her voice, her +magnificent eyes, her incomparable grace and fascinating witchery of +manner, were the talk of the city; and the opera was besieged every +night she sang. Freron, in speaking of the waiting crowds, said, "I +doubt if they would take such trouble to get into paradise." The young +and lovely _debutante_ accepted the homage of the time, which then as +now expressed itself in bouquets, letters, and jewels, without number, +with as much nonchalance as if she had been a stage goddess of twenty +years' standing. + +Hosts of admirers fluttered around this new and brilliant light. Mme. +Arnould fretted and scolded, and watched her precious charge as well +as she could; for when the opera received a singer, neither father nor +mother could longer claim her. One of the besieging _roues_ said that +Sophie walked on roses. "Yes," was the mother's keen retort, "but see to +it that you do not plant thorns amid the roses." Sophie's fascinations +were the theme of universal talk among the gay and licentious idlers of +the court, and heavy bets were made as to who should be the victor in +his suit. Among the most distinguished of the court rufflers of the +period was the Comte de Lauraguais, noted for his personal beauty, +wit, and daring, and for having written some very bad plays, which were +instantly damned by the audience. He had run through a great fortune, +and the good-humored gayety with which he won money from his friends was +only equaled by the nonchalance with which he had squandered his own. +He was a member of the Academy of Sciences, and enjoyed lounging in +fashionable saloons and behind the scenes at the opera. Lauraguais +had the temerity to attempt to carry off the young beauty, but, the +enterprise failing, he had recourse to another expedient. One evening, +supping with some friends, the conversation turned naturally on the +star which had just risen, and there was much jesting over the maternal +anxiety of Arnould _mere_. Lauraguais, laughing, instantly offered to +lay an immense wager that within fifteen days Mme. Arnould would no +longer attend Sophie to the opera. The bet was taken, and the next day +a handsome but modest-looking young man, professing to be from the +country, applied at the Hotel de Chatillon for lodgings. The fascinating +tongue of young Duval (for he represented that he was a poet of that +name, who hoped to get a play taken by the managers) soon beguiled both +mother and daughter, and he began to make love to Sophie under the +very maternal eyes. The romantic girl listened with delight to the +protestations and vows of the young provincial poet, though she had +disdained the flatteries of the troops of court gallants who besieged +the opera-house stage when she sang. The _finale_ of this pretty +pastoral was a moonlight flitting one night. The couple eloped, and the +Comte de Lauraguais won his wager that Mme. Arnould would not longer +accompany her daughter to the opera, and with the wager the most +beautiful and fascinating woman of the time. + +Sophie, finding herself freed from all conventional shackles, gave full +play to her tastes, both for luxury and intellectual society. Her house, +the Hotel Rambouillet, was transformed into a palace, and both at home +and in the green-room of the opera she was surrounded by a throng of +noblemen, diplomats, soldiers, poets, artists--in a word, all the most +brilliant men of Paris, who crowded her receptions and besieged her +footsteps. The attentions paid the brilliant Sophie caused terrible fits +of jealousy on the part of Lauraguais, and their life for several years, +though there appears to have been sincere attachment on both sides, was +embittered by quarrels and recriminations. Sophie seems to have been +faithful to her relation with Lauraguais, though she never took pains +to deprecate his anger or avert his suspicions. Discovering that he +was intriguing with an operatic fair one, she contrived that Lauraguais +should come on her _tete-a-tete_ with a Knight of Malta. To his +reproaches she answered, "This gentleman is only fulfilling his vows as +Knight of Malta in waging war upon an infidel" (infidele). At last she +tired of leading such a fretful existence, and took the occasion of the +Count's absence to break the bond. She filled her carriage with all of +his valuable gifts to herself--jewelry, laces, and two children--and +sent them to his hotel. The message was received by the Countess, who +gladly accepted the charge of the little ones, but returned the carriage +and its other contents. On Lauraguais's return he was thrown into the +deepest misery by Sophie's resolve; but, although she was touched by his +pleading and reproaches, she remained inflexible. She accepted, however, +a pension of two thousand crowns which his generosity settled on her. We +are told that the sentimental Countess joined with her husband in urging +Sophie, who at first refused to receive Lauraguais's bounty, to yield, +saying that her admiration of the lovely singer made her excuse his +fault in being unfaithful to herself, and that the children should be +always treated as her own. Such a scene as this would be impossible out +of the France of the eighteenth century. + +The number of Sophie Arnould's _bon-mots_ is almost legion, and her +good nature could rarely resist the temptation of uttering a brilliant +epigram or a pungent repartee. Some one showed her a snuff-box, on which +were portraits of Sully and the Duke de Choiseul. She said with a wicked +smile, "Debit and credit." A Capuchin monk was reported to have been +eaten by wolves. "Poor beasts! hunger must be a dreadful thing," +ejaculated she. A beautiful but silly woman complained to her of the +persistency of her lovers. "You have only to open your mouth and +speak, to get rid of their importunities," was the pungent answer. She +effectually silenced a coxcomb, who aimed to annoy her by saying, "Oh! +wit runs in the street nowadays," by the retort, "Too fast for fools to +catch it, however." Of Madeleine Guimard, the fascinating dancer, who +was exceedingly thin, Sophie said one night, after she had seen her +dance a _pas de trois_ in which she represented a nymph being contended +for by two satyrs, "It made her think of two dogs fighting for a bone."* + + * This _mot_ the Paris wits have revived at the expense of + Mlle. Sara Bernhardt. + +One day Voltaire said to her, "Ah! mademoiselle, I am eighty-four years +old, and I have committed eighty-four follies" (_sottises_). "A mere +trifle," responded Sophie; "I am not yet forty, and I have committed +more than a thousand." + +For a time Mile. Arnould suffered under a loss of court favor, owing +to her having made Mme. Du Barry the butt of her pointed sarcasms. A +_lettre de cachet_ would have been the fate of another, but Sophie was +too much of a popular idol to be so summarily treated. She, however, +retired for a time from the theatre with a pension of two thousand +francs, having already accumulated a splendid fortune. Instantly that +it was known she was under a cloud, there were plenty to urge that she +never had any voice, and that her only good points were beauty and fine +acting. Abbe Galiani, a court parasite, remarked one night, "It's the +finest asthma I ever heard." + +In 1774 the great composer Gluck, whose genius was destined to have such +a profound influence on French music, came to Paris with his "Iphigenie +en Aulide," by invitation of the Dauphiness Marie Antoinette, who had +formerly been his musical pupil. The stiff and stilted works of Sully +and Rameau had thus far ruled the French stage without any competition, +except from the Italian operettas performed by the company of Les +Bouffons, and the new school of French operatic comedy developed into +form by the lively genius of Gretry. When Gluck's magnificent opera, +constructed on new art principles, was given to the Paris public, +April 19, 1774, it created a deep excitement, and divided critics and +connoisseurs into opposing and embittered camps, in which the most +distinguished wits, poets, and philosophers ranged themselves, and +pelted each other with lampoons, pamphlets, and epigrams, which often +left wounds that had to be healed afterward by an application of cold +steel. In this contest Sophie Arnould, who had speedily emerged from her +retirement, took an active part, for Gluck had selected her to act the +part of his heroines. The dramatic intensity and breadth of the German +composer's conceptions admirably suited Sophie, whose genius for acting +was more marked than her skill in singing. The success of Gluck's +"Iphigenie" gave the finishing stroke to the antiquated operas of +Rameau, in which the singer had made her reputation, and offered her a +nobler vehicle for art-expression. On her association with Gluck's music +Sophie Arnould's fame in the history of art now chiefly rests. + +Gluck, like all others, yielded to the magic charm of the beautiful and +witty singer, and went so far as to permit rehearsals to be held at her +own house. On one occasion the Prince de Hennin, one of the haughtiest +of the grand seigneurs of the period, intruded himself, and, finding +himself unnoticed, interrupted the rehearsal with the remark, "I +believe it is the custom in France to rise when any one enters the +room, especially if it be a person of some consideration." Gluck's eyes +flashed with rage, as he sprang threateningly to his feet. "The custom +in Germany, sir, is to rise only for those whom we esteem!" he said; +then turning to Sophie, who had been stopped in the middle of an air, "I +perceive, madame, that you are not mistress in your own house. I leave +you, and shall never set foot here again." Sophie is credited with +having commented on this scene with the remark that it was the only case +where she had ever witnessed a personal illustration of AEsop's fable of +the lion put to flight by an ass.* + + * An English wit some years afterward perpetrated the same + witticism on the occasion of Edmund Burke's leaving the + House of Commons in a rage, because he was interrupted in + one of his great speeches by a thick-witted country member. + +It is pleasant to know that the Prince de Hennin was obliged to make a +humble apology to Gluck, by order of Marie Antoinette. + +Sophie Arnould appeared with no less success in Gluck's operas of +"Orphee" and "Alceste" than in the first, and rose again to the topmost +wave of court favor. When "Orphee" was at rehearsal at the opera-house, +it became the fashion of the great court dignitaries and the young +chevaliers of the period to attend. Gluck instantly, when he entered the +theatre, threw off his coat and wig, and conducted in shirt-sleeves +and cotton nightcap. When the rehearsal was over, prince and marquis +contended as to who should act the part of _valet de chambre_. The +composer at this time was the subject of almost idolatrous admiration, +for it was at a later period that the old quarrels were resumed again +with even more acrid personalities, and Piccini was imported from Italy +by the Du Barry faction to be pitted against the German. Gluck returned +from Germany, whither he had gone on a visit, to find the opposition +cabal in full force, and the merits of the Italian composer lauded +to the skies by the fickle public of Paris. But the former's greatest +opera, "Iphigenie en Tauride," was produced, and gave a fatal blow +to Piccini's ascendancy, though his own opera on the same subject was +afterward given with great care. On the latter occasion Mile. Laguerre, +the principal singer, appeared on the stage intoxicated, and was unable +to get through the music successfully. "This is not 'Iphigenia in +Tauris,'" said witty Sophie Arnould, "but Iphigenia in Champagne." +Through some intrigue Gluck was persuaded to substitute Mile. Levasseur +for Mile. Arnould in the interpretation of his last great operas; +so Sophie, enraged and disheartened, but to the gratification of the +myriads of people whom she had offended by her cutting witticisms, which +had been showered alike on friends and enemies, retired to private life, +and thenceforward rarely appeared on the stage. + + +III. + +Interest will be felt in some of Sophie Arnould's more distinguished +art contemporaries. Among these, the highest place must be given to Mme. +Antoinette Cecile Saint Huberty, _nee_ Gavel. Born in Germany of French +descent, she made her first appearance in Paris in a small part in +Gluck's "Armide." Small, thin, and unprepossessing in person, her power +of expression and artistic vocal-ism won more and more on the public, +till the retirement of Sophie Arnould and Mile. Levasseur, and the +death of Laguerre, left her in undisputed possession of the stage. When +Piccini's "Didon," his greatest opera,* was produced, she sang the part +of the _Queen of Carthage_. + + * "Didon," differing widely from the other operas of + Piccini, was modeled after the new operatic principles of + Gluck, and was a magnificent homage on the part of his old + rival to the genius of the German. Indeed, although the + adherents of the two musicians waged so fierce a conflict, + they themselves were full of respect and admiration for each + other. Gluck always warmly expressed his appreciation of + Piccini's "felicitous and charming melodies, the clearness + of his style, the elegance and truth of his expression." + What Piccini's opinion of Gluck was is best shown in his + proposition after Gluck's death to raise a subscription, not + for the erection of a statue, but for the establishment of + an annual concert to take place on the anniversary of + Gluck's death, to consist entirely of his compositions--"in + order to transmit to posterity the spirit and character of + his magnificent works, that they may serve as a model to + future artists of the true style of dramatic music." + +Marmontel, the poet of the opera, had already said at rehearsal, "She +expressed it so well that I imagined myself at the theatre," and Piccini +congratulated her on having been largely instrumental in its success. +As _Didon_ she made one of her greatest successes. "Never," says Grimm, +"has there been united acting more captivating, a sensibility more +perfect, singing more exquisite, happier by-play, and more noble +_abandon_." She was crowned on the stage--an honor hitherto unknown, +and since so much abused. The secret of her marvelous gift lay in her +extreme sensibility. Others might sing an air better, but no one could +give to either airs or recitatives accentuation more pure or more +impassioned, action more dramatic, and by-play more eloquent. Some one +complimenting her on the vivid truth with which she embodied her part, +"I really experience it," she said; "in a death-scene I actually feel as +if I were dead." + +It has been said that Talma was the first to discard the absurd costumes +of the theatre, but this credit really belongs to Mme. Saint Huberty. +She studied the Greek and Roman statues, and wore robes in keeping with +the antique characters, especially suppressing hoops and powder. This +singer remained queen of the French stage until 1790, when she retired. +During the time of her art reign she appeared in many of the principal +operas of Piccini, Salieri, Sacchini, and Gretry, showing but little +less talent for comedy than for tragedy. She retired from public life +to become the wife of the Count d'Entraignes. Her tragic fate many years +afterward is one of the celebrated political assassinations of the age. +Count d'Entraignes at this time was residing at Barnes, England, having +recently left the diplomatic service of Russia, in which he had shown +himself one of the most dangerous enemies of the Napoleonic government +in France. The Count's Piedmontese valet had been bribed by a spy of +Fouche, the French Minister of Police, to purloin certain papers. The +valet was discovered by his master, and instantly stabbed him, and, as +the Countess entered the room a moment afterward, he also pierced her +heart with the stiletto recking with her husband's blood, finishing the +shocking tragedy by blowing out his own brains. Thus died, in 1812, one +who had been among the most brilliant ornaments of the French stage. + +No record of Sophie Arnould's artistic associates is complete without +some allusion to the celebrated dancers Gaetan Vestris * and Auguste, +his son. Gaetan was accustomed to say that there were three great men +in Europe--Voltaire, Frederick the Great, and himself. In his old age +he preserved all his skill, and M. Castel Blaze, who saw him at the +Academie fifty years after his _debut_ in 1748, declares that he still +danced with inimitable grace. + + * Mme. Vestris, the last of the family, and the first wife + of the English comedian Charles Mathews, was the + granddaughter of Gaetan. + +It is of Gaetan that the story is told in connection with Gluck, when +the opera of "Orphee" was put in rehearsal. The dancer wished for a +ballet in the opera. + +"Write me the music of a chacone, Monsieur Gluck," said the god of +dancing. + +"A chacone!" ejaculated the astonished composer; "do you think the +Greeks, whose manners we are endeavoring to depict, knew what a chacone +was?" + +"Did they not?" said Vestris, amazed at the information; then, in a tone +of compassion, "How much they are to be pitied!" + +Gaetan retired from the stage at the successful _debut_ of Auguste, but +appeared again from time to time to show his invulnerability to time. On +the occasion of his son's first appearance, the veteran, in full court +dress, sword, and ruffles, and hat in hand, stepped to the front by +the side of the _debutante_. After a short address to the public on the +importance of the choreographic art and his hopes of his son, he turned +to Auguste and said: "Now, my son, exhibit your talent. Your father is +looking at you." He was accustomed to say: "Auguste is a better dancer +than I am; he had Gaetan Vestris for a father, an advantage which nature +refused me." "If," said Gaetan, on another occasion, "le dieu de la +danse" (a title which he had given himself) "touches the ground from +time to time, he does so in order not to humiliate his comrades." + + * This boast of Gaetan Vestris seems to have inspired the + lines which Moore afterward addressed to a celebrated + _danseuse_: + + ".... You'd swear, When her delicate feet in the dance + twinkle round, That her steps are of light, that her home is + the air, And she only _par complaisance_ touches the + ground." + +The son inherited the paternal arrogance. To the director of the opera, +De Vismes, who, enraged at some want of respect, said to him, "Do you +know who I am?" he drawled, "Yes! you are the farmer of my talent." On +one occasion Auguste refused to obey the royal mandate, and Gaetan said +to him with some reproof in his tones: "What! the Queen of France does +her duty by requesting you to dance before the King of Sweden, and +you do not do yours! You shall no longer bear my name. I will have no +misunderstanding between the house of Vestris and the house of Bourbon; +they have hitherto always lived on good terms." It nearly broke +Auguste's heart when one day during the French Revolution he was seized +by a howling band of _sans culottes_ and made to exhibit his finest +skill on the top of a barrel before this ragged mob of liberty-loving +citizens! + +The fascinating sylph, Madeleine Guimard, broke almost as many hearts +and inspired as many duels as the charming Sophie Arnould herself. +Plain even to ugliness, and excessively thin, her exquisite dancing and +splendid eyes made great havoc among her numerous admirers. Lord Byron +said that thin women when young reminded him of dried butterflies, +when old of spiders. The stage associates of Mile. Guimard called her +"L'araignee," and Sophie Arnould christened her "the little silkworm," +for the sake of the joke about "la feuille." But such spiteful raillery +did not prevent her charming men to her feet whom greater beauties had +failed to captivate. Houdon the sculptor molded her foot, and the great +painters vied for the privilege of decorating the walls of her hotel. +When she broke her arm, mass was said in church for her recovery, +and she was one of the reigning toasts of Paris. Among the numerous +_liaisons_ of Mile. Guimard, that with the Prince de Soubise is most +noted. After this she eloped with a German prince, and the Prince de +Soubise pursued them, wounded his rival, killed three of his servants, +and brought her back to Paris in triumph. After a great variety of +adventures of this nature, she married in 1787 a humble professor of +dancing named Despriaux. Lord Mount Edgcumbe saw her in 1789 at the +King's Theatre in London. "Among them," he writes, referring to a troupe +of new performers, "came the famous Mile. Guimard, then nearly sixty +years old, but still full of grace and gentility, and she had never +possessed more." + + +IV. + +When Sophie Arnould retired from the stage, she took a house near the +Palais Royal, and extended as brilliant a hospitality as ever. She was +as celebrated for her practical jokes as for her witticisms, of which +the following freak is a good example: One evening in 1780 she gave a +grand supper, to which, among others, she invited M. Barthe, author of +"Les Fausses Infidelites," and many similar pieces. He was inflated +with vanity, though he was totally ignorant of everything away from the +theatre, and was, in fact, one of those individuals who actually seem +to court mystification and practical jokes. Mlle. Arnould instructed her +servant Jeannot, and had him announced pompously under the title of the +Chevalier de Medicis, giving M. Barthe to understand that the young man +was an illegitimate son of the house of Medici. The pretended nobleman +appeared to be treated with respect and distinction by the company, and +he spoke to the poet with much affability, professing great admiration +for his works. M. Barthe was enchanted. He was in a flutter of gratified +vanity, and, to show his delight at the condescension of the chevalier, +he proposed to write an epic poem in honor of his house. This farce +lasted during the evening. The assembled company were in convulsions of +suppressed laughter, which broke out when, at the moment of M. Barthe's +most ecstatic admiration and respect for his new patron, Sophie Arnould +lifted her glass, and, looking at the chevalier, said, in a clear voice, +"Your health, Jeannot!" The sensations of poor M. Barthe may readily be +imagined. The incident became the story of the day in all circles, and +the unlucky poet could not go anywhere for fear of being tormented about +"Jeannot." + +At length she withdrew completely from the follies, passions, and +cares of the world, and bought an ancient monastic building, formerly +belonging to the monks of St. Francis, near Luzarches, eighteen or +twenty miles from Paris. This grim residence she decorated luxuriously +in its interior, and over the door inscribed the ecclesiastical motto, +"Ite missa est." Here she remained during the earlier storms of the +Revolution, though she occasionally went to Paris at the risk of her +head to gratify her curiosity about the republican management of opera, +which presented some very unique features. The reader will be interested +in some brief pictures of the revolutionary opera. + +It was directed by four distinguished _sans culottes_--Henriot, +Chaumette, Le Rouxand, and Hebert. The nominal director, however, was +Francoeur, the same who first brought out Sophie Arnould in Louis XV.'s +time. Henriot, Danton, Hebert, and other chiefs of the Revolution would +hardly take a turn in the _coulisses_ or _foyer_ before they would say +to some actor or actress: "We are going to your room; see that we are +received properly." This of course meant a superb collation; and, after +emptying many bottles of the costliest wines, the virtuous republicans +would retire without troubling themselves on the score of expense. As +this was a nightly occurrence, and the poor actors had no money, the +expense fell on the restaurateur, who was compelled to console himself +by the reflection that it was in the cause of liberty. Oftentimes the +executioner, the dreaded Sanson, who as public official had the right of +entree, would stroll in and in a jocular tone emphasize his abilities as +a critic by saying to the singers that his opinion on the _execution_ of +the music ought to be respected.* + + * So, too, the London hangman one night went into the pit of + her Majesty's Theatre to hear Jenny Lind sing, and remarked + with a sigh of professional longing, "Ah, what a throat to + scrag!" + +Operatic kings and queens were suppressed, and the titles of royalty +were prohibited both on the stage and in the greenroom. It was +necessary, indeed, to use the old monarchical repertoire; but kings +were transformed into chiefs; princes and dukes became members of the +Convention or representatives of the people; seigneurs became mayors, +and substitutes were found for words like "crown," "scepter," "throne," +etc. There was one great difficulty to overcome. This was met by placing +the scenes of the new operas in Italy, Portugal, etc.--anywhere but in +France, where it was indispensable from a political point of view, but +impossible from the poetic and musical, to make lovers address each +other as _citoyen, citoyenne_. + +Hebert would frequently display proscriptive lists in the green-room, +including the names of many of the actors and other operatic employees, +and say, "I shall have to send you all to the guillotine some day, but +I have been prevented hitherto by the fact that you have conduced to +my amusement." The stratagem which saved them was to get the ferocious +Hebert drunk, for he loved wine as well as blood, and steal the fatal +document. However, this operatic _dilettante_ always appeared with +a fresh one next day. One bloodthirsty republican, Lefebvre, who was +ambitious for musical fame, insisted on singing first characters. He +appeared as _primo tenore_, and was hissed; he then tried his luck as +first bass, and was again hissed by his friends the _sans culottes_. +Enraged by the _fiasco_, he attributed it to the machinations of a +counter-revolution, and nearly persuaded Robespierre to give him a +platoon of musketeers to fire on the infamous emissaries of "Pitt and +Coburg." Yet, though the Reign of Terror was a fearful time for art +and artists, there were sixty-three theatres open, and they were always +crowded in spite of war, famine, and the guillotine. + +It was fortunate for Sophie Arnould that her connection with the opera +had closed prior to this dreadful period. As stated previously, she +remained undisturbed during the early years of the Revolution. Only +once a band of _sans culottes_ invaded her retreat. To their suspicious +questions she answered by assurances of loving the republic devotedly. +Her unconsciously satirical smile aroused distrust, and they were about +hurrying her off to prison, when she pointed out a bust of Gluck, and +inquired if she would keep a bust of Marat if she were not loyal to +the republic. This satisfied her intelligent inquisitors, and they +retreated, saying, "She is a good _citoyenne_, after all," as they +saluted the marble. During this time she was still rich, having thirty +thousand livres a year. But misfortunes thickened, and in two years she +had lost nearly every franc. Obliged to go to Paris to try to save the +wreck of her estate, she found her hosts of friends dissipated like the +dew, all guillotined, shot, exiled, or imprisoned. + +A gleam of sunshine came, however, in the kindness of Fouche, the +Minister of Police, an old lover. One morning the Minister received +the message of an unknown lady visitor. On receiving her he instantly +recognized the still beautiful and sparkling lineaments of the woman he +had once adored. Fouche, touched, heard her story, and by his powerful +intercession secured for her a pension of twenty-four hundred livres and +handsome apartments in the Hotel D'Angevil-liers. Here she speedily drew +around her again the philosophers and fashionables, the poets and the +artists of the age; and the Sophie Arnould of the golden days of old +seemed resurrected in the vivacity and brilliancy of the talk from which +time and misfortune had taken nothing of its pungent salt. In 1803 she +died obscurely; and the same year there also passed out of the world +two other celebrated women, the great actress Clairon and the singer De +Beaumesnil, once Sophie's rival. + +Lord Mount Edgcumbe, in his "Musical Reminiscences," speaks of Sophie +Arnould, whom he heard in ante-revolutionary days, as a woman of +entrancing beauty and very great dramatic genius. This connoisseur tells +us too that her voice, though limited in range and not very flexible, +was singularly rich, strong, and sweet, fitting her exceptionally for +the performance of the simple and noble arias of Gluck, which were +rather characterized by elevation and dramatic warmth than florid +ornamentation. Her place in art is, therefore, as the finest +contemporary interpreter of Wagner's greater predecessor. + + + + +ELIZABETH BILLINGTON AND HER CONTEMPORARIES. + +Elizabeth Weichsel's Runaway Marriage.--_Debut_ at Covent Garden.--Lord +Mount Edgcumbe's Opinion of her Singing.--Her Rivalry with Mme. +Mara.--Mrs. Billington's Greatness in English Opera.--She sings in Italy +in 1794-'99.--Her Great Power on the Italian Stage.--Marriage with +Felican.--Reappearance in London in Italian and English Opera.--Sketch +of Mme. Mara's Early Lite.--Her Great Triumphs on the English +Stage.--Anecdotes of her Career and her Retirement from +England.--Grassini and Napoleon.--The Italian Prima Donna disputes +Sovereignty with Mrs. Billington.--Her Qualities as an Artist.--Mrs. +Billington's Retirement from the Stage and Declining Years. + + +I. + +Among the comparatively few great vocalists born in England, the +traditions of Mrs. Elizabeth Billington's singing rank her as by far +the greatest. Brought into competition with many brilliant artists from +other countries, she held her position unshaken by their rivalry. She +came of musical stock. Her father, Charles Weichsel, was Saxon by birth, +but spent most of his life as an orchestral player in London; and her +mother was a charming vocalist of considerable repute. Born in 1770 in +the English capital, she was most carefully trained in music from an +early age, and her gifts displayed themselves so manifestly as to give +assurance of that brilliant future which made her the admiration of her +times. Both she and her brother Charles were regarded as prodigies of +youthful talent, the latter having attained some distinction on the +violin at the age of six, though he failed in after-years, unlike his +brilliant sister, to fulfill his juvenile promise. Elizabeth Weichsel +when only eleven composed original pieces for the piano, and at the age +of fourteen appeared in concert at Oxford. Her career was so long +and eventful that we must hurry over its youthful stages. The young +cantatrice at the age of fifteen was sought in marriage by Mr. Thomas +Billington, who had been her music-master, and, as her father was +bitterly opposed to the connection, the enamored couple eloped, and were +married at Lambeth Church with great secrecy. + +They soon found themselves at their wits' end. With no money, and +without the established reputation which commands the attention of +managers, Mrs. Billington found that in taking a husband she had assumed +a fresh responsibility. Finally she secured an engagement at the Smock +Alley Theatre in Dublin, when she appeared in Gluck's opera of "Orpheus +and Eurydice," with the well-known tenor Tenducci, whose exquisite +singing of the air, "Water parted from the Sea," in the opera of +"Artaxerxes," had chiefly contributed to his celebrity. It was _a +propos_ of this that the well-known Irish street-song of the day was +composed: + + "Tenducci was a piper's son, + And he was in love when he was young; + And all the tunes that he could play + Was 'Water parted from the Say.'" + +For about a year the young singer played provincial engagements, but it +was good training for her. Her powers were becoming matured, and she was +learning self-reliance in the bitter school of experience, which more +and more assured her of coming triumph. At last she persuaded Lewis, the +manager of Covent Garden, to give her a metropolitan hearing. Though her +voice at this time had not attained the volume and power of after-years, +its qualities were exceptional. Its compass was in the upper notes +extraordinary, though in the lower register rather limited. She was well +aware of this defect, and tried to remedy it by substituting one octave +for another; a license which passed unnoticed by the undiscriminating +multitude, while it was easily excused by cultivated ears, being, as +one connoisseur remarked, "like the wild luxuriance of poetical imagery, +which, though against the cold rules of the critic, constitutes the +true value of poetry." She had not the full tones of Banti, but rather +resembled those of Allegranti, whom she closely imitated. Her voice, +in its very high tones, was something of the quality of a flute or +flageolet, or resembled a commixture of the finest sounds of the flute +and violin, if such could be imagined. It was then "wild and wandering," +but of singular sweetness. "Its agility," says Mount Edgcumbe, "was very +great, and everything she sang was executed in the neatest manner and +with the utmost precision. Her knowledge of music enabled her to give +great variety to her embellishments, which, as her taste was always +good, were always judicious." In her cadenzas, however, she was obliged +to trust to her memory, for she never could improvise an ornament. Her +ear was so delicate that she could instantly detect any instrument out +of tune in a large orchestra; and her intonation was perfect. In manner +she was "peculiarly bewitching," and her attitudes generally were good, +with the exception of an ugly habit of pressing her hands against +her bosom when executing difficult passages. Her face and figure were +beautiful, and her countenance was full of good humor, though not +susceptible of varied expression; indeed, as an actress, she had +comparatively little talent, depending chiefly on her voice for +producing effect on the stage. + +Mrs. Billington's __debut__ in London was on February 13, 1786, in the +presence of royalty and a great throng of nobility and fashion, in the +character of _Rosetta_ in "Love in a Village." Her success was beyond +the most sanguine hopes, and her brilliant style, then an innovation +in English singing, bewildered the pit and delighted the musical +connoisseurs. The leader of the orchestra was so much absorbed in one of +her beautiful cadenzas that he forgot to give the chord at its close. So +much science, taste, birdlike sweetness, and brilliancy had never before +been united in an English singer. So Mrs. Billington assumed undisputed +sovereignty in the realm of song, for one night made her famous. The +managers, who had haggled over the terms of thirteen pounds a week for +her first brief engagement of twelve nights, were glad to give her a +thousand pounds for the rest of the season. For her second part she +chose _Polly Peachum_ in "The Beggars' Opera," to show her detractors +that she could sing simple English ballad-music with no less taste and +effect than the brilliant and ornate style with which she first took +the town by storm. Mara, the great German singer, who until then had no +rival, was distracted with rage and jealousy, which the sweet-tempered +Billington treated with a careless smile. Though her success had been +so brilliant, she relaxed no effort in self-improvement, and studied +assiduously both vocalism and the piano. Indeed, Salomon, Haydn's +impressario, said of her with enthusiasm, "Sar, she sing equally well +wid her troat and her fingers." At the close of this season, which was +the opening of a great career, Mrs. Billington visited Paris, where +she placed herself under the instruction of the composer Sacchini, who +greatly aided her by his happy suggestions. To him she confesses herself +to have been most indebted for what one of her admirers called "that +pointed expression, neatness of execution, and nameless grace by which +her performance was so happily distinguished." + +Kelly, the Irish actor and singer, who made her acquaintance about this +time, said he thought her an angel of beauty and the St. Cecilia of +song. Her loveliness enchanted even more by the sweetness and amiability +of its expression than by symmetry of feature, and everywhere she +was the idol of an adoring public. Even her rivals, embittered by +professional jealousy, soon melted in the sunshine of her sweet temper. +An amusing example of professional rivalry is related by John Bernard in +his "Reminiscences," where Miss George, afterward Lady Oldmixon, managed +to cloud the favorite's success by a cunning musical trick. "Mrs. +Billington, who was engaged on very high terms for a limited number of +nights, made her first appearance on the Dublin stage in the character +of _Polly_ in 'The Beggars' Opera,' surrounded by her halo of +popularity. She was received with acclamations, and sang her songs +delightfully; particularly 'Cease your Funning,' which was tumultuously +encored. Miss George, who performed the part of _Lucy_ (an up-hill +singing part), perceiving that she had little chance of dividing +the applause with the great magnet of the night, had recourse to the +following stratagem: When the dialogue duet in the second act, 'Why, how +now, Madam Flirt?' came on, Mrs. Billing-ton having given her verse with +exquisite sweetness, Miss George, setting propriety at defiance, sang +the whole of her verse an octave higher, her tones having the effect of +the high notes of a sweet and brilliant flute. The audience, taken by +surprise, bestowed on her such loud applause as almost shook the walls +of the theatre, and a unanimous encore was the result." + +Haydn gave this opinion on her in his "Diary" in 1791: "On the 10th of +December I went to see the opera of 'The Woodman' (by Shield). It was on +the day when the provoking memoir of Mrs. Billington was published. She +sang rather timidly, but yet well. She is a great genius. The tenor was +Incledon. The common people in the gallery are very troublesome in every +theatre, and take lead in uproar. The audience in the pit and boxes have +often to clap a long time before they can get a fine part repeated. It +was so this evening with the beautiful duet in the third act: nearly a +quarter of an hour was spent in contention, but at length the pit and +boxes gained the victory, and the duet was repeated. The two actors +stood anxiously on the stage all the while." The great composer paid +her one of the prettiest compliments she ever received. Reynolds was +painting her portrait in the character of St. Cecilia, and one day Haydn +called just as it was being finished. Haydn contemplated the picture +very attentively, then said suddenly, "But you have made a great +mistake." The painter started up aghast. "How! what?" "Why," said Haydn, +"you have represented Mrs. Billington listening to the angels; you +should have made the angels listening to her!" Mrs. Billington blushed +with pleasure. "Oh, you dear man!" cried she, throwing her arms round +his neck and kissing him. + + +II. + +Mrs. Billington seems to have entertained the notion in 1794 of quitting +the stage, and went abroad to free herself from the protests and +reproaches which she knew the announcement of her purpose would call +forth if she remained in England. Accompanied by her husband and +brother, she sauntered leisurely through Europe, for her professional +exertions had already brought her a comfortable fortune. A trivial +accident set her feet again in the path which she had designed to +forsake, and which she was destined to adorn with a more brilliant +distinction. The party had traveled _incognito_, but on arriving in +Naples a babbling servant revealed the identity of the great singer, +which speedily became known to Lady Hamilton, Lord Nelson's friend, then +domiciled in Naples as the favorite of the royal family. Lady Hamilton +insisted on presenting Mrs. Billington to the Queen, and she was +persuaded to sing in a private concert before their Majesties, which was +swiftly succeeded by an invitation, so urgent as to take the color of +command, to sing at the San Carlo. So the English prima donna made +her _debut_ before the Neapolitans in "Inez di Castro," which had been +specially arranged for her by Francesco Bianchi. The fervid Naples +audience received her with passionate acclamations, to which she had +never been accustomed from the more impassive English. Hitherto her +reputation had been mostly identified with English opera; thenceforward +she was to be known chiefly as a brilliant exponent of the Italian +school of music. + +Paesiello's "Didone," Paer's "Ero e Leandro," and Guglielmi's "Deborah e +Sisera" rapidly succeeded, each one confirming afresh the admiration of +her hearers, who were all _cognoscenti_, as Italian audiences generally +are. It became the vogue to patronize the beautiful cantatrice, and the +large English colony, who were led by some of the noblest gentlewomen +of England, such as Lady Templeton, Lady Palmerston, Lady Gertrude +Villiers, Lady Grandison, and others, made it a matter of national +pride to give the singer an enthusiastic support. English influence +was all-paramount at the court of Naples, from important political +exigencies, and this cooperated with Mrs. Billington's extraordinary +merits to raise her to a degree of consideration which had been rarely +attained by any singer in that beautiful Italian capital, prone as its +people are to indulge in exaggerated admiration of musical celebrities. +She sang for nearly two years at the San Carlo, and in 1796 we find her +at Bologna before French military audiences, whom Napoleon's Italian +victories had brought across the Alps. The conqueror confessed himself +vanquished by the lovely Billington, and made her the guest of himself +and Josephine, who admired the art no less than she dreaded the beauty +of a possible rival. + +The English singer passed from city to city of Italy, everywhere +arousing the liveliest admiration. Her _debut_ in Venice was to be in +"Semiramide," written expressly for her by Nasolini, a young composer of +great promise. Illness, however, confined her to her bed for six +months, in spite of which the impressario paid her salary in full. She +recovered, and showed her gratitude by singing without recompense during +the fair of the Ascension, when immense throngs flocked to Venice. The +_corps diplomatique_ presented her on the first night with a jeweled +necklace of immense value, as a testimonial of their esteem and pleasure +at her recovery. + +A singular evidence of the superstition of the Neapolitans was shown on +her return to their city, which was then threatened by an eruption of +Vesuvius and a dreadful earthquake, the cause of considerable damage. +The populace believed that it was a visitation of God in punishment for +the permission granted to a heretic Englishwoman to sing at San Carlo. +Mrs. Billington's safety was for a time threatened, but her talents and +popularity at last triumphed, and she rose higher in public regard than +before. Her Neapolitan engagement was terminated very suddenly by the +death of her husband, as he was in the act one evening of cloaking her +prior to her stepping into her carriage to go to the theatre. A single +gasp and a convulsion, and Thomas Billington was dead at his wife's +feet. The consternation at this event was mixed with much scandal, and +many whispered that he had died from poison or the dagger. It was known +that the Neapolitan nobles had paid Mrs. Billington warm attention, +and hints of assassination were industriously circulated by those +gossip-mongers who are always in quest of a fresh social sensation. Mrs. +Billington, after remaining for some time in retirement, fled from a +scene which was fraught with painful memories, though there is no reason +to believe that she deeply lamented the loss of a husband whose only +attraction to this brilliant woman was the reflected light of her youth, +which invested him with the association of her first girlish love. At +all events, the widow succeeded in becoming desperately enamored +in Milan, a short six months after, with an officer of the French +commissariat, M. Felican. He was a remarkably handsome man, and his +strong siege of the lovely Billington soon caused her to surrender at +discretion. She declared "she was in love for the first time in her +life," and her marriage took place in 1799 without delay. Her raptures, +however, came to a swift conclusion; for among M. Felican's favorite +methods of displaying marital devotion were beating her, and hurling +dishes or other convenient movables at her head when in the least +irritated. The novel character of her honeymoon soon became known to a +curious and possibly envious public, and the brutal Felican was publicly +flogged at the drum-head by order of General Serrurier, within two +months of her marriage, for whipping her so cruelly that she could not +appear in the opera of the evening. + +The tenor, Braham, sang with Mrs. Billington at Milan during this +period, in the opera "Il Trionfo de Claria," by Nasolini, and an +amusing incident occurred in the rivalry of the two, each to surpass +the other in popular estimation. The applause which Braham received at +rehearsal enraged Felican, who intrigued till he persuaded the leader to +omit the grand aria for the tenor voice, in which Braham's powers were +advantageously displayed. This piece of spite and jealousy being noised +about, the public openly testified their displeasure, and the next day +it was announced by Gherardi, the manager, in the bills, that Braham's +scena should be performed; and on the second night of the opera it was +received with tumultuous applause. Braham, justly indignant, avenged +himself in an ingenious manner, but his wrath descended on an innocent +head. Mrs. Billington's embellishments were always elaborately studied, +and, when once fixed on, seldom changed. The angry tenor, knowing this, +caught her roulades, and on the first opportunity, his air coming first, +he coolly appropriated all her fioriture. Poor Mrs. Billington listened +in dismay at the wings. She could not improvise ornaments and graces; +and, when she came on, the unusual meagerness of her style astonished +the audience. She refused, in the next opera, to sing a duet with +Braham; but, as she was good-natured, she forgave him, and they always +remained excellent friends. + +With that perverse devotion which characterizes the love of so many +women, Mrs. Billington clung to her brutal husband in spite of his +cruelty and callousness, and she did not separate from him till she +feared for her life. Many times he threatened to kill her, and extorted +from her by fear all the valuable jewels in her possession, as well +as the larger share of the money received from professional exertion. +Despairing at last of any change, she fled with great secrecy to +England, where she arrived in 1801, after an absence of seven years, +during which time her name had become one of the most popular in Europe. +There was instantly a battle between Harris and Sheridan, the rival +managers, as to which should secure this peerless attraction. She +finally signed a contract with her old friend Harris, for three thousand +guineas the season from October to April, and the guarantee of a free +benefit of five hundred guineas. It was likewise arranged that she +should sing for Sheridan at similar terms on alternate nights, as there +was a bitter dispute between the managers over the priority of the offer +accepted by the prima donna. Her reappearance before an English audience +was made in Dr. Arne's "Artaxerxes," which the critics of the day +praised as possessing "the beautiful melody of Hasse, the mellifluous +richness of Pergolese, the easy flow of Piccini, and the finished +cantabile of Sacchini, with his own true and native simplicity." It is +not only the criticism of to-day which has concealed the real form and +quality of works of merely temporary interest under flowery phrases, +that mean nothing. + +It was speedily observed how greatly Mrs. Billington's style had +improved in her absence. Lord Mount Edgcumbe says she resembled Mara so +much that the same observations would apply to both equally well. "Both +were excellent musicians, thoroughly skilled in their profession; both +had voices of uncommon sweetness and agility, particularly suited to the +bravura style, and executed to perfection and with good taste everything +they sang. But neither was Italian, and consequently both were deficient +in recitative. Neither had much feeling, both were deficient in +theatrical talents, and they were absolutely null as actresses; +therefore they were more calculated to give pleasure in the concert-room +than on the stage." It was noticed that her pronunciation of the English +language was not quite free from impurities, arising principally from +the introduction of vowels before consonants, a habit probably acquired +from the Italian custom. "Her whole style of elocution," observes one +writer, "may be described as sweet and persuasive rather than powerful +and commanding. It naturally assumed the character of her mind and +voice." She was considered the most accomplished singer that had ever +been born in England. + +Mrs. Billington displayed her talents in a variety of operatic +characters, which taxed her versatility, but did not prove beyond her +powers. Both English and Italian operas, serious and comic _roles_, +seemed entirely within her scope; and those who admired her as _Mandane_ +were not less fascinated by her _Rosetta_, when Ineledon shared the +honors of the evening with herself. In spite of Lord Mount Edgcumbe's +somewhat severe judgment as given above, she appears to have pleased by +her acting as well as singing, if we can judge from the wide diversity +of characters in which she appeared so successfully. We are justified in +this, especially from the character of the English opera, of which Mrs. +Billington was so brilliant an exponent; for this was rather musical +drama than opera, and made strong demands on histrionic faculty. +As _Rosetta_, in "Love in a Village," a performance in which Mrs. +Billington was peculiarly charming, she drew such throngs that the price +of admission was raised for the nights on which it was offered. The +witticism of Jekyl, the great barrister, made the town laugh on one of +these occasions. Being present with a country friend in the pit, the +latter asked him, as Mrs. Billington appeared in the garden-scene, "Is +that Rosetta?" The singer's portly form, which had increased largely in +bulk during her Italian absence, made the answer peculiarly appropriate: +"No, sir, it is not Rosetta, it is Grand Cairo." + +Life was running smoothly for Mrs. Billington; never had her popularity +reached so high a pitch; never had Fortune favored her with such lavish +returns for her professional abilities. One night she was horrified with +fear and disgust on returning home to see her brutal husband, Felican, +lolling on the sofa. He had been heart-broken at separation from his +beloved wife, and could endure it no longer. It was only left for her +to bribe him to depart with a large sum of money, which she fortunately +could afford. "I never," says Kelly, "saw a woman so much in awe of a +man as poor Mrs. Billington was of him whom she had married for love." +On the 3d of July, 1802, she sang with Mme. Mara at the farewell benefit +of that distinguished singer. Both rose to the utmost pitch of their +skill, and, in their attempts to surpass each other, the theatre rang +with thunders of applause. In our sketches of some of Mrs. Billington's +rivals and contemporaries, Mme. Mara demands precedence. + + +III. + +Frederick the Great loved war and music with equal fervor, and possessed +talents for the one little inferior to his genius for the other. He +played with remarkable skill on the flute, of which instrument he +possessed a large collection, and composed original music with both +science and facility. This royal connoisseur carried his despotism into +his love of art, and ruled with an iron hand over those who catered +for the amusement of himself and the good people of Berlin. Though the +creator of that policy which, in the hands of Bismarck and the modern +German nationalists, has wrought such wonderful results, and which has +extended itself even to matters of aesthetic culture as a gospel of +patriotic bigotry, the great Fritz thoroughly despised everything German +except in matters of state, and was completely wedded to the literature +of France and the art of Italy. When the talents of a young German +vocalist, Mlle. Schmaeling, were recommended to him, it was enough for +him to hear the report, "She sings like a German," to make him sniff +with disdain. "A German singer!" he said; "I should as soon expect to +get pleasure from the neighing of my horse." Curiosity, however, at last +so far overcame prejudice as to make him send for Mlle. Schmaeling, who +was enthusiastically praised by many of those whose opinions the King +could not ignore, to come to Potsdam and sing for him. Her pride, which +was high, had been wounded by the royal criticism, and she carried +herself with as much _hauteur_ as could go with respect. The King +regarded her with a cool stare, without any gesture of salutation, and +Mile. Schmaeling amused herself with looking at the pictures. "So you +are going to sing me something?" at last said royalty with military +abruptness. + +The figure of the Prussian King as he sat by the piano was anything but +prepossessing. A little, crabbed, spare old man, attired with Spartan +simplicity, in a faded blue coat, whose red facings were smudged brown +with the Spanish snuff he so liberally took; thin lips, prominent jaws, +receding forehead, and eyes of supernatural keenness glaring from under +shaggy brows; a battered cocked hat, and a thick cane, which he used as +a whip to belabor his horse, his courtiers, or his soldiers as occasion +needed, on the table before him--all these made a grim picture. + +Mlle. Schmaeling answered his curt words with "As your Majesty pleases," +and instantly sat down at the piano. As she sang, Frederick's face +relaxed, and taking a huge pinch of snuff, he said, "Ha! can you sing +at sight?" (then an extraordinary accomplishment). Picking out the +most difficult bravura in his collection, he bade her try it, with the +remark, "This, to be sure, is but poor stuff, but when well executed +sounds pretty enough." The result of the royal examination convinced the +King that Mlle. Schmaeling had not only a magnificent voice, but was a +thorough artist. So the daughter of the poor musician of Cassel, after +many years of hard struggle and ill success (for she had sung in almost +every German capital), was made Frederick's chief court singer at the +age of twenty-two, and the road to fortune was fairly open to her. At +the age of four years she had showed such aptitude for music that she +quickly learned the violin, though her baby fingers could hardly span +the strings. She always retained her predilection for this instrument, +and maintained that it was the best guide in learning to sing. "For," +said she, "how can you best convey a just notion of slight vibrations in +the pitch of a note? By a fixed instrument? No! By the voice? No! But, +by sliding the finger on the string, you instantly make the most minute +variation visibly as well as audibly perceptible." She owed her success +entirely to the charm of her art. + +Elizabeth Schmaeling's personal appearance was far from striking. She +was by no means handsome, being short and insignificant, with a rather +agreeable, good-natured countenance, the leading feature of which +was--terrible defect in a singer--a set of irregular teeth, which +projected, in defiance of order, out of their proper places. Her manner, +however, was prepossessing, though she was an indifferent actress. +But her voice atoned for everything: its compass was from G to E in +altissimo, which she ran with the greatest ease and force, the tones +being at once powerful and sweet. Both her _portamento di voce_ and +her volubility were declared to be unrivaled. It was remarked that she +seemed to take difficult music from choice, and she could sing fluently +at sight--rather a rare accomplishment among vocalists of that day. +Nothing taxed her powers. Her execution was easy and neat; her shake was +true, open, and liquid; and though she preferred brilliant, effective +pieces, her refined taste was well known. "Her voice, clear, sweet, +and distinct, was sufficiently powerful," remarked Lord Mount Edgcumbe +afterward, "though rather thin, and its agility and flexibility rendered +her a most excellent bravura singer, in which style she was unrivaled." +"Mara's divisions," observes another critic, "always seemed to convey +a meaning; they were vocal, not instrumental; they had light and shade, +and variety of tone." + +Frederick was highly pleased with his musical acquisition, but a +more potent monarch than himself soon appeared to disturb his royal +complacency. Mlle. Schmaeling, placed in a new position of ease and +luxury, found time to indulge her natural bent as a woman, and fell in +love with a handsome violoncellist, Jean Mara, who was in the service of +the King's brother. Mara was a showy, shallow, selfish man, and pushed +his suit with vigor, for success meant fortune and a life of luxurious +ease. The King forbade the match, so the enamored couple eloped, and, +being arrested by the King's guards, they were punished by Fritz with +solitary confinement for disobedience. At last the King relented, and +sanctioned the marriage which he suspected opposition would only delay, +probably fully aware that the lady would soon repent her infatuation. +Jean Mara did all in his power to effect this result, for the honeymoon +had hardly ended before he began to beat his bride at small provocation +with all the energy of a sturdy arm. Poor Mme. Mara had a hard life of +it thenceforward, but she never ceased to love Mara to the last; +and many years afterward, when a friend was severely reprobating his +brutality, she said, with a sigh of loving regret, "Ah! but you must +confess he was the handsomest man you ever saw." + +The King frequently interposed to punish Mara for his harshness. On one +occasion he gave him a public caning and on another he sent him to a +field regiment, noted for the rigid severity of its discipline, to be +enrolled as a drummer for three months, accompanying the order with the +_mot_, "His propensity for beating shall have the fullest exercise +on the drum." A ludicrous sentence of the royal despot was that which +consigned him to the tender mercies of the body-guard, with strict +orders for his correction. No particular mode of punishment was +prescribed, so each soldier inflicted such chastisement as he considered +most fitting. They began by rigging him out in an old uniform and a +large pair of whiskers, loading him with the heaviest firelock they +could find, and forced him to go through the manual exercise for two +hours, accompanying their drill with the usual discipline of the cane. +They then made him dance and sing for two hours longer, and ended this +persecution by compelling the surgeon to take from him a large quantity +of blood. In a miserable condition they restored him to his disconsolate +wife, who had been essaying all her arts to persuade the officer of the +guard to mitigate the poor wretch's punishment. + +The King's method of carrying on the opera was characteristic. +Performances were free, and commenced precisely at 6 p.m., when, prompt +to the minute, the King appeared and took his seat just behind the +conductor, where he could see the score, and notice every mistake, +either instrumental or vocal. A royal caning often repaid any unlucky +artist who made a blunder, much to the gratification of the audience. +Such a patron as this, however generous, could not be considered highly +desirable; and Mme. Mara, whose reputation had become world-wide, longed +more and more to accept some of the brilliant offers which came to +her from the great capitals of Europe. But Frederick would not let +his favorite prima donna go, and the royal passport was necessary for +getting beyond the limits of the kingdom. An example of Frederick's +method of dealing with his subjects and servants is found in the +following incident: The Grand Duke Paul of Russia was visiting Berlin, +and on a gala night a grand performance of opera was to be given. Mme. +Mara had sent an excuse that she was sick, but a laconic notice from her +royal patron insisted that she was to get well and sing her best. So the +prima donna took to her bed and grew worse and worse. Two hours before +the opera commenced, a carriage escorted by eight soldiers drew up +in front of the house, and the captain of the guard, unceremoniously +entering her room, intimated that she must go to the theatre dead or +alive. + +"You can not take me," she said with tears of rage; "you see I am in +bed." + +"That's of little consequence," was the imperturbable response; "we'll +take you bed and all." + +Madame's eyes flashed fire, and she stormed with fury; but the obdurate +captain could not be moved, and, to avoid the disgrace of being taken by +force, she accepted an armistice. "I will go to the theatre," she said, +mentally resolving to sing as badly as, with a magnificent voice and +irreproachable taste, she could possibly manage. Resolutely she kept to +this idea till the curtain was about to descend on the first act, when a +thought suddenly seized her. Might she not be ruining herself in giving +the Grand Duke of Russia a bad opinion of her powers? In a bravura she +burst forth with all her power, distinguishing herself especially by a +marvelous shake, which she executed with such wonderful art as to call +down thunders of applause. + +At last the Maras succeeded in effecting their escape by stratagem. +In passing through one city they were stopped by an officer of _gens +d'armes_, who demanded the requisite papers. Faltering with dread, yet +with quick self-possession, Mme. Mara handed him a letter in the royal +handwriting. The signature was enough, and the officer did not stop to +read the body of the letter, but turned out the guard to honor travelers +possessing such signal proofs of the King's favor. They had just +gained the gates of Dresden when they found that the Prussian _charge +d'affaires_ resided in the city. "No one can conceive my agitation and +alarm," said Mme. Mara, "when, in one of the first streets we entered, +we encountered the said _charge d'affaires_, who rode directly up to +us. He had been apprised of our arrival, and the chaise was instantly +stopped. As to what took place between him and my good man, and how the +latter contrived to get out of the scrape, I was totally unconscious. +I had fallen into a swoon, from which I did not recover till we had +reached our inn." At length they reached the confines of Bohemia, and, +for the first time, supped in freedom and security. + +The Austrian Empress, Maria Theresa, would have found enough motive +in patronizing Mara in the fact that her great Prussian rival had +persecuted her; but love of art was a further inducement which drew out +her kindliest feelings. The singer remained at the Viennese court +for two years, and left it for Paris, with autograph letters to the +ill-fated Marie Antoinette. She was most cordially welcomed both by +court and public, and soon became such a rival to the distinguished +Portuguese prima donna, Todi, then in the zenith of her fame, that the +devotees of music divided themselves into fierce factions respectively +named after the rival queens of song. Mara was honored with the title of +_premiere cantatrice de la reine_, and left Paris with regret, to begin +her English career under singularly favorable auspices, as she was +invited to share a partnership with Linley and Dr. Arnold for the +production of oratorios at Drury Lane. + +She was fortunate in making her first appearance in the grand Handel +commemoration at Westminster Abbey, given under the patronage of George +III., who loved the memory of the great composer. Even in this day of +magnificent musical festivals, that Westminster assemblage of musicians +would have been a remarkable occasion. The following is an account of it +from a contemporary source: "The orchestra was led by the Cramers; the +conductors were Joah Bates, Dr. Arnold, and Dupuis. The band consisted +of several hundreds of performers. The singers were, in addition to +Mine. Mara, Signora Storace, Miss Abrams, Miss Poole (afterward Mrs. +Dickons), Rubinelli, Harrison, Bartleman, Sale, Parry, Nor-ris, Kelly, +etc.; and the chorus, collected from all parts of the kingdom, amounted +to hundreds of voices. The Abbey was arranged for the accommodation +of the public in a superb and commodious manner, and the tickets of +admission were one guinea each. The first performance took place on +May 20, 1784; and such was the anxiety to be in time, that ladies and +gentlemen had their hair dressed over night, and slept in arm-chairs. +The weather being very fine, eager crowds presented themselves at the +several doors of the Abbey at nine o'clock, although the door-keepers +were not at their posts, and the orchestra was not finished. At ten +o'clock the scene became almost terrifying to the visitors, who, being +in full dress, were every moment more incommoded and alarmed by the +violence of the crowds pressing forward to get near the doors. Several +of the ladies screamed; others fainted; and the general dismay increased +to such an extent that fatal consequences were anticipated. Some of the +more irascible among the gentlemen threatened to burst open the doors; +'a measure,' says Dr. Burney, 'which, if adopted, would probably have +cost many of the more feeble and helpless their lives, as they must, +in falling, have been thrown down and trampled on by the robust and +impatient part of the crowd.' However, except that some went in with +'disheveled hair and torn garments,' no real mischief seems to have been +done. The spectacle was gorgeous. The King, Queen, and all the royal +family, were ushered to a superb box, opposite the orchestra, by the +directors, wearing full court suits, the medal of Handel struck for the +occasion, suspended by white-satin rosettes to their breasts, and having +white wands in their hands. The body of the cathedral, the galleries, +and every corner were crowded with beauty, rank, and fashion, listening +with almost devout silence to the grand creations of the great composer, +not the faintest token of applause disturbing the impressive ceremony." + +The splendid and solemn tones of Mara's voice enraptured every heart, +and her style was the theme of universal admiration. A few, however, +resisted the charm of her singing. Miss Seward was breakfasting one +morning with Mr. Joah Bates, one of the conductors, and delicately +flattered his wife's singing of the Handelian music by saying that Mara +put too much gold and fringe upon that solemn robe of melody, "I know +that my Redeemer liveth." "Do not say gold, ma-dame," answered the tart +musician; "it was despicable tinsel." + +At one of these Westminster Abbey performances a striking coincidence +occurred. The morning had been threatening a storm; but instantly the +grand chorus "Let there be light, and light was over all" commenced, the +sun burst forth and gilded every dark nook of the solemn old Abbey with +a flood of splendor. On another occasion, while a chorus descriptive of +a storm was being sung, a hurricane burst over the Abbey, and the fierce +rattling of hailstones, accompanied by peals of thunder, kept time to +the grand music of Handel. During the performance of the chorus "The +Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth," the audience was so moved that King, +Queen, royal family, and all present, rose by a common impulse to their +feet--a practice which has been preserved in English audiences to this +day during the singing of this mightiest of all musical choruses. Mme. +Mara gave great offense by remaining seated. + +Shortly afterward she sang at a musical festival of Oxford University, +whither the report of her supposed bad temper and intractability had +preceded her. The gownsmen were as riotous then as now; and as one or +two things happened to irritate their lively temper, a row soon became +imminent. Mara got angry and flung a book at the head of one of the +orchestra, when Dr. Chapman, the Vice-Chancellor, arose and said that +Mme. Mara had conducted herself too ill to be allowed to sing before +such an audience. Instantly a wicked wag cried out, "A riot, by +permission of the Vice-Chancellor!" A scene of the utmost confusion +ensued, and the agitated cantatrice quitted the theatre, amid hisses and +yells, in high dudgeon. A deputation of gentlemen waited upon her, and +promised that she should do exactly as she pleased if she would only +return. She did return, and sang the airs allotted to her, but remained +seated as usual while the choruses were being sung. A cry arose of "Turn +Mara out!" Not comprehending, she smiled, which provoked the audience +still more; upon which the Vice-Chancellor said that it was always the +rule for every vocalist to join in the choruses. Miss George, one of the +singers, explained this to the prima donna, who, staring in bewilderment +and vexation, exclaimed, "Oh! me does not know his rules; me vill go +home"; which resolution she immediately carried into effect. + +This great singer's numerous quarrels and controversies in England were +very amusing. Yet, in spite of the personal bitterness growing out of +her own irritable temper and professional rivalry, she remained a great +artistic favorite with the public. Underneath the asperity and obstinacy +of her character there was a vein of deep tenderness and generosity, +which she showed in various cases, especially in forwarding the +interests of struggling artists. Michael Kelly, the Irish composer, in +his "Reminiscences," gives the following instance. He himself, then a +young man, had aroused Mara's dislike by some inadvertent praise of +a rival. Watching his opportunity, he brought into the greenroom +one night, when she came off the stage fatigued and panting with her +efforts, a pot of foaming porter, which she drank with a sigh of deepest +pleasure. Touched by the young Irishman's thoughtfulness, she pledged +herself to help him whenever the opportunity came, and soon after sang +at his benefit. Mara had resolved not to sing again on the lyric stage, +and her condescension was a godsend to Kelly, who was then very much out +at elbows. Speaking of her proffer, he says: "I was thunderstruck at her +kindness and liberality, and thankfully accepted. She fixed on _Mandane_ +in 'Artaxerxes,' and brought the greatest receipts ever known at that +house, as the whole pit, with the exception of two benches, was railed +into boxes. So much," he adds sententiously, "for a little German +proficiency, a little common civility, and a pot of porter." + + +IV. + +Mme. Mara made such a brilliant hit in opera that the public clamor +for her continuance on the stage overcame her old resolutions. The +opera-house was reopened, and Sir John Gallini, with this popular +favorite at the head of his enterprise, had a most prosperous season. +Both as a lyric cantatrice and as the matchless singer of oratorio, she +was the delight of the public for two years. In 1788 she went to Turin +to sing at the Carnival, where it was the custom to open the gala season +with a fresh artist, who supplied the place of the departing vocalist, +whether a soprano or tenor. Her predecessor, a tenor, was piqued at his +dismissal, and tried to prejudice the public against her by representing +her as alike-ugly in person and faulty in art. Mara's shrewdness of +resource turned the tables on the Italian. On her first appearance her +manner was purposely full of _gaucherie_, her costume badly considered +and all awry, her singing careless and out of time. The maligner was +triumphant, and said to all, "Didn't I say so? See how ugly she is; and +as for singing--did you ever hear such a vile jargon of sounds?" On the +second night Mara appeared most charmingly dressed, and she sang like +an angel--a surprise to the audience which drove the excitable Italians +into the most passionate uproar of applause and delight. Mara was +crowned on the stage, and was received by the King and Queen with the +heartiest kindness and a profusion of costly gifts. A similar reception +at Venice tempted her to prolong her Italian tour, but she preferred to +return to London, where she sang under Wyatt at the Pantheon, which +was transformed into a temporary opera-house. She now sang with +Pacchierotti, the successor of Farinelli and Caffarelli, and the last +inheritor of their grand large style. "His duettos with Mara were +the most perfect pieces of execution I ever heard," said Lord Mount +Edgcumbe. One of the most pathetic experiences of Mara's life was her +passage through Paris in 1792 on her way to Germany, when she saw her +former patroness Marie Antoinette, whom she remembered in all the glory +of her youth, popularity, and loveliness, seated in an open chariot, +pale, wan, and grief-stricken, surrounded by a guard of troopers with +drawn swords and hooted at by a mob of howling _sans-culottes_. Better +far to be a mimic queen than to be hurled from the most radiant and +splendid place in European royalty, to be the scorn and plaything of the +ragged ruffians of Paris, and to finish with the guillotine in the Place +de la Greve! About this time she was freed from the _bete noire_ of her +life, her drunken worthless husband, who agreed to trouble her no more +if she would settle an annuity on him. Thenceforward they never met, +though she always spoke of him with affection. + +Harris, of the Theatre Royal of Dublin, engaged Mara to sing in English +opera in 1797. Despite the fact that her English was so faulty, that her +person was unprepossessing, and that the part was associated with +some of the most beautiful and accomplished singers on the stage, her +performance of _Polly Peachum_ in the "Beggars' Opera" was a masterpiece +of delicious simplicity and archness. The perfection of her art +vanquished all obstacles, and she was acknowledged the equal of Mrs. +Crouch, and even of the resplendent Billington, in the part. Dr. Arnold +records that, in spite of the dancing and violent action of the _role_, +her tones were as free, smooth, and perfect as if she had been standing +in the orchestra. Mrs. Billington, who was just to her professional +rivals, said she regarded Mara's execution as superior to her own in +genuine effect, though not in compass and complication. If the rapid +vocalization of a singer was praised, Mara would significantly ask, "Can +she sing six plain notes?" + +As time passed, Mme. Mara's voice began to decline, and in 1802 she +took advantage of an annoying controversy to bid farewell to the English +public; for the artist who could sing solemn music with such thrilling +effect had the temper of a shrew, though it was easily placated. Mrs. +Billington generously offered her services to assist at her farewell +concert; and Mara, bursting into tears, threw her arms about the neck +of the greatest of her professional rivals. She did not sing again in +England till 1820. Speaking of this event, Kelly says, "It was truly +grievous to see such transcendent talents as she once possessed so sunk, +so fallen. I used every effort in my power to prevent her committing +herself, but in vain." + +"When the incomparable Mme. Mara took leave of me on her return to the +Continent," says Dr. Kitchener, "I could not help expressing my regret +that she had not taken my advice to publish those songs of Handel (her +matchless performance of which gained her that undisputed preeminence +which she enjoyed), with the embellishments, etc., with which she +enriched them. This inimitable singer replied, 'Indeed, my good friend, +you attribute my success to a very different source than the real one. +It was not what I did, but the manner in which I did it. I could sing +six simple notes and produce every effect I could wish; another singer +may sing those very same notes with very different effect. I am sure +it was to my expression of the words that I owe everything. People have +often said to me, "Madame Mara, why do you not introduce more pretty +things, and passages, and graces in your singing?" I say, "These pretty +things are very pretty, to be sure, but the proper expression of the +words and the music is a great deal better."' This and her extraordinary +industry were the secrets of her undisputed sovereignty. She told me +that when she was encored in a song, which she very often was, on her +return home she seldom retired to rest without first inventing a new +cadence for the next performance of it. Here is an example for young +singers!" + +Mme. Mara continued to sing for many years in different cities of +Europe, though the recollections and traditions of her marvelous prime +were more attractive than the then active powers of her voice. But her +consummate art never deserted her, in spite of the fact that her voice +became more and more a wreck. She appeared in public occasionally till +her seventy-second year, when she retired to Cassel, her birthplace, +where she died in 1833, at the age of eighty. + + +V. + +Another of Mrs. Billington's most brilliant rivals and contemporaries +was the lovely Giuseppa Grassini, a wayward, indolent, fascinating +beauty, who had taken France and Italy by storm before she attempted to +subdue the more obdurate and phlegmatic Britons. The daughter of a +small farmer in Lombardy, the charm of her voice and appearance induced +General Belgioso to pay the cost of her musical training, and at the age +of nineteen she sprang into popularity at a bound with her _debut_ at La +Scala in 1794. In spite of the fact that she was associated with two of +the greatest Italian singers of the time--Crescentini, one of the last +of the male sopranos, and Marchesi--she became the cynosure of public +admiration. She was surrounded by homage and flattery sufficient to have +turned a more sedate temperament and wiser head than her own, and her +name became mixed with some of the most piquant scandals of the period. + +In spite of ignorance, indolence, and a caprice which she never +attempted to control, Grassini was an exquisite artist; and, though dull +and shallow intellectually in all matters apart from her profession, she +was a most beautiful and fascinating woman. She mastered all the graces +of her art, but could never give an intelligent reason for what she did. +Her voice, originally a soprano, became under training a contralto +of delicious quality, as well as of great volume and power, though not +remarkable for extent. She excelled in the _cantabile_ style, and rarely +attempted ornament, though what she did was always in perfect taste +and proportion. Her dramatic instincts were remarkable, and as an +interpreter of both heroic and the softer passions she speedily acquired +a European reputation. Her figure was tall and commanding, her head +noble, her hair and eyes of the deepest black, and her whole appearance +a singular union of grace and majesty. + +After the battle of Marengo, the presence of the youthful conqueror +of Italy at Milan inspired that capital with a spasm of extraordinary +gayety. The finest singers in Italy gathered to do honor to the rising +sun of Napoleon's greatness. The French general was fascinated by +the irresistible attractions of the prima donna, and asked for an +introduction. Grassini's coquetry did not let the occasion slip. Las +Cases has given a sketch of the interview, in which he tells us she +reminded Napoleon that she "had made her _debut_ precisely during the +early achievements of the General of the Army of Italy." "I was then," +said she, "in the full luster of my beauty and talent. I fascinated +every eye and inflamed every heart. The young general alone was +insensible to my charms, and yet he alone was the object of my wishes. +What caprice--what singularity! When I possessed some value, when all +Italy was at my feet, and I heroically disdained its admiration for +one glance from you, I was unable to obtain it; and now, how strange +an alteration! You condescend to notice me now when I am not worth +the trouble, and am no longer worthy of you." Las Cases has not proved +himself the most veracious of chroniclers in more important matters, and +we may be permitted to doubt the truth of this speech as coming from the +mouth of a woman extraordinarily beautiful and not less vain. But at all +events Grassini accompanied the French general to Paris, ambitious to +play the _role_ of Cleopatra to this modern Caesar. Josephine's +jealousy and dislike proved an obstacle difficult to meet, and this, in +connection with the fact that the French opera did not prove suited to +her style, made her first residence in Paris a short one, in spite of +the brilliant success of her concerts. One of these was the crowning +feature of the grand _fete_ given at the Invalides Church in honor of +the battle of Marengo; and as Grassini sang before the bronzed veterans +of the Italian campaign she seemed inspired. Circumstances, however, +obliged her to leave France, laden with magnificent presents from +Napoleon. + +In November, 1801, the Italian prima donna was in Berlin, where she +announced concerts which seem never to have taken place. In 1802 she +returned to France, and Napoleon made her directress of the Opera in +1804. At first Josephine had permitted her to appear at her private +concerts at the Tuileries, but she did not detest the beautiful singer +less cordially than heretofore. It was whispered that the cantatrice +did in reality seek to attract the attention of Napoleon, and that she +turned her eyes fixedly toward the throne of the Dictator. + +"I hear, madame, that our Grassini is a favorite with the great +Napoleon," said Count Sommaglia to Josephine one morning. "Yes," +answered the irate wife of the First Consul, hardly-able to disguise her +spite, "the ridiculous vanity of the creature amuses us amazingly. +Since she has been made directress of the Italian Opera, there is more +intriguing going on among these gentry than there is with the diplomats: +in the midst of a serious conversation, she will break out into a +horse-laugh, throw herself on a sofa, and, fancying herself Semiramis on +the throne of Nineveh, burst forth in a great style with 'Son Regina, +e son amata!'" ("I am a queen, and I am beloved!") "One day," says +Fouche, "Bonaparte observed that, considering my acknowledged ability, +he was astonished I did not perform my functions better--that there +were several things of which I was ignorant. 'Yes,' replied I, 'there +certainly are things of which I was ignorant, but which I now know +well enough. For instance, a little man, muffled in a gray cloak, and +accompanied by a single servant, often steals out on a dark evening from +a secret door of the Tuileries, enters a closed carriage, and drives off +to Signora G------. This little man is yourself, and yet this fanciful +songstress jilts you continually for Rode the fiddler.' The Consul +answered not a word; he turned his back, rang, and immediately +withdrew." + +In 1804 Grassini was engaged to sing in London alternately with Mrs. +Billington. At her first benefit she sang in conjunction with the +English _diva_ in Winter's new opera, "Il Ratto di Proserpina," +Billington as _Ceres_, and Grassini as _Proserpina_. The respective +voices of the two singers were admirably fitted for the music of the +_roles_, each exquisite of its sort and inspired by the ambition of +rivalry. The deep tones of the one combined with the bird-like notes of +the other to produce a most thrilling effect. Lord Mount Edgcumbe, who +had a prejudice for _bravura_ singing, said: "No doubt the deaf would +have been charmed with Grassini, but the blind must have been delighted +with Mrs. Billington": a malicious comment on the Italian singer, which +this distinguished amateur, when in a less cynical mood, revoked by +cordial admiration of Grassini's remarkable gifts both as vocalist and +actress. Many interesting anecdotes are told of this singer while in +London, one of which, related by Kelly, then stage-manager, illustrates +the difficulties of operatic management. Mrs. Billington was too sick +to sing on one of her own nights, and Grassini was implored to take her +place. But she obstinately refused to make the change, until the cunning +Irishman resorted to a trick. He called on her in the morning, and began +talking carelessly on the subject. "My dear Grassini," said he, in an +off-hand way, "as manager I ought to prevail upon you to perform; but as +a performer myself, I enter entirely into your feelings, and think you +perfectly right not to sing out of your turn. The Saturday is yours; but +what I say to you I trust you will not repeat to Mr. Goold, as it might +be of serious injury to me." "Depend upon it, my dear Kelly," answered +Grassini, "I will not; I look upon you, by what you have just said, to +be my sincere friend." As he was leaving the room, he turned, as with +a sudden thought. "To be sure, it is rather unlucky you do not sing +to-night, for this morning a message came from the Lord Chamberlain's +office to announce the Queen's intention to come _incognita_, +accompanied by the princesses, purposely to see you perform; and a large +_grillee_ is actually ordered to be prepared for them, where they can +perfectly see and hear without being seen by the audience; but I'll step +myself to the Lord Chamberlain's office, say that you are confined to +your bed, and express your mortification at disappointing the royal +party." "Stop, Kelly," cried the cantatrice, all in a flutter; "what you +now say alters the case. If her Majesty Queen Charlotte wishes to see +'La Vergine del Sole,' and to hear me, I am bound to obey her Majesty's +commands. Go to Goold and say I _will_ sing." "When I went into her +dressing-room after the first act," says Kelly, "her Majesty not having +arrived, Grassini, suspicious that I had made up a trick to cajole her, +taxed me with it; and when I confessed, she took it good-naturedly and +laughed at her own credulity." The popularity of Grassini in London +remained unabated during several seasons; and when she reengaged for +the French opera, in 1808, it was to the great regret of musical London. +Talma was a warm admirer of her dramatic genius, and he used to say that +no other actress, not even Mars, Darval, or Duchesnois, possessed so +expressive and mutable a face. The Grecian outline of her face, her +beautiful forehead, rich black hair and eyebrows, superb dark eyes, "now +flashing with tragedy's fiery passions, then softly languishing with +love," and finally "that astonishing _ensemble_ of perfections which +Nature had collected in her as if to review all her gifts in one +woman--all these qualities together exercised on the spectator such +a charm as none could resist. Pasta herself might have looked on and +learned, when Grassini had to portray either indignation, grief, anger, +or despair." + +Her performance in "Romeo e Giulietta" was so fine that Napoleon +sprang to his feet, forgetting his marble coldness, and shouted like a +school-boy, while Talma's eyes streamed with tears; for, as the latter +afterward confessed, he had never before been so deeply touched. +Napoleon sent her a check for twenty thousand francs as a testimonial of +his admiration, and to Crescentini he sent the order of the Iron Cross. +Many years after, in St. Helena, the dethroned Caesar alluded to this as +an illustration of his policy. "In conformity with my system," observed +he, "of amalgamating all kinds of merit, and of rendering one and the +same reward universal, I had an idea of presenting the Cross of +the Legion of Honor to Talma; but I refrained from doing this, in +consideration of our capricious manners and absurd prejudices. I +wished to make a first experiment in an affair that was out of date and +unimportant, and I accordingly gave the Iron Crown to Crescentini. +The decoration was foreign, and so was the individual on whom it was +conferred. This circumstance was less likely to attract public notice or +to render my conduct the subject of discussion; at worst, it could only +give rise to a few malicious jokes. Such," continued the Emperor, "is +the influence of public opinion. I distributed scepters at will, and +thousands readily bowed beneath their sway; and yet I could not give +away a ribbon without the chance of incurring disapprobation, for I +believe my experiment with regard to Crescentini proved unsuccessful." +"It did, sire," observed some one present. "The circumstance occasioned +a great outcry in Paris; it drew forth a general anathema in all +the drawing-rooms of the metropolis, and afforded full scope for the +expression of malignant feeling. However, at one of the evening parties +of the Faubourg St. Germain, a _bon mot_ had the effect of completely +stemming the current of indignation. A pompous orator was holding +forth in an eloquent strain on the subject of the honor that had been +conferred on Crescentini. He declared it to be a disgrace, a horror, a +perfect profanation, and inquired by what right Crescentini was entitled +to such a distinction. Mme. Grassini, who was present, rose majestically +from her chair, with a theatrical tone and gesture exclaiming, 'Et sa +blessure, monsieur?' This produced a general burst of laughter, amid +which Grassini sat down, embarrassed by her own success." + +Mme. Grassini remained on the stage till about 1823 when, having lost +the beauty of her voice, she retired to private life with a comfortable +fortune, spending her last years in Paris. She died in 1850, in her +eighty-fifth year, preserving her beauty and freshness in a marvelous +degree. The effect of Grassini's singing on people of refined taste was +even greater than the impression made on regular musicians. Thomas De +Quincey speaks of her in his "Autobiographical Sketches" as having a +voice delightful beyond all that he had ever heard. Sir Charles Bell +thought it was "only Grassini who conveyed the idea of the united power +of music and action. She did not act only without being ridiculous, but +with an effect equal to Mrs. Siddons. The 'O Dio' of Mrs. Billington was +a bar of music, but in the strange, almost unnatural voice of Grassini, +it went to the soul." Elsewhere he speaks of "her dignity, truth, and +affecting simplicity." + + +VI. + +About the time of Mara's departure from England Mrs. Billington was +wonderfully popular. No fashionable concert was complete without her, +and the constant demand for her services enabled her to fix her own +price. Her income averaged fifteen thousand pounds a year, and at one +time she was reckoned as worth nearly one hundred thousand pounds. She +spent her large means with a judicious liberality, and the greatest +people in the land were glad to be her guests. She settled a liberal +annuity on her father. Having no children, she adopted two, one the +daughter of an old friend named Madocks, who afterward became her +principal legatee. Her hospitality crowded her house with the most +brilliant men in art, literature, and politics; and it was said that the +stranger who would see all the great people of the London world brought +together should get a card to one of Billington's receptions. Her +affability and kindness sometimes got her into scrapes. An eminent +barrister who was at her house one night gave her some advice on a +legal matter, and sent in a bill for services amounting to three hundred +pounds. Mrs. Billington paid it promptly, but the lawyer ceased to be +her guest. As a hostess she was said to have been irresistibly charming, +alike from her personal beauty and the witchery of her manners. + +Her kindness and good nature in dealing with her sister artists Avere +proverbial. When Grassini, who at first was unpopular in England, was +in despair as to how she should make an impression, Mrs. Billington +proposed to sing with her in Winter's opera of "Il Ratto di Proserpina," +from which time dated the success of the Italian singer. Toward Mara +she had exerted similar good will, ignoring all professional jealousies. +Miss Parke, a concert-singer, was once angry because Billington's name +was in bigger type. The latter ordered her name to be printed in the +smallest letters used; "and much Miss Parke gained by her corpulent +type," says the narrator. Lord Mount Edgcumbe tells us that the operas +in which she specially excelled were "La Clemenza di Scipione," composed +for her by John Christian Bach; Paesiello's "Elfrida"; "Armida," +"Castore e Polluce," and others by Winter; and Mozart's "Clemenza di +Tito." For her farewell benefit, when she quitted the stage, March 30, +1806, she selected the last-named opera, which had never been given in +England, and existed only in manuscript form. The Prince of Wales had +the only copy, and she played through the whole score on the pianoforte +at rehearsal, to give the orchestra an idea of the music. The final +performance was immensely successful, and the departing _diva_ sang so +splendidly as to prove that it was not on account of failing powers that +she withdrew from professional life. It is true that Mrs. Billington +continued to appear frequently in concert for three years longer, but +her dramatic career was ended. A curious instance of woman's infatuation +was Mrs. Billington's longing to be reunited to her brutal husband; and +so in 1817 she invited him to join her in England. Felican was too +glad to gain fresh control over the victim of his conjugal tyranny, and +persuaded her to leave England for a permanent residence in Italy. Mrs. +Billington realized all her property, and with her jewels and plate, +of which she possessed a great quantity, departed for the land of song, +taking with her Miss Madocks. She paid a bitter penalty for her revived +tenderness toward Felican, for the ruffian subjected her to such +treatment that she died from the effects of it, August 25, 1818. In such +an ignoble fashion one of the most brilliant and beautiful women in the +history of song departed from this life. + + + + +ANGELICA CATALANI. + +The Girlhood of Catalani.--She makes her _Debut_ in +Florence.--Description of her Marvelous Vocalism.--The Romance of Love +and Marriage.--Her Preference for the Concert Stage.--She meets Napoleon +in Paris.--Her Escape from France and Appearance in London.--Opinions +of Lord Mount Edgcumbe and other Critics.--Anecdotes of herself and +Husband.--The Great Prima Donna's Character.--Her Gradual Divergence +from Good Taste in singing.--_Bon Mots_ of the Wits of the Day.--The +Opera-house Riot.--Her Husband's Avarice.--Grand Concert Tour through +Europe.--She meets Goethe.--Her Return to England and Brilliant +Reception.--She sings with the Tenor Braham.--John Braham' s Artistic +Career.--The Davides.--Catalani's Last English Appearance, and the +Opinions of Critics.--Her Retirement and Death. + + +About the year 1790 the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, in the duchy +of Urbino, was the subject of a queer kind of scandal. Complaint was +made to the bishop that one of the novices sang with such extraordinary +brilliancy and beauty of voice that throngs gathered to the chapel from +miles around, and that the religious services were transformed into a +sort of theatrical entertainment" so entranced were all hearers by the +charm of the singing, and so forgetful of the religious purport of these +occasions in the fascination of the music. His Reverence ordered the +lady abbess to abate the scandal; so the young Angelica Catalani was +no longer permitted to sing alone, but only in concert with the other +novices. Her voice at the age of twelve, when she began to sing, already +possessed a volume, compass, and sweetness which made her a phenomenon. +The young girl, who had been destined for conventual life, studied so +hard that she became ill, and her father, a magistrate of Sinigaglia, +was obliged to take her home. Signor Catalani was a man of bigoted +piety, and it was with great difficulty that he could be induced to +forego the plan which he had arranged for Angelica's future. The idea +of her going on the stage was repulsive to him, and only his straitened +circumstances wrung from him a reluctant consent that she should abandon +the thought of the convent and become a singer. From a teacher and +composer of some reputation the young girl received preliminary +instruction for two years, and from the hands of this master passed into +those of the celebrated Marchesi, who had succeeded Porpora as chief of +the teaching _maestri_. This virtuoso had himself been a distinguished +singer, and his finishing lessons placed Angelica in a position to +rank with the most brilliant vocalists of the age. It was somewhat +unfortunate that she did not learn under Marchesi, who taught her when +her voice was in the most plastic condition, to control that profuse +luxuriance of vocalization which was alike the greatest glory and +greatest defect in her art. + +While studying, Angelica went to hear a celebrated cantatrice of the +day, and wept at the vanishing strains. "Alas!" she said with sorrowing +_naivete_. "I shall never be able to sing like that." The kind prima +donna heard the lamentation and asked her to sing; whereupon she said, +"Be reassured, my child; in a few years you will surpass me, and I +shall weep at your superiority." At the age of sixteen she succeeded in +getting an engagement at La Fenice in Venice to sing in Mayer's opera of +"Lodoiska" during the Carnival season. Carus, the director, accepted her +in despair at the very last moment on account of the sudden death of +his prima donna. What were his surprise and delight in finding that the +_debutante_ was the loveliest who had come forward for years, and +the possessor of an almost unparalleled voice. Of tall and majestic +presence, a dazzling complexion, large beautiful blue eyes, and features +of ideal symmetry, she was one to entrance the eye as well as the ear. +Her face was so flexible as to express each shade of feeling from grave +to gay with equal facility; and indeed all the personal characteristics +of this extraordinary woman were such as Nature could only have bestowed +in her most lavish mood. Her voice was a soprano of the purest quality, +embracing a compass of nearly three octaves, from G to F, and so +powerful that no band could overwhelm its tones, which thrilled through +every fiber of the hearer. Full, rich, and magnificent beyond any other +voice ever heard, "it bore no resemblance," said one writer, "to any +instrument, except we could imagine the tone of musical glasses to be +magnified in volume to the same gradation of power." She could ascend +at will--though she was ignorant of the rules of art--from the smallest +perceptible sound to the loudest and most magnificent crescendo, exactly +as she pleased. One of her favorite caprices of ornament was to imitate +the swell and fall of a bell, making her tones sweep through the air +with the most delicious undulation, and, using her voice at pleasure, +she would shower her graces in an absolutely wasteful profusion. Her +greatest defect was that, while the ear was bewildered with the beauty +and tremendous power of her voice, the feelings were untouched: she +never touched the heart. She could not, like Mara, thrill, nor, like +Billington, captivate her hearers by a birdlike softness and brilliancy; +she simply astonished. "She was a florid singer, and nothing but a +florid singer, whether grave or airy, in the church, orchestra, or +upon the stage." With a prodigious volume and richness of tone, and a +marvelous rapidity of vocalization, she could execute brilliantly the +most florid notation, leaving her audience in breathless amazement; but +her intonation was very uncertain. However, this did not trouble her +much. + +In the season of 1798 she sang at Leghorn with Crivelli, Marchesi, and +Mrs. Billington, and thence she made a triumphal tour through Italy. +From the first she had met with an unequaled success. Her full, +powerful, clear tones, her delivery so pure and true, her instinctive +execution of the most difficult music, carried all before her. Without +much art or method, that superb voice, capable by nature of all the +things which the most of even gifted singers are obliged to learn by +hard work and long experience, was sufficient for the most daring feats. +The Prince Regent of Portugal, attracted by her fame, engaged her, with +Crescentini and Mme. Gafforini, for the Italian opera at Lisbon, where +she arrived in the year 1804. + +The romance of Catalani's life connects itself, not with those escapades +which furnish the most piquant tidbits for the gossip-monger, but with +her marriage, which occurred at Lisbon. Throughout her long career no +breath of scandal touched the character of this extraordinary artist. +Her private and domestic life was as exemplary as her public career was +dazzling. One night, as Angelica was singing on the stage, her eyes +met those of a handsome man in full French uniform, and especially +distinguished by the diamond aigrette in his cap, who sat in full sight +in one of the boxes. When she went off the stage she found the military +stranger in the greenroom, waiting for an introduction. This was M. de +Vallebregue, captain in the Eighth Hussars and _attache_ of the +French embassy, who in after years received his highest recognition of +distinction as the husband of the chief of living singers. They were +both in the full flush of youth and beauty, and they fell passionately +in love with each other at first sight. When the lover asked Signor +Catalani's consent, the latter frowned on the scheme, for the golden +harvest was too rich to be yielded up lightly for the asking. He coldly +refused, and bade the suitor think of his love as hopeless, though +he found no objection to M. Vallebregue personally. Poor Angelica +was thoroughly wretched, and day after day pined for her young +soldier-lover, who had been forbidden the house by the father. For +several days she was in such dejection that she could not sing, and +the romance became the talk of Lisbon. One day an anonymous letter +was received by Papa Catalani charging M. Vallebregue with being a +proscribed man, who had committed some mysterious crime vaguely hinted +at. Armed with this, her father sought to reason Angelica out of +her passion; but she clung to her lover with more eagerness, and was +rewarded, to her great joy, by learning that the crime was only having +fought a duel with and severely wounded his superior officer--an offense +against discipline, which had been punished by temporary relief from +military duty and a pleasant exile to Lisbon. The young beauty +wept, sighed, pouted, and could be persuaded to sing only with much +difficulty. All day long she said with deep mournfulness, "_Ma che bel +uffiziale_" and pined with genuine heart-sickness. At last Vallebregue +smuggled a letter to his discouraged mistress, in which he said in +ardent words that no one had a right to separate them, and urged her +to lend all her energies to her professional work, so that, being a +favorite at court, she might induce the Prince to intercede in the +matter. Angelica tried in vain to get an interview with the Prince, and +found that he was at his country villa twenty miles away. Her accustomed +energy was equal to the difficult. Calling a coach, she drove out to the +royal villa. Trembling with emotion and fatigue, she threw herself at +the feet of the good-natured Prince, whom she found in the garden, and +told her story as soon as her timidity could find words. He could hardly +resist the temptation to badinage which the lively Angelica had hitherto +been so ready to meet with brilliant repartee, but the anxious girl +could only weep and plead. It was such a genuine love romance that +the Prince's heart was touched, and, after some argument and advice to +return to her father, he yielded and gave his sanction to the match. He +accompanied the now radiant Angelica back to Lisbon, and in an hour's +time a ceremony in the court chapel made her Madame de Vallebregue, +in presence of General Lannes, the French envoy, and himself. Signor +Catalani was enraged at the turn which things had taken, but he could +only acquiesce in the inevitable, especially as his daughter and her +husband settled on him a country estate in Italy and a comfortable +annuity for life. + +Mme. Catalani returned to Italy with a reputation which made her name +the first in everybody's mouth. Yet at this time her appearance on +the dramatic stage always occasioned a feeling of pain, her excessive +timidity and nervousness made her action spasmodic, and deprived her +of that easy dignity which must be united with passion and sentiment to +produce a good artistic personation. It was in concert that her grand +voice at this period shone at its best. Her intimate friends were wont +to say that it was as disagreeable and agitating for her to sing in +opera, as it was delightful in the concert-room; for here she poured +forth her notes with such a genuine ecstasy in her own performance as +that which seems to thrill the skylark or the nightingale. Though the +circumstances of her marriage were of such a romantic kind, and she +seems to have been deeply attached to her husband through life, M. +Valle-bregue appears to have been a stupid, ignorant soldier, and, as is +common with those who make similar matrimonial speculations, to have had +no eyes beyond helping his talented wife to make all the money possible +and spend it with the utmost freedom afterward. Mme. Catalani made a +brief visit to Paris in the spring of 1806, sang twice at St. Cloud, and +gave three public concerts, each of which produced twenty-four thousand +francs, the price being doubled for these occasions. + +Napoleon was always anxious to make Paris the center of European art, +and to assemble within its borders all the attractions of the civilized +world. He spared no temptation to induce the Italian cantatrice to +remain. When she attended his commands at the Tuileries she trembled +like a leaf before the stern tyrant, under whose gracious demeanor she +detected the workings of an unbending purpose. "Ou allez vous, madame?" +said he, smilingly. "To London, sire," was the reply. "Remain in Paris. +I will pay you well, and your talents will be appreciated. You shall +receive a hundred thousand francs per annum, and two months for _conge_. +So that is settled. Adieu, madame." Such was the brusque and imperious +interview, which seemed to fix the fate of the artist. But Mme. +Catalani, anxious to get to London, to which she looked as a rich +harvest-field, and regarding the grim Napoleon as the foe of the +legitimate King, was determined not to stay. "When at Paris I was +denied a passport," she afterward said; "however, I got introduced +to Talleyrand, and, by the aid of a handful of gold, I was put into +a government boat, and ordered to lie down to avoid being shot; and +wonderful to relate, I got over in safety, with my little boy seven +months old." + + +II. + +Catalani had already signed a contract with Goold and Taylor, the +managers of the King's Theatre, Haymarket, at a salary of two thousand +pounds a month and her expenses, besides various other emoluments. At +the time of her arrival there was no competitor for the public favor, +Grassini and Mrs. Billington having both retired from the stage a short +time previously. Lord Mount Edgcumbe tells us: "The great and far-famed +Catalani supplied the place of both, and for many years reigned alone; +for she would bear no rival, nor any singer sufficiently good to divide +the applause. It is well known," he says, "that her voice is of a most +uncommon quality; and capable of bearing exertions almost superhuman. +Her throat seems endowed (as is remarked by medical men) with a power of +expansion and muscular motion by no means usual; and when she throws +out all her voice to the utmost, it has a volume and strength quite +surprising; while its agility in divisions running up and down the scale +in semi-tones, and its compass in jumping over two octaves at once, are +equally astonishing. It were to be wished that she was less lavish in +the display of these wonderful powers, and sought to please more than +to surprise; but her taste is vicious, her excessive love of ornament +spoiling every simple air, and her greatest delight being in songs of +a bold and spirited character, where much is left to her discretion or +indiscretion, without being confined by the accompaniment, but in +which she can indulge in _ad libitum_ passages with a luxuriance +and redundance no other singer ever possessed, or if possessing ever +practiced, and which she carries to a fantastical excess." + +Her London _debut_ was on the 15th of December, 1806, in Portogallo's +opera of "La Semi-ramide," composed for the occasion. The music of +this work was of the most ephemeral nature, but Catalani's magnificent +singing and acting gave it a heroic dignity. She lavished all the +resources of her art on it. In one passage she dropped a double octave, +and finally sealed her reputation "by running up and down the chromatic +scale for the first time in the recollection of opera-goers.... It was +then new, although it has since been repeated to satiety, and even +noted down as an _obbligato_ division by Rossini, Meyerbeer, and others. +Rounds of applause rewarded this daring exhibition of bad taste." She +had one peculiar effect, which it is said has never been equaled. This +was an undulating tone like that of a musical glass, the vibrating note +being higher than the highest note on the pianoforte. "She appeared +to make a sort of preparation previous to its utterance, and never +approached it by the regular scale. It began with an inconceivably fine +tone, which gradually swelled both in volume and power, till it made the +ears vibrate and the heart thrill. It particularly resembled the highest +note of the nightingale, that is reiterated each time more intensely, +and which with a sort of ventriloquism seems scarcely to proceed from +the same bird that a moment before poured his delicate warblings at an +interval so disjointed." + +There are many racy anecdotes related of Catalani's London career, +to which the stupid, avaricious, but good-natured character of M. +Vallebregue lent much of their flavor. Speaking of Mrs. Salmon's +singing, he said with vehemence, "Mrs. Salmon, sare, she is as that," +extending the little finger of his left hand and placing his thumb at +the root of it; "but ma femme! Voila! she is that"--stretching out his +whole arm at full length and touching the shoulder-joint with the other. +His stupidity extended to an utter ignorance of music, which he only +prized as the means of gaining the large sums which his extravagance +craved. His wife once complained of the piano, saying, "I can not +possibly sing to that piano; I shall crack my voice: the piano is +absurdly high." "Do not fret, my dear," interposed the husband, +soothingly; "it shall be lowered before evening: I will attend to +it myself." Evening came, and the house was crowded; but, to the +consternation of the cantatrice, the pianoforte was as high as ever. She +sang, but the strain was excessive and painful; and she went behind the +scenes in a very bad humor. "Really, my dear," said her lord, "I can not +conceive of the piano being too high; I had the carpenter in with his +saw, and made him take six inches off each leg in my presence!" + +When she made her engagement for the second season, M. Vallebrogue +demanded such exorbitant terms that the manager tore his hair with +vexation, saying that such a salary to one singer would actually disable +him from employing any other artists of talent. "Talent!" repeated the +husband; "have you not Mme. Cata-lani? What would you have? If you +want an opera company, my wife with four or five puppets is quite +sufficient." So, during the season of 1808, Catalani actually was +the whole company, the other performers being literally puppets. She +appeared chiefly in operas composed expressly for her, in which the part +for the prima donna was carefully adapted to the display of her +various powers. In "Semiramide" particularly she made an extraordinary +impression, as it afforded room for the finest tragic action; and +the music, trivial as it was, gave full scope for the extraordinary +perfection of her voice. She also appeared in comic operas, and in +Paesiello's "La Frascatana" particularly delighted the public by the +graceful lightness and gayety of her comedy. But in them as in tragedies +she stood alone and furnished the sole attraction. Her astonishing +dexterity seemed rather the result of the natural aptitude of genius +than of study and labor, and her most brilliant ornaments more the +fanciful improvisations of the moment than the roulades of the composer. +Of her elocution in singing it is said: "She was articulate, forcible, +and powerful; occasionally light, pleasing, and playful, but never +awfully grand or tenderly touching to the degree that the art may be +carried." Her marvelous strains seemed to distant auditors poured forth +with the fluent ease of a bird; but those who were near saw that her +efforts were so great as to "call into full and violent action the +muscular powers of the head, throat, and chest." In the execution of +rapid passages the under jaw was in a continual state of agitation, +"in a manner, too, generally thought incompatible with the production of +pure tone from the chest, and inconsistent with a legitimate execution. +This extreme motion was also visible during the shake, which Catalani +used sparingly, however, and with little effect." + +In spite of the reputation for rapacity which the avarice and arrogance +of her husband helped to create, Catalani won golden opinions by her +sweet temper, liberality, and benevolence. Her purse-strings were always +opened to relieve want or encourage struggling merit. Her gayety and +light-heartedness were proverbial. It is recorded that at Bangor once +she heard for the first time the strains of a Welsh harp, the player +being a poor blind itinerant. The music sounding in the kitchen of the +inn filled the world-renowned singer with an almost infantile glee, and, +rushing in among the pots and pans, she danced as madly as if she had +been bitten by the tarantula, till, all panting and breathless, she +threw the harper two guineas, and said she had never heard anything +which gave her more delight. The claims on her purse kept pace with the +enormous gains which seemed to increase from year to year. To her large +charities and her extravagant habits of living, her husband added the +heavy losses to which his passion for the gaming table led him. It was +said in after years that Mme. Catalani should have been worth not less +than half a million sterling, so immense had been her gains. Mr. Waters, +in a pamphlet published in 1807, says that her receipts from all sources +for that year had been nearly seventeen thousand pounds. She frequently +was paid two hundred pounds for singing "Rule Britannia," a song in +which she became celebrated; and one thousand pounds was the usual +_honorarium_ given for her services at a festival. + +Mme. Catalani, in addition to her operatic performances, frequently sang +at the Ancient Concerts and in oratorio; but she lacked the devotional +pathos and tenderness which had given Mara and Mrs. Billington their +power in sacred music. Yet she possessed strong religious sentiments, +and always prayed before entering a theatre. Her somewhat ostentatious +piety provoked the following scandalous anecdote: She was observed +reading a prayer from her missal prior to going before the audience one +night, and some one, taking the book from the attendant, found it to be +a copy of Metastasio. This story is probably apocryphal, however, like +many of the most amusing incidents related of artists and authors. +Certain it is that Catalani never shone in oratorio, or even in the +rendering of dramatic pathos; but in bold and brilliant music the world +has probably never seen her peer. To some the immense volume of her +voice was not pleasant. Queen Charlotte criticised it by wishing for a +little cotton to put in her ears. Some wit, being asked if he would +go to York to hear her, replied he could hear better where he was. +"Whenever I hear such an outrageous display of execution," said Lord +Mount Edgcumbe, in his "Musical Reminiscences," "I never fail to +recollect and cordially join in the opinion of a late noble statesman, +more famous for his wit than for his love of music, who, hearing a +remark on the extreme difficulty of some performance, observed that he +wished it was impossible." It was this same nobleman, Lord North, who +perpetrated the following _mot_: Being asked why he did not subscribe +to the Ancient Concerts, and reminded that his brother, the Bishop of +Winchester, had done so, he said, "Oh, if I was as deaf as the good +Bishop, I would subscribe too." + +During the period of her operatic career in England, Catalani +illustrated the works of a wide variety of composers, both serious and +comic; for her dramatic talents were equal to both, and there was no +music which she did not master as if by inspiration, though she was such +a bad reader that to learn a part perfectly she was obliged to hear it +played on the piano. It was with great unwillingness that she essayed +the music of Mozart, however, who had just become a great favorite in +England. The strict time, the severe form, and the importance of the +accompaniments were not suited to her splendid and luxuriant style, +which disdained all trammels and rules. Yet she was the first singer who +introduced "Le Nozze di Figaro" to the English stage. Besides _Susanna_ +in "Le Nozze," she appeared as _Vitellia_ in "La Clemenza di Tito," a +serious _role_; and both in acting and singing these interpretations +were praised by the most intelligent connoisseurs--who had previously +attacked the vicious redundancy of her style severely--as nearly +matchless. Arch and piquant as the waiting-woman, lofty, impassioned, +and haughty as the patrician dame of old Rome, she rendered each as +if her sole talent were in the one direction. Tremmazani, a delightful +tenor, who had just arrived in England, and possessed a voice of that +rich, touching Cremona tone so rare even in Italy, it may be remarked +in passing, refused the part of Count Almaviva as lacking sufficient +importance, and because he regarded it as beneath his dignity to appear +in comic opera. + + +III. + +The year 1813 was the last season of Catalani's regular engagement on +the operatic stage. She continued to sing in "Tito" and "Figaro," +but her principal pleasure was in the most extravagant and bizarre +show-pieces, such, for example, as variations composed for the violin +on popular airs like "God save the King," "Rule Britannia," "Cease your +Funning." She carried her departure from the true limits of art to such +an outrageous degree as to draw on her head the severest reprobation of +all good judges, though the public listened to her wonderful execution +with unbounded delight and astonishment. Toward the latter part of the +season an extraordinary riot took place in consequence of Catalani's +failure to appear two successive evenings. The managers were in arrears, +and the _diva_ by the advice of her husband adopted this plan to +force payment. There were mutterings of the thunder on the first +non-appearance; but when on the following night Catalani was still +absent, the storm broke. The opera which had been substituted was half +finished when the clamor drowned all the artistic noise behind the +footlights. A military guard who had been called in to protect the stage +from invasion were overpowered by a throng of gentlemen who leaped on +from the auditorium, many of them men of high rank, and the guns and +bayonets wrested from the soldiers' hands. Bloodshed seemed imminent; +and had it not been for the moderation of the soldiers, who permitted +themselves to be disarmed rather than fire, the result would have +been very serious. The chandeliers and mirrors were all broken into +a thousand pieces, and the musical instruments hurled around in the +wildest confusion. Fiddles, flutes, horns, drums, swords, bayonets, +muskets, operatic costumes, and stage properties generally were hurled +in a heap on the stage. The gentlemen Mohocks, who signalized themselves +on this occasion, did damage to the amount of nearly one thousand +pounds, though it is said they made it up to the manager afterward by +subscription. The theatre was closed for a week; and when it reopened, +so great was the magnificent Italian's power over the audience that, +though they came prepared to condemn, they received her with the loudest +demonstration of applause. But still such conduct toward audiences, if +followed up, could not but beget dissatisfaction and wrangling, and the +growing impatience of her managers as well as the more judicious public +could not be mistaken. + +In spite of the fact that several brilliant singers were in England, and +of the desire of the public that the splendid talents of Catalani should +be appropriately supported, her jealousy and her exorbitant claims +prevented such a desirable combination. She offered to buy the theatre +and thus become sole proprietor, sole manager, and sole performer; +but, of course, the proposition was refused, luckily for the enraged +cantatrice, who would certainly have paid dearly for her experiment. + +Catalani on closing her English engagement proceeded to Paris. She had +been known as an ardent friend of the Bourbon exiles, and so, during the +occupation of Paris by the Allies in 1814, she found herself in great +favor. After the Hundred Days had passed and the royal house seemed to +be firmly seated, she received a government subvention of one hundred +and sixty thousand francs and the privilege of the Opera. Catalani's +passion for absorbing everything within the radius of her own vanity and +her jealousy of rivals operated against her success in Paris, as they +had injured her in London; and she was obliged to yield up her privilege +in the course of three years, with the additional loss of five hundred +thousand francs of her own private fortune, and the loss of good will on +the part of the Paris public. + +Her grand concert tour through Europe, undertaken with the purpose of +repairing her losses, was one of the most interesting portions of her +life. Everywhere she was received with abounding enthusiasm, and the +concerts were so thronged that there was rarely ever standing-room. She +sang in nearly every important city on the Continent, was the object of +the most flattering attention everywhere, and was loaded down with +the costliest presents, jewels, medals, and testimonials, everywhere. +Sovereigns vied with each other in showing their admiration by gorgeous +offerings, and her arrival in a city was looked on as a gala-day. In +the midst, however, of these the most trying circumstances in which +a beautiful and captivating woman could be placed, surrounded by +temptation and flattery, her course was marked by undeviating propriety, +and not the faintest breath tarnished her fair fame. Such an idol of +popular admiration would be sure to exhibit an overweening vanity. When +in Hamburg in 1819, M. Schevenke, a great musician, criticised her vocal +feats with severity. Mme. Catalani shrugged her beautiful shoulders and +called him "an impious man." "For," said she, "when God has given to a +mortal so extraordinary a talent as I possess, people ought to applaud +and honor it as a miracle; it is profane to depreciate the gifts of +Heaven." + +It was during this tour that she met the poet Goethe at the court of +Weimar, where she was made an honored guest, as she had been treated +everywhere in royal and princely circles. At a court dinner-party where +she was present, the great German poet was as usual the cynosure of the +company. His imperial and splendid presence and world-wide fame marked +him out from all others. Catalani was struck by the appearance of this +modern Olympian god, and asked who he was. To a mind innocent of +all culture except such as touched her art merely, the name "Goethe" +conveyed but little significance. "Pray, on what instrument does he +play?" "He is no performer, madame--he is the renowned author of +'Werter.'" "Oh yes, yes, I remember," she said; then turning to the +venerable poet, she addressed him in her vivacious manner. "Ah! sir, +what an admirer I am of 'Werter!'" Flattered by her evident sincerity +and ardor, the poet bowed profoundly. "I never," continued she, in the +same lively strain, "I never read anything half so laughable in all +my life. What a capital farce it is, sir!" The poet, astounded, could +scarcely believe the evidence of his ears. "'The Sorrows of Werter' a +farce!" he murmured faintly. "Oh yes, never was anything so exquisitely +ridiculous," rejoined Catalani, with a ringing burst of laughter. It +turned out that she had been talking all the while of a ridiculous +parody of "Werter" which had been performed at one of the vaudeville +theatres of Paris, in which the sentimentality of Goethe's tale had been +most savagely ridiculed. We can fancy what Goethe's mortification was, +and how the fair _diva's_ credit was impaired at the court of Weimar by +her ignorance of the illustrious poet and of the novel whose fame had +rung through all Europe. + +Mme. Catalani returned to England in 1821, and found herself the subject +of an enthusiasm little less than that which had greeted her in her +earlier prime. Her concert tour extended through all the cities of +the British kingdom. In this tour she was supported by the great tenor +Braham, as remarkable a singer in some respects as Catalani herself, and +probably the most finished artist of English birth who ever ornamented +the lyric stage. Braham had been brilliantly associated with the lyric +triumphs of Mara, Billington, and Grassini, and had been welcomed in +Italy itself as one of the finest singers in the world. When Catalani's +dramatic career in England commenced Braham had supported her, though +her jealousy soon rid her of so brilliant a competitor for the public +plaudits. Braham's part in Catalani's English concert tour was a very +important one, and some cynical wags professed to believe that as many +went to hear the great tenor as to listen to Catalani. + +The electrical effect of her singing was very well shown at one of these +concerts. She introduced a song, "Delia Superba Roma," declamatory in +its nature, written for her by Marquis Sampieri. The younger Linley, +brother-in-law of Sheridan, who was playing in the orchestra, was so +moved that he forgot his own part, and on receiving a severe whispered +rebuke from the singer fainted away in his place. Mme. Catalani returned +again on finishing her English engagement to Russia, where she realized +fifteen thousand guineas in four months. Concert-rooms were too small +to hold her audiences, and she was obliged to use the great hall of the +Public Exchange, which would hold more than four thousand people. At her +last concert the Emperor and Empress loaded her with costly gifts, among +them being a girdle of magnificent diamonds. + + +IV. + +The career of John Braham must always be of interest to those who love +the traditions of English music. The associate and contemporary of a +host of distinguished singers, and himself not least, his connection +with the musical life of Cata-lani would seem to make some brief sketch +of the greatest of English tenor-singers singularly fitting in this +place. He was born in London in 1773, of Jewish parentage, his real name +being Abrams, and was so wretchedly poor that he sold pencils on the +street to get a scanty living. Leoni, an Italian teacher of repute, +discovered by accident that he had a fine voice, and took the friendless +lad under his tutelage. He appeared at the age of thirteen at the Covent +Garden Theatre, the song "The Soldier tired of War's Alarms" being the +first he sang in public. One of the papers spoke of him as a youthful +prodigy, saying, "He promises fair to attain every perfection, +possessing every requisite necessary to form a good singer." Braham at +one time lost his voice utterly, and his prospect seemed a gloomy +one, as his master Leoni also died about the same time. He now found a +generous patron in Abraham Goldsmith, however, and became a professor of +the piano, for which instrument he developed remarkable talent. + +An Italian master named Rauzzini seems to have been of great service to +Braham when he was about twenty years of age, and under him he fitted +himself for the Italian stage, and secured an opening under Storace, +father of the brilliant Nancy Storace, at Drury Lane. His success was +so marked that the following season found him reengaged and his +professional life well opened to him. Braham's ambition, however, +would not permit him to rest on his laurels, or rest contented with the +artistic fitness already acquired. He determined to find in Italy that +finishing culture which then as now made that country the Mecca of +artists anxious to perfect their education. He visited Florence, Genoa, +Milan, Naples, and Rome, studying under the most famous masters. Not +content with his training in executive music, Braham studied composition +and counterpoint under Isola, and laid the foundation for the knowledge +which afterward gave him a place among notable English composers as well +as singers. + +While in England Braham had shown proof s of a transcendent talent. His +singing both in oratorio and opera was of such a stamp as to place him +in the van with the most accomplished Italian singers. With the added +finish of method which he gained by his Italian studies, he made a most +favorable impression in the various cities when he sang in Italy, and +his name was freely quoted as being one of the very greatest living +singers. The elder Davide, whose reputation at that time had no equal, +even Crescentini being placed second to him, said on hearing him sing, +"There are only two singers in the world, I and the Englishman." Braham +had one great advantage over his rivals in this, that his knowledge of +the science of music in all its most abstruse difficulties was thorough. +Skillful adept as he was in all the refinements of executive technique, +his profound musical grasp and insight made all difficulties of +interpretation perfect child's-play. Our readers will recall an +illustration of Braham's readiness and quickness of resource in the +anecdote of him told in connection with Mrs. Billington's life. + +Refusing the most flattering offers from Italian impressarii, who were +eager to retain him for a while in Italy, Braham returned to England in +1801, and for the most part during a number of years devoted himself to +English opera. Though he had approved himself a brilliant master in the +Italian school, his taste and talents also peculiarly fitted him--like +Sims Reeves, who seems to have taken Braham for a model--for the +simple and affecting ballad-music with which English opera is so +characteristically marked. His only appearances in Italian opera in +England after his return were in the seasons of 1804, 1805,1800, and +1816. These seasons were marked by the performance of the fine operas +of Winter, of some of the masterpieces of Cimarosa, and by the first +introduction into England of the music of Mozart, the "Clemenza di +Tito," in which Mrs. Billington and Braham appeared, having been the +earliest acquaintance of the English public with the greatest of the +German operatic composers. The production of this opera was at the +suggestion of George IV., then Prince of Wales, who had a manuscript +score of the work, with instrumental parts, sent to him as a gift by the +great Haydn several years before, as a memorial of the kindness shown by +the Prince to the composer of the "Creation," when in London conducting +the celebrated Salaman symphonic concerts. The characters of _Vittellia_ +and _Cesto_ were splendidly performed by the two singers; but the +Italian part of the company did not perform the difficult and exacting +music _con amore_, neither were the audiences of that day trained up +to the appreciation of the glorious music of Mozart which has obtained +since that time. + +Braham's career as a singer of English opera is that with which his +glory in art is chiefly associated. His first appearance was in a +somewhat feeble work called the "Chains of the Heart," and this was +succeeded by the "Cabinet," a production in which Braham composed all +the music of his own part, both solo and the concerted portions in which +he had to appear--a custom which he continued for a number of years. +Seldom has music been more popular than that in which Braham appeared, +for he knew how to suit all the subtile qualities of his own voice. +Among the more celebrated operas in which he appeared, now unknown +except by tradition, may be mentioned "Family Quarrels," "Thirty +Thousand," "English Fleet," "Out of Place," "False Alarms," "Kars, +or Love in a Desert," and "Devil's Bridge." As Braham grew older he +attained a prodigious reputation, never before equaled in England. In +theatre, concert-room, and church he had scarcely a rival; and whether +in singing a simple ballad, in oratorio, or in the grandest dramatic +music, the largeness and nobility of his style were matched by a voice +which in its prime was almost peerless. His compass extended over +nineteen notes, and his falsetto from D to A was so perfect that it was +difficult to tell where the natural voice ended. When Weber composed his +opera "Oberon" for the English stage in 1826, Braham was the original +_Sir Huon_. + +Braham had made a large fortune by his genius and industry, the +copyright on the many beautiful ballads and songs which he contributed +to the musical treasures of the language amounting alone to a handsome +competence. But, following the example of so many great artists, he +aspired to be manager also. In conjunction with Yates, in 1831 he +purchased the Colosseum in Regent's Park for forty thousand pounds, and +five years afterward he spent twenty-six thousand pounds in building +the St. James's theatre. These speculations were unfortunate, and Braham +found himself compelled to renew his professional exertions at a period +when musical artists generally think of retiring from the stage. He made +a concert and operatic tour in America in 1840, and it was while playing +with him in "Guy Manner-ing" that Charlotte Cushman, who then performed +singing parts, conceived the remarkable _role_ of _Meg Merrlies_, which +she made one of the most picturesque and vivid memories of the stage. +Francis Wemyss, in his "Theatrical Biography," refers to Braham's +appearance at the National Theatre, Philadelphia: "Who that heard +'Jephthall's Rash Vow' could ever forget the volume of voice which +issued from that diminutive frame, or the ecstasy with which 'Waft +her, angels, through the skies' thrilled every nerve of the attentive +listener? He ought to have visited the United States twenty years +sooner, or not have risked his reputation by coming at all. Like +Incledon, he was only heard by Americans when his powers of voice were +so impaired as to leave them to conjecture what he had been, and mourn +the wreck that all had once admired." Such an impression as this seems +to have been common with the American public--an experience afterward in +recent years repeated in the last visit of the once great Mario. + +In private life Braham was much admired, and was always received in +the most conservative and fastidious circles. As a man of culture, a +humorist, and a raconteur, he was the life of society; and he will be +remembered as the composer who has left more popular songs, duets, etc., +than almost any other English musician. He died in 1856, after living to +see his daughter Lady Walde-grave, and one of the most brilliant leaders +of London high life. + +The Davides, father and son, also belonged to the Catalani period, the +elder having sung with her in Italy, and the younger in after years both +in opera and concert. Giacomo Davide, the elder, whose prime was between +1770 and 1800, was pronounced by Lord Mount Edgecumbe the first tenor of +his time, possessing a powerful and well-toned voice, great execution as +well as knowledge of music, and an excellent style of singing. His son +Giovanni, who became better known than himself, was his pupil. Though +singing with a faulty method, Giovanni Davide had a voice of such +magnificent compass and quality as to produce with it the most +electrical effects. M. Edouard Bertin gives an interesting account +of him in a letter from Venice dated 1823: "Davide excites among the +dilletanti of this town an enthusiasm and delight which can hardly +be conceived without having been witnessed. He is a singer of the new +school, full of mannerism, affectation, and display, abusing like +Martin his magnificent voice with its prodigious compass (three octaves +comprised between four B flats). He crushes the principal motive of +an air beneath the luxuriance of his ornamentation, which has no other +merit than that of a difficulty conquered. But he is also a singer full +of warmth, _verve_, expression, energy, and musical sentiment. Alone +he can fill up and give life to a scene: it is impossible for another +singer to carry away an audience as he does, and when he will only be +simple he is admirable. He is the Rossini of song. He is the greatest +singer I ever heard. Doubtless the way in which Garcia* plays and sings +the part of _Otello_ is preferable, taking it all together, to that of +Davide; it is pure, more severe, more constantly dramatic; but with all +his faults Davide produces more effect, a great deal more effect. +There is something in him, I can not say what, which, even when he is +ridiculous, entrances attention. He never leaves you cold, and when he +does not move he astonishes you. In a word, before hearing him, I did +not know what the power of singing really was. The enthusiasm he excites +is without limit." + + * The father of Mlle. Mulibran and Viardot-Garcia. + +This remarkable singer died in St. Petersburg in 1851, being then +manager of an Imperial Opera in that city of enthusiastic music-lovers. + + +V. + +In 1824 Mme. Catalani again filled an engagement in England, making her +reappearance in Mayer's comic _pasticcio_, "Il Fanatico per la Mu-sica," +the airs of which had been expressly selected for the display of her +vocal _tours de force_. Crowded audiences again welcomed her whom +absence had made an idol dearer than ever, and her transcendent power as +a singer seemed to have rise even beyond the old pitch in her electrical +_bravura_ style of execution. Yet some critics thought they detected +tokens of the destroying hand of time. One critic spoke of the +"fragrance" of her tone as having evaporated. Another compared her +voice to a pianoforte the hammers of which had grown hard by use. In +her appearance she had become even more beautiful than ever, with some +slight accession of _embonpoint_, and was conceded to be the handsomest +woman in Europe. For a while her popularity was unbounded among all +classes, and probably no singer that ever lived rode on a higher wave +of public adoration. But the critics began to be very much dissatisfied +with the vicious uses to which she put her magnificent voice. In Paris +the wags had called her _l'instrument Catalani_. In London they said her +style had become a caricature of its former grandeur, so exaggerated and +affected had it grown. + +"When she begins one of the interminable roulades up the scale," says +a writer in "Knight's Quarterly Magazine," "she gradually raises her +body, which she had before stooped to almost a level with the ground, +until, having won her way with a quivering lip and chattering chin to +the very topmost note, she tosses back her head and all its nodding +feathers with an air of triumph; then suddenly falls to a note two +octaves and a half lower with incredible aplomb, and smiles like a +victorious Amazon over a conquered enemy." A throng of flatterers joined +in encouraging her in all her defects. "No sooner does Catalani quit +the orchestra," says the same writer, "than she is beset by a host of +foreign sycophants, who load her with exaggerated praise. I was present +at a scene of this kind in the refreshment-room at Bath, and heard +reiterated on all sides, 'Ah! madame, la derniere fois toujours la +meilleure!' Thus is poor Mme. Catalani led to strive to excel herself +every time she sings, until she exposes herself to the ridicule +most probably of those very flatterers; for I have heard that on +the Continent she is mimicked by a man dressed in female attire, +who represents, by extravagant terms and gestures, Mme. Catalani +_surpassing_ herself." Occasionally, however, she showed that her genius +had not forsaken her. Her singing of Luther's Hymn is thus described by +an appreciative listener: "She admits in this grandly simple composition +no ornament whatever but a pure shake at the conclusion. The majesty of +her sustained tones, so rich, so ample as not only to fill but overflow +the cathedral where I heard her, the solemnity of her manner, and the +St. Cecilia-like expression of her raised eyes and rapt countenance, +produced a thrilling effect through the united medium of sight and +hearing. Whoever has heard Catalani sing this, accompanied by Schmidt +on the trumpet, has heard the utmost that music can do. Then in the +succeeding chorus, when the same awful words, 'The trumpet sounds; the +graves restore the dead which they contained before,' are repeated by +the whole choral strength, her voice, piercing through the clang of +instruments and the burst of other voices, is heard as distinctly as if +it were alone! During the encore I found my way to the top of a tower on +the outside of the cathedral, and could still distinguish her wonderful +voice." + +A charming incident is told of Mme. Catalani while in Brighton. Captain +Montague, cruising off that port, invited her and some other ladies to a +_fete_ on his ship, and the ladies were escorted on board by the Captain +in a boat manned by twenty men. The prima donna suddenly burst forth +with her pet song, "Rule Britannia," singing with electrical fire and +the full power of her magnificent voice. The tars dropped their oars, +and tears rolled down their weatherbeaten cheeks, while the Captain +said: "You see, madame, the effect this favorite air has on these brave +men when sung by the finest voice in the world. I have been in many +victorious battles, but never felt an excitement equal to this." + +Mme. Catalani retired from the stage in 1831. Young and brilliant +rivals, such as Pasta and Son-tag, were rising to contest her +sovereignty, and for several years the critics had been dropping pretty +plain hints that it would be the most judicious and dignified course. +She settled on a magnificent estate near Lake Como, where she lived +with her two eldest children--a son and daughter--the younger son being +absent on military duty in the French army. This latter afterward became +an equerry to Napoleon III., and the other children occupied positions +of rank and honor. Mme. Catalani founded a school of gratuitous +instruction for young girls near her beautiful villa, and exacted that +all who graduated from this school should adopt her own name. One, +Signora Masilli-Catalani, became quite an eminent singer. Mrs. Trollope +tells us something of Catalani's latter days as she visited her in +Italy: "Nothing could be more amiable than the reception she gave us." +She expressed a great admiration and love for the English. Her beauty +was little injured. "Her eyes and teeth are still magnificent," says +Mrs. Trollope, "and I am told that, when seen in evening full dress +by candlelight, no stranger can see her for the first time without +inquiring who that charming-looking woman is." Mrs. Trollope hinted to +Mlle, de Valle-breque that she would like to hear her mother sing; and +in a moment Mme. Catalani was at the piano, smiling at the whispered +request from her daughter. "I know not what it was she sang, but +scarcely had she permitted her voice to swell into one of those bravura +passages, of which her execution was so very peculiar and so perfectly +unequaled, than I felt as if some magic process was being performed +upon me, which took me back again to something--I know not what to +call it--which I had neither heard nor felt for nearly twenty years. +Involuntarily, unconsciously, my eyes filled with tears, and I felt as +much embarrassed as a young lady of fifteen might be who suddenly found +herself in the act of betraying emotions which she was far indeed from +wishing to display." William Gardiner visited Mme. Catalani in 1846. "I +was surprised at the vigor of Mme. Catalani," he says, "and how +little she was altered since I saw her at Derby in 1828. I paid her a +compliment upon her good looks. 'Ah!' said she, 'I am growing old and +ugly.' I would not allow it. 'Why, man,' she said, 'I'm sixty-six!' She +has lost none of that commanding expression which gave her such dignity +on the stage. She is without a wrinkle, and appears to be no more than +forty. Her breadth of chest is still remarkable; it was this which +endowed her with the finest voice that ever sang. Her speaking voice and +dramatic air are still charming, and not in the least impaired." + +About the year 1848 Catalani and her family left Italy for fear of +the cholera, which was then raging, and sought refuge in Paris. While +residing there she heard Jenny Lind. One morning, a few days after, the +servant announced a strange visitor, who would not give her name. On +being ushered in, the timid stranger, who showed a plain but pleasant +face, knelt at her feet and said falteringly, "I am Jenny Lind, +madame--I am come to ask your blessing." A few days afterward Catalani +was stricken with the cholera, which she so much dreaded, and died on +June 12th, at the age of sixty-nine. + +It is not a marvel that the public was captivated with Catalani. She +had every splendid gift that Nature could lavish--surpassing physical +beauty, a matchless voice, energy of spirit, sweetness of temper, and +warm affections. Her whole private life was marked by the utmost purity +and propriety, and she was the soul of generosity and unselfishness. +The many business troubles in which she was involved were caused by +her husband's rapacity and narrowness of judgment, and not by her own +disposition to take advantage of the necessities of her managers--a +charge her enemies at one time brought against her. + +Her unrivaled endowments (for that taken all in all they were unrivaled +is now pretty well acknowledged) ought to have raised her much higher +in rank as an artist. Her education even as a singer was extremely +superficial, and she became an object of universal admiration without +ever knowing anything about music. As she advanced in her career, her +whole ambition seemed to be narrowed down to surprising the world by +displays of vocal power. As long as these displays would dazzle and +astonish, it made little difference how absurd and unmeaning they were. +Had she assiduously cultivated the dramatic part of her profession, such +were the powers of her voice, her sense of the beautiful, her histrionic +passion and energy, her charms of person, that she might have been the +greatest lyric artist that ever lived. Many of the songs she selected as +vehicles of display were unsuitable to a female voice. For instance, +she would take the martial song for a bass voice, "Non piu Andrai," in +"Figaro," and overpower by the force and volume of her organ all +the brass instruments of the orchestra. A craving for such sort of +admiration from unthinking crowds turned her aside from the true path of +her art, where she might have reached the top peak of greatness, and has +handed down her memory a shining beacon rather than as a model to her +successors. + + + + +GIUDITTA PASTA. + +Greatness of Genius overcoming Disqualification.--The Characteristic +Lesson of Pasta's Life.--Her First Appearance and Failure.--Pasta +returns to Italy and devotes herself to Study.--Her First Great +Successes in 1819.--Characteristics of her Voice and Singing.--Chorley's +Review of the Impressions made on him by Pasta.--She makes her Triumphal +_Debut_ in Paris.--Talma on Pasta's Acting.--Her Performances of +"Giulietta" and "Tancredi."--Medea, Pasta's Grandest Impersonation, is +given to the World.--Description of the Performance.--Enthusiasm of the +Critics and the Public.--Introduction of Pasta to the English Public in +Rossini's "Otello."--The Impression made in England.--Recognized as +the Greatest Dramatic Prima Donna in the World.--Glances at the Salient +Facts of her English Career.--The Performance of "Il Crociato in +Egitto."--She plays the Male _Role_ in "Otello."--Rivalry with Malibran +and Sontag.--The Founder of a New School of Singing.--Pasta creates the +Leading _Roles_ in Bellini's "Sonnambula" and "Norma" and Donizetti's +"Anna Bolena."--Decadence and Retirement. + + +I. + +As an artist who could transform natural faults into the rarest +beauties, who could make the world forgive the presence of other +deficiencies which could not thus be glorified by the presence of +genius, thought, and truth--as one who engraved deeper impressions +on the memory of her hearers than any other even in an age of great +singers--Mme. Pasta must be placed in the very front rank of art. +The way by which this gifted woman arrived at her throne was long and +toilsome. Nature had denied her the ninety-nine requisites of the +singer (according to the old Italian adage). Her voice at the origin was +limited, husky, and weak, without charm, without flexibility. Though her +countenance _spoke_, its features were cast in a coarse mold. Her figure +was ungraceful, her movements were awkward. No candidate for musical +sovereignty ever presented herself with what must have appeared a more +meager catalogue of pretensions at the outset of her career. What she +became let our sketch reveal. + +She was the daughter of a Jewish family named Negri, born at Saronno, +near Milan, in the year 1798. The records of her childhood are slight, +and beyond the fact that she received her first musical lessons at the +Cathedral of Como and her latter training at the Milan Conservatory, +and that she essayed her feeble wings at second-rate Italian theatres +in subordinate parts for the first year, there is but little of +significance to relate. In 1816 she sang in the train of the haughty +and peerless Catalani at the Favart in Paris, but did not succeed +in attracting attention. But it happened that Ayrton, of the King's +Theatre, London, heard her sing at the house of Paer, the composer, +and liked her well enough to engage herself and husband at a moderate +salary. When Pasta's glimmering little light first shone in London, +Fodor and Camporese were in the full blaze of their reputation--both +brilliant singers, but destined to pale into insignificance afterward +before the intense splendor of Pasta's perfected genius. One of the +notices of the opening performance at the King's Theatre, when Mme. +Camporese sang the leading _role_ of Cimarosa's "Penelope," followed up +a lavish eulogium on the prima donna with the contemptuous remark, "Two +subordinate singers named Pasta and Mari came forward in the characters +of _Telamuco_ and _Arsi-noe_, but their musical talent does not require +minute delineation." There is every reason to believe that Pasta was +openly flouted both by the critics and the members of her own profession +during her first London experience, but a magnificent revenge was in +store for her. Among the parts she sang at this chrysalis period were +_Cherubino_ in the "Nozze di Figaro," _Servilia_ in "La Clemenza di +Tito," and the _role_ of the pretended shrew in Ferrari's "Il Shaglio +Fortunato." Mme. Pasta found herself at the end of the season a dire +failure. But she had the searching self-insight which stamps the highest +forms of genius, and she determined to correct her faults, and develop +her great but latent powers. Suddenly she disappeared from the view of +the operatic world, and buried herself in a retired Italian city, +where she studied with intelligent and tireless zeal under M. Scappa, +a _maestro_ noted for his power of kindling the material of genius. +Occasionally she tested herself in public. An English nobleman who heard +her casually at this time said: "Other singers find themselves endowed +with a voice and leave everything to chance. This woman leaves nothing +to chance, and her success is therefore certain." She subjected herself +to a course of severe and incessant study to subdue her voice. To +equalize it was impossible. There was a portion of the scale which +differed from the rest in quality, and remained to the last "under a +veil," to use the Italian term. Some of her notes were always out of +time, especially at the beginning of a performance, until the vocalizing +machinery became warmed and mellowed by passion and excitement. Out +of these uncouth and rebellious materials she had to compose her +instrument, and then to give it flexibility. Chor-ley, in speaking of +these difficulties, says: "The volubility and brilliancy, when acquired, +gained a character of their own from the resisting peculiarities of her +organ. There were a breadth, an expressiveness in her _roulades_, an +evenness and solidity in her shake, which imparted to every passage a +significance beyond the reach of more spontaneous singers." But, +after all, the true secret of her greatness was in the intellect and +imagination which lay behind the voice, and made every tone quiver with +dramatic sensibility. + +The lyric Siddons of her age was now on the verge of making her real +_debut_. When she reappeared in Venice, in 1819, she made a great +impression, which was strengthened by her subsequent performances +in Rome, Milan, and Trieste, during that and the following year. The +fastidious Parisians recognized her power in the autumn of 1821, when +she sang at the Theatre Italien; and at Verona, during the Congress of +1822, she was received with tremendous enthusiasm. She returned to Paris +the same year, and in the opera of "Romeo e Giulietta" she exhibited +such power, both in singing and acting, as to call from the French +critics the most extravagant terms of praise. Mme. Pasta was then laying +the foundation of one of the most dazzling reputations ever gained by +prima donna. By sheer industry she had extended the range of her voice +to two octaves and a half--from A above the bass clef note to C flat, +and even to D in alt. Her tones had become rich and sweet, except when +she attempted to force them beyond their limits; her intonation was, +however, never quite perfect, being occasionally a little flat. Her +singing was pure and totally divested of all spurious finery; she added +little to what was set down by the composer, and that little was not +only in good taste, but had a great deal of originality to recommend +it. She possessed deep feeling and correct judgment. Her shake was +most beautiful; Signor Pacini's well-known cavatina, "Il soave e bel +contento"--the peculiar feature of which consisted in the solidity and +power of a sudden shake, contrasted with the detached staccato of the +first bar--was written for Mme. Pasta. Some of her notes were sharp +almost to harshness, but this defect with the greatness of genius she +overcame, and even converted into a beauty; for in passages of profound +passion her guttural tones were thrilling. The irregularity of her lower +notes, governed thus by a perfect taste and musical tact, aided to a +great extent in giving that depth of expression which was one of +the principal charms of her singing; indeed, these lower tones were +peculiarly suited for the utterance of vehement passion, producing an +extraordinary effect by the splendid and unexpected contrast which they +enabled her to give to the sweetness of the upper tones, causing a +kind of musical discordance indescribably pathetic and melancholy. Her +accents were so plaintive, so penetrating, so profoundly tragical, that +no one could resist their influence. + +Her genius as a tragedienne surpassed her talent as a singer. When on +the stage she was no longer Pasta, but Tancredi, Romeo, Desdemona, +Medea, or Semiramide. Ebers tells us in his "Seven Years of the King's +Theatre": "Nothing could have been more free from trick or affectation +than Pasta's performance. There is no perceptible effort to resemble a +character she plays; on the contrary, she enters the stage the character +itself; transposed into the situation, excited by the hopes and fears, +breathing the life and spirit of the being she represents." Mme. +Pasta was a slow reader, but she had in perfection the sense for the +measurement and proportion of time, a most essential musical quality. +This gave her an instinctive feeling for propriety, which no lessons +could teach; that due recognition of accent and phrase, that absence +of flurry and exaggeration, such as makes the discourse and behavior of +some people memorable, apart from the value of matter and occasion; that +intelligent composure, without coldness, which impresses and reassures +those who see and hear. A quotation from a distinguished critic already +cited gives a vivid idea of Pasta's influence on the most cold and +fastidious judges: + +"The greatest grace of all, depth and reality of expression, was +possessed by this remarkable artist as few (I suspect) before her--as +none whom I have since admired--have possessed it. The best of her +audience were held in thrall, without being able to analyze what made up +the spell, what produced the effect, so soon as she opened her lips. +Her recitative, from the moment she entered, was riveting by its truth. +People accustomed to object to the conventionalities of opera (just as +loudly as if all drama was not conventional too), forgave the singing +and the strange language for the sake of the direct and dignified appeal +made by her declamation. Mme. Pasta never changed her readings, her +effects, her ornaments. What was to her true, when once arrived at, +remained true for ever. To arrive at what stood with her for truth, she +labored, made experiments, rejected with an elaborate care, the result +of which, in one meaner or more meager, must have been monotony. But the +impression made on me was that of being always subdued and surprised for +the first time. Though I knew what was coming, when the passion broke +out, or when the phrase was sung, it seemed as if they were something +new, electrical, immediate. The effect to me is at present, in the +moment of writing, as the impression made by the first sight of the sea, +by the first snow mountain, by any of those first emotions which +never entirely pass away. These things are utterly different from the +fanaticism of a _laudator temporis acti_." + +When Talma heard her declaim, at the time of her earliest celebrity in +Paris, he said: "Here is a woman of whom I can still learn. One turn of +her beautiful head, one glance of her eye, one light motion of her hand, +is, with her, sufficient to express a passion. She can raise the soul +of the spectator to the highest pitch of astonishment and delight by one +tone of her voice. 'O Dio!' as it comes from her breast, swelling over +her lips, is of indescribable effect." Poetical and enthusiastic by +temperament, the crowning excellence of her art was a grand simplicity. +There was a sublimity in her expressions of vehement passion which was +the result of measured force, energy which was never wasted, exalted +pathos that never overshot the limits of art. Vigorous without violence, +graceful without artifice, she was always greatest when the greatest +emergency taxed her powers. + +Pasta's second great part at the Theatre Italien was in Rossini's +"Tancredi," an impersonation which was one of the most enchanting and +finished of her lighter _roles_. "She looked resplendent in the casque +and cuirass of the Red Cross Knight. No one could ever sing the part of +_Tancredi_ like Mine. Pasta: her pure taste enabled her to add grace to +the original composition by elegant and irreproachable ornaments. 'Di +tanti palpiti' had been first presented to the Parisians by Mme. Fodor, +who covered it with rich and brilliant embroidery, and gave it what +an English critic, Lord Mount Edgcumbe, afterward termed its +country-dance-like character. Mine. Pasta, on the contrary, infused into +this air its true color and expression, and the effect was ravishing." + +"Tancredi" was quickly followed by "Otello," and the impassioned +spirit, energy, delicacy, and tenderness with which Pasta infused the +character of _Desdemona_ furnished the theme for the most lavish praises +on the part of the critics. It was especially in the last act that her +acting electrified her audiences. Her transition from hope to terror, +from supplication to scorn, culminating in the vehement outburst "_sono +innocente_," her last frenzied looks, when, blinded by her disheveled +hair and bewildered with her conflicting emotions, she seems to seek +fruitlessly the means of flight, were awful. The varied resources of the +great art of tragedy were consummately drawn forth by her _Desdemona_, +in this opera, though she was yet to astonish the world with that +impersonation imperishably linked with her name in the history of art. +"Elisabetta" and "Mose in Egitto" were also revived for her, and she +filled the leading characters in both with _eclat_. + + +II. + +In January, 1824, Mme. Pasta gave to the world what by all concurrent +accounts must have been the grandest lyric impersonation in the +records of art, the character of _Medea_ in Simon May-er's opera. +This masterpiece was composed musically and dramatically by the artist +herself on the weak foundation of a wretched play and correct but +commonplace music. In a more literal and truthful sense than that in +which the term is so often travestied by operatic singers, the part +was _created_ by Pasta, reconstructed in form and meaning, as well as +inspired by a matchless executive genius. In the language of one writer, +whose enthusiasm seems not to have been excessive: "It was a triumph of +histrionic art, and afforded every opportunity for the display of all +the resources of her genius--the varied powers which had been called +forth and combined in _Medea_, the passionate tenderness of _Romeo_, the +spirit and animation of _Tancredi_, the majesty of _Semi-ramide_, the +mournful beauty of _Nina_, the dignity and sweetness of _Desdemona_. +It is difficult to conceive a character more highly dramatic or more +intensely impassioned than that of _Medea_; and in the successive scenes +Pasta appeared as if torn by the conflict of contending passions, until +at last her anguish rose to sublimity. The conflict of human affection +and supernatural power, the tenderness of the wife, the agonies of the +mother, and the rage of the woman scorned, were portrayed with a truth, +a power, a grandeur of effect unequaled before or since by any actress +or singer. Every attitude, each movement and look, became a study for a +painter; for in the storm of furious passion the grace and beauty of her +gestures were never marred by extravagance. Indeed, her impersonation +of _Medea_ was one of the finest illustrations of classic grandeur +the stage has ever presented. In the scene where _Medea_ murders her +children, the acting of Pasta rose to the sublime. Her self-abandonment, +her horror at the contemplation of the deed she is about to perpetrate, +the irrepressible affection which comes welling up in her breast, were +pictured with a magnificent power, yet with such natural pathos, that +the agony of the distracted mother was never lost sight of in the fury +of the priestess. Folding her arms across her bosom, she contracted her +form, as, cowering, she shrunk from the approach of her children; then +grief, love, despair, rage, madness, alternately wrung her heart, until +at last her soul seemed appalled at the crime she contemplated. +Starting forward, she pursued the innocent creatures, while the audience +involuntarily closed their eyes and recoiled before the harrowing +spectacle, which almost elicited a stifled cry of horror. But her fine +genius invested the character with that classic dignity and beauty +which, as in the Niobe group, veils the excess of human agony in the +drapery of ideal art." + +Chorley, whose warmth of admiration is always tempered by accurate +art-knowledge and the keenest insight, recurs in later years to +Pas-ta's _Medea_ in these eloquent words: "The air of quiet concentrated +vengeance, seeming to fill every fiber of her frame--as though deadly +poison were flowing through her veins--with which she stood alone +wrapped in her scarlet mantle, as the bridal procession of _Jason_ and +_Creusa_ swept by, is never to be forgotten. It must have been hard +for those on the stage with her to pass that draped statue with folded +arms--that countenance lit up with awful fire, but as still as death and +inexorable as doom. Where again has ever been seen an exhibition of art +grander than her _Medea's_ struggle with herself ere she consents to +murder her children?--than her hiding the dagger with its fell purpose +in her bosom under the strings of her distracted hair?--than of her +steps to and fro as of one drunken with frenzy--torn with the agonies +of natural pity, yet still resolved on her awful triumph? These memories +are so many possessions to those who have seen them so long as reason +shall last; and their reality is all the more assured to me because I +have not yet fallen into the old man's habit of denying or doubting +new sensations." The Paris public, it need not be said, even more +susceptible to the charm of great acting than that of great singing, +were in a frenzy of admiration over this wonderful new picture added to +the portrait-gallery of art. In this performance Pasta had the advantage +of absorbing the whole interest of the opera; in her other great +Parisian successes she was obliged to share the admiration of the public +with the tenor Garcia (Malibran's father), the barytone Bordogni, and +Levasseur the basso, next to Lablache the greatest of his artistic kind. + +A story is told of a distinguished critic that he persuaded himself +that, with such power of portraying _Medea's_ emotions, Pasta must +possess Medea's features. Having been told that the features of the +Colchian sorceress had been found in the ruins of Herculaneum cut on an +antique gem, his fantastic enthusiasm so overcame his judgment that +he took a journey to Italy expressly to inspect this visionary cameo, +which, it need not be said, existed only in the imagination of a +practical joker. + +In 1824 Pasta made her first English appearance at the King's Theatre, +at which was engaged an extraordinary assemblage of talent, Mesdames +Colbran-Rossini, Catalani, Konzi di Begnis, "Vestris, Caradori, and +Pasta. The great tragedienne made her first appearance in _Desdemona_, +and, as all Europe was ringing with her fame, the curiosity to see and +hear her was almost unparalleled. Long before the beginning of the opera +the house was packed with an intensely expectant throng. For an English +audience, idolizing the memory of Shakespeare, even Rossini's fine +music, conducted by that great composer himself, could hardly under +ordinary circumstances condone the insult offered to a species of +literary religion by the wretched stuff pitchforked together and called +a libretto. But the genius of Pasta made them forget even this, and +London bowed at her feet with as devout a recognition as that offered +by the more fickle Parisians. Her chaste and noble style, untortured by +meretricious ornament, excited the deepest admiration. Count Stendhal, +the biographer of Rossini, seems to have heard her for the first time at +London, and writes of her in the following fashion: + +"Moderate in the use of embellishments, Mme. Pasta never employs them +but to heighten the force of the expression; and, what is more, her +embellishments last only just so long as they are found to be useful." +In this respect her manner formed a very strong contrast with that of +the generality of Italian singers at the time, who were more desirous of +creating astonishment than of giving pleasure. It was not from any +lack of technical knowledge and vocal skill that Mme. Pasta avoided +extravagant ornamentation, for in many of the concerted pieces--in which +she chiefly shone--her execution united clearness and rapidity. "Mme. +Pasta is certainly less exuberant in point of ornament, and more +expressive in point of majesty and simplicity," observed one critic, +"than any of the first-class singers who have visited England for a long +period.... She is also a mistress of art," continues the same writer, +"and, being limited by nature, she makes no extravagant use of her +powers, but employs them with the tact and judgment that can proceed +only from an extraordinary mind. This constitutes her highest praise; +for never did intellect and industry become such perfect substitutes for +organic superiority. Notwithstanding her fine vein of imagination and +the beauty of her execution, she cultivates high and deep passions, and +is never so great as in the adaptation of art to the purest purposes of +expression." + +The production of "Tancredi" and of Zingarelli's "Romeo e Giulietta" +followed as the vehicles of Pasta's genius for the pleasure of the +English public, and the season was closed with "Semiramide," in which +her regal majesty seemed to embody the ideal conception of the Assyrian +queen. The scene in the first act where the specter of her murdered +consort appears she made so thrilling and impressive that some of the +older opera-goers compared it to the wonderful acting of Garrick in the +"ghost-scene" of "Hamlet"; and those when she learns that _Arsace_ is +her son, and when she falls by his hand before the tomb of _Ninus_, +were recounted in after-years as among the most startling memories of +a lifetime. During her London season Mme. Pasta went much into society, +and her exalted fame, united with her amiable manners, made her +everywhere sought after. Immense sums were paid her at private concerts, +and her subscription concerts at Almack's were the rage of the town. Her +operatic salary of L14,000 was nearly doubled by her income from other +sources. + + +III. + +The following year the management of the King's Theatre again endeavored +to secure Pasta, who had returned to Paris. Before she would finally +consent she stipulated that the new manager should pay her all the +arrears of salary left unsettled by his predecessor, for, in spite of +its artistic excellence, the late season had not proved a pecuniary +success. After much negotiation the difficulty was arranged, and Mme. +Pasta, binding herself to fill her Parisian engagements at the close of +her leave of absence, received her _conge_ for England. Her reappearance +in "Otello" was greeted with fervid applause, and it was decided that +her singing had gained in finish and beauty, while her acting was as +powerful as before. It was during this season that Pasta first sang with +Malibran. Ronzi di Begnis had lost her voice, Caradori had seceded in +a pet, and the manager in despair tried the trembling and inexperienced +daughter of the great Spanish tenor to fill up the gap. She was a +failure, as Pasta had been at first in England, but time was to bring +her a glorious recompense, as it had done to her elder rival. For the +next two years Pasta sang alternately in London and Paris, and her +popularity on the lyric stage exceeded that of any of the contemporary +singers, for Catalini, whose genius turned in another direction, seemed +to care only for the concert room. But some disagreement with Rossini +caused her to leave Paris and spend a year in Italy. During this time +her English reputation stood at its highest point. No one had ever +appeared on the English stage who commanded such exalted artistic +respect and admiration. Ebers tells us, speaking of her last engagement +before going to Italy: "At no period of Pasta's career had she been +more fashionable. She had literally worked her way up to eminence, +and, having attained the height, she stood on it firm and secure; no +performer has owed less to caprice or fashion; her reputation has been +earned, and, what is more, deserved." + +On her reappearance in London in 1827 Pasta was engaged for twenty-three +nights at a salary of 3,000 guineas, with a free benefit, which yielded +her 1,500 guineas more. Her opening performance was that of _Desdemona_, +in which Mme. Malibran also appeared during the same season, thus +affording the critics an opportunity for comparison. It was admitted +that the younger diva had the advantage in vocalization and execution, +but that Pasta's conception was incontestably superior, and her reading +of the part characterized by far greater nobility and grandeur. The +novelty of the season was Signor Coccia's opera of "Maria Stuarda," +in which Pasta created the part of the beautiful Scottish queen. Her +interpretation possessed an "impassioned dignity, with an eloquence of +voice, of look, and of action which defies description and challenges +the severest criticism." It was a piece of acting which great natural +genius, extensive powers of observation, peculiar sensibility of +feeling, and those acquirements of art which are the results of sedulous +study, combined to make perfect. It is said that Mme. Pasta felt this +part so intensely that, when summoned before the audience at the close, +tears could be seen rolling down her cheeks, and her form to tremble +with the scarcely-subsiding swell of agitation. + +During a short Dublin engagement the same year the following incident +occurred, showing how passionate were her sensibilities in real life as +well as on the stage: One day, while walking with some friends, a ragged +child about three years of age approached and asked charity for her +blind mother in such artless and touching accents that the prima donna +burst into tears and put into the child's hands all the money she had. +Her friends began extolling her charity and the goodness of her heart. +"I will not accept your compliments," said she, wiping the tears from +her eyes. "This child demanded charity in a sublime manner. I have seen, +at one glance, all the miseries of the mother, the wretchedness of their +home, the want of clothing, the cold which they suffer. I should indeed +be a great actress if at any time I could find a gesture expressing +profound misery with such truth." + +Pasta's next remarkable impersonation was that of _Armando_ in "Il +Crociato in Egitto," written by Meyerbeer for Signor Velluti, the last +of the race of male sopranos. She had already performed it in Paris, and +been overwhelmed with abuse by Velluti's partisans, who were enraged to +see their favorite's strong part taken from him by one so much superior +in genius, however inferior in mere executive vocalism. Velluti had +disfigured his performance by introducing a perfect cascade of roulades +and _fiorituri_, but Pasta's delivery of the music, while inspired by +her great tragic sensibility, was marked by such breadth and fidelity +that many thought they heard the music for the first time. A ludicrous +story is told of the first performance in London. Pasta had flown to her +dressing-room at the end of one of the scenes to change her costume, but +the audience demanding a repetition of the trio with Mme. Caradori and +Mile. Brambilla, Pasta was obliged to appear, amid shouts of laughter, +half Crusader, half Mameluke. + +On the occasion of her benefit the same season, the opera being +"Otello," Mme. Pasta essayed the daring experiment of singing and +playing the _role_ of the Moor, Mile. Sontag singing _Desdemona_. Though +the transposition of the music from a tenor to a mezzo-soprano voice +injured the effect of the concerted pieces, the passionate acting +redeemed the innovation. In the last act, where she, as _Otello_, seized +_Desdemona_ and dragged her by the hair to the bed that she might +stab her, the effect was one of such tragic horror that many left the +theatre. She thus united the most cultivated vocal excellence with +dramatic genius of unequaled power. "Mme. Pasta," said a clever writer, +"is in fact the founder of a new school, and after her the possession +of vocal talent alone is insufficient to secure high favor, or to excite +the same degree of interest for any length of time. Even in Italy, where +the mixture of dramatic with musical science was long neglected, and not +appreciated for want of persons equally gifted with both attainments, +Mme. Pasta has exhibited to her countrymen the beauty of a school too +long neglected, in such a manner that they will no longer admit the +notion of lyric tragedy being properly spoken without dramatic as well +as vocal qualifications in its representative." The presence of Malibran +and Sontag during this season inspired Pasta to almost superhuman +efforts to maintain her threatened supremacy. In her efforts to surpass +these brilliant young rivals in all respects, she laid herself open to +criticism by departing somewhat from the severe and classic school of +delivery which had always distinguished her, and overloading her singing +with ornament. + +Honors were showered on Pasta in different parts of Europe. She was made +first court singer in 1829 by the Emperor of Austria, and presented by +him with a superb diadem of rubies and diamonds. At Bologna, where she +performed in twelve of the Rossinian operas under the _baton_ of the +composer himself, a medal was struck in her honor by the Societa del +Casino, and all the different cities of her native land vied in doing +honor to the greatest of lyric tragediennes. At Milan in 1830 she sang +with Rubini, Galli, Mme. Pisaroni, Lablache, and David. Donizetti at +this time wrote the opera of "Anna Bolena," with the special view +of suiting the dominant qualities of Pasta, Rubini, and Galli. The +following season Pasta sang at Milan, at a salary of 40,000 francs for +twenty representations, and was obliged to divide the admiration of +the public with Mali-bran, who was rapidly rising to the brilliant rank +which she afterward held against all comers. Vincenzo Bellini now wrote +for Pasta his charming opera of "La Sonnambula," and it was produced +with Rubini, Mariano, and Mme. Taccani in the cast. Pasta and Rubini +surpassed themselves in the splendor of their performance. "Emulating +each other in wishing to display the merits of the opera, they were +both equally successful," said a critic of the day, "and those who +participated in the delight of hearing them will never forget the magic +effect of their execution. But exquisite as were, undoubtedly, Mme. +Pasta's vocal exertions, her histrionic powers, if possible, surpassed +them. It would be difficult for those who have seen her represent, in +Donizetti's excellent opera, the unfortunate _Amina_, with a grandeur +and a dignity above all praise, to conceive that she could so change +(if the expression may be allowed) her nature as to enact the part of a +simple country girl. But she has proved her powers to be unrivaled; +she personates a simple rustic as easily as she identifies herself with +_Medea, Semiramide, Tancredi, and Anna Bolena_." + + +IV. + +After an absence of three years Mme. Pasta returned to England, and +her opening performance of Medea was aided by the talents of Rubini, +Lablache, and Fanny Ayton. Rubini performed the character of _Egeus_, +and the duets between the king of tenors and Pasta were so remarkable +in a musical sense as to rival the dramatic impression made by her great +acting. She was no exception to the rule that very great tragic actors +are rarely devoid of a strong comic individuality. In Erreco's "Prova +d'un Opera Seria," an opera caricaturing the rehearsals of a serious +opera at the house of the prima donna and at the theatre, her +performance was so arch, whimsical, playful, and capricious, that its +drollery kept the audience in a roar of laughter, while Lablache, as +"the composer," seconded her humor by that talent for comedy which +Ronconi alone has ever approached. Lablache also appeared with Pasta in +"Anna Bolena," and the great basso, mighty in bulk, mighty in voice, +and mighty in genius, fairly startled the public by his extraordinary +resemblance to Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII. + +After singing a farewell engagement in Paris, Mme. Pasta went to Milan +to enjoy the last great triumph of her life in 1832 at La Scala. + +She was supported by an admirable company, among whom were Donizetti +the tenor and Giulia Grisi, then youthful and inexperienced, but giving +promise of what she became in her splendid prime of beauty and genius. +Bellini had written for these artists the opera of "Norma," and the +first performance was directed by the composer himself. Pasta's singing +and acting alone made the work successful, for at the outset it was not +warmly liked by the public. Several years afterward in London she also +saved the work from becoming a _fiasco_, the singular fact being that +"Norma," now one of the great standard works of the lyric stage, took +a number of years to establish itself firmly in critical and popular +estimation. + +We have now reached a period of Pasta's life where its chronicle becomes +painful. It is never pleasant to watch the details of the decadence +which comes to almost all art-careers. Her warmest admirers could not +deny that Pasta was losing her voice. Her consummate art shone undimmed, +but her vocal powers, especially in respect of intonation, displayed the +signs of wear. For several years, indeed, she sang in Paris, Italy, and +London with great _eclat_, but the indescribable luster of her singing +had lost its bloom and freshness. She continued to receive Continental +honors, and in 1840, after a splendid season in St. Petersburg, she was +dismissed by the Czar with magnificent presents. In Berlin, about this +time, she was received with the deepest interest and commiseration, for +she lost nearly all her entire fortune by the failure of Engmuller, +a banker of Vienna. She filled a long engagement in Berlin, which was +generously patronized by the public, not merely out of admiration of +the talents of the artist, but with the wish of repairing in some small +measure her great losses. After 1841 Pasta retired from the stage, +spending her winters at Milan, her summers at Lake Como, and devoting +herself to training pupils in the higher walks of the lyric art. + +We can not better close this sketch than by giving an account of one of +the very last public appearances of her life, when she allowed herself +to be seduced into giving a concert in London for the benefit of the +Italian cause. Mme. Pasta had long since dismissed all the belongings +of the stage, and her voice, which at its best had required ceaseless +watching and study, had been given up by her. Even her person had +lost all that stately dignity and queenlfness which had made her stage +appearance so remarkable. It was altogether a painful and disastrous +occasion. There were artists present who then for the first time were +to get their impression of a great singer, prepared of course to believe +that that reputation had been exaggerated. Among these was Rachel, who +sat enjoying the humiliation of decayed grandeur with a cynical and +bitter sneer on her face, drawing the attention of the theatre by her +exhibition of satirical malevolence. + +Malibran's great sister, Mme. Pauline Viardot, was also present, +watching with the quick, sympathetic response of a noble heart every +turn of the singer's voice and action. Hoarse, broken, and destroyed as +was the voice, her grand style spoke to the sensibilities of the great +artist. The opera was "Anna Bolena," and from time to time the old +spirit and fire burned in her tones and gestures. In the final mad scene +Pasta rallied into something like her former grandeur of acting; and in +the last song with its roulades and its scales of shakes ascending by a +semitone, this consummate vocalist and tragedienne, able to combine form +with meaning--dramatic grasp and insight with such musical display as +enter into the lyric art--was indicated at least to the apprehension +of the younger artist. "You are right!" was Mme. Viardot's quick and +heartfelt response to a friend by her side, while her eyes streamed with +tears--"you are right. It is like the 'Cenacolo' of Leonardo da Vinci at +Milan, a wreck of a picture, but the picture is the greatest picture in +the world." + + + + +HENRIETTA SONTAG. + +The Greatest German Singer of the Century.--Her Characteristics as an +Artist.--Her Childhood and Early Training.--Her Early Appearances in +Weimar, Berlin, and Leipsic,--She becomes the Idol of the Public.--Her +Charms as a Woman and Romantic Incidents of her Youth.--Becomes +affianced to Count Rossi.--Prejudice against her in Paris, and her +Victory over the Public Hostility.--She becomes the Pet of Aristocratic +_Salons_.--Rivalry with Malibran.--Her _Debut_ in London, where she is +welcomed with Great Enthusiasm.--Returns to Paris.--Anecdotes of her +Career in the French Capital.--She becomes reconciled with Malibran in +London.--Her Secret Marriage with Count Rossi.--She retires from the +Stage as the Wife of an Ambassador.--Return to her Profession after +Eighteen Years of Absence.--The Wonderful Success of her Youth +renewed.--Her American Tour,--Attacked with Cholera in Mexico and dies. + + +I. + +The career of Henrietta Sontag, born at Cob-lenz on the Rhine in 1805, +the child of actors, was so picturesque in its chances and changes that +had she not been a beautiful and fascinating woman and the greatest +German singer of the century, the vicissitudes of her life would have +furnished rich material for a romance. Nature gave her a pure soprano +voice of rare and delicate quality united with incomparable sweetness. +Essentially a singer and not a declamatory artist, the sentiment of +grace was carried to such a height in her art, that it became equivalent +to the more robust passion and force which distinguished some of her +great contemporaries. As years perfected her excellence into its mellow +prime, emotion and warmth animated her art work. But at the outset Mile. +Sontag did little more than look lovely and pour forth such a flood +of silvery and delicious notes, that the Italians called her the +"nightingale of the North." The fanatical enthusiasm of the German youth +ran into wild excesses, and we hear of a party of university students +drinking her health at a joyous supper in champagne out of one of her +satin shoes stolen for the purpose. + +When Mile. Sontag commenced her brilliant career the taste of operatic +amateurs was excessively fastidious. Nearly all outside of Germany +shared Frederick the Great's prejudice against German singers. Yet when +she appeared in Paris, in spite of hostile anticipation, in spite of her +reserve, timidity, and coldness on the histrionic side of her art, she +soon made good her place by the side of such remarkable artists as +Mme. Pasta and Maria Malibran. She never transformed herself into +an impassioned tragedienne, but through the spell of great personal +attraction, of an exquisite voice, and of exceptional sensibility, +taste, and propriety in her art methods, she advanced herself to a high +place in public favor. + +Her parents designed Henrietta for their own profession, and in her +eighth year her voice had acquired such steadiness that she sang minor +parts at the theatre. A distinguished traveler relates having heard her +sing the grand aria of the _Queen of the Night_ in the "Zauberflote" at +this age, "her arms hanging beside her and her eye following the flight +of a butterfly, while her voice, pure, penetrating, and of angelic tone, +flowed as unconsciously as a limpid rill from the mountain-side." The +year after this Henrietta lost her father, and she went to Prague with +her mother, where she played children's parts under Weber, then _chef +d'orchestre_. When she had attained the proper age she was admitted to +the Prague Conservatory, and spent four years studying vocalization, the +piano, and the elements of harmony. An accident gave the young singer +the chance for a _debut_ in the sudden illness of the prima donna, who +was cast to sing the part of the _Princesse de Navarre_ in Boieldieu's +"Jean de Paris." The little vocalist of fifteen had to wear heels four +inches high, but she sang none the less well, and the audience seemed +to feel that they had heard a prodigy. She also took the part of the +heroine in Paer's opera of "Sargino," and her brilliant success decided +her career, as she was invited to take a position in the Viennese Opera. +Here she met the brilliant Mme. Fodor, then singing an engagement in the +Austrian capital. So great was this distinguished singer's admiration of +the young girl's talents that she said, "Had I her voice I should hold +the whole world at my feet." + +Mlle. Sontag had the advantage at this period of singing with great +artists who took much interest in her career and gave her valuable hints +and help. Singing alternately in German and English opera, and always an +ardent student of music, she learned to unite all the brilliancy of +the Italian style and method to the solidity of the German school. The +beautiful young cantatrice was beset with ardent admirers, not the least +important being the English Ambassador Earl Clan William. He followed +her to theatre, to convents, church, and seemed like her shadow. Sontag +in German means Sunday; so the Viennese wits, then as now as wicked +and satirical as those of Paris, nicknamed the nobleman Earl Montag, as +Monday always follows Sunday. It was during this Vienna engagement that +Weber wrote the opera of "Euryanthe," and designed the principal +part for Sontag. But the public failed to fancy it, and called it +"L'Ennuyante." The serious part of her art life commenced at Leipsic in +1824, where she interpreted the "Freischutz" and "Euryanthe," then in +the flush of newness, and made a reputation that passed the bounds +of Germany, though foreign critics discredited the reports of her +excellence till they heard her. + +"Henrietta's voice was a pure soprano, reaching perhaps from A or B to D +in alt, and, though uniform in its quality, it was a little reedy in the +lower notes, but its flexibility was marvelous: in the high octave, from +F to C in alt, her notes rang out like the tones of a silver bell. The +clearness of her notes, the precision of her intonation, the fertility +of her invention, and the facility of her execution, were displayed in +brilliant flights and lavish fioriture; her rare flexibility being a +natural gift, cultivated by taste and incessant study. It was to the +example of Mme. Fodor that Mile. Sontag was indebted for the blooming +of those dormant qualities which had till then remained undeveloped. The +ease with which she sang was perfectly captivating; and the neatness and +elegance of her enunciation combined with the sweetness and brilliancy +of her voice and her perfect intonation to render her execution +faultless, and its effect ravishing. She appeared to sing with the +volubility of a bird, and to experience the pleasure she imparted." To +use the language of a critic of that day: "All passages are alike to +her, but she has appropriated some that were hitherto believed to +belong to instruments--to the piano-forte and the violin, for instance. +Arpeggios and chromatic scales, passages ascending and descending, +she executed in the same manner that the ablest performers on these +instruments execute them. There were the firmness and the neatness +that appertain to the piano-forte, while she would go through a scale +_staccato_ with the precision of the bow. Her great art, however, lay +in rendering whatever she did pleasing. The ear was never disturbed by +a harsh note. The velocity of her passages was sometimes uncontrollable, +for it has been observed that in a division, say, of four groups of +quadruplets, she would execute the first in exact time, the second and +third would increase in rapidity so much that in the fourth she was +compelled to decrease the speed perceptibly, in order to give the band +the means of recovering the time she had gained." + +Mile. Sontag was of middle height, beautifully formed, and had a face +beaming with sensibility, delicacy, and modesty. Beautiful light-brown +hair, large blue eyes, finely molded mouth, and perfect teeth completed +an _ensemble_ little short of bewitching. Her elegant figure and +the delicacy of her features were matched by hands and feet of such +exquisite proportions that sculptors besought the privilege of modeling +them, and poets raved about them in their verses. Artlessness and +_naivete_ were joined with such fine breeding of manner that it seemed +as if the blue blood of centuries must have coursed in her veins instead +of the blood of obscure actors, whose only honor was to have given +to the world one of the paragons of song. Sontag never aspired to the +higher walks of lyric tragedy, as she knew her own limitation, but in +light and elegant comedy, the _Mosinas_ and _Susannas_, she has never +been excelled, whether as actress or singer. It was said of her that she +could render with equal skill the works of Rossini, Mozart, Weber, +and Spohr, uniting the originality of her own people with the artistic +method and facility of the French and Italian schools. From Leipsic +Mile. Sontag went to Berlin, where the demonstrations of delight which +greeted her singing rose to fever-heat as the performances continued. +Expressions of rapture greeted heron the streets; even the rigid +etiquette of the Prussian court gave way to receive the low-born singer +as a royal guest, an honor which all the aristocratic houses were prompt +to emulate. It was at Berlin that Sontag made the acquaintance of Count +Rossi, a Piedmontese nobleman attached to the Sardinian Legation. An +ardent attachment sprang up between them, and they became affianced. + +Not content with her supremacy at home, she sighed for other worlds to +conquer, and after two years at Berlin she obtained leave of absence +with great difficulty, and went to Paris. French connoisseurs laughed +at the idea of this German barbarian--for some of the critics were rude +enough to use this harsh term--becoming the rival of Pasta, Cinti, +and Fodor, and the idea of her singing Rossini's music seemed purely +preposterous. On the 15th of June, 1826, she made her bow to the French +public. The victory was partly won by the shy, blushing beauty of the +young German, who seemed the very incarnation of maidenly modesty and +innocence, and when she had finished her first song thunders of applause +shook the house. Her execution of Rode's variations surpassed even +that of Catalani, and "La Petite Allemande" became an instant favorite. +Twenty-three succeeding concerts made Henrietta Sontag an idol of the +Paris public, which she continued to be during her art career. She also +appeared with brilliant distinction in opera, the principal ones being +"Il Barbiere," "La Donna del Lago," and "L'Italiani in Alghieri." Her +benefit-night was marked by a demonstration on the part of her admirers, +and she was crowned on the stage. + + +II. + +The beautiful singer became a great pet of the Parisian aristocracy, and +was welcomed in the highest circles, not simply as an artist, but as a +woman. She was honored with a state dinner at the Prussian Ambassador's, +and the most distinguished people were eager to be presented to her. +At the house of Talleyrand, having been introduced to the Duchess von +Lothringen, that haughty dame said, "I would not desire that my daughter +were other than you." It was almost unheard of that a German cantatrice +without social antecedents should be sedulously courted by the most +brilliant women of rank and fashion, and her presence sought as an +ornament at the most exclusive _salons_. It was at this time that +Catalani met her and declared, "_Elle est la premiere de son genre, mais +son genre n'est pas le premier_," and a celebrated flute-player on her +being introduced to him by a musical professor was accosted with the +words, "_Ecco il tuo rivale_." + +In Paris, as was the case afterward in London, the most romantic stories +were in circulation about the adoration lavished on her by princes +and bankers, artists and musicians. The most exalted personages were +supposed to be sighing for her love, and it was reported that no singer +had ever had so many offers of marriage from people of high rank and +consideration. Indeed, it was well known that about the same time +Charles de Beriot, the great violinist, and a nobleman of almost +princely birth, laid their hearts and hands at her feet. Mile. Sontag, +it need not be said, was true to her promise to Count Rossi, and refused +all the flattering overtures made her by her admirers. A singular +link connects the careers of Sontag and Malibran personally as well as +musically. It was during the early melancholy and suffering of De +Beriot at Sontag's rejection of his love that he first met Malibran. +His profound dejection aroused her sympathy, and she exerted herself to +soothe him and rouse him from his state of languor and lassitude. The +result can easily be fancied. De Beriot's heart recovered from the +shock, and was kindled into a fresh flame by the consolations of the +beautiful and gifted Spanish singer, whence ensued a connection which +was consummated in marriage as soon as Malibran was able to break the +unfortunate tie into which she had been inveigled in America. + +The Parisian managers offered the most extravagant terms to keep the +new favorite of the public, but her heart and duty alike prompted her to +return to Berlin. On the route, at the different towns where she +sang, she was received with brilliant demonstrations of admiration and +respect, and it was said at the time that her return journey on this +occasion was such a triumphal march as has rarely been vouchsafed to +an artist, touching in the spontaneity of its enthusiasm as it was +brilliant and impressive in its forms. Berlin welcomed her with great +warmth, and, though Cata-lani herself was among the singers at the +theatre, Sontag fully shared her glory in the German estimation. +The King made her first singer at his chapel, at a yearly salary of +twenty-four thousand francs, and rich gifts were showered on her by her +hosts of wealthy and ardent admirers. + +She sang again in Paris in 1828, appearing in "La Cenerentola" as a +novelty, though the music had to be transposed for her. Malibran was +singing the same season, and a bitter rivalry sprang up between the +blonde and serene German beauty and the brilliant Spanish brunette. It +was whispered afterward, by those who knew Malibran well, that she never +forgave Henrietta Sontag for having been the first to be beloved by De +Beriot. The voices of the two singers differed as much as their persons. +The one was distinguished for exquisite sweetness and quality of tone, +and perfection of execution, for a polished and graceful correctness +which never did anything alien to good taste and made finish of form +compensate for lack of fire. The other's splendid voice was marred by +irregularity and unevenness, but possessed a passionate warmth in its +notes which stirred the hearts of the hearers. Full of extraordinary +expedients, an audience was always dazzled by some unexpected beauties +of Malibran's performance, and her original and daring conceptions gave +her work a unique character which set her apart from her contemporaries. +The Parisian public took pleasure in fomenting the dispute between the +rival queens of song, and each one was spurred to the utmost by the hot +discord which raged between them. + +On April 16th of the same year Mile. Sontag made her first appearance +before the London public in the character of _Mosina_ in Rossini's "Il +Barbiere," a part peculiarly suited to the grace of her style and +the _timbre_ of her voice. One of her biographers thus sketches the +expectations and impressions of the London public: + +"Since Mrs. Billington, never had such high promise been made, or so +much expectation excited: her talents had been exaggerated by report, +and her beauty and charms extolled as matchless; she was declared to +possess all the qualities of every singer in perfection, and as an +actress to be the very personification of grace and power. Stories +of the romantic attachments of foreign princes and English lords were +afloat in all directions; she was going to be married to a personage of +the loftiest rank--to a German prince--to an ambassador; she was pursued +by the ardent love of men of fashion. Among other stories in circulation +was one of a duel between two imaginary rival candidates for a ticket +of admission to her performance; but the most affecting and trustworthy +story was that of an early attachment between the beautiful Henrietta +and a young student of good family, which was broken off in consequence +of his passion for gambling. + +"Mile. Sontag, before she appeared at the opera, sang at the houses of +Prince Esterhazy and the Duke of Devonshire. An immense crowd assembled +in front of the theatre on the evening of her _debut_ at the opera. The +crush was dreadful; and when at length the half-stifled crowd managed +to find seats, 'shoes were held up in all directions to be owned.' The +audience waited in breathless suspense for the rising of the curtain; +and when the fair cantatrice appeared, the excited throng could scarcely +realize that the simple English-looking girl before them was the +celebrated Sontag. On recovering from their astonishment, they applauded +her warmly, and her lightness, brilliancy, volubility, and graceful +manner made her at once popular. Her style was more florid than that +of any other singer in Europe, not even excepting Catalani, whom she +excelled in fluency, though not in volume; and it was decided that she +resembled Fodor more than any other singer--which was natural, as she +had in early life imitated that cantatrice. Her taste was so cultivated +that the redundancy of ornament, especially the obligato passages +which the part of _Rosina_ presents, never, in her hands, appeared +overcharged; and she sang the cavatina 'Una voce poco fa' in a style as +new as it was exquisitely tasteful. 'Two passages, introduced by her in +this air, executed in a _staccato_ manner, could not have been surpassed +in perfection by the spirited bow of the finest violin-player.' In the +lesson-scene she gave Rode's variations, and her execution of the second +variation in arpeggios was pronounced infinitely superior to Catalani's. + +"At first the _cognoscenti_ were haunted by a fear that Sontag would +permit herself to degenerate, like Catalani, into a mere imitator of +instrumental performers, and endeavor to astonish instead of pleasing +the public by executing such things as Rode's variations. But it was +soon observed that, while indulging in almost unlimited, luxuriance +of embellishment in singing Rossini's music, she showed herself a good +musician, and never fell into the fault, common with florid singers, +of introducing ornaments at variance with the spirit of the air or the +harmony of the accomplishments. In singing the music of Mozart or Weber, +she paid the utmost deference to the text, restraining the exuberance of +her fancy, and confining herself within the limits set by the +composer. Her success was tested by a most substantial proof of her +popularity--her benefit produced the enormous sum of three thousand +pounds." + +Laurent, the manager of the Theatre Italien, succeeded in making a +contract by which Sontag was to sing in Paris for fifty thousand francs +a year, with a _conge_ of three months. It was at this period that she +commenced seriously to study tragic characters, and, though she at first +failed in making a strong impression on her audiences, her assiduous +attention to sentiment and passion wrought such fruits as to prove +how far study and good taste may create the effect of something like +inspiration, even on the part of an artist so cool and placid as the +great German cantatrice. Her efforts were stimulated by the rivalry of +Mali-bran, and this contest was the absorbing theme of discussion in the +Paris salons and journals. It reached such a height that the two singers +refused to meet each other socially, and on the stage when they +sang together their jealousy and dislike showed itself in the most +undisguised fashion. Among the incidents related of this interesting +operatic episode, the following are specially worthy of mention: An +Italian connoisseur, who had never heard Sontag, and who firmly believed +that no German could sing, was induced to go one night by a friend to +a performance in which she appeared. After listening five minutes he +started up hastily in act to go. "Stay," urged his friend; "you will be +convinced presently." "I know it," replied the Italian, "and therefore I +go." + +One evening, at the termination of the performance, the two rivals +were called out, and a number of wreaths and bouquets were flung on the +stage. Malibran stooped and picked up one of the coronals, supposing it +designed for her, when a stern voice cried out: "Rendez-la; ce n'est pas +pour vous!" "I would not deprive Mlle. Sontag of a single wreath," said +the haughty Spaniard in a loud voice which could be heard everywhere +through the listening house. "I would sooner bestow one on her!" + +This quarrel was afterward made up between them when they were engaged +together in London the following year, 1828. This reconciliation was +brought about by M. Fetis, who had accompanied them from Paris. He +proposed to them that they should sing for one of the pieces at a +concert in which they were both engaged, the _duo_ of _Semiramide_ and +_Arsace_, in Rossini's opera. For the first time in London their voices +were heard together. Each outdid herself in the desire to excel, and the +exquisite fusion of the two voices, so different in tone and character, +was so fine that the hearts of the rivals melted toward each other, and +they professed mutual friendship. The London public got the benefit of +this amity, for the manager of the King's Theatre was able to produce +operas in which they sang together, among them being "Semiramide," "Don +Giovanni," "Nozze di Figaro," and "Romeo e Giulietta"--Malibran playing +the hero in the latter opera. The following year Sontag also sang +with Malibran in London, her greatest success being in _Carolina_, the +principal character of Cimarosa's "Il Matrimonio Segreto." + +Mile. Sontag was now for the first time assailed by the voice of +calumny. Her union with Count Rossi, consummated more than a year +before, had been kept secret on account of the dislike of his family +to the match. Born in Corsica, Count Rossi was a near relative of the +family of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his sister was the Princess de Salm. +His relations were opposed to his marriage with one whom they considered +a plebeian, though she had been ennobled by the Prussian King, under +the name of Von Lauenstein, with a full patent and all the formalities +observed on such occasions. Mile. Sontag determined to make a farewell +tour through Europe, and retire from the stage. She paid her adieux +to her public in the different great cities of Europe--London, Paris, +Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Leipsic, etc.--with incredible +success, and the sums she realized are said to have been enormous. On +returning from Russia she gave a concert at Hamburg; and it was here +that she took the occasion at a great banquet given her by a wealthy +merchant to make the public and formal announcement of her marriage to +Count Rossi. It was remarked that during this farewell concert tour +her powers, far from having declined, seemed to have gained in compass, +brilliancy, and expression. + +Countess Rossi first lived at the Hague, and then for a short time at +Frankfort. Here she took precedence of all the ladies of the diplomatic +corps, her husband being Minister Plenipotentiary to the Germanic Diet. +In Berlin she was a familiar guest of the royal family, and sang duets +and trios with the princes and princesses. She devoted her leisure hours +to the study of composition, and at the houses of Prince Esterhazy and +Prince Metternich, in 1841, at Vienna, she executed a cantata of her +own for soprano and chorus with most brilliant success. The Empress +herself invited the Countess to repeat it at her own palace with all the +imperial family for listeners. Thus courted and flattered, possessed +of ample wealth and rank, idolized by her friends and respected by the +great world, Henrietta Sontag passed nearly twenty swift, happy years +at the different European capitals to which her husband was successively +accredited. + + +III. + +Countess Rossi was never entirely forgotten in her brilliant retirement. +Her story, gossips said, was intended to be shadowed forth "with a +difference" in "L'Ambassadrice" of Scribe and Auber, written for Mme. +Cinti Damoreau, whose voice resembled that of Sontag. Travelers, who got +glimpses of the august life wherein she lived, brought home tales of her +popularity, of her beauty not faded but only mellowed by time, and of +her lovely voice, which she had watched and cultivated in her titled +leisure. It can be fancied, then, what a thrill of interest and surprise +ran through the London public when it was announced in 1848 that the +Countess Rossi, owing to family circumstances, was about to resume her +profession. A small, luxuriantly bound book in green and gold, devoted +to her former and more recent history, was put on sale in London, and +circulated like wildfire. The situation in London was peculiar. Jenny +Lind had created a furor in that city almost unparalleled in its musical +history, and to announce that the "Swedish nightingale" was not the +greatest singer that ever lived or ever could live, before a company of +her admirers, was sufficient to invite personal assault. Mlle. Lind had +just departed for America. It was an adventure little short of desperate +for a singer to emerge from a retirement of a score of years and measure +her musical and dramatic accomplishments against those of a predecessor +whose tantalizing disappearance from the stage had rendered her on so +many grounds more than ever the object of fanatical worship. + +The political storm of 1848 had swept away the fortune of Countess +Rossi, and when she announced her intention of returning to the stage, +the director of Her Majesty's Theatre was prompt to make her an offer +of seventeen thousand pounds for the season. She had not been idle or +careless during the time when the Grisis, the Persianis, and the +Linds were delighting the world with the magic of their art. She had +assiduously kept up the culture of her delicious voice, and stepped +again before the foot-lights with all the ease, steadiness, and _aplomb_ +of one who had never suffered an interregnum in her lyric reign. She +came back to the stage under new and trying musical conditions, to an +orchestra far stronger than that to which her youth had been accustomed, +to a new world of operas. The intrepidity and industry with which she +met these difficulties are deserving of the greatest respect. Not merely +did she go through the entire range of her old parts, _Susanna, Moslna, +Desdemona, Donna Anna_, etc., but she presented herself in a number of +new works which did not exist at her farewell to the stage--Bellini's +"Sonnambula," Donizetti's "Linda," "La Figlia del Reggimento," "Don +Pasquale," "Le Tre Nozze" of Alary, and Ilalevy's "La Tempesta"; +indeed, in the latter two creating the principal _roles_. Her former +companions had disappeared. Malibran had been dead for thirteen years, +Mme. Pisaroni had also departed from the earthly scene, and a galaxy of +new stars were glittering in the musical horizon. Giulia Grisi, Clara +Novello, Pauline Viardot, Fanny Per-siani, Jenny Lind, Maretta Alboni, +Nantier Didier, Sophie Cruvelli, Catherine Hayes, Louisa Pyne, Duprez, +Mario, Ronconi, and others--all these had arisen since the day she had +left the art world as Countess Rossi. Only the joyous and warmhearted +Lablache was left of her old comrades to welcome her back to the scene +of her old triumphs. + +Her reappearance as _Linda_, on July 7, 1849, was the occasion of a +cordial and sympathetic reception on the part of a very brilliant +and distinguished audience. The first notes of the "polacca" were +sufficient to show that the great artist was in her true place +again, and that the mature woman had lost but little of the artistic +fascinations of the gifted girl. Of course, time had robbed her of one +or two upper notes, but the skill, grace, and precision with which she +utilized every atom of her power, the incomparable steadiness and finish +with which she wrought out the composer's intentions, the marvelous +flexibility of her execution, she retained in all their pristine +excellence. The loss of youthful freshness was atoned for by the deeper +passion and feeling which in an indefinable way permeated all her +efforts, and gave them a dramatic glow lacking in earlier days. She was +rapturously greeted as a dear friend come back in the later sunny days. +In "La Figlia del Reggimento," which Jenny Lind had brought to England +and made her own peculiar property, Mme. Sontag was adjudged to be by +far the greater, both vocally and dramatically. As a singer of Mozart's +music she was incomparably superior to all. Her taste, steadiness, +suavity, and solid knowledge suited a style very difficult for a +southern singer to acquire. Chorley repeated the musical opinion of +his time in saying: "The easy, equable flow demanded by Mozart's +compositions, so melodious, so wondrously sustained, so sentimental +(dare I say so rarely impassioned?); that assertion of individuality +which distinguishes a singer from a machine when dealing with singers' +music; that charm which belongs to a keen appreciation of elegance, but +which can only be perfected when Nature has been genial, have never been +so perfectly combined (in my experience) as in her." If Sontag did not +possess the highest genius of the lyric artist, she had un-equaled grace +and sense of artistic propriety, and with that grace an untiring desire +and energy in giving her very best to the public on all occasions when +she appeared. Her constancy and loyalty to her audience were moral +qualities which wonderfully enhanced her value and charm as a singer. + +During this season Mme. Sontag appeared in her favorite character of +_Rosina_, with Lablache and Gardoni; she also performed _Amina_ and +_Desdemona_. Had it not been that the attention of the public was +absorbed by "the Swedish Nightingale" and the "glorious Alboni," Mme. +Sontag would have renewed the triumphs of 1828. The next season she +sang again at Her Majesty's Theatre as _Norina, Elvira_ ("I Puritani"), +_Zerlina_, and _Maria_ (in "La Figlia del Reggimento"). The chief +novelty was "La Tempesta," written by Scribe, and composed by Halevy +expressly for Her Majesty's Theatre, the drama having been translated +into Italian from the French original. It was got up with extraordinary +splendor, and had a considerable run. Mme. Sontag sang charmingly in +the character of _Miranda_; but the greatest effect was created by +Lablache's magnificent impersonation of _Caliban_. No small share of the +success of the piece was due to the famous danseuse Carlotta Grisi, who +seemed to take the most appropriate part ever designed for ballerina +when she undertook to represent _Ariel_. + +At the close of the season of 1850 Mme. Sontag went to Paris with Mr. +Lumley, who took the Theatre Italien, and she was warmly welcomed by +her French audiences. "Even amid the loud applause with which the crowd +greeted her appearance on the stage," says a French writer, "it was easy +to distinguish the respect which was entertained for the virtuous lady, +the devoted wife and mother." + +Before her acceptance of the offer to go to America, in 1852, she +appeared in successive engagements at London, Vienna, and Berlin, where +her reception was of the most satisfying nature both to the artist and +the woman. On her arrival in New York, on September 19th, she commenced +a series of concerts with Salvi and Signo-ra Blangini. At New York, +Boston, Philadelphia, and the larger cities of the South, she quickly +established herself as one of the greatest favorites who had ever sung +in this country, in spite of the fact that people had hardly recovered +from the Lind mania which had swept the country like wildfire, a fact +apt to provoke petulant comparisons. Her pecuniary returns from her +American tour were very great, and she was enabled to buy a chateau and +domain in Germany, a home which she was unfortunately destined never to +enjoy. + +In New Orleans, in 1854, she entered into an engagement with M. Masson, +director of opera in the city of Mexico, to sing for a fixed period +of two months, with the privilege of three months longer. This was +the closing appearance in opera, as she contemplated, for the task of +reinstating her family fortunes was almost done. Fate fulfilled her +expectations with a malign sarcasm; for while her agent, M. Ullman, +was absent in Europe gathering a company, Mme. Sontag was seized +with cholera and died in a few hours, on June 17, 1854. Such was the +lamentable end of one of the noblest women that ever adorned the +lyric stage. Her funeral was a magnificent one, in presence of a great +concourse of people, including the diplomatic corps. The service was +celebrated by the orchestras of the two Italian theatres; the nuns of +St. Francis sang the cantata; the prayer to the Virgin was intoned by +the German Philharmonic Society, who also sang Lindpainter's chorus, +"Ne m'oubliez pa "; and the leading Mexican poet, M. Pantaleon Tovar, +declaimed a beautiful tribute in sonorous Spanish verse. The body was +taken to Germany and buried in the abbey of Makenstern, in Lausitz. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Great Singers, First Series, by George T. 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