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diff --git a/17465-8.txt b/17465-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4544f32 --- /dev/null +++ b/17465-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5944 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Great Singers, Second 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, Second Series + Malibran To Titiens + +Author: George T. Ferris + +Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17465] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT SINGERS, SECOND SERIES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +GREAT SINGERS + +MALIBRAN TO TITIENS + +SECOND SERIES + +BY GEORGE T. FERRIS + +NEW YORK + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + +1891 + +Copyright, 1881, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +NOTE. + +In the preparation of this companion volume of "Great Singers," the +same limitations of purpose have guided the author as in the case of +the earlier book, which sketched the lives of the greatest lyric artists +from Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag. It has been impossible to +include any but those who stand incontestably in the front rank of the +operatic profession, except so far as some account of the lesser lights +is essential to the study of those artistic lives whose names make the +captions of these sketches. So, too, it has been attempted to embody, in +several of the articles, intelligent, if not fully adequate, notice of +a few of the greatest men singers, who, if they have not aroused as +deep an enthusiasm as have those of the other sex, are perhaps justly +entitled to as much consideration on art grounds. It will be observed +that the great living vocalists have been excluded from this book, +except those who, having definitely retired from the stage, may be +considered as dead to their art. This plan has been pursued, not from +any undervaluation of the Pattis, the Nilssons, and the Luccas of the +present musical stage, but because, in obeying that necessity imposed by +limitation of space, it has seemed more desirable to exclude those whose +place in art is not yet finally settled, rather than those whose names +belong to history, and who may be seen in full perspective. + +The material from which this little book is compiled has been drawn from +a variety of sources, among which may be mentioned the three works of +Henry F. Chorley, "Music and Manners in France and Germany," "Modern +German Music," and "Thirty Years' Musical Kecollections"; Sutherland +Edwards's "History of the Opera"; Fetis's "Biographie des Musiciens"; +Ebers's "Seven Years of the King's Theatre"; Lumley's "Reminiscences"; +Charles Hervey's "Theatres of Paris"; Arsène Houssaye's "Galerie +de Portraits"; Countess de Merlin's "Mémoires de Madame Malibran"; +Ox-berry's "Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes"; Crowest's +"Musical Anecdotes" and Mrs. Clayton's "Queens of Song." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +MARIA FELICIA MALIBRAN. + +The Childhood of Maria Garcia.--Her Father's Sternness and Severe +Discipline.--Her First Appearance as an Artist on the Operatic +Stage.--Her Genius and Power evident from the Beginning.--Anecdotes +of her Early Career.--Manuel Garcia's Operatic Enterprise in New +York.--Maria Garcia is inveigled into marrying M. Malibran.--Failure of +the Garcia Opera, and Maria's Separation from her Husband.--She +makes her _Début_ in Paris with Great Success.--Madame Malibran's +Characteristics as a Singer, a Genius, and a Woman.--Anecdotes of her +Generosity and Kindness.--She sings in a Great London Engagement.--Her +Eccentric and Daring Methods excite Severe Criticism.--Her Reckless +Expenditure of Strength in the Pursuit of her Profession or +Pleasures.--Madame Malibran's Attachment to De Bériot.--Anecdotes of +her Public and Private Career.--Malibran in Italy, where she becomes +the Popular Idol.--Her Last London Engagement.--Her Death at Manchester +during the Great Musical Festival + + +WILHELMINA SCHRÖDER-DEVRIENT. + +Mme. Schröder-Devrient the Daughter of a Woman of Genius.--Her Early +Appearance on the Dramatic Stage in Connection with her Mother.--She +studies Music and devotes herself to the Lyric Stage.--Her Operatic +_Début_ in Mozart's "Zauberflote."--Her Appearance and Voice.--Mlle. +Schröder makes her _Début_ in her most Celebrated Character, +_Fidelio_.--Her own Description of the First Performance.--A Wonderful +Dramatic Conception.--Henry Chorley's Judgment of her as a Singer and +Actress.--She marries Carl Devrient at Dresden.--Mme. Schröder-Devrient +makes herself celebrated as a Representative of Weber's Romantic +Heroines.--Dissolution of her Marriage.--She makes Successful +Appearances in Paris and London in both Italian and German +Opera.--English Opinions of the German Artist.--Anecdotes of her London +Engagement.--An Italian Tour and Reëngagements for the Paris and London +Stage.--Different Criticisms of her Artistic Style.--Retirement from the +Stage, and Second Marriage.--Her Death in 1860, and the Honors paid to +the Memory of her Genius + + +GIULIA GRISI. + +The Childhood of a Great Artist.--Giulietta Grisi's Early Musical +Training.--Giuditta Grisi's Pride in the Talents of her Young +Sister.--Her Italian _Début_ and Success.--She escapes from a Managerial +Taskmaster and takes Refuge in Paris.--Impression made on French +Audiences.--Production of Bellini's "Puritani."--Appearance before the +London Public.--Character of Grisi's Singing and Acting.--Anecdotes of +the Prima Donna.--Marriage of Mlle. Grisi.--Her Connection with +Other Distinguished Singers.--Kubini, his Character as an Artist, and +Incidents of his Life.--Tamburini, another Member of the First Great +"Puritani" Quartet.--Lablache, the King of Operatic Bassos.--His Career +as an Artist.--His Wonderful Genius as Singer and Actor.--Advent of +Mario on the Stage.--His Intimate Association with Mme. Grisi as +Woman and Artist.--Incidents of Mario's Life and Character as +an Artist.--Grisi's Long Hold on the Stage for more than a +Quarter-century.--Her American Tour.--Final Retirement from her +Profession.--The Elements of her Greatness as a Goddess of Song + + +PAULINE VIARDOT. + +Vicissitudes of the Garcia Family.--Pauline Viardot's Early +Training.--Indications of her Musical Genius.--She becomes a Pupil +of Liszt on the Piano.--Pauline Garcia practically self-trained as a +Vocalist.--Her Remarkable Accomplishments.--Her First Appearance before +the Public with De Bériot in Concert.--She makes her _Début_ in London +as _Desdemona_.--Contemporary Opinions of her Powers.--Description of +Pauline Garcia's Voice and the Character of her Art.--The Originality +of her Genius.--Pauline Garcia marries M. Viardot, a Well-known +_Litterateur_.--A Tour through Southern Europe.--She creates a Distinct +Place for herself in the Musical Art.--Great Enthusiasm in Germany +over her Singing.--The Richness of her Art Resources.--Sketches of the +Tenors, Nourrit and Duprez, and of the Great Barytone, Ronconi.--Mme. +Viardot and the Music of Meyerbeer.--Her Creation of the Part of _Fides_ +in "Le Prophète," the Crowning Work of a Great Career.--Retirement from +the Stage.--High Position in Private Life.--Connection with the French +Conservatoire + + +FANNY PERSIANI. + +The Tenor Singer Tacchinardi.--An Exquisite Voice and Deformed +Physique.--Early Talent shown by his Daughter Fanny.--His Aversion to +her entering on the Stage Life.--Her Marriage to M. Persiani.--The +Incident which launched Fanny Persiani on the Stage.--Rapid Success as a +Singer.--Donizetti writes one of his Great Operas for her.--_Personnel_, +Voice, and Artistic Style of Mme. Persiani.--One of the Greatest +Executants who ever lived.--Anecdotes of her Italian Tours.--First +Appearance in Paris and London.--A Tour through Belgium with +Ru-bini.--Anecdote of Prince Metternich.--Further Studies of Persiani's +Characteristics as a Singer.--Donizetti composes Another Opera for +her.--Her Prosperous Career and retirement from the Stage.--Last +Appearance in Paris for Mario's Benefit + + +MARIETTA ALBONI. + +The Greatest of Contraltos.--Marietta Alboni's Early +Surroundings.--Rossini's Interest in her Career.--First Appearance on +the Operatic Stage.--Excitement produced in Germany by her Singing.--Her +Independence of Character.--Her Great Success in London.--Description +of her Voice and Person.--Concerts in Paris.--The Verdicts of the Great +French Critics.--Hector Berlioz on Alboni's Singing.--She appears in +Opera in Paris.--Strange Indifference of the Audience quickly turned to +Enthusiasm.--She competes favorably in London with Grisi, Persiani, +and Viardot.--Takes the Place of Jenny Lind as Prima Donna at Her +Majesty's.--She extends her Voice into the Soprano Register.--Performs +"Fides" in "Le Prophète."--Visit to America.--Retires from the Stage + + +JENNY LIND. + +The Childhood of the "Swedish Nightingale."--Her First Musical +Instruction.--The Loss and Return of her Voice.--Jenny Lind's +Pupilage in Paris under Manuel Garcia.--She makes the Acquaintance of +Meyerbeer.--Great Sue-cess in Stockholm in "Robert le Diable."--Fredrika +Bremer and Hans Christian Andersen on the Young Singer.--Her _Début_ +in Berlin.--Becomes Prima Donna at the Royal Theatre.--Beginning of +the Lind Enthusiasm that overran Europe.--She appears in Dresden in +Meyerbeer's New Opera, "Feldlager in Schliesen."--Offers throng in from +all the Leading Theatres of Europe.--The Grand _Furore_ in Every Part +of Germany.--Description of Scenes in her Musical Progresses.--She makes +her _Début_ in London.--Extraordinary Excitement of the English Public, +such as had never before been known.--Descriptions of her Singing +by Contemporary Critics.--Her Quality as an Actress.--Jenny Lind's +_Personnel_.--Scenes and Incidents of the "Lind" Mania.--Her Second +London Season.--Her Place and Character as a Lyric Artist.--Mlle. +Lind's American Tour.--Extraordinary Enthusiasm in America.--Her +Lavish Generosity.--She marries Herr Otto Goldschmidt.--Present Life of +Retirement in London.--Jenny Lind as a Public Benefactor + + +SOPHIE CRUVELLI. + +The Daughter of an Obscure German Pastor.--She studies Music in +Paris.--Failure of her Voice.--Makes her _Début_ at La Fenice.--She +appears in London during the Lind Excitement.--Description of her +Voice and Person.--A Great Excitement over her Second Appearance +in Italy.--_Début_ in Paris.--Her Grand Impersonation in +"Fidelio."--Critical Estimates of her Genius.--Sophie Cruvelli's +Eccentricities.--Excitement in Paris over her _Valentine_ in "Les +Huguenots."--Different Performances in London and Paris.--She retires +from the Stage and marries Baron Vigier.--Her Professional Status.--One +of the Most Gifted Women of any Age + + +THERESA TITIENS. + +Born at Hamburg of an Hungarian Family.--Her Early Musical +Training.--First Appearance in Opera in "Lucrezia Borgia."--Romance of +her Youth.--Rapid Extension of her Fame.--Receives a _Congé_ from +Vienna to sing in England.--Description of Mlle. Titiens, her Voice, +and Artistic Style.--The Characters in which she was specially +eminent.--Opinions of the Critics.--Her Relative Standing in +the Operatic Profession.--Her Performances of _Semi-ramide_ +and _Medea_.--Latter Years of her Career.--Her Artistic Tour in +America.--Her Death, and Estimate placed on her Genius + + + + +GREAT SINGERS, SECOND SERIES, MALIBRAN TO TITIENS. + + + + +MARIA FELICIA MALIBRAN. + +The Childhood of Maria Garcia.--Her Father's Sternness and Severe +Discipline.--Her First Appearance as an Artist on the Operatic +Stage.--Her Genius and Power evident from the Beginning.--Anecdotes +of her Early Career.--Manuel Garcia's Operatic Enterprise in New +York.--Maria Garcia is inveigled into marrying M. Malibran.--Failure of +the Garcia Opera, and Maria's Separation from her Husband.--She +makes her _Début_ in Paris with Great Success.--Madame Malibran's +Characteristics as a Singer, a Genius, and a Woman.--Anecdotes of her +Generosity and Kindness.--She sings in a Great London Engagement.--Her +Eccentric and Daring Methods excite Severe Criticism.--Her Reckless +Expenditure of Strength in the Pursuit of her Profession or +Pleasures.--Madame Malibran's Attachment to De Bériot.--Anecdotes of +her Public and Private Career.--Malibran in Italy, where she becomes +the Popular Idol.--Her Last London Engagement.--Her Death at Manchester +during the Great Musical Festival. + + +I. + +With the name of Malibran there is associated an interest, alike +personal and artistic, rarely equaled and certainly unsurpassed among +the traditions which make the records of the lyric stage so fascinating. +Daring originality stamped her life as a woman, her career as an artist, +and the brightness with which her star shone through a brief and stormy +history had something akin in it to the dazzling but capricious passage +of a meteor. If Pasta was the Siddons of the lyric drama, unapproachable +in its more severe and tragic phases, Malibran represented its Garrick. +Brilliant, creative, and versatile, she sang equally well in all styles +of music, and no strain on her resources seemed to overtax the power +of an artistic imagination which delighted in vanquishing obstacles and +transforming native defects into new beauties, an attribute of genius +which she shared in equal degree with Pasta, though it took on a +different manifestation. + +This great singer belonged to a Spanish family of musicians, who have +been well characterized as "representative artists, whose power, genius, +and originality have impressed a permanent trace on the record of the +methods of vocal execution and ornament." Her father, Manuel Vicente +Garcia, at the age of seventeen, was already well known as composer, +singer, actor, and conductor. His pieces, short comic operas, had a +great popularity in Spain, and were not only bright and inventive, +but marked by thorough musical workmanship. A month after he made his +_début_ in Paris, in 1811, he had become the chief singer, and sang +for three years under the operatic _regime_ which shared the general +splendor of Napoleon's court. He was afterward appointed first tenor at +Naples by King Joachim Munit, and there produced his opera of "Califo di +Bagdad," which met with great success. It was here that the child Maria, +then only five years old, made her first public appearance in one of +Paer's operas, and here that she received her first lessons in music +from M. Panseron and the composer Hérold. When Garcia quitted Italy +in 1816, he sang with Catalani in Paris, but, as that jealous artist +admitted no bright star near her own, Garcia soon left the troupe, and +went to London in the spring of 1818. He oscillated between the two +countries for several years, and was the first brilliant exponent of the +Rossinian music in two great capitals, as his training and method were +peculiarly fitted to this school. The indomitable energy and ambition +which he transmitted to his daughters, who were to become such +distinguished ornaments of the stage, were not contented with making +their possessor a great executant, for he continued to produce operas, +several of which were put on the stage in Paris with notable success. +Garcia's name as a teacher commenced about the year 1823 to overshadow +his reputation as a singer. In the one he had rivals, in the other he +was peerless. His school of singing quickly became famous, though he +continued to appear on the stage, and to pour forth operas of more than +average merit. + +The education of his daughter Maria, born at Paris, March 24, 1808, had +always been a matter of paternal solicitude. A delicate, sensitive, and +willful child, she had been so humored and petted at the convent-school +of Hammersmith, where she was first placed, that she developed a caprice +and a recklessness which made her return to the house of her stern and +imperious father doubly painful, lier experience was a severe one, and +Manuel Garcia was more pitiless to his daughter than to other pupils. +Already at this period Maria spoke with ease Spanish, Italian, French, +and English, to which she afterward added German. The Garcia household +was a strange one. The Spanish musician was a tyrant in his home, and +a savage temper, which had but few streaks of tenderness, frequently +vented itself in blows and brutality, in spite of the remarkable musical +facility with which Maria appropriated teaching, and the brilliant gifts +which would have flattered the pride and softened the sympathies of +a more gentle and complacent parent. The young girl, in spite of +her prodigious instinct for art and her splendid intelligence, had a +peculiarly intractable organ. The lower notes of the voice were very +imperfect, the upper tones thin, disagreeable, and hard, the middle +veiled, and her intonation so doubtful that it almost indicated an +imperfect ear. She would sometimes sing so badly that her father would +quit the piano precipitately and retreat to the farthest corner of the +house with his fingers thrust into his ears. But Garcia was resolved +that his daughter should become what Nature seemingly had resolved she +should not be, a great vocalist, and he bent all the energies of his +harsh and imperious temper to further this result. "One evening I +studied a duet with Maria," says the Countess Merlin, "in which Garcia +had written a passage, and he desired her to execute it. She tried, but +became discouraged, and said, 'I can not.' In an instant the Andalu-sian +blood of her father rose. He fixed his flashing eyes upon her: 'What +did you say?' Maria looked at him, trembled, and, clasping her hands, +murmured in a stifled voice, 'I will do it, papa;' and she executed the +passage perfectly. She told me afterward that she could not conceive how +she did it. 'Papa's glance,' added she, 'has such an influence upon +me that I am sure it would make me fling myself from the roof into the +street without doing myself any harm.'" + +Maria Felicia Garcia was a wayward and willful child, but so generous +and placable that her fierce outbursts of rage were followed by the +most fascinating and winning contrition. Irresistibly charming, frank, +fearless, and original, she gave promise, even in her early youth, of +the remarkable qualities which afterward bestowed such a unique and +brilliant _cachet_ on her genius as an artist and her character as a +woman. Her father, with all his harshness, understood her truly, for +she inherited both her faults and her gifts from himself. "Her proud and +stubborn spirit requires an iron hand to control it," he said; "Maria +can never become great except at the price of much suffering." By the +time she had reached the age of fifteen her voice had greatly improved. +Her chest-notes had gained greatly in power, richness, and depth, though +the higher register of the vocal organ still remained crude and veiled. +Fetis says that it was on account of the sudden indisposition of +Madame Pasta that the first public appearance of Maria in opera was +unexpectedly made, but Lord Mount Edgcumbe and the impressario Ebers +both tell a different story. The former relates in his "Reminiscences" +that, shortly after the repair of the King's Theatre, "the great +favorite Pasta arrived for a limited number of nights. About the same +time Konzi fell ill and totally lost her voice, so that she was obliged +to throw up her engagement and return to Italy. Mme. Vestris having +seceded, and Caradori being for some time unable to perform, it became +necessary to engage a young singer, the daughter of the tenor Garcia, +who had sung here for several seasons.... Her extreme youth, her +prettiness, her pleasing voice, and sprightly, easy action as _Rosina_ +in 'Il Barbiere,' in which part she made her _début_, gained her general +favor." Chor-ley recalls the impression she made on him at this time in +more precise and emphatic terms: "From the first hour when Maria Garcia +appeared on the stage, first in 'Il Barbiere' and subsequently in +'Il Crociato,' it was evident that a new artist, as original as +extraordinary, was come--one by nature fairly endowed, not merely with +physical powers, but also with that inventive, energetic, rapid genius, +before which obstacles become as nothing, and by the aid of which the +sharpest contradictions become reconciled." She made her _début_ on June +7, 1825, and was immediately engaged for the remaining six weeks of +the season at five hundred pounds. Her first success was followed by a +second in Meyerber's 'Il Crociato,' in which she sang with Velluti, the +last of that extraordinary _genre_ of artists, the male sopranos. Garcia +wrote several arias for her voice, which were interpolated in the opera, +much to Manager Ayrton's disgust, but much also to the young singer's +advantage, for the father knew every defect and every beauty of his +daughter's voice. + +If her father was ambitious and daring, Maria was so likewise. She had +to sing with Velluti a duet in Zingarelli's "Romeo e Giulietta," and in +the morning they rehearsed it together, Velluti reserving his fioriture +for the evening, lest the young _débutante_ should endeavor to imitate +his ornaments. In the evening he sang his solo part, embroidering it +with the most florid decorations, and finishing with a new and beautiful +cadenza, which astonished and charmed the audience; Maria seized the +phrases, to which she imparted an additional grace, and crowned her +triumph with an audacious and superb improvisation. Thunders of applause +greeted her, and while trembling with excitement she felt her arm +grasped by a hand of iron. "Briccona!" hissed a voice in her ear, as +Velluti glared on her, gnashing his teeth with rage. After performing +in London, she appeared in the autumn with her father at the Manchester, +York, and Liverpool Festivals, where she sang some of the most difficult +pieces from the "Messiah" and the "Creation." Some said that she failed, +others that she sang with a degree of mingled brilliancy, delicacy, and +sweetness that drew down a storm of applause. + + +II. + +Garcia now conceived a project for establishing Italian opera in the +United States, and with characteristic daring he set sail for America +with a miserable company, of which the only talent consisted of his own +family, comprising himself, his son, daughter, and wife, Mme. Garcia +having been a fairly good artist in her youth. The first opera produced +was "Il Barbiere," on November 29, 1825, and this was speedily +followed by "Tancredi," "Otello," "Il Turco in Italia," "Don Giovanni," +"Cenerentola," and two operas composed by Garcia himself--"L'Amante +Astuto," and "La Figlia dell' Aria," The young singer's success was of +extraordinary character, and New York, unaccustomed to Italian opera, +went into an ecstasy of admiration. Maria's charming voice and personal +fascination held the public spellbound, and her good nature in the +introduction of English songs, whenever called on by her admirers, +raised the delight of the opera-goers of the day to a wild enthusiasm. + +The occurrence of the most unfortunate episode of her life at this time +was the fruitful source of much of the misery and eccentricity of her +after-career. M. François Eugène Malibran, a French merchant, engaged in +business in New York, fell passionately in love with the young singer, +and speedily laid his heart and fortune, which was supposed to be great, +at her feet. In spite of the fact that the suitor was fifty, and Maria +only seventeen, she was disposed to accept the offer, for she was sick +of her father's brutality, and the straits to which she was constantly +put by the exigencies of her dependent situation. Her heart had never +yet awakened to the sweetness of love, and the supposed great fortune +and lavish promises of M. Malibran dazzled her young imagination. Garcia +sternly refused his consent, and there were many violent scenes between +father and daughter. Such was the hostility of feeling between the two, +that Maria almost feared for her life. The following incident is an +expressive comment on the condition of her mind at this time: One +evening she was playing _Des-demona_ to her father's _Othello_, in +Rossini's opera. At the moment when _Othello_ approaches, his eyes +sparkling with rage, to stab _Desdemona_, Maria perceived that her +father's dagger was not a stage sham, but a genuine weapon. Frantic with +terror, she screamed "Papa, papa, for the love of God, do not kill me!" +Her terrors were groundless, for the substitution of the real for a +theatrical dagger was a mere accident. The audience knew no difference, +as they supposed Maria's Spanish exclamation to be good operatic +Italian, and they applauded at the fine dramatic point made by the young +artist! + +At last the importunate suitor overcame Gar-cia's opposition by agreeing +to give him a hundred thousand francs in payment for the loss of his +daughter's services, and the sacrifice of the young and beautiful singer +was consummated on March 23, 1826. A few weeks later Malibran was a +bankrupt and imprisoned for debt, and his bride discovered how she had +been cheated and outraged by a cunning scoundrel, who had calculated +on saving himself from poverty by dependence on the stage-earnings of +a brilliant wife. The enraged Garcia, always a man of unbridled temper, +was only prevented from transforming one of those scenes of mimic +tragedy with which he was so familiar, into a criminal reality by +assassinating Malibran, through the resolute expostulations of his +friends. Mme. Malibran instantly resigned for the benefit of her +husband's creditors any claims which she might have made on the remnants +of his estate, and her New York admirers had as much occasion to applaud +the rectitude and honor of the woman as they had had the genius of the +artist. Garcia himself, hampered by pecuniary difficulties, set sail +for Mexico with his son and younger daughter, to retrieve his fortunes, +while Maria remained in New York, tied to a wretch whom she despised, +and who looked on her musical talents as the means of supplying him +with the luxuries of life. Mme. Malibran's energy soon found a vent in +English opera, and she made herself as popular on the vernacular as she +had on the Italian stage. But she soon wearied of her hard fate, which +compelled her to toil without ceasing for the support of the man who +had deceived her vilely, and for whom not one spark of love operated to +condone his faults. Five months utterly snapped her patience, and she +determined to return to Paris. She arrived there in September, 1826, +and took up her abode with M. Malibran's sister. Although she had become +isolated from all her old friends, she found in one of the companions of +her days of pupilage, the Countess Merlin, a most affectionate help and +counselor, who spared no effort to make her talents known to the musical +world of Paris, Mme. de Merlin sounded the praises of her friend so +successfully that she soon succeeded in evoking a great degree of public +curiosity, which finally resulted in an engagement. + +Malibran's first appearance in the Grand Opéra at Paris was for the +benefit of Mme. Galli, in "Semiramide." It was a terrible ordeal, for +she had such great stars as Pasta and Sontag to compete with, and she +was treading a classic stage, with which the memories of all the great +names in the lyric art were connected. She felt that on the result of +that night all the future success of her life depended. Though her heart +was struck with such a chill that her knees quaked as she stepped on the +stage, her indomitable energy and courage came to her assistance, and +she produced an indescribable sensation. Her youth, beauty, and +noble air won the hearts of all. One difficult phrase proved such a +stumbling-block that, in the agitation of a first appearance, she failed +to surmount it, and there was an apprehension that the lovely singer was +about to fail. But in the grand aria, "Bel Raggio," she indicated such +resources of execution and daring of improvisation, and displayed such a +full and beautiful voice, that the house resounded with the most furious +applause. Mme. Malibran, encouraged by this warm reception, redoubled +the difficulties of her execution, and poured forth lavishness of +fioriture and brilliant cadenzas such as fairly dazzled her hearers. +Paris was conquered, and Mme. Malibran became the idol of the city, for +the novelty and richness of her style of execution set her apart from +all other singers as a woman of splendid inventive genius. She could +now make her own terms with the managers, and she finally gave the +preference to the Italiens over the Grand Opéra, at terms of eight +hundred francs per night, and a full benefit. + +In voice, genius, and character Mme. Mali-bran was alike original. +Her organ was not naturally of first-rate quality. The voice was a +mezzo-soprano, naturally full of defects, especially in the middle +tones, which were hard and uneven, and to the very last she was obliged +to go through her exercises every day to keep it flexible. By the +tremendously severe discipline to which she had been subjected by her +father's teaching and method, the range of voice had been extended up +and down so that it finally reached a compass of three octaves from D +in alt to D on the third line in the base. Her high notes had an +indescribable sparkle and brilliancy, and her low tones were so soft, +sweet, and heart-searching that they thrilled with every varying phase +of her sensibilities. Her daring in the choice of ornaments was so great +that it was only justified by the success which invariably crowned her +flights of inventive fancy: To the facility and cultivation of voice, +which came from her father's training, she added a fertility of musical +inspiration which came from nature. A French critic wrote of her: +"Her passages were not only remarkable for extent, rapidity, and +complication, but were invariably marked by the most intense feeling and +sentiment. Her soul appeared in everything she did." Her extraordinary +flexibility enabled her to run with ease over passages of the most +difficult character. "In the tones of Malibran," says one of her English +admirers, "there would at times be developed a deep and trembling +pathos, that, rushing from the fountain of the heart, thrilled instantly +upon a responsive chord in the bosoms of all." She was the pupil of +nature. Her acting was full of genius, passion, and tenderness. She was +equally grand as _Semiramide_ and as _Arsace_, and sang the music of +both parts superbly. Touching, profoundly melancholy as _Desdemona_, +she was gay and graceful in _Rosina_; she drew tears as _Ninetta_, and, +throwing off the coquette, could produce roars of laughter as _Fidalma_. +She had never taken lessons in poses or in declamation, yet she was +essentially, innately graceful. Mme. Malibran was in person about +the middle height, and the contour of her figure was rounded to an +enchanting _embonpoint_, which yet preserved its youthful grace. Her +carriage was exceedingly noble, and the face more expressive than +handsome; her hair was black and glossy, and always worn in a simple +style. The eyes were dark and luminous, the teeth white and regular, and +the countenance, habitually pensive in expression, was mutable in the +extreme, and responsive to every emotion and feeling of the heart. To +quote from Mr. Chorley: "She may not have been beautiful, but she was +better than beautiful, insomuch as a speaking Spanish human countenance +is ten times more fascinating than many a faultless angel-face such as +Guido could paint. There was health of tint, with but a slight touch of +the yellow rose in her complexion; great mobility of expression in her +features; an honest, direct brightness of eye; a refinement in the form +of her head, and the set of it on her shoulders." + +When she was reproached by Fetis for using _ad captandum_ effects too +lavishly in the admonition: "With the degree of elevation to which you +have attained, you should impose your opinion on the public, not submit +to theirs," she answered, with a laugh and a shrug of her charming +shoulders: "_Mon cher grognon_, there may perhaps be two or three +connoisseurs in the theatre, but it is not they who give success. When I +sing for you, I will sing very differently." Mme. Malibran, buoyed up +on the passionate enthusiasm of the French public, essayed the most +wonderful and daring flights in her song. She appeared as _Desdemona, +Rosina_, and as _Romeo_ in Zingarelli's opera--characters, of the most +opposing kind and two of them, indeed, among Pasta's masterpieces. It +was said that, "if Malibran must yield the palm to Pasta in point of +acting, yet she possessed a decided superiority in respect of song"; +and, even in acting, Malibran's grace, originality, vivacity, piquancy, +spontaneity, feeling, and tenderness, won the heart of all spectators. +Such was her versatility, that the _Semi-ramide_ of one evening was the +_Cinderella_ of the next, the _Zerlina_ of another, and the _Desdemona_ +of its successor; and in each the individuality of conception was +admirably preserved. On being asked by a friend which was her favorite +rôle, she answered, "The character I happen to be acting, whichever it +may be." + +In spite, however, of the general testimony to her great dramatic +ability, so clever and capable a judge as Henry Chorley rated her +musical genius as far higher than that of dramatic conception. He +says: "Though creative as an executant, Malibran was not creative as +a dramatic artist. Though the fertility and audacity of her musical +invention had no limits, though she had the power and science of a +composer, she did not establish one new opera or character on the stage, +hardly even one first-class song in a concert-room." This criticism, +when closely examined, may perhaps indicate a high order of praise. Mme. +Malibran, as an artist, was so unique and original in her methods, so +incomparable in the invention and skill which required no master to +prompt or regulate her cadences, so complex in the ingenuity which +blended the resources of singing and acting, that other singers simply +despaired of imitating her effects, and what she did perished with her, +except as a brilliant tradition. In other words, her utter superiority +to the conventional made her artistic work phenomenal, and of a style +not to be perpetuated on the stage. The weight of testimony appears to +be that Mme. Malibran was, beyond all of her competitors, a singer of +most versatile and brilliant genius, in whom dramatic instincts reigned +with as dominant force as ability of musical expression. The fact, +however, that Mme. Malibran, with a voice weak and faulty in the extreme +in one whole octave of its range, and that the most important (between +F and F), was able by her matchless skill and audacity in the forms of +execution, modification, and ornament, to achieve the most brilliant +results, might well blind even a keen connoisseur by kindling his +admiration of her musical invention, at the expense of his recognition +of dramatic faculty. + +It was characteristic of Mme. Malibran that she fired all her +fellow-artists with the ardor of her genius. Her resources and knowledge +were such that she could sing in any school and any language. The music +of Mozart and Cimarosa, Boïeldieu and Eossini, Cherubini and Bellini, +Donizetti and Meyerbeer, furnished in equal measure the mold into which +her great powers poured themselves with a sort of inspired fury, like +that of a Greek Pythoness. She had an artistic individuality powerful +to create types of its own, which were the despair of other singers, for +they were incapable of reproduction, inasmuch as they were partly forged +from her own defects, transformed by genius into beauties. In all those +accomplishments which have their root in the art temperament, she was a +sort of Admirable Crichton. She played the piano-forte with great skill, +and, with no special knowledge of drawing, possessed marked talent in +sketching caricatures, portraits, and scenes from nature. She composed +both the music and words of songs and romances with a felicitous ease. +She excelled in feminine works, such as embroidery, tapestry, and +dressmaking, and always modeled her own costumes. It was a saying with +her friends that she was as much the artist with her needle as with +her voice. She wrote and spoke five languages, and often used them with +different interlocutors with such readiness and accuracy that she +rarely confused them. Her wit and vivacity as a conversationalist were +celebrated, and her _mots_ had the point as well as the flash of the +diamond. Her retorts and sarcasms often wounded, but she was quick to +heal the stroke by a sweet and childlike contrition that made her doubly +fascinating. + +Impassioned, ardent, the prey of an endless excitement, her restless +nature would quickly return from its flights to the every-day duties +and responsibilities of life, and her instincts were so strong and +noble that she was eager to repair any errors into which she might be +betrayed. Lavish in her generosity to others, she was personally frugal, +even penurious. A certain brusque and original frankness, and the +ingenuousness with which she betrayed every impression, often involved +her in compromising positions, which would have been fatal to a woman +in her position less pure and upright in her essential nature. Fond of +dolls, toys, and trifles, she was also devoted to athletic sports and +pastimes, riding, swimming, skating, shooting, and fencing. Sometimes +her return from a fatiguing night at the opera would be marked by an +exuberance of animal spirits, which would lead her to jump over chairs +and tables like a schoolboy. She was wont to say, "When I try to +restrain my flow of spirits, I feel as if I should be suffocated." Her +reckless gayety and unconventional manners led to strange rumors. She +would wander over the country attired in boy's clothes, and without an +escort, and a great variety of innocent escapades led a carping world to +believe that she indulged excessively in stimulants, but the truth was +that she never drank anything but a little wine-and-water. + +Maria could not long endure the frowning tutelage of M. Malibran's +sister, whom she at first selected as her chaperon, and so one day she +decamped without warning, in a coach, and established her "household +gods" with Mme. Naldi, an old friend of her father, and a woman of +austere manners, whom she obeyed like a child. Her protector had charge +of all her money, and opened all her letters before Maria saw them. +When her fortune was at his height, Mme. Mali-bran showed her friend and +biographer, Countess do Merlin, a much-worn Cashmere shawl, saying: "I +use this in preference to any that I have. It was the first Cashmere +shawl I ever owned, and I have pleasure in remembering how hard I found +it to coax Mme. Naldi to let me buy it." + +In 1828 the principal members of the operatic company at the Italiens +were Malibran, Sontag, Donzelli, Zuchelli, and Graziani. Malibran sang +in "Otello," "Matilda di Shabran," "La Cenerentola," and "La Gazza +Ladra." Jealous as she was by temperament, she always wept when +Madamoiselle Sontag achieved a great success, saying, naively, "Why does +she sing so divinely?" The coldness between the two great singers was +fomented by the malice of others, but at last a touching reconciliation +occurred, and the two rivals remained ever afterward sincere friends and +admirers of each other's talents. There are many charming anecdotes of +Madame Malibran's generosity and quick sympathy. At the house of one of +her friends she often met an aged widow, poor and unhappy, and strongly +desired to assist her; but the position and character of the lady +required delicate management. "Madame," she said at last, "I know that +your son makes very pretty verses." "Yes, madame, he sometimes amuses +himself in that way. But he is so young!" "No matter. Do you know that +I could propose a little partnership affair? Troupenas [the music +publisher] has asked me for a new set of romances. I have no words +ready. If your son will give them to me, we could share the profits." +Mme. Malibran received the verses, and gave in exchange six hundred +francs. The romances were never finished. + +She performed all such acts of charity with so much refined delicacy, +such true generosity, that the kindness was doubled. Thus, at the end +of this season, a young female chorister, engaged for the opening of the +King's Theatre, found herself unable to quit Paris for want of funds. +Mme. Malibran promised to sing at a concert which some of the leading +vocalists gave for her benefit. The name of Malibran of course drew a +crowd, and the room was filled; but she did not appear, and at last they +were obliged to commence the concert. The entertainment was half over +when she came, and approached the young girl, saying to her in a low +voice: "I am a little late, my dear, but the public will lose nothing, +for I will sing all the pieces announced. In addition, as I promised you +all my evening, I will keep my word. I went to sing in a concert at the +house of the Duc d'Orléans, where I received three hundred francs. They +belong to you. Take them." + + +III. + +In April of the same year during which Mme. Malibran had established +herself so firmly in the admiration of the Parisian world, she accepted +an engagement for the summer months with La-porte of the King's Theatre +in London. She made her _début_ in the character of _Desdemona_, a part +which had already been firmly fixed in the notions of the musical public +by the two differing conceptions of Pasta and Sontag. The opera had been +originally written for Mme. Colbran, Rossini's wife, and when it was +revived for Pasta that great lyric tragedienne had embodied in it a +grand, stormy, passionate style, suited to the _genre_ of her genius. +Mme. Sontag, on the other hand, fashioned her impersonation from the +side of delicate sentiment and tenderness, and Malibran had a difficult +task in shaping the conception after an ideal which should escape the +reproach of imitation. Her version was full of electric touches +and rapid alternations of feeling, but at times it bordered on the +sensational and extravagant. Her fiery vehemence was often felt to be +inconsistent with the tenderness of the heroine. The critics, while +admitting the varied and original beauties of her reading, were yet +severe in their condemnation of some of its features. Mme. Malibran, +however, urged that her action was what she would have manifested in the +actual situations. "I remember once," says the Countess De Merlin, "a +friend advised her not to make _Otello_ pursue her so long when he was +about to kill her. Her answer was: 'You are right; it is not elegant, I +admit; but, when once I fairly enter into my character, I never think of +effects, but imagine myself actually the person I represent. I can +assure you that in the last scene of Desdemona I often feel as if I were +really about to be murdered, and act accordingly.' Donzelli used to be +much annoyed by Mme. Malibran not determining beforehand how he was to +seize her; she often gave him a regular chase. Though he was one of the +best-tempered men in the world, I recollect him one evening being +seriously angry. Desdemona had, according to custom, repeatedly escaped +from his grasp; in pursuing her, he stumbled, and slightly wounded +himself with the dagger he brandished. It was the only time I ever saw +him in a passion." + +She next appeared successively as _Rosina, Ni-netta, and Tancredi_, +winning fresh laurels in them all, not only by her superb skill in +vocalizing, but by her versatility of dramatic conception and the ease +with which she entered into the most opposite phases of feeling +and motive. She covered Rossini's elaborate fioriture with a fresh +profusion of ornament, but always with a dexterity which saved it from +the reproach of being overladen. She performed _Semiramide_ with Mme. +Pisaroni, and played Zerlina to Sontag's _Donna Anna_. Her habit of +treating such dramatic parts as _Ninetta, Zerlina_, and _Amina_ was the +occasion of keen controversy among the critics of the time. Entirely +averse to the conventional method of idealizing the character of the +country girl out of all semblance to nature, Malibran was essentially +realistic in preserving the rusticity, awkwardness, and _naivete_ of +peasant-life. One critic argued: "It is by no means rare to discover in +the humblest walk of life an inborn grace and delicacy of Nature's own +implanting; and such assuredly is the model from which characters like +_Ninetta_ and _Zerlina_ ought to be copied." But there were others who +saw in the vigor, breadth, and verisimilitude of Mme. Malibran's stage +portraits of the peasant wench the truest and finest dramatic justice. +A great singer of our own age, Mme. Pauline Lucca, seems to have modeled +her performances of the operatic rustic after the same method. In such +characters as __Susanna in the "Nozze di Figaro," and _Fidalma_ +in Cimarosa's "Il Matrimonio Segreto," her talent for lyric comedy +impressed the _cognoscenti_ of London with irresistible power. She was +fascinated by the ludicrous, and was wont to say that she was anxious +to play the _Duenna_ in "Il Barbiere" for the sake of the grotesque +costume. In playing _Fidalma_ the drollery of her tone and manner, the +richness and originality of her comic humor, were incomparable. Her +daring, however, prompted her to do strange things, which would have +been condemned in any other singer. For example, while _Fidalma_ is in +the midst of the most ludicrous drollery of the part, Malibran suddenly +took up one word and gave an extended series of the most brilliant and +difficult roulades of her own improvisation, through the whole range +of her voice. Her hearers were transported at this musical feat, but it +entirely interrupted the continuity of the humor. + +On Mme. Malibran's return to Paris, she found her father, who had +unexpectedly returned from his Mexican tour, thoroughly bankrupted in +purse, and more embittered than ever by his train of misfortunes. He +announced his intention of giving some representations at the Theatre +Italien. This resolution caused much vexation to his daughter, but she +did not oppose it. Garcia had lost a part of his voice; his tenor had +become a barytone, and he could no longer reach the notes which had in +former times been written for him. She knew how much her father's voice +had become injured, and knowing equally well his intrepid courage, +feared, not without reason, that he would tarnish his brilliant +reputation. Garcia displayed even more than ever the great artist. A +hoarseness seized him at the moment of appearing on the stage. "This +is nothing," said he: "I shall do very well"; and, by sheer strength of +talent and of will, he arranged the music of his part (_Almaviva_) to +suit the condition of his voice, changing the passages, transposing them +an octave lower, and taking up notes adroitly where he found his voice +available; and all this instantly, with an admirable confidence. + +Malibran's second season in Paris confirmed the estimate which had been +placed on her genius, but the incessant labors of her professional life +and the ardor with which she pursued the social enjoyments of life were +commencing to undermine her health. She never hesitated to sacrifice +herself and her time for the benefit of her friends, in spite of her own +physical debility. One night she had promised to sing at the house of +her friend, Mme. Merlin, and was amazed at the refusal of her manager to +permit her absence from the theatre on a benefit-night. She said to him: +"It does not signify; I sing at the theatre because it is my duty, but +afterward I sing at Mme. Merlin's because it is my pleasure." And so +after one o'clock in the morning, wearied from the arduous performance +of "Semiramide," she appeared at her friend's and sang, supped, and +waltzed till daybreak. This excess in living every moment of her life +and utter indifference to the requirements of health were characteristic +of her whole career. One night she fainted in her dressing-room +before going on the stage. In the hurry of applying restoratives, a +_vinaigrette_ containing some caustic acid was emptied over her lips, +and her mouth was covered with blisters. The manager was in despair; but +Mme. Malibran, quietly stepping to the mirror, cut off the blisters with +a pair of scissors, and sang as usual. Such was the indomitable courage +of the woman that she was always faithful to her obligations, come what +might; a conscientiousness which was afterward the immediate cause of +her death. + + +IV. + +It was in Paris, in 1830, that Mme. Malibran's romantic attachment to M. +Charles de Bériot, the famous Belgian violinist, had its beginning. M. +de Bériot had been warmly and hopelessly enamored of Malibran's rival, +Mdlle. Sontag, in spite of the fact that the latter lady was known to +be the _fiancée_ of Count Rossi. The sympathies of Malibran's warm and +affectionate heart were called out by her friend's disappointment, for +gossip in the musical circles of Paris discussed De Bériot's unfortunate +love-affair very freely. With her usual impulsive candor she expressed +her interest in the brilliant young violinist without reserve, and it +was not long before De Bériot made Malibran his confidante, and found +consolation for his troubles in her soothing companionship. The result +was what might have been expected. Malibran's beauty, tenderness, and +genius speedily displaced the former idol in the heart of the Belgian +artist, while she learned that it was but a short step between pity and +love. This mutual affection was the cause of a dispute between Maria and +her friend Mme. Naldi, whose austere morality disapproved the intimacy, +and there was a separation, our singer moving into lodgings of her own. + +It was during her London engagement of the same year that Mme. Malibran +became acquainted with the greatest of bassos, Lablache, who made his +_début_ before an English public in the rôle of _Geronimo_, in "Il +Matrimonio Segreto." The friendship between these two distinguished +artists became a very warm one, that only terminated with Malibran's +death. Lablache, who had sung with all the greatest artists of the age, +lamented her early taking off as one of the greatest misfortunes of the +lyric stage. One strong tie between them was their mutual benevolence. +On one occasion an unfortunate Italian importuned Lablache for +assistance to return to his native land. The next day, when all the +company were assembled for rehearsal, Lablache requested them to join +in succoring their unhappy compatriot; all responded to the call, Mme. +Lalande and Donzelli each contributing fifty francs. Malibran gave the +same as the others; but, the following day, seizing the opportunity of +being alone with Lablache, she desired him to add to her subscription of +fifty francs two hundred and fifty more; she had not liked to appear to +bestow more than her friends, so she had remained silent the preceding +day. Lablache hastened to seek his _protégé_, who, however, profiting +by the help afforded him, had already embarked; but, not discouraged, +Lablache hurried after him, and arrived just as the steamer was leaving +the Thames. Entering a boat, however, he reached the vessel, went +on board, and gave the money to the _émigré_, whose expressions of +gratitude amply repaid the trouble of the kind-hearted basso. Another +time Malibran aided a poor Italian who was destitute, telling him to say +nothing about it. "Ah, madame," he cried, "you have saved me for ever!" +"Hush!" she interrupted; "do not say that; only the Almighty could do +so. Pray to him." + +The feverish activity of Mme. Malibran was shown at this time in a +profusion of labors and an ardor in amusement which alarmed all her +friends. When not engaged in opera, she was incessant in concert-giving, +for which her terms were eighty guineas per night. She would fly to +Calais and sing there, hurry back to England, thence hasten to Brussels, +where she would give a concert, and then cross the Channel again, giving +herself no rest. Night after night she would dance and sing at private +parties till dawn, and thus waste the precious candle of her life at +both ends. She was haunted by a fancy that, when she ceased to live +thus, she would suddenly die, for she was full of the superstition +of her Spanish race. Mme. Malibran about this time essayed the same +experiment which Pasta had tried, that of singing the rôle of the Moor +in "Otello." It was not very successful, though she sang the music and +acted the part with fire. The delicate figure of a woman was not fitted +for the strong and masculine personality of the Moorish warrior, and +the charm of her expression was completely veiled by the swarthy mask +of paint. Her versatility was so daring that she wished even to out-leap +the limits of nature. + +The great _diva's_ horizon (since Sontag's retirement from the stage she +had been acknowledged the leading singer of the age) was now destined to +be clouded by a portentous event. M. Malibran arrived in Paris. He had +heard of his wife's brilliant success, and had come to assert his rights +over her. Maria declined to see him, and no persuasions of her friends +could induce her to grant the _soi-disant_ husband, for whose memory she +had nothing but rooted aversion, even an interview. Though she finally +arrived at a compromise with him (for his sole interest in resuming +relationship with his wife seemed to be the desire of sharing in the +emoluments of her profession), she determined not to sing again in the +French capital while M. Malibran remained there, and accordingly retired +to a chateau near Brussels. The whole musical world was interested in +settling this imbroglio, and there was a final settlement, by the terms +of which the singer was not to be troubled or interfered with by her +husband as long as he was paid a fixed stipend. She returned to Paris, +and reappeared at the Italiens as _Ninetta_, the great Rubini being in +the same cast. The two singers vied with each other "till," observed a +French critic, "it seemed as if talent, feeling, and enthusiasm could go +no further." This engagement, however, was cut short by her frequent and +alarming illnesses, and Mme. Malibran, though reckless and short-sighted +in regard to her own health, became seriously alarmed. She suddenly +departed from the city, leaving a letter for the director, Severini, +avowing a determination not to return, at least till her health was +fully reestablished. This threatened the ruin of the administration, for +Malibran was the all-powerful attraction. M. Viardot, a friend who +had her entire confidence (Mlle. Pauline Garcia afterward became Mme. +Viardot), was sent to Brussels as ambassador, and he represented the +ruin she would entail on the operatic season of the Italiens. This plea +appealed to her generosity, and she returned to fulfill her engagement. +Constant attacks of illness, however, continued to disturb her +performances, and the Parisian public chose to attribute this +interruption of their pleasures to the caprice of the _diva_. She +so resented this injustice that she determined, at the close of +the engagement, that she would never again sing in Paris. Her last +appearance, on January 8,1832, was as _Desdemona_, and the fervency of +her singing and acting made it a memorable night, as the rumor had crept +out that Mme. Malibran was then taking a lasting leave of them as an +artist, and the audience sought to repair their former injustice by +redoubled expressions of enthusiasm and pleasure. + +An amusing instance of her eccentric and impulsive resolution was +her hasty tour with La-blache to Italy which occurred a few months +afterward. The great basso, passing through Brussels _en route_ to +Naples, called at her villa to pay his respects. Malibran declared her +intention, in spite of his laughing incredulity, of going with him. +Though he was to leave at dawn the next morning, she was waiting at the +door of his hotel when he came down the stairs. As she had no passport, +she was detained on the Lombardy frontier till Lablache obtained the +needed document. At Milan she only sang in private concerts, and pressed +on to Rome, where she engaged for a short season at the Teatro Valle, +and succeeded in offending the _amour propre_ of the Romans by singing +French romances of her own composition in the lesson-scene of "Il +Barbiere." She learned of the death of her father while in Rome, news +which plunged her in the deepest despondency, for the memory of his +sternness and cruelty had long been effaced by her appreciation of the +inestimable value his training had been to her. She had often remarked +to her friend, Mme. Merlin, that without just such a severe system her +voice would never have attained its possibilities. + +From Rome she went to Naples to fulfill a _scrittura_ with Barbaja, the +celebrated _impressario_ of that city, to give twelve performances at +one thousand francs a night. An immense audience greeted her on the +opening night at the Fondo Theatre, August 6, 1832, at first with a cold +and critical indifference--a feeling, however, which quickly flamed +into all the unrestrained volcanic ardor of the Neapolitan temperament. +Thenceforward she sang at double prices, "notwithstanding the +subscribers' privileges were on most of these occasions suspended, and +although 'Otello,' 'La Gazza Ladra,' and operas of that description were +the only ones offered to a public long since tired even of the beauties +of Rossini, and proverbial for their love of novelty." + +Her great triumph, however, was on the night when she took her leave, +in the character of _Ninetta_. "Nothing can be imagined finer than the +spectacle afforded by the immense Theatre of San Carlo, crowded to the +very ceiling, and ringing with acclamations," says a correspondent of +one of the English papers at the time. "Six times after the fall of +the curtain Mme. Mali-bran was called forward to receive the reiterated +plaudits and adieux of the assembled multitude, and indicate by graceful +and expressive gestures the degree to which she was overpowered by +fatigue and emotion. The scene did not end within the walls of the +theatre; for a crowd of the most enthusiastic rushed from all parts +of the house to the stage-door, and, as soon as her sedan came out, +escorted it with loud acclamations to the Palazzo Barbaja, and renewed +their salutations as the charming vocalist ascended the steps." + +Mme. Malibran had now learned to dearly love Italy and its impulsive, +warm-hearted people, so congenial to her own nature. She sang in +different Italian cities, receiving everywhere the most enthusiastic +receptions. In Bologna they placed a bust of their adored songstress +in the peristyle of the theatre. Each city vied with its neighbor in +lavishing princely gifts on her. She had not long been in London, where +she returned to meet her spring engagement at the King's Theatre in +1833, when she concluded a contract with the Duke Visconti of Milan for +one hundred and eighty-five performances, seventy-five in the autumn and +carnival season of 1835-'36, seventy-five in the corresponding season of +1836-'37, and thirty-five in the autumn of 1836, at a salary of eighteen +thousand pounds. These were the highest terms which had then ever been +offered to a public singer, or in fact to any stage performer since the +days of imperial Rome. + + +V. + +Mme. Malibran's Italian experiences were in the highest sense gratifying +alike to her pride as a great artist and to her love of admiration as +a woman. Her popularity became a mania which infected all classes, and +her appearance on the streets was the signal for the most fervid shouts +of enthusiasm from the populace. For two years she alternated between +London and the sunny lands where she had become such an idol. She had +to struggle in Milan against the indelible impress made by Mme. Pasta, +whose admirers entertained an almost fanatical regard for her memory as +the greatest of lyric artists; but when Malibran appeared as _Norma_, +a part written by Bellini expressly for Pasta, she was proclaimed _la +cantante per eccelenza_. A medal, executed by the distinguished sculptor +Valerio Nesti, was struck in her honor. Her generosity of nature was +signally instanced during these golden Italian days in many acts of +beneficence, of which the following are instances: During her stay at +Sinigaglia in the summer of 1834, she heard an exquisite voice +singing beneath the windows of her hotel. On looking out she saw a wan +beggar-girl dressed in rags. Discovering by investigation that it was a +case of genuine want, she placed the girl in a position where she could +receive an excellent musical education and have all her needs amply +supplied. On the eve of her departure from Naples, the last engagement +she ever sang in that city, Gallo, proprietor of the Teatro Emeronnitio, +came to entreat her to sing once at his establishment. He had a wife and +several children, and was a very worthy man, on the verge of bankruptcy. +"I will sing," answered she, "on one condition--that not a word is +said about remuneration." She chose the part of _Amina_; the house was +crammed, and the poor man was saved from ruin. A vast multitude followed +her home, with an enthusiasm which amounted almost to a frenzy, and the +grateful manager named his theatre the Teatro Garcia. On Ash-Wednesday, +March 13, 1835, Mme. Malibran bade the Neapolitans adieu--an eternal +adieu. Radiant with glory, and crowned with flowers, she was conducted +by the Neapolitans to the faubourgs amid the _éclat_ of _vivats_ and +acclamations. + +The Neapolitans adored Malibran, and she loved to sing to these +susceptible lovers of the divine art. On one occasion when she was +suffering from a severe accident, she appeared with her arm in a sling +rather then disappoint her audience. During all her Italian seasons, +especially in Naples, where perfection of climate and delightful scenery +combine to stimulate the animal spirits, she pursued the same wild +and reckless course which had so often threatened to cut off her frail +tenure of life. A daring horsewoman and swimmer, she alternated these +exercises with fatiguing studies and incessant social pleasures. She +practiced music five or six hours a day, spent several hours in violent +exercise, and in the evenings not engaged at the theatre would go +to parties, where she amused herself and her friends in a thousand +different ways--making caricatures, doggerel verses, riddles, +conundrums, _bouts-rimes_, dancing, jesting, laughing, and singing. Full +of exhaustless vivacity, she seemed more and more to disdain rest as her +physical powers grew weaker. The enthusiasm with which she was received +and followed everywhere was in itself a dangerous draught on her nervous +energies, which should have been husbanded, not lavishly wasted. One +night at Milan she was deluged with bouquets of which the leaves were of +gold and silver, and recalled by the frantic acclamations of her hearers +twenty times, at the close of which she fainted on the stage. It was +during this engagement at Milan that she heard of the death of the young +composer, Vincentio Bellini, on September 23, 1835, and she set on +foot a subscription for a tribute to his memory, leading the list with +four-hundred francs. It was a premonition of her own departure from the +world of art which she had so splendidly adorned, for exactly a year +from that day she breathed her last sigh. + +Her arrival in Venice during this last triumphant tour of her life +was the occasion for an ovation not less flattering than those she had +received elsewhere. As her gondola entered the Grand Canal, she was +welcomed with a deafening _fanfare_ of trumpets, the crash of musical +bands, and the shouts of a vast multitude. It was as if some great +general had just returned from victories in the field, which had saved a +state. Mali-bran was frightened at this enthusiasm, and took refuge in a +church, which speedily became choke-full of people, and a passage had +to be opened for her exit to her hotel. Whenever she appeared, the +multitude so embarrassed her that a way had to be made by the gendarmes, +and her gondola was always pursued by a _cortege_ of other gondolas, +that crowded in her wake. When she departed, the city presented her with +a magnificent diamond and ruby diadem. + +In March, 1835, the divorce which she had long been seeking was granted +by a French tribunal, and ten months later, at the expiration of the +limit fixed by French law, she married M. De Bériot, March 29, 1836, +thus legalizing the birth of their son, Wilfred de Bériot, who, with +one daughter, that did not live, had been the fruit of their passionate +attachment. On the day of her marriage she distributed a thousand francs +among the poor, and her friends showered costly gifts on her, among them +being an agraffe of pearls from the Queen of France. + +During the season of 1835 Mme. Malibran appeared for Mr. Bunn at +Drury Lane and Covent Garden in twenty-six performances, for which she +received £3,463. Among other operas she appeared in Balfe's new work, +"The Maid of Artois," which, in spite of its beautiful melody, has never +kept its hold on the stage. Her _Leonora_ in Beethoven's "Fidelio" +was considered by many the peer of Mme. Schrôder-Devrient's grand +performance. Her labors during this season were gigantic. She would rise +at 5 a.m., and practice for several hours, rehearsing before a mirror +and inventing attitudes. It was in this way that she conceived the +"stage-business" which produced such an electric impression in "Gli +Orazi," when the news of her lover's death is announced to the heroine. +"While the rehearsals of 'The Maid of Artois' were going on from day to +day--and Mme. Malibran's rehearsals were not so many hours of sauntering +indifference--she would, immediately after they were finished, dart +to one or two concerts, and perhaps conclude the day by singing at an +evening party. She pursued the same course during her performance of +that arduous character," thus wrote one of the critics of the time, for +the interest which Malibran excited was so great that the public loved +to hear of all the details of her remarkable career. + +Shortly after her marriage in the spring of 1836, Mme. de Bériot was +thrown from her horse while attending a hunting-party in England, +and sustained serious internal injury, which she neglected to provide +against by medical treatment, concealing it even from her husband. +Indeed, she sang on the same evening, and her prodigious facility in +_tours de force_ was the subject of special comment, for she seemed +spurred to outdo herself from consciousness of physical weakness. When +she returned to England again in the following September, her failing +health was painfully apparent to all. Yet her unconquerable energy +struggled against her sufferings, and she would permit herself +no relaxation. In vain her husband and her good friend Lablachc +remonstrated. A hectic, feverish excitement pervaded all her actions. +She was engaged to sing at the Manchester Musical Festival, and at the +rehearsals she would laugh and cry hysterically by turns. + +At the first performance of the festival in the morning, she was carried +out of her dressing-room in a swoon, but the dying singer was bent on +doing what she considered her duty. She returned and delivered the air +of _Abraham_ by Cimarosa. Her thrilling tones and profound dejection +made a deep impression on the audience. The next day she rallied from +her sick-bed and insisted on being carried to the festival building, +where she was to sing a duet with Mme. Caradori-Allen. This was the +dying song of the swan, and it is recorded that her last effort was one +of the finest of her life. The assembly, entranced by the genius and +skill of the singer, forgot her precarious condition and demanded a +repetition. Malibran again sang with all the passionate fire of her +nature, and her wonderful voice died away in a prolonged shake on her +very topmost note. It was her last note on earth, for she was carried +thence to her deathbed. + +Her sufferings were terrible. Convulsions and fainting-fits followed +each other in swift succession, and it was evident that her end was +near. The news of her fatal illness excited the deepest sympathy and +sorrow throughout England and France, and bulletins of her condition +were issued every day. Pending the arrival of her own physician, Dr. +Belluomini, from London, she had been bled while in a fainting-fit by +two local practitioners. When she recovered her senses, she said, "I am +a slain woman, for they have bled me!" She died on September 23, 1836, +and De Bériot's name was the last word that parted her pallid lips. + +The death of this great and idolized singer produced a painful shock +throughout Europe, and was regarded as a public calamity, for she had +been as much admired and beloved as a woman as she was worshiped as +an artist. Her remains, first interred in Manchester, were afterward +removed by her husband to Brussels, where he raised a circular memorial +chapel to her memory at Lacken. Her statue, chiseled in white marble by +Geefs, represents her as _Norma_, and stands in the center, faintly lit +by a single sunbeam admitted from a dome, and surrounded by masses of +shadow. "It appears," says the Countess de Merlin, "like a fantastic +thought, the dream of a poet." + +Maria Malibran was unquestionably one of the most gifted and remarkable +women who ever adorned the lyric stage. The charm of her singing +consisted in the peculiarity of the timbre and the remarkable range of +her voice, in her excitable temperament, which prompted her to execute +the most audacious improvisations, and in her strong musical feeling, +which kept her improvisations within the laws of good taste. Her voice, +a mezzo-soprano, with a high soprano range superadded by incessant work +and training, was in its middle register very defective, a fault which +she concealed by her profound musical knowledge and technical skill. +It was her mind that helped to enslave her hearers; for without mental +originality and a distinct sort of creative force her defective voice +would have failed to charm, where in fact it did provoke raptures. She +was, in the exact sense of a much-abused adjective, a phenomenal singer, +and it is the misfortune of the present generation that she died too +young for them to hear. + + + + +WILHELMINA SCHRÖDER-DEVRIENT. + +Mme. Schröder-Devrient the Daughter of a Woman of Genius.--Her Early +Appearance on the Dramatic Stage in Connection with her Mother.--She +studies Music and devotes herself to the Lyric Stage.--Her Operatic +_Début_ in Mozart's "Zauberflôte."--Her Appearance and Voice.--Mlle. +Schröder makes her _Début_ in her most Celebrated Character, +_Fidelio_.--Her own Description of the First Performance.--A Wonderful +Dramatic Conception.--Henry Chorley's Judgment of her as a Singer and +Actress.--She marries Carl Devrient at Dresden.--Mme. Schröder-Devrient +makes herself celebrated as a Representative of Weber's Romantic +Heroines.--Dissolution of her Marriage.--She makes Successful +Appearances in Paris and London in both Italian and German +Opera.--English Opinions of the German Artist.--Anecdotes of her London +Engagement.--An Italian Tour and Reëngagements for the Paris and London +Stage.--Different Criticisms of her Artistic Style.--Retirement from the +Stage, and Second Marriage.--Her Death in 1860, and the Honors paid to +the Memory of her Genius. + + +I. + +In the year 1832 German opera in its original form was introduced into +England for the first time, and London learned to recognize the grandeur +of Beethoven in opera, as it had already done in symphony and sonata. +"Fidelio" had been already presented in its Italian dress, without +making very much impression, for the score had been much mutilated, and +the departure from the spirit of the composer flagrant. The opera, +as given by artists "to the manner born," was a revelation to English +audiences. The intense musical vigor of Beethoven's great work was felt +to be a startling variety, wrought out as it was in its principal +part by the genius of a great lyric vocalist. This was Mme. +Schröder-Devrient, who, as an operatic tragedienne, stands foremost in +the annals of the German musical stage, though others have surpassed +her in merely vocal resources, and who never has been rivaled except by +Pasta. + +She was the daughter of Sophia Schröder, the Siddons of Germany. This +distinguished actress for a long time reigned supreme in her art. Her +deep sensibilities and dramatic instincts, her noble elocution and +stately beauty, fitted her admirably for tragedy. In such parts as +_Phèdre, Medea, Lady Macbeth, Mérope, Sappho, Jeanne de Montfaucon, +and Isabella_ in "The Bride of Messina," she had no pere. Wilhelmina +Schröder was born in Hamburg, October 6, 1805, and was destined by her +mother for a stage career. In pursuance of this, the child appeared at +the age of five years as a little Cupid, and at ten danced in the ballet +at the Imperial Theatre of Vienna. With the gradual development of the +young girl's character came the ambition for a higher grade of artistic +work. So, when she arrived at the age of fifteen, her mother, who wished +her to appear in tragedy, secured for her a position at the Burgtheater +of Vienna, where she played in such parts as _Aricie_ in "Phèdre," +and _Ophelia_ in "Hamlet." The impression she made was that of a great +nascent actress, who would one day worthily fill the place of her +mother. But the true scope of her genius was not yet defined, for she +had not studied music. At last she was able to study under an Italian +master of great repute, named Mazzatti, who resided in the Austrian +capital. + +Her first appearance was as _Pamina_ in Mozart's "Zauberflote," at the +Vienna theatre, January 20, 1821. The _débutante_ was warmly welcomed by +an appreciative audience, and the terrors of the young girl of seventeen +were quickly assuaged by the generous recognition she received. The +beauty of her voice, her striking figure and port, and her dramatic +genius, combined to make her instantly successful. Wilhelmina Schröder +was tall and nobly molded, and her face, though not beautiful, was +sweet, frank, and fascinating--a face which became transfigured with +fire and passion under the influence of strong emotion. Her vocal organ +was a mellow soprano, which, though not specially flexible, united +softness with volume and compass. In intonation and phrasing, her art, +in spite of her youth and inexperience, showed itself to be singularly +perfect. Though she rapidly became a favorite, her highest triumph was +not achieved till she appeared as _Leonora_ in the "Fidelio." In this +she eclipsed all who had preceded her, and Germany soon rang with her +name as that of an artist of the highest genius. Her own account of her +first representation of this rôle is of much interest: + +"When I was studying the character of _Leonora_ at Vienna, I could not +attain that which appeared to me the desired and natural expression at +the moment when _Leonora_, throwing herself before her husband, holds +out a pistol to the Governor, with the words, 'Kill first his wife!' +I studied and studied in vain, though I did all in my power to place +myself mentally in the situation of _Leonora_. I had pictured to myself +the situation, but I felt that it was incomplete, without knowing why or +wherefore. Well, the evening arrived; the audience knows not with what +feelings an artist, who enters seriously into a part, dresses for the +representation. The nearer the moment approached, the greater was my +alarm. When it did arrive, and as I ought to have sung the ominous +words and pointed the pistol at the Governor, I fell into such an utter +tremor at the thought of not being perfect in my character, that my +whole frame trembled, and I thought I should have fallen. Now only fancy +how I felt when the whole house broke forth with enthusiastic shouts of +applause, and what I thought when, after the curtain fell, I was +told that this moment was the most effective and powerful of my whole +representation! So, that which I could not attain with every effort +of mind and imagination, was produced at this decisive moment by my +unaffected terror and anxiety. This result and the effect it had upon +the public taught me how to seize and comprehend the incident, so, +that which at the first representation I had hit upon unconsciously, I +adopted in full consciousness ever afterward in this part." + +Not even Malibran could equal her in the impersonation of this +character. Never was dramatic performance more completely, more +intensely affecting, more deeply pathetic, truthful, tender, and +powerful. + +Some critics regarded her as far more of the tragedian than the singer. +"Her voice, since I have known it," observes Mr. Chorley, in his "Modern +German Music," "was capable of conveying poignant or tender expression, +but it was harsh and torn--not so inflexible as incorrect. Mme. +Schröder-Devrient resolved to be _par excellence_ 'the German dramatic +singer.' Earnest and intense as was her assumption of the parts she +attempted, her desire of presenting herself first was little less +vehement: there is no possibility of an opera being performed by a +company, each of whom should be as resolute as she was never to rest, +never for an instant to allow the spectator to forget his presence. +She cared not whether she broke the flow of the composition by some cry +heard on any note or in any scale--by even speaking some word, for +which she would not trouble herself to study a right musical emphasis +or inflection--provided, only, she succeeded in continuing to arrest the +attention. Hence, in part, arose her extraordinary success in "Fidelio." +That opera contains, virtually, only one acting character, and with her +it rests to intimate the thrilling secret of the whole story, to develop +this link by link, in presence of the public, and to give the drama the +importance of terror, suspense, and rapture. When the spell is broken +by exhibiting the agony and the struggle of which she is the innocent +victim, if the devotion, the disguise, and the hope of Leonora, the +wife, were not for ever before us, the interest of the prison-opera +would flag and wane into a cheerless and incurable melancholy. This +Mme. Schröder-Devrient took care that it should never do. From her first +entry upon the stage, it might be seen that there was a purpose at her +heart, which could make the weak strong and the timid brave; quickening +every sense, nerving every fiber, arming its possessor with disguise +against curiosity, with persuasion more powerful than any obstacle, with +expedients equal to every emergency.... What Pasta would be in spite +of her uneven, rebellious voice, a most magnificent singer, Mme. +Schröder-Devrient did not care to be, though nature, as I have heard +from those who heard her sing as a girl, had blessed her with a fresh, +delicious soprano voice." + + +II. + +Her fame so increased that the Fräulein Schröder soon made an art-tour +through Germany. Her appearances at Cassel in the spring of 1823, in +such characters as _Pamina_ and _Agathe_, produced a great sensation. +At Dresden she also evoked a large share of popular enthusiasm, and her +name was favorably compared with the greatest lights of the German lyric +stage. While singing at this capital she met Carl Devrient, one of the +principal dramatic tenors of Germany, and, an attachment springing up +between the pair, they were married. The union did not prove a happy +one, and Mme. Schröder-Devrient had bitter occasion to regret that she +had tied her fortunes to a man utterly unworthy of love and respect. +She remained for several years at Dresden, and among other operas she +appeared in Weber's "_Euryanthe_," with Mme. Funk, Herr Berg-mann, and +Herr Meyer. She also made a powerful impression on the attention of +both the critics and the public in Cherubini's "Faniska," and Spohr's +"Jessonda," both of which operas are not much known out of Germany, +though "Faniska" was first produced at the Théâtre Feydeau, in Paris, +and contributed largely to the fame of its illustrious composer. The +austere, noble music is not of a character to please the multitude who +love what is sensational and easily understood. When "Faniska" was first +produced at the Austrian capital in the winter of 1805, both Haydn and +Beethoven were present. The former embraced Cherubini, and said to him, +"You are my son, worthy of my love"; while Beethoven cordially hailed +him as "the first dramatic composer of the age." The opera of "Faniska" +is based on a Polish legend of great dramatic beauty, and the unity of +idea and musical color between it and Beethoven's "Fidelio" has often +excited the attention of critics. It is perhaps owing to this dramatic +similarity that Mme. Schröder-De vrient made as much reputation by +her performance of it as she had already acquired in Beethoven's lyric +masterpiece. + +In 1828 she went to Prague, and thence to Berlin, where her marriage was +judicially dissolved, she retaining her guardianship of her son, then +four years old. Spontini, who was then the musical autocrat of Berlin, +conceived a violent dislike to her, and his bitter nature expressed +itself in severe and ungenerous sarcasms. But the genius of the singer +was proof against the hostility of the Franco-Italian composer, and the +immense audiences which gathered to hear her interpret the chef-d'ouvres +of Weber, whose fame as the great national composer of Germany was +then at its zenith, proved her strong hold on the hearts of the German +people. Spontini's prejudice was generally attributed to Mme. Devrient's +dislike of his music and her artistic identification with the heroines +of Weber, for whose memory Spontini entertained much the same envious +hate as Salieri felt for Mozart in Vienna at an earlier date. + +Our singer's ambition sighed to conquer new worlds, and in 1830 she went +to Paris with a troupe of German singers, headed by Mme. Fischer, a +tall blonde beauty, with a fresh, charming voice, but utterly Mme. +Schrôder-Devrient's inferior in all the requirements of the great +artist. She made her _début_ in May at the Theatre Louvois, as _Agathe_ +in "Der Freischutz," and, though excessively agitated, was so impressive +and powerful in the impersonation as to create a great _éclat_. The +critics were highly pleased with the beauty and finish of her style. +She produced the principal parts of her _répertoire_ in "Fidelio," "Don +Giovanni," Weber's "Oberon" and "Euryanthe," and Mozart's "Serail." +It was in "Fidelio," however, that she raised the enthusiasm of her +audiences to the highest pitch. On returning again to Germany she +appeared in opera with Scheckner and Sontag, in Berlin, winning laurels +even at the expense of Mme. Sontag, who was then just on the eve of +retiring from the stage, and who was inspired to her finest efforts as +she was departing from the field of her triumphs. + +Two years later Mme. Schröder-Devrient accepted a proposition made to +her by the manager of the Théâtre Italiens to sing in a language and +a school for which she was not fully qualified. The season opened with +such a dazzling constellation of genius as has rarely, if ever, been +gathered on any one stage--Pasta, Malibran, Schröder-Devrient, Rubini, +Bordogni, and Lablache. Mme. Pasta's illness caused the substitution of +Schröder-Devrient in her place in the opera of "Anna Bolena," and the +result was disastrous to the German singer. But she retrieved herself +in the same composer's "Pirata," and her splendid performance cooperated +with that of Rubini to produce a sensation. It was observed that she +quickly accommodated herself to the usages and style of the Italian +stage, and soon appeared as if one "to the manner born." Toward the +close of the engagement Mme. Devrient appeared for Malibran's benefit +as _Desdemona_, Rubini being the Moor. Though the Rossinian music is a +_genre_ by itself, and peculiarly dangerous to a singer not trained in +its atmosphere and method, the German artist sang it with great skill +and finish, and showed certain moments of inspiration in its performance +which electrified her hearers. + +Mme. Schrëder-Devrient's first appearance in England was under the +management of Mr. Monck Mason, who had leased the King's Theatre in +pursuance of a somewhat daring enterprise. A musical and theatrical +enthusiast, and himself a composer, though without any experience in +the practical knowledge of management, he projected novel and daring +improvements, and aspired to produce opera on the most extensive and +complete scale. He engaged an enormous company--not only of Italian +and German, but of French singers--and gave performances in all three +languages. Schröder-Devrient sang in all her favorite operas, and also +_Desdemona_, in Italian. Donzelli was the _Otello_, and the performance +made a strong impression on the critics, if not on the public. "We know +not," wrote one, "how to say enough of Mme. Schrëder-Devrient without +appearing extravagant, and yet the most extravagant eulogy we could +pen would not come up to our idea of her excellence. She is a woman +of first-rate genius; her acting skillful, various, impassioned, her +singing pure, scientific, and enthusiastic. Her whole soul is wrapped +in her subject, yet she never for a moment oversteps the modesty of +nature." It was during this season that Mr. Chorley first heard her. +He writes in his "Musical Recollections" a vivid description of her +appearance in "Fidelio": "She was a pale woman. Her face, a thoroughly +German one, though plain, was pleasing from the intensity of expression +which her large features and deep, tender eyes conveyed. She had profuse +fair hair, the value of which she thoroughly understood, delighting in +moments of great emotion to fling it loose with the wild vehemence of +a Mænad. Her figure was superb, though full, and she rejoiced in its +display." He also speaks of "the inherent expressiveness of her voice +which made it more attractive on the stage than a more faultless organ." +Mme. Schröder-Devrient met a warm social welcome in London from the +family of the great pianist, Moscheles, to whom she was known of old. +Mme. Moscheles writes in her diary: "Our interesting guests at dinner +were the Haizingers, he the admirable tenor singer of whom the German +opera company here may well be proud, she pretty and agreeable as +ever; we had, too, our great Schröder and our greater Mendelssohn. The +conversation, of course, was animated, and the two ladies were in such +spirits that they not only told anecdotes, but accompanied them with +dramatic gestures; Schröder, when telling us how he (the hero of her +anecdote) drew his sword, flourished her knife in a threatening manner +toward Haizinger, and Mendelssohn whispered to me, 'I wonder what John +[the footman] thinks of such an English vivacity? To see the brandishing +of knives, and not know what it is all about! Only think!'" A comic +episode which occurred during the first performance of "Fidelio" is +also related by the same authority: "In that deeply tragic scene where +Mme. Schröder (_Fidelio_) has to give Haizinger (_Florestan_) a piece of +bread which she has kept hidden for him three days in the folds of her +dress, he does not respond to the action. She whispers to him with a +rather coarse epithet: 'Why don't you take it? Do you want it buttered?' +All this time, the audience, ignorant of the by-play, was solely intent +on the pathetic situation." This is but one of many instances which +could be adduced from the annals of the stage showing how the exhibition +of the greatest dramatic passion is consistent with the existence of a +jocose, almost cynical, humor on the part of the actors. + + +III. + +In the following year (1833), Mme. Schröder-Devrient sang under Mr. +Bunn at the Covent Garden Theatre, appearing in several of Weber's and +Mozart's masterpieces. She was becoming more and more of a favorite with +the English public. The next season she devoted herself again to +the stage of Germany, where she was on the whole best understood and +appreciated, her faults more uniformly ignored. She appeared in twelve +operas by native composers in Berlin, and thence went to Vienna and St. +Petersburg. She proceeded to Italy in 1835, where she sang for eighteen +months in the principal cities and theatres of that country, and +succeeded in evoking from the critical Italians as warm a welcome as +she had commanded elsewhere. In one city the people were so enthusiastic +that they unharnessed her horses, and drew her carriage home from the +theatre after her closing performance. Although she never entirely +mastered the Italian school, she yet displayed so much intelligence, +knowledge, and faculty in her art-work, that all catholic lovers of +music recognized her great talents. She appeared again in Vienna in +1836, with Mme. Tadolini, Genaro, and Galli, singing in "L'Elisir +d'Amore," and works of a similar cast, operas unsuited, one would think, +to the peculiar _cachet_ of her genius, but her ability in comic and +romantic operas, though never so striking as in grand tragedy, seemed to +develop with practice. + +Her last English engagement was in 1837, opening the season with +a performance of "Fidelio" in English. The whole performance was +lamentably inferior to that at the Opera-House in 1832. "Norma" was +produced, Schröder-Devrient being seconded by Wilson, Giubilei, and Miss +Betts. She was either very ill advised or overconfident, for her "massy" +style of singing was totally at variance with the light beauty of +Bellini's music. Her conception of the character, however, was in the +grandest style of histrionic art. "The sibyls of Michael Angelo are not +more grand," exclaimed one critic; "but the vocalization of Pasta +and Grisi is wholly foreign to her." During this engagement, Mme. +Schröder-Devrient was often unable to perform, from serious illness. +From England she went to the Lower Rhine. + +In 1839 she was at Dresden with Herr Tichatschek, one of the first +tenors of Germany, a handsome man, with a powerful, sweet, and extensive +voice. In June, 1841, she gave a performance at Berlin, to assist the +Parisian subscription for a monument to Cherubini. The opera was "Les +Deux Journées," in which she took her favorite part of _Constance_. The +same year she sang at Dresden with the utmost success, in a new _rôle_ +in Goethe's "Tasso," in which she was said to surpass her _Fidelio_. For +several years Mme. Schröder-Devrient resided in perfect seclusion in the +little town of Rochlitz, and appeared to have forgotten all her stage +ambition. Suddenly, however, she made her reappearance at Dresden in the +_rôle_ of _Romeo_ in Bellini's "I Montecchi ed i Capuletti." She had +lost a good deal of her vocal power and skill, yet her audiences seemed +to be moved by the same magic glamour as of old, in consequence of her +magnificent acting. Among other works in which she performed during this +closing operatic season of her life was Gluck's "Iphigenie en Aulis," +which was especially revived for her. Johanna Wagner, the sister of +the great composer, was also in the cast, and a great enthusiasm +was created by a general stage presentation of almost unparalleled +completeness for that time. + +Mme. Devrient retired permanently from the stage in the year 1849, +having amassed a considerable fortune by her professional efforts. She +made a second matrimonial venture with a rich Livonian proprietor named +Bock, with whom she retired to his estate. Her retirement occasioned +profound regret throughout Germany, where she was justly looked on as +one of the very greatest artists, if, indeed, even this reservation +could be made, who had ever shone on their lyric stage. The Emperor +Francis I. paid Mme. Schröder a compliment which had never before been +paid to a German singer. He ordered her portrait to be painted in all +her principal characters, and placed in the collection of the Imperial +Museum. Six years after her farewell from the stage, an Italian critic, +Scudo, heard her sing in a private house in Paris, and speaks very +disparagingly of her delivery of the melodies of Schubert in a weak, +thin voice. She, like Malibran, possessed one of those voices which +needed incessant work and practice to keep it in good order, though she +did not possess the consummate musical knowledge and skill of Malibran. +She was a woman of great intelligence and keen observation; an artist of +the most passionate ardor and impetuosity, always restrained, however, +by a well-studied control and reserve; in a word, a great lyric +tragedienne rather than a great singer in the exact sense of that word. +She must be classed with that group of dramatic singers who were the +interpreters of the school of music which arose in Germany after the +death of Mozart, and which found its most characteristic type in Carl +Maria von Weber, for Beethoven, who on one side belongs to this school, +rather belonged to the world, like Shakespeare in the drama, than to a +single nationality. Mme. Schröder-De-vrient died February 9, 1860, +at Cologne, and the following year her marble bust was placed in the +Opera-House at Berlin. + + + + +GIULIA GRISI. + +The Childhood of a Great Artist.--Giulietta Grisi's Early Musical +Training.--Giuditta Grisi's Pride in the Talents of her Young +Sister.--Her Italian _Début_ and Success.--She escapes from a Managerial +Taskmaster and takes Refuge in Paris.--Impression made on French +Audiences.--Production of Bellini's "Puritani."--Appearance before the +London Public.--Character of Grisi's Singing and Acting.--Anecdotes of +the Prima Donna.--Marriage of Mlle. Grisi.--Her Connection with +Other Distinguished Singers.--Rubini, his Character as an Artist, and +Incidents of his Life.--Tamburini, another Member of the First Great +"Puritani" Quartet.--Lablache, the King of Operatic Bassos.--His Career +as an Artist.--His Wonderful Genius as Singer and Actor.--Advent of +Mario on the Stage.--His Intimate Association with Mme. Grisi as +Woman and Artist.--Incidents of Mario's Life and Character as an +Artist.--Grisi's Long Hold on the Stage for more than a Quarter +Century.--Her American Tour.--Final Retirement from her Profession.--The +Elements of her Greatness as a Goddess of Song. + + +I. + +A quarter of a century is a long reign for any queen, a brilliant one +for an opera queen in these modern days, when the "wear and tear" of +stage-life is so exacting. For so long a time lasted the supremacy +of Mme. Grisi, and it was justified by a remarkable combination of +qualities, great physical loveliness, a noble voice, and dramatic +impulse, which, if not precisely inventive, was yet large and +sympathetic. A celebrated English critic sums up her great qualities +and her defects thus: "As an artist calculated to engage, and retain +the average public, without trick or affectation, and to satisfy by her +balance of charming attributes--by the assurance, moreover, that she was +giving the best she knew how to give--she satisfied even those who had +received much deeper pleasure and had been impressed with much deeper +emotion in the performances of others. I have never tired of Mme. Grisi +during five-and-twenty years; but I have never been in her case under +one of those spells of intense enjoyment and sensation which make an +epoch in life, and which leave a print on memory never to be effaced by +any later attraction, never to be forgotten so long as life and power to +receive shall endure." + +Giulietta Grisi was the younger daughter of M. Gaetano Grisi, an Italian +officer of engineers, in the service of Napoleon, and was born at Milan, +July 2, 1812. Her mother's sister was the once celebrated Grassini, who, +as the contemporary of Mrs. Billington and Mme. Mara, had shared the +admiration of Europe with these great singers. Thence probably she and +her sister Giuditta, ten years her elder, inherited their gift of song. +Giuditta was for a good while regarded as a prodigy by her friends, and +acquired an excellent rank on the concert and operatic stage, but she +was so far outshone by her more gifted sister, that her name is now +only one of the traditions of that throng of talented and hard-working +artists who have contributed much to the stability of the lyric stage, +without adding to it any resplendent luster. Delicate health prevented +the little Giulia from receiving any early musical training, but her own +secret ambition caused her to learn the piano-forte, by her own efforts; +and her enthusiastic attention, and attempt to imitate, while her sister +was practicing _solfeggi_, clearly indicated the bent of her tastes. She +soon astonished her family by the fluency and correctness with which +she repeated the most difficult passages; and Giuditta, who appreciated +these evidences of vocal and mimetic talent, would listen with delight +to the lively efforts of her young sister, and then, clasping her fondly +in her arms, prophesy that she would be "the glory of her race." "Thou +shalt be more than thy sister, my Giuliettina," she would exclaim. "Thou +shalt be more than thy aunt! It is Giuditta tells thee so--believe +it." The only defect in Giulia's voice--certainly a serious one--was a +chronic hoarseness, which seemed a bar to her advancement as a vocalist. + +Her parents resolved that Giulia should have regular lessons in singing; +and she entered the Conservatory of her native town, where her sister +had also obtained her musical training. The early talent she developed, +under the direction of the composer Marliani, was remarkable. That she +might continue her studies uninterruptedly, she was sent to Bologna, +to her uncle, Colonel Ragani, husband of Grassini, by whom she was put +under the care of the learned Giacomo Guglielmi, son of the celebrated +composer, who during three years devoted himself entirely to her +musical education. Gradually the lovely quality of her voice began to +be manifest, and its original blemishes disappeared, her tones acquiring +depth, power, and richness. + +Giuditta was deeply interested in her young sister's budding talents, +and finally took her from the Conservatory, and placed her under the +tuition of Fillippo Celli, where she remained for three months, till the +_maestro_ was obliged to go to Rome to produce a new opera. Giulia +Grisi was remarkably apt and receptive, and gifted with great musical +intelligence, and she profited by her masters in an exceptional degree. +Industry cooperated with talent to so advance her attainments that her +sister Giuditta succeeded in the year 1828 in securing her _début_ in +Rossini's "Elmira," at Bologna. The part was a small one, but the youth, +loveliness, and freshness of voice displayed by the young singer +secured for her a decided triumph. Rossini, who was then at Bologna, was +delighted with Giulia Grisi, and predicted a great career for her, and +Giuditta shed tears of joy over her beloved _protégée_. The director of +the theatre engaged her immediately for the carnival season, and in +1829 she appeared as prima donna in many operas, among which were "Il +Barbiere," "Towaldo e Dorliska," and "La Sposa di Provincia," the latter +of which was expressly written for her by Millotatti. + +Our young singer, like many another brilliant cantatrice, in the very +dawn of her great career fell into the nets of a shrewd and unprincipled +operatic speculator. Signor Lanari, an _impressario_ of Florence, +recognized the future success of the inexperienced young girl, and +decoyed her into an engagement for six years on terms shamefully low, +for Giulia's modesty did not appreciate her own remarkable powers. +Alone and without competent advisers, she fell an easy prey to the +sharp-witted farmer of other people's genius. Among the operas which she +sung in at this early period under Lanari's management were Bellini's "I +Montecchi ed i Capuletti," which the composer had just written for her +sister Giuditta at Venice; "Il Barbiere," and "Giulietta e Romeo," +written by Vaccai. She was pronounced by the Italians the most +fascinating _Juliet_ ever seen on the stage. At Bologna her triumph +was no less great, and she became the general topic of discussion and +admiration. Lanari was so profiting by his stroke of sharp business +that he was making a little fortune, and he now transferred his musical +property for a large consideration to Signor Crevelli, the director of +La Scala at Milan. Here Julia Grisi met Pasta, whom she worshiped as a +model of all that was grand and noble in the lyric art. Pasta declared, +"I can honestly return to you the compliments paid me by your aunt, and +say that I believe you are worthy to succeed us." Here she enjoyed +the advantage of studying the great lyric tragedienne, with whom she +occasionally performed: not a look, a tone, a gesture of her great model +escaped her. She was given the part of _Jane Seymour_ in Donizetti's +"Anna Bolena," which she looked and acted to perfection, Pasta +personating the unfortunate Queen. Madame Pasta, struck with the genius +displayed by her young rival, exclaimed: "_Tu iras loin! tu prendras ma +place! tu seras Pasta!_" Bellini, who was then in Milan, engaged in +the composition of his "Norma," overwhelmed her with applause and +congratulations, intermingled with allusions to the part he had in +contemplation for her--that of _Adalgiza_. + +In November, 1831, there was a strenuous rivalry between the two +theatres of Milan, La Scala and the Carcano. The vocal company at the +latter comprised Pasta, Lina Koser (now Mme. Balfe), Elisa Orlandi, +Eugénie Martinet, and other ladies; Kubini, Mariani, and Galli being +the leading male singers. The composers were Bellini, Donizetti, and +Majocchi. At the Scala, which was still under the direction of Crivelli, +then a very old man, were Giulietta Grisi, Amalia Schütz, and Pisaroni, +with Mari, Bonfigli, Pocchini, Anbaldi, etc. To this company Giuditta +Grisi was added, and a new opera by Coccia, entitled "Enrico di +Montfort," was produced, in which both the sisters appeared. The company +at the Scala received an accession from the rival theatre, the great +Pasta, and soon afterward Donzelli, who ranked among the foremost tenors +of the age. + +Bellini had just completed "Norma," and it was to be produced at the +Scala. The part of the Druid priestess had been expressly written for +Pasta. This Bellini considered his masterpiece. It is related that a +beautiful Parisienne attempted to extract from his reluctant lips his +preference among his own works. The persistent fair one finally overcame +his evasions by asking, "But if you were out at sea, and should be +shipwrecked--" "Ah!" said the composer, impulsively, "I would leave all +the rest and save 'Norma'"! With Pasta were associated Giulia Grisi +in the _rôle_ of _Adalgiza_, and Donzelli in _Pollio_. The singers +rehearsed their parts _con amore_, and displayed so much intelligence +and enthusiasm that Bellini was quite delighted. The first performance +just escaped being a failure in spite of the anxious efforts of the +singers. Donzelli's suave and charming execution, even "Casta Diva," +delivered by Pasta in her most magnificent style, failed to move the +cold audience. Pasta, at the end of the first act, declared the new +opera _a fiasco_. The second act was also coldly received till the great +duet between _Norma_ and _Adalgiza_, which was heartily applauded. This +unsealed the pent-up appreciation of the audience, and thenceforward +"Norma" was received with thunders of applause for forty nights. + +Encouraged by Pasta, Giulia Grisi declared that she, too, would become a +great tragedienne. "How I should love to play _Norma!_" she exclaimed +to Bellini one night behind the scenes. "Wait twenty years, and we shall +see." "I will play _Norma_ in spite of you, and in less than twenty +years!" she retorted. The young man smiled incredulously, and muttered, +"_A poco! a poco!_" But Grisi kept her word. + +Her genius was now fully appreciated, and she had obtained one of those +triumphs which form the basis of a great renown. With astonishing ease +she passed from _Semiramide_ to _Anna Bolena_, then to _Desdemona_, to +_Donna Anna_, to _Elena_ in the "Donna del Lago." + +The young artiste had learned her true value, and was aware of the +injury she was suffering from remaining in the service to which she had +foolishly bound herself: she was now twenty-four, and time was passing +away. Her father's repeated endeavors to obtain more reasonable terms +for his daughter from Lanari proved fruitless. He urged that his +daughter, having entered into the contract without his knowledge, and +while she was a minor, it was illegal. "Then, if you knew absolutely +nothing of the matter, and it was altogether without your cognizance," +retorted Lanari, imperturbably, "how did it happen that her salary was +always paid to you?" + +But the high-spirited Giulietta had now become too conscious of her +own value to remain hampered by a contract which in its essence was +fraudulent. She determined to break her bonds by flight to Paris, +where her sister Giuditta and her aunt Mme. Grassini-Ragani were then +domiciled. She confided her proposed escapade to her father and her old +teacher Marliani, who assisted her to procure passports for herself +and maid. Her journey was long and tedious, but, spurred by fear and +eagerness, she disdained fatigue for seven days of post-riding over +bad roads and through mountain-gorges choked with snow, till she threw +herself into the arms of her loving friends in the French capital. + + +II. + +An engagement was procured for her without difficulty at the Opéra, +which was then controlled by the triumvirate, Rossini, Robert, and +Severini. Rossini remembered the beautiful _débutante_ for whom he had +predicted a splendid future, and secured a definite engagement for +her at the Favart to replace Mme. Malibran. That this young and +comparatively inexperienced girl, with a reputation hardly known out of +Italy, should have been chosen to take the place of the great Malibran, +was alike flattering testimony to her own rising genius and +Rossini's penetration. She appeared first before a French audience in +"_Semiramide_," and at once became a favorite. During the season of +six months she succeeded in establishing her place as one of the most +brilliant singers of the age. She sang in cooperation with many of the +foremost artists whose names are among the great traditions of the art. +In "Don Giovanni," Rubini and Tamburini appeared with her; in "Anna +Bolena," Mme. Tadolini, Santini, and Rubini. Even in Pasta's own great +characters, where Mlle. Grisi was measured against the greatest lyric +tragedienne of the age, the critics, keen to probe the weak spot of new +aspirants, found points of favorable comparison in Grisi's favor. During +this year, 1832, both Giuditta and Giulia Grisi retired from the stage, +the former to marry an Italian gentleman of wealth, and the latter to +devote a period to rest and study. + +When Giulia reappeared on the French stage the following year, a +wonderful improvement in the breadth and finish of her art was noticed. +She had so improved her leisure that she had eradicated certain +minor faults of vocal delivery, and stood confessed a symmetrical and +splendidly equipped artist. Her performances during the year 1833 in +Paris embraced a great variety of characters, and in different styles +of music, in all of which she was the recipient of the most cordial +admiration. + +The production of Bellini's last opera, "I Puritani," in 1834, was one +of the great musical events of the age, not solely in virtue of the +beauty of the work, but on account of the very remarkable quartet +which embodied the principal characters--Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and +La-blache. This quartet continued in its perfection for many years, +with the after-substitution of Mario for Rubini, and was one of the +most notable and interesting facts in the history of operatic music. +Bellini's extraordinary skill in writing music for the voice was never +more noticeably shown than in this opera. In conducting the rehearsals, +he compelled the singers to execute after his style. It is recorded +that, while Rubini was rehearsing the tenor part, the composer cried out +in a rage: "You put no life into the music. Show some feeling. Don't you +know what love is?" Then, changing his voice: "Don't you know your +voice is a gold-mine that has never been explored? You are an excellent +artist, but that is not enough. You must forget yourself and try to +represent _Gualtiero_. Let's try again." Rubini, stung by the reproach, +then sang magnificently. "I Puritan!" made a great _furore_ in Paris, +and the composer received the Cross of the Legion of Honor, an honor +then less rarely bestowed than it was in after-years. He did not live +long to enjoy the fruits of his widening reputation, but died while +composing a new opera for the San Carlo, Naples. In the delirium of his +death-bed, he fancied he was at the Favart, conducting a performance of +"I Puritani." Mlle. Grisi's first appearance before the London public +occurred during the spring of the same year, and her great personal +loveliness and magnificent voice as _Ninetta_, in "La Gazza Ladra," +instantly enslaved the English operatic world, a worship which lasted +unbroken for many years. Her _Desdemona_ in "Otello," which shortly +followed her first opera, was supported by Rubini as _Otello_, Tamburini +as _Iago_, and Ivanhoff as _Rodriguez_. It may be doubted whether any +singer ever leaped into such instant and exalted favor in London, where +the audiences are habitually cold. + +Her appearance as _Norma_ in December, 1834, stamped this henceforth as +her greatest performance. "In this character, Grisi," says a writer in +the "Musical World," "is not to be approached, for all those attributes +which have given her her best distinction are displayed therein in their +fullest splendor. Her singing may be rivaled, but hardly her embodiment +of ungovernable and vindictive emotion. There are certain parts in the +lyric drama of Italy this fine artiste has made her own: this is one +of the most striking, and we have a faith in its unreachable +superiority--in its completeness as a whole--that is not to be +disturbed. Her delivery of 'Casta Diva' is a transcendent effort +of vocalization. In the scene where she discovers the treachery of +_Pollio_, and discharges upon his guilty head a torrent of withering and +indignant reproof, she exhibits a power, bordering on the sublime, which +belongs exclusively to her, giving to the character of the insulted +priestess a dramatic importance which would be remarkable even if +entirely separated from the vocal preeminence with which it is allied. +But, in all its aspects, the performance is as near perfection as rare +and exalted genius can make it, and the singing of the actress and the +acting of the singer are alike conspicuous for excellence and power. +Whether in depicting the quiet repose of love, the agony of abused +confidence, the infuriate resentment of jealousy, or the influence +of feminine piety, there is always the best reason for admiration, +accompanied in the more tragic moments with that sentiment of awe which +greatness of conception and vigor of execution could alone suggest." + +Mr. Chorley writes, in his "Musical Reminiscences": "Though naturally +enough in some respects inexperienced on her first appearance in +England, Giulia Grisi was not incomplete. And what a soprano voice was +hers! rich, sweet; equal throughout its compass of two octaves (from +C to C), without a break or a note which had to be managed. Her voice +subdued the audience ere 'Dipiacer' was done.... In 1834 she commanded +an exactness of execution not always kept up by her during the +after-years of her reign. Her shake was clear and rapid; her scales were +certain; every interval was taken without hesitation by her. Nor has +any woman ever more thoroughly commanded every gradation of force than +she--in those early days especially; not using the contrast of loud +and soft too violently, but capable of any required violence, of any +advisable delicacy. In the singing of certain slow movements pianissimo, +such as the girl's prayer on the road to execution, in 'La Gazza,' or +as the cantabile in the last scene of 'Anna Bolena' (which we know as +'Home, Sweet Home'), the clear, penetrating beauty of her reduced tones +(different in quality from the whispering semi-ventriloquism which was +one of Mlle. Lind's most favorite effects) was so unique as to reconcile +the ear to a certain shallowness of expression in her rendering of the +words and the situation. + +"At that time the beauty of sound was more remarkable (in such passages +as I have just spoken of) than the depth of feeling. When the passion +of the actress was roused--as in 'La Gazza,' during the scene with her +deserter father--with the villainous magistrate, or in the prison with +her lover, or on her trial before sentence was passed--her glorious +notes, produced without difficulty or stint, rang through the house like +a clarion, and were truer in their vehemence to the emotion of the scene +than were those wonderfully subdued sounds, in the penetrating tenuity +of which there might be more or less artifice. From the first, the vigor +always went more closely home to the heart than the tenderness in her +singing; and her acting and her vocal delivery--though the beauty of her +face and voice, the mouth that never distorted itself, the sounds that +never wavered, might well mislead an audience--were to be resisted by +none." + +Henceforward, Mlle. Grisi alternated between London and Paris for many +years, her great fame growing with the ripening years. Of course, she, +like other beautiful singers, was the object of passionate addresses, +and the ardent letters sent to her hotel and dressing-room at the +theatre occasioned her much annoyance. Many unpleasant episodes +occurred, of which the following is an illustration, as showing the +persecution to which stage celebrities are often subjected: While she +was in her stage-box at the Paris Opera one night, in the winter of +1836, she observed an unfortunate admirer, who had pursued her for +months, lying in ambuscade near the door, as if awaiting her exit. M. +Robert, one of the managers, requested the intruder to retire, and, as +the admonition was unheeded, Colonel Ragani, Grisi's uncle, somewhat +sternly remonstrated with him. The reckless lover drew a sword from a +cane, and would have run Colonel Ragani through, had it not been for the +coolness of a gentleman passing in the lobby, who seized and disarmed +the amorous maniac, who was a young author of some repute, named +Dupuzet. Anecdotes of a similar kind might be enumerated, for Grisi's +womanly fascinations made havoc among that large class who become easily +enamored of the goddesses of the theatre. + +Like all the greatest singers, Grisi was lavishly generous. She had +often been known to sing in five concerts in one day for charitable +purposes. At one of the great York festivals in England, she refused, as +a matter of professional pride, to sing for less than had been given +to Malibran, but, to show that there was nothing ignoble in her +persistence, she donated all the money received to the poor. She +rendered so many services to the Westminster Hospital that she was made +an honorary governor of that institution, and in manifold ways proved +that the goodness of her heart was no whit less than the splendor of her +artistic genius. + +The marriage of Mlle. Grisi, in the spring of 1830, to M. Auguste Gérard +de Melcy, a French gentleman of fortune, did not deprive the stage +of one of its greatest ornaments, for after a short retirement at the +beautiful château of Vaucresson, which she had recently purchased, she +again resumed the operatic career which had so many fascinations for one +of her temperament, as well as substantial rewards. Her first appearance +in London after her marriage was with Rubini and Tamburini in the opera +of "Semiramide," speedily followed by a performance of _Donna Anna_, in +"Don Giovanni." The excitement of the public in its eager anticipation +of the latter opera was wrought to the highest pitch. A great throng +pressed against both entrances of the theatre for hours before the +opening of the doors, and many ladies were severely bruised or fainted +in the crush. It was estimated that more than four thousand persons were +present on this occasion. The cast was a magnificent one. Mme. Grisi was +supported by Mmes. Persiani and Albertazzi, and Tamburini, Lablache, and +Rubini. This was hailed as one of the great gala nights in the musical +records of London, and it is said that only a few years ago old +connoisseurs still talked of it as something incomparable, in spite of +the gifted singers who had since illustrated the lyric art. Mme. Pasta, +who occupied a stage box, led the applause whenever her beautiful young +rival appeared, and Grisi, her eyes glowing with happy tears, went to +Pasta's box to thank the queen of lyric tragedy for her cordial homage. + +"Don Giovanni" was performed with the same cast in January, 1838, at the +Théâtre Italiens. About an hour after the close of the performance the +building was discovered to be on fire, and it was soon reduced to a heap +of glowing ashes. Severini, one of the directors, leaped from an upper +story, and was instantly dashed to pieces, and Robert narrowly saved +himself by aid of a rope ladder. Rossini, who had an apartment in the +opera-house, was absent, but the whole of his musical library, valued at +two hundred thousand francs, was destroyed, with many rare manuscripts, +which no effort or expense could replace. + + +III. + +Mme. Grisi, more than any other prima donna who ever lived, was +habitually associated in her professional life with the greatest singers +of the other sex. Among those names which are inseparable from hers, are +those of Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, and, _par excellence_, that of +Mario. Any satisfactory sketch of her life and artistic surroundings +would be incomplete without something more than a passing notice of +these shining lights of the lyric art. Giambattista Rubini, without +a shred of dramatic genius, raised himself to the very first place in +contemporary estimation by sheer genius as a singer, for his musical +skill was something more than the outcome of mere knowledge and +experience, and in this respect he bears a close analogy to Malibran. +Rubini's countenance was mean, his figure awkward, and lacking in +all dignity of carriage; he had no conception of taste, character, or +picturesque effect. As stolid as a wooden block in all that appertains +to impersonation of character, his vocal organ was so incomparable in +range and quality, his musical equipment and skill so great, that his +memory is one of the greatest traditions of the lyric art. + +Rubini, born at Bergamo in the year 1795, made his _début_ in one of the +theatres of his native town, at the age of twelve, in a woman's part. +This curious prima donna afterward sat at the door of the theatre, +between two candles, holding a plate, in which the admiring public +deposited their offerings to the fair _bénéficiaire_. His next step was +playing on the violin in the orchestra between the acts of comedies, and +singing in the chorus during the operatic season. He seems to have been +unnoticed, except as one of the _hoi polloi_ of the musical rabble, +till an accident attracted attention to his talent. A drama was to be +produced in which a very difficult cavatina was introduced. The manager +was at a loss for any one to sing it till Rubini proffered his services. +The fee was a trifling one, but it paved the way for an engagement in +the minor parts of opera. The details of Rubini's early life seem to +be involved in some obscurity. He was engaged in several wandering +companies as second tenor, and in 1814, Rubini then being nineteen years +of age, we find him singing at Pavia for thirty-six shillings a month. +In the latter part of his career he was paid twenty thousand pounds +sterling a year for his services at the St. Petersburg Imperial +Opera. This singer acquired his vocal style, which his contemporaries +pronounced to be matchless, in the operas of Rossini, and was indebted +to no special technical training, except that which he received +through his own efforts, and the incessant practice of the lyric art in +provincial companies. A splendid musical intelligence, however, repaired +the lack of early teaching, though, perhaps, a voice less perfect in +itself would have fared badly through such desultory experiences. Like +so many of the great singers of the modern school, Rubini first gained +his reputation in the operas of Bellini and Donizetti, and many of the +tenor parts of these works were expressly composed for him. Rubini was +singing at the Scala, Milan, when Barbaja, the _impressario_, who had +heard Bellini's opera of "Bianca e Fernando," at Naples, commissioned +the young composer, then only twenty years old, to produce a new opera +for his theatre in the Tuscan capital. He gave him the libretto of +"Il Pirata," and Bellini, in company with Rubini (for they had become +intimate friends), retired to the country. Here the singer studied, +as they were produced, the simple, touching airs which he afterward +delivered on the stage with such admirable expression. With this +friendship began Rubini's art connection with the Italian composer, +which lasted till the latter's too early death. Rubini was such a great +singer, and possessed such admirable powers of expression, especially +in pathetic airs (for it was well said of him, "_qu'il avait des larmes +dans la voix_"), that he is to be regarded as the creator of that style +of singing which succeeded that of the Rossinian period. The florid +school of vocalization had been carried to an absurd excess, when Rubini +showed by his example what effect he could produce by singing melodies +of a simple emotional nature, without depending at all on mere +vocalization. It is remarkable that it was largely owing to Rubini's +suggestions and singing that Bellini made his first great success, and +that Donizetti's "Anna Bolena," also the work which laid the foundation +of this composer's greatness, should have been written and produced +under similar conditions. + +The immense power, purity, and sweetness of his voice probably have +never been surpassed. The same praise may be awarded to his method of +producing his tones, and all that varied and complicated skill which +comes under the head of vocalization. Rubini had a chest of uncommon +bigness, and the strength of his lungs was so prodigious that on one +occasion he broke his clavicle in singing a B flat. The circumstances +were as follows: He was singing at La Scala, Milan, in Pacini's +"Talismano." In the recitative which accompanies the entrance of +the tenor in this opera, the singer has to attack B flat without +preparation, and hold it for a long time. Since Farinelli's celebrated +trumpet-song, no feat had ever attained such a success as this wonderful +note of Rubini's. It was received nightly with tremendous enthusiasm. +One night the tenor planted himself in his usual attitude, inflated his +chest, opened his mouth; but the note would not come. _Os liabet, sed +non clambit_. He made a second effort, and brought all the force of +his lungs into play. The note pealed out with tremendous power, but the +victorious tenor felt that some of the voice-making mechanism had given +way. He sang as usual through the opera, but discovered on examination +afterward that the clavicle was fractured. Rubini had so distended his +lungs that they had broken one of their natural barriers. Rubini's voice +was an organ of prodigious range by nature, to which his own skill had +added several highly effective notes. His chest range, it is asserted by +Fetis, covered two octaves from C to C, which was carried up to F in the +_voce di testa_. With such consummate skill was the transition to the +falsetto managed that the most delicate and alert ear could not detect +the change in the vocal method. The secret of this is believed to have +begun and died with Rubini. Perhaps, indeed, it was incommunicable, the +result of some peculiarity of vocal machinery. + +From what has been said of Rubini's lack of dramatic talent, it may be +rightfully inferred, as was the fact, that he had but little power in +musical declamation. Rubini was always remembered by his songs, and +though the extravagance of embroidery, the roulades and cadenzas with +which he ornamented them, oftentimes raised a question as to his taste, +the exquisite pathos and simplicity with which he could sing when he +elected were incomparable. This artist was often tempted by his own +transcendant powers of execution to do things which true criticism +would condemn, but the ease with which he overcame the greatest vocal +difficulties excused for his admirers the superabundance of these +displays. In addition to the great finish of his art, his geniality +of expression was not to be resisted. He so thoroughly and intensely +enjoyed his own singing that he communicated this persuasion to his +audiences. Rubini would merely walk through a large portion of an opera +with indifference, but, when his chosen moment arrived, there were such +passion, fervor, and putting forth of consummate vocal art and emotion +that his hearers hung breathless on the notes of his voice. As the +singer of a song in opera, no one, according to his contemporaries, ever +equaled him. According to Chorley, his "songs did not so much create a +success for him as an ecstasy of delight in those that heard him. The +mixture of musical finish with excitement which they displayed has never +been equaled within such limits or on such conditions as the career +of Rubini afforded. He ruled the stage by the mere art of singing more +completely than any one--man or woman--has been able to do in my time." +Rubini died in 1852, and left behind him one of the largest fortunes +ever amassed on the stage. + +Another member of the celebrated "Puritani" quartet was Signor +Tamburini. His voice was a bass in quality, with a barytone range of two +octaves, from F to F, rich, sweet, extensive, and even. His powers of +execution were great, and the flexibility with which he used his voice +could only be likened to the facility of a skillful 'cello performer. He +combined largeness of style, truth of accent, florid embellishment, +and solidity. His acting, alike in tragedy and comedy, was spirited +and judicious, though it lacked the irresistible strokes of spontaneous +genius, the flashes of passion, or rich drollery which made Lablache so +grand an actor, or, in a later time, redeemed the vocal imperfections of +Ronconi. An amusing instance of Taniburini's vocal skill and wealth of +artistic resources, displayed in his youth, was highly characteristic of +the man. He was engaged at Palermo during the Carnival season of 1822, +and on the last night the audience attended the theatre, inspired by the +most riotous spirit of carnivalesque revelry. Large numbers of them +came armed with drums, trumpets, shovels, tin pans, and other charivari +instruments. Tamburini, finding himself utterly unable to make his +ordinary _basso cantante_ tones heard amid this Saturnalian din, +determined to sing his music in the falsetto, and so he commenced in the +voice of a _soprano sfogato_. The audience were so amazed that they +laid aside their implements of musical torture, and began to listen with +amazement, which quickly changed to delight. Taniburini's falsetto was +of such purity, so flexible and precise in florid execution, that he was +soon applauded enthusiastically. The cream of the joke, though, was +yet to come. The poor prima donna was so enraged and disgusted by the +horse-play of the audience that she fled from the theatre, and the poor +manager was at his wit's end, for the humor of the people was such +that it was but a short step between rude humor and destructive rage. +Tamburini solved the problem ingeniously, for he donned the fugitive's +satin dress, clapped her bonnet over his wig, and appeared on the stage +with a mincing step, just as the rioters, impatient at the delay, were +about to carry the orchestral barricade by storm. Never was seen so +unique a soprano, such enormous hands and feet. He courtesied, one hand +on his heart, and pretended to wipe away tears of gratitude with the +other at the clamorous reception he got. He sang the soprano score +admirably, burlesquing it, of course, but with marvelous expression and +far greater powers of execution than the prima donna herself could have +shown. The difficult problem to solve, however, was the duet singing. +But this Tamburini, too, accomplished, singing the part of _Elisa_ +in falsetto, and that of the _Count_ in his own natural tones. This +wonderful exhibition of artistic resources carried the opera to a +triumphant close, amid the wild cheers of the audience, and probably +saved the manager the loss of no little property. + +But, greatest of all, perhaps the most wonderful artist among men that +ever appeared in opera, was Lablache. Position and training did much for +him, but an all-bounteous Nature had done more, for never in her most +lavish moods did she more richly endow an artistic organization. Luigi +Lablache was born at Naples, December 6, 1794, of mixed Irish and +French parentage, and probably this strain of Hibernian blood was partly +responsible for the rich drollery of his comic humor. Young Lablache was +placed betimes in the Conservatorio della San Sebastiano, and studied +the elements of music thoroughly, as his instruction covered not merely +singing, but the piano, the violin, and violoncello. It is believed +that, had his vocal endowments not been so great, he could have become +a leading _virtuoso_ on any instrument he might have selected. Having +at length completed his musical education, he was engaged at the age of +eighteen as _buffo_ at the San Carlino theatre at Naples. Shortly after +his _début_, Lablache married Teresa Pinotti, the daughter of an +eminent actor, and found in this auspicious union the most wholesome +and powerful influence of his life. The young wife recognized the great +genius of her husband, and speedily persuaded him to retire from such a +narrow sphere. Lablache devoted a year to the serious study of singing, +and to emancipating himself from the Neapolitan patois which up to +this time had clung to him, after which he became primo basso at the +Palermitan opera. He was now twenty, and his voice had become developed +into that suave and richly toned organ, such as was never bestowed on +another man, ranging two octaves from E flat below to E flat above the +bass stave. An offer from the manager of La Scala, Milan, gratified +his ambition, and he made his _début_ in 1817 as Dandini in "La +Cenerentola." His splendid singing and acting made him brilliantly +successful; but Lablache was not content with this. His industry +and attempts at improvement were incessant. In fact this singer was +remarkable through life, not merely for his professional ambition, but +the zeal with which he sought to enlarge his general stores of knowledge +and culture. M. Scudo, in his agreeable recollections of Italian +singers, informs us that at Naples Lablache had enjoyed the friendship +and teaching of Mme. Mericoffre (a rich banker's wife), known in Italy +as La Cottellini, one of the finest artists of the golden age of +Italian singing. Mme. Lablache, too, was a woman of genius in her way, +and her husband owed much to her intelligent and watchful criticism. +The fume of Lablache speedily spread through Europe. He sang in all the +leading Italian cities with equal success, and at Vienna, whither he +went in 1824, his admirers presented him with a magnificent gold medal +with a most flattering inscription. + +He returned again to Naples after an absence of twelve years, and +created a grand sensation at the San Carlo by his singing of _Assur_, +in "Semiramide." The Neapolitans loaded him with honors, and sought to +retain him in his native city, but this "pent-up Utica" could not hold +a man to whom the most splendid rewards of his profession were offering +themselves. Lablache made his first appearance in London, in 1830, in +"Il Matrimonio Segreto," and almost from his first note and first step +he took an irresistible hold on the English public, which lasted for +nearly a quarter of a century. It perplexed his admirers whether he was +greater as a singer or as an actor. We are told that he "was gifted with +personal beauty to a rare degree. A grander head was never more grandly +set on human shoulders; and in his case time and the extraordinary and +unwieldy corpulence which came with time seemed only to improve the +Jupiter features, and to enhance their expression of majesty, or +sweetness, or sorrow, or humor as the scene demanded." His very tall +figure prevented his bulk from appearing too great. One of his boots +would have made a small portmanteau, and one could have clad a child +in one of his gloves. So great was his strength that as _Leporello_ +he sometimes carried off under one arm a singer of large stature +representing _Masetto_, and in rehearsal would often for exercise +hold a double bass out at arm's length. The force of his voice was +so prodigious that he could make himself heard above any orchestral +thunders or chorus, however gigantic. This power was rarely put +forth, but at the right time and place it was made to peal out with a +resistless volume, and his portentous notes rang through the house +like the boom of a great bell. It was said that his wife was sometimes +aroused at night by what appeared to be the fire tocsin, only to +discover that it was her recumbent husband producing these bell-like +sounds in his sleep. The vibratory power of his full voice was so great +that it was dangerous for him to sing in a greenhouse. + +Like so many of the foremost artists, Lablachc shone alike in comic and +tragic parts. Though he sang successfully in all styles of music +and covered a great dramatic versatility, the parts in which he was +peculiarly great were _Leporello_ in "Don Giovanni"; the _Podesta_ in +"La Gazza Ladra"; _Geronimo_ in "Il Matrimonio Segreto"; _Caliban_ in +Halévy's "Tempest"; _Gritzonko_ in "L'Etoile du Nord"; _Henry VIII_ in +"Anna Bolena"; the _Doge_ in "Marino Faliero"; _Oroveso_ in "Norma"; +and _Assur_ in "Semiramide." In thus selecting certain characters as +those in which Lablache was unapproachably great, it must be understood +that he "touched nothing which he did not adorn." It has been frankly +conceded even among the members of his own profession, where envy, +calumny, and invidious sneers so often belittle the judgment, that +Lablache never performed a character which he did not make more +difficult for those that came after him, by elevating its ideal and +grasping new possibilities in its conception. + +Lablache sang in London and Paris for many years successively, and his +fame grew to colonial proportions. In 1828 his terms were forty thousand +francs and a benefit, for four months. A few years later, Laporte, of +London, paid Robert, of Paris, as much money for the mere cession of his +services for a short season. In 1852 when Lablachc had reached an age +when most singers grow dull and mechanical, he created two new types, +_Caliban_, in Halévy's opera of "The Tempest," and _Gritzonko_, in +"L'Etoile du Nord," with a vivacity, a stage knowledge, and a brilliancy +of conception as rare as they were strongly marked. He was one of the +thirty-two torch-bearers who followed Beethoven's body to its interment, +and he sung the solo part in "Mozart's Requiem" at the funeral, as he +had when a child sung the contralto part in the same mass at Hadyn's +obsequies. He was the recipient of orders and medals from nearly every +sovereign in Europe. When he was thus honored by the Emperor of Russia +in 1856, he used the prophetic words, "These will do to ornament my +coffin." Two years afterward he died at Naples, January 23, 1858, +whither he had gone to try the effects of the balmy climate of his +native city on his failing health. His only daughter married Thalberg, +the pianist. He was the singing master of Queen Victoria, and he is +frequently mentioned in her published diaries and letters in terms of +the strongest esteem and admiration. His death drew out expressions +of profound sorrow from all parts of Europe, for it was felt that, in +Lablache, the world of song had lost one of the greatest lights which +had starred its brilliant record. + + +IV. + +But of all the great men-singers with whom the Grisi was associated +no one was so intimately connected with her career as the tenor Mario. +Their art partnership was in later years followed by marriage, but +it was well known that a passionate and romantic attachment sprang up +between these two gifted singers long before a dissolution of Grisi's +earlier union permitted their affection to be consecrated by the Church. +Mario, Conte di Candia, the scion of a noble family, was born at Genoa +in 1812. His father had been a general in the army at Piedmont, and +he himself at the time of his first visit to Paris in 1836 carried +his sovereign's commission. The fascinating young Italian officer was +welcomed in the highest circles, for his splendid physical beauty, +and his art-talents as an amateur in music, painting, and sculpture, +separated him from all others, even in a throng of brilliant and +accomplished men. He had often been told that he had a fortune in his +voice, but his pride of birth had always restrained him from a career +to which his own secret tastes inclined him, in spite of the fact that +expensive tastes cooperated with a meager allowance from his father to +plunge him deeply in debt. At last the moment of successful temptation +came. Duponchel, the director of the Opera, made him a tempting offer, +for good tenors were very difficult to secure then as in the later days +of the stage. + +The young Count Candia hesitated to sign his father's name to a +contract, but he finally compromised the matter at the house of the +Comtesse de Merlin, where he was dining one night in company with Prince +Belgiojoso and other musical amateurs, by signing only the Christian +name, under which he afterward became famous, Mario. He spent a short +season in studying under Michelet, Pouchard, and the great singing +master, Bordogni, but there is no doubt that his singing was very +imperfect when he made his _début_, November 30, 1838, in the part +of _Robert le Diable_. His princely beauty and delicious fresh voice, +however, took the musical public by storm, and the common cry was that +he would replace Kubini. For a year he remained at the Académie, but in +1840 passed to the Italian Opera, for which his qualities more specially +fitted him. + +In the mean time he had made his first appearance before that public of +which he continued to be a favorite for so many years. London first +saw the new tenor in "Lucrezia Borgia," and was as cordial in its +appreciation as Paris had been. A critic of the period, writing of him +in later years, said: "The vocal command which he afterward gained was +unthought of; his acting then did not get beyond that of a southern man +with a strong feeling for the stage. But physical beauty and geniality, +such as have been bestowed on few, a certain artistic taste, a certain +distinction, not exclusively belonging to gentle birth, but sometimes +associated with it, made it clear from the first hour of Signor Mario's +stage life that a course of no common order of fascination had begun." +Mario sung after this each season in London and Paris for several +years, without its falling to his lot to create any new important +stage characters. When Donizetti produced "Don Pasquale" at the Theatre +Italiens in 1843, Mario had the slight part of the lover. The reception +at rehearsal was ominous, and, in spite of the beauty of the music, +everybody prophesied a failure. The two directors trembled with dread +of a financial disaster. The composer shrugged his shoulders, and taking +the arm of his friend, M. Dermoy, the music publisher, left the theatre. +"They know nothing about the matter," he laughingly said; "I know what +'Don Pasquale' needs. Come with me." On reaching his library at home, +Donizetti unearthed from a pile of dusty manuscript tumbled under the +piano what appeared to be a song. "Take that," he said to his friend, +"to Mario at once that he may learn it without delay." This song was +the far-famed "Com e gentil." The serenade was sung with a tambourine +accompaniment played by Lablache himself, concealed from the audience. +The opera was a great success, no little of which was due to the +neglected song which Donizetti had almost forgotten. + +It was not till 1846 that Mario took the really exalted place by which +he is remembered in his art, and which even the decadence of his vocal +powers did not for a long time deprive him of. He never lost something +amateurish, but this gave him a certain distinction and fine breeding of +style, as of a gentleman who deigned to practice an art as a delightful +accomplishment. Personal charm and grace, borne out by a voice of +honeyed sweetness, fascinated the stern as well as the sentimental +critic into forgetting all his deficiencies, and no one was disposed to +reckon sharply with one so genially endowed with so much of the nobleman +in bearing, so much of the poet and painter in composition. To those who +for the first time saw Mario play such parts as _Almaviva, Gennaro_, +and _Raoul_, it was a new revelation, full of poetic feeling and +sentiment. Here his unique supremacy was manifest. He will live in the +world's memory as the best opera lover ever seen, one who out of the +insipidities and fustian of the average lyric drama could conjure up +a conception steeped in the richest colors of youth, passion, and +tenderness, and strengthened by the atmosphere of stage verity. In such +scenes as the fourth act of "Les Huguenots" and the last act of the +"Favorita" Signor Mario's singing and acting were never to be forgotten +by those that witnessed them. Intense passion and highly finished +vocal delicacy combined to make these pictures of melodious suffering +indelible. + +As a singer of romances Mario has never been equaled. He could not +execute those splendid songs of the Rossinian school, in which the +feeling of the theme is expressed in a dazzling parade of roulades and +fioriture, the songs in which Rubini was matchless. But in those songs +where music tells the story of passion in broad, intelligible, ardent +phrases, and presents itself primarily as the vehicle of vehement +emotion, Mario stood ahead of all others of his age, it may be said, +indeed, of all within the memory of his age. It was for this reason that +he attained such a supremacy also on the concert stage. The choicest +songs of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Gordigiano, and Meyerbeer were +interpreted by his art with an intelligence and poetry which gave them +a new and more vivid meaning. The refinements of his accent and +pronunciation created the finest possible effects, and were perhaps +partly due to the fact that before Mario became a public artist he was a +gentleman and a noble, permeated by the best asthetic and social culture +of his times. + +Mario's power illustrated the value of tastes and pursuits collateral +to those of his profession. The painter's eye for color, the sculptor's +sense of form, as well as the lover's honeyed tenderness, entered into +the success of this charming tenor. His stage pictures looked as if +they had stepped out of the canvases of Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul +Veronese. In no way was the artistic completeness of his temperament +more happily shown than in the harmonious and beautiful figure he +presented in his various characters; for there was a touch of poetry and +proportion in them far beyond the possibilities of the stage costumer's +craft. Other singers had to sing for years, and overcome native defects +by assiduous labor, before reaching the goal of public favor, but +"Signor Mario was a Hyperian born, who had only to be seen and heard, +and the enchantment was complete." For a quarter of a century Mario +remained before the public of Paris, London, and St. Petersburg, +constantly associated with Mme. Grisi. + + +V. + +To return once more to the consideration of Grisi's splendid career. +The London season of 1839 was remarkable for the production of "Lucrezia +Borgia." The character of the "Borgia woman" afforded a sphere in which +our prima donna's talents shone with peculiar luster. The impassioned +tenderness of her _Desdemona_, the soft sweetness of "love in its +melancholy and in its regrets" of _Anna Bolena_, the fiery ardor and +vehemence of _Norma_, had been powerfully expressed by her, but the +mixture of savage cruelty and maternal intensity characteristic of +_Lucretia_ was embodied with a splendor of color and a subtilty of +ideal which deservedly raised her estimate as a tragedienne higher than +before. Without passing into unnecessary detail, it is enough to state +that Mme. Grisi was constantly before the publics of London and Paris +in her well-established characters for successive years, with an +ever-growing reputation. In 1847 the memorable operatic schism occurred +which led to the formation of the Royal Italian Opera at Convent Garden. +The principal members of the company who seceded from Her Majesty's +Theatre were Mmes. Grisi and Persiani, Signor Mario, and Signor +Tamburini. The new establishment was also strengthened by the accession +of several new performers, among whom was Mlle. Alboni, the great +contralto. "Her Majesty's" secured the possession of Jenny Lind, who +became the great support of the old house, as Grisi was of the new +one. The appearance of Mme. Grisi as the Assyrian Queen and Alboni as +_Arsace_ thronged the vast theatre to the very doors, and produced +a great excitement on the opening night. The subject of our sketch +remained faithful to this theatre to the very last, and was on its +boards when she took her farewell of the English public. The change +broke up the celebrated quartet. It struggled on in the shape of a trio +for some time without Lablache, and was finally diminished to Grisi and +Mario, who continued to sing the _duo concertante_ in "Don Pasquale," as +none others could. They were still the "rose and nightingale" whom Heine +immortalizes in his "Lutetia," "the rose the nightingale among flowers, +the nightingale the rose among birds." That airy dilettante, N. P. +Willis, in his "Pencilings by the Way," passes Grisi by with faint +praise, but the ardent admiration of Heine could well compensate her +wounded vanity, if, indeed, she felt the blunt arrow-point of the +American traveler. + +A visit to St. Petersburg in 1851, in company with Mario, was the +occasion of a vast amount of enthusiasm among the music-loving Russians. +During her performance in "Lucrezia Borgia," on her benefit night, she +was recalled twenty times, and presented by the Czar with a magnificent +Cashmere shawl worth four thousand rubles, a tiara of diamonds and +pearls, and a ring of great value. From the year 1834, when she first +appeared in London, till 1861, when she finally retired, Grisi missed +but one season in London, and but three in Paris. Her splendid physique +enabled her to endure the exhaustive wear and friction of an operatic +life with but little deterioration of her powers. When she made her +artistic tour through the United States with Mario in 1854, her voice +had perhaps begun to show some slight indication of decadence, but her +powers were of still mature and mellow splendor. Prior to crossing the +ocean a series of "farewell performances" was given. The operas in which +she appeared included "Norma," "Lucrezia Borgia," "Don Pasquale," "Gli +Ugonotti," "La Favorita." The first was "Norma," Mme. Grisi performing +_Norma_; Mlle. Maria, _Adalgiza_; Tamberlik, _Pollio_; and La-blache, +_Oroveso_; the last performance consisted of the first act of "Norma," +and the three first acts of "Gli Ugonotti," in which Mario sustained the +principal tenor part. "Rarely, in her best days," said one critic, "had +Grisi been heard with greater effect, and never were her talents as +an actress more conspicuously displayed." At the conclusion of the +performance the departing singer received an ovation. Bouquets were +flung in profusion, vociferous applause rang through the theatre, and +when she reappeared the whole house rose. The emotion which was evinced +by her admirers was evidently shared by herself. + +The American engagement of Grisi and Mario under Mr. Hackett was very +successful, the first appearance occurring at Castle Garden, August 18, +1854. The seventy performances given throughout the leading cities are +still a delightful reminiscence among old amateurs, in spite of the +great singers who have since visited this country and the more stable +footing of Italian opera in later times. Mr. Hackett paid the two +artists eighty-five thousand dollars for a six months' tour, and +declared, at a public banquet he gave them at the close of the season, +that his own profits had been sixty thousand dollars. Mme. Grisi had +intended to retire permanently when she was still in the full strength +of her great powers, but she was persuaded to reappear before the London +public on her return from New York. It became evident that her voice was +beginning to fail rapidly, and that she supplied her vocal shortcomings +by dramatic energy. She continued to sing in opera in various parts of +Europe, but the public applause was evidently rather a struggle on the +part of her audiences to pay tribute to a great name than a spontaneous +expression of pleasure, and at Madrid she was even hissed in the +presence of the royal court, which gave a special significance to the +occasion. Mr. Gye, of the Royal Italian Opera in London, in 1861 made +a contract with her not to appear on the stage again for five years, +evidently assuming that five years were as good as fifty. But it was +hard for the great singer, who had been the idol of the public for more +than a quarter of a century, to quit the scene of her splendid triumphs. +So in 1866 she again essayed to tread the stage as a lyric queen, in the +_rôle_ of _Lucrezia_, but the result was a failure. It is not pleasant +to record these spasmodic struggles of a failing artist, tenacious of +that past which had now shut its gates on her for ever and a day. Her +career was ended, but she had left behind a name of imperishable luster +in the annals of her art. She died of inflammation of the lungs during a +visit to Berlin, November 25, 1869. Her husband, Mario, retired from +the stage in 1867, and suffered, it is said, at the last from pecuniary +reverses, in spite of the fact that he had earned such enormous sums +during his operatic career. His concert tour in the United States, under +the management of Max Strakosch, in 1871-'72. is remembered only with a +feeling of pain. It was the exhibition of a magnificent wreck. The touch +of the great artist was everywhere visible, but the voice was utterly +lost. Signor Mario is still living at Rome, and has resumed the rank +which he laid aside to enter a stage career. + +Grisi united much of the nobleness and tragic inspiration of Pasta with +something of the fire and energy of Malibran, but in the minds of the +most capable judges she lacked the creative originality which stamped +each of the former two artists. She was remarkable for the cleverness +with which she adopted the effects and ideas of those more thoughtful +and inventive than herself. Her _Norma_ was ostentatiously modeled on +that of Pasta. Her acting showed less the exercise of reflection and +study than the rich, uncultivated, imperious nature of a most beautiful +and adroit southern woman. But her dramatic instincts were so strong and +vehement that they lent something of her own personality to the copy of +another's creation. When to this engrossing energy were added the most +dazzling personal charms and a voice which as nearly reached perfection +as any ever bestowed on a singer, it is no marvel that a continual +succession of brilliant rivals was unable to dispute her long reign over +the public heart. + + + + +PAULINE VIARDOT. + +Vicissitudes of the Garcia Family.--Pauline Viardot's Early +Training.--Indications of her Musical Genius.--She becomes a Pupil +of Liszt on the Piano.--Pauline Garcia practically self-trained as a +Vocalist.--Her Remarkable Accomplishments.--Her First Appearance before +the Public with De Beriot in Concert.--She makes her _Début_ in London +as _Desdemona_.--Contemporary Opinions of her Powers.--Description of +Pauline Garcia's Voice and the Character of her Art.--The Originality +of her Genius.--Pauline Garcia marries M. Viardot, a Well-known +_Litterateur_.--A Tour through Southern Europe.--She creates a Distinct +Place for herself in the Musical Art.--Great Enthusiasm in Germany +over her Singing.--The Richness of her Art Resources.--Sketches of the +Tenors, Nourrit and Duprez, and of the Great Barytone, Ronconi.--Mine. +Viardot and the Music of Meyerbeer.--Her Creation of the Part of _Fides_ +in "Le Prophète," the Crowning Work of a Great Career.--Retirement from +the Stage.--High Position in Private Life.--Connection with the French +Conservatoire. + + +I. + +The genius of the Garcia family flowered not less in Mme. Malibran's +younger sister than in her own brilliant and admired self. Pauline, the +second daughter of Manuel Garcia, was thirteen years the junior of her +sister, and born at Paris, July 18, 1821. The child had for sponsors at +baptism the celebrated Ferdinand Paer, the composer, and the Princess +Pauline Prascovie Galitzin, a distinguished Russian lady, noted for her +musical amateurship, and the full name given was Michelle Ferdinandie +Pauline. The little girl was only three years old when her sister Maria +made her _début_ in London, and even then she lisped the airs she +heard sung by her sister and her father with something like musical +intelligence, and showed that the hereditary gift was deeply rooted in +her own organization. + +Manuel Garcia's project for establishing Italian opera in America and +the disastrous crash in which it ended have already been described in +an earlier chapter. Maria, who had become Mme. Malibran, was left in New +York, while the rest of the Garcia family sailed for Mexico, to give +a series of operatic performances in that ancient city. The precocious +genius of Pauline developed rapidly. She learned in Mexico to play on +the organ and piano as if by instinct, with so much ease did she master +the difficulties of these instruments, and it was her father's +proud boast that never, except in the cases of a few of the greatest +composers, had aptitude for the musical art been so convincingly +displayed at her early years. At the age of six Pauline Garcia could +speak four languages, French, Spanish, Italian, and English, with +facility, and to these she afterward added German. Her passion for +acquirement was ardent and never lost its force, for she was not only +an indefatigable student in music, but extended her researches and +attainments in directions alien to the ordinary tastes of even +brilliant women. It is said that before she had reached the age of +eight-and-twenty, she had learned to read Latin and Greek with facility, +and made herself more than passably acquainted with various arts and +sciences. To the indomitable will and perseverance of her sister Maria, +she added a docility and gentleness to which the elder daughter of +Garcia had been a stranger. Pauline was a favorite of her father, who +had used pitiless severity in training the brilliant and willful Maria. +"Pauline can be guided by a thread of silk," he would say, "but Maria +needs a hand of iron." + +Garcia's operatic performances in Mexico were very successful up to the +breaking out of the civil war consequent on revolt from Spain. Society +was so utterly disturbed by this catastrophe that residence in Mexico +became alike unsafe and profitless, and the Spanish musician resolved +to return to Europe. He turned his money into ingots of gold and silver, +and started, with his little family, across the mountains interposing +between the capital and the seaport of Vera Cruz, a region at that +period terribly infested with brigands. Garcia was not lucky enough +to escape these outlaws. They pounced on the little cavalcade, and the +hard-earned wealth of the singer, amounting to nearly a hundred thousand +dollars, passed out of his possession in a twinkling. The cruel humor +of the chief of the banditti bound Garcia to a tree, after he had +been stripped naked, and as it was known that he was a singer he was +commanded to display his art for the pleasure of these strange auditors. +For a while the despoiled man sternly refused, though threatened with +immediate death. At last he began an aria, but his voice was so choked +by his rage and agitation that he broke down, at which the robber +connoisseurs hissed. This stung Garcia's pride, and he began again with +a haughty gesture, breaking forth into a magnificent flight of song, +which delighted his hearers, and they shouted "_Bravissimo!_" with all +the _abandon_ of an enthusiastic Italian audience. A flash of chivalry +animated the rude hearts of the brigands, for they restored to Garcia +all his personal effects, and a liberal share of the wealth which they +had confiscated, and gave him an escort to the coast as a protection +against other knights of the road. The reader will hardly fail to recall +a similar adventure which befell Salvator Rosa, the great painter, who +not only earned immunity, but gained the enthusiastic admiration of a +band of brigands, by whom he had been captured, through a display of his +art. + +The talent of Pauline Garcia for the piano was so remarkable that it was +for some time the purpose of her father to devote her to this musical +specialty. She was barely more than seven on the return of the Garcias +to Europe, and she was placed, without delay, under the care of a +celebrated teacher, Meysenberg of Paris. Three years later she was +transferred to the instruction of Franz Liszt, of whom she became one of +the most distinguished pupils. Liszt believed that his young scholar had +the ability to become one of the greatest pianists of the age, and was +urgent that she should devote herself to this branch of the musical +art. Her health, however, was not equal to the unremitting sedentary +confinement of piano practice, though she attained a degree of skill +which enabled her to play with much success as a solo performer at the +concerts of her sister Maria. Her voice had also developed remarkable +quality during the time when she was devoting her energies in another +direction, and her proud father was wont to say, whenever a buzz of +ecstatic pleasure over the singing of Mme. Malibran met his ear, "There +is a younger sister who is a greater genius than she." It is more than +probable that Pauline Garcia, as a singer, owed an inestimable debt +to Pauline Garcia as a player, and that her accuracy and brilliancy of +musical method were, in large measure, the outcome of her training under +the king of modern pianists. + +Manuel Garcia died when Pauline was but eleven years old, and the +question of her daughter's further musical education was left to Mme. +Garcia. The celebrated tenor singer, Adolphe Nourrit, one of the famous +lights of the French stage, who had been a favorite pupil of Garcia, +showed great kindness to the widow and her daughter. Anxious to promote +the interests of the young girl, he proposed that she should take +lessons from Eossini, and that great _maestro_ consented. Nourrit's +delight at this piece of good luck, however, was quickly checked. Mme. +Garcia firmly declined, and said that if her son Manuel could not +come to her from Rome for the purpose of training Pauline's voice, +she herself was equal to the task, knowing the principles on which +the Garcia school of the voice was founded. The systems of Rossini and +Garcia were radically different, the one stopping at florid grace of +vocalization, while the other aimed at a radical and profound culture of +all the resources of the voice. + +It may be said, however, that Pauline Garcia was self-educated as a +vocalist. Her mother's removal to Brussels, her brother's absence in +Italy, and the wandering life of Mme. Malibran practically threw her on +her own resources. She was admirably fitted for self-culture. Ardent, +resolute, industrious, thoroughly grounded in the soundest of art +methods, and marvelously gifted in musical intelligence, she applied +herself to her vocal studies with abounding enthusiasm, without +instruction other than the judicious counsels of her mother. She had her +eyes fixed on a great goal, and this she pursued without rest or turning +from her path. She exhausted the _solfeggi_ which her father had written +out for her sister Maria, and when this laborious discipline was done +she determined to compose others for herself. She had already learned +harmony and counterpoint from Reicha at the Paris Conservatoire, and +these she now found occasion to put in practice. She copied all the +melodies of Schubert, of whom she was a passionate admirer, and thought +no toil too great which promoted her musical growth. Her labor was a +labor of love, and all the ardor of her nature was poured into it. Music +was not the sole accomplishment in which she became skilled. Unassisted +by teaching, she, like Malibran, learned to sketch and paint in oil and +water-colors, and found many spare moments in the midst of an incessant +art-training, which looked to the lyric stage, to devote to literature. +All this denotes a remarkable nature, fit to overcome every difficulty +and rise to the topmost shining peaks of artistic greatness. What she +did our sketch will further relate. + + +II. + +Pauline Garcia was just sixteen when, panting with an irrepressible +sense of her own powers, she exclaimed, "_Ed io anclû son cantatrice_." +Her first public appearance was worthy of the great name she afterward +won. It was at a concert given in Brussels, on December 15, 1837, for +the benefit of a charity, and De Bériot made his first appearance on +this occasion after the death of Mme. Malibran. The court and most +distinguished people of Belgium were present on this occasion, and so +great was the impression made on musicians that the Philharmonic Society +caused two medals to be struck for De Bériot and Mlle. Garcia, the mold +of which was broken immediately. Pauline Garcia, in company with De +Bériot, gave a series of concerts through Belgium and Germany, and it +soon became evident that a new star of the first magnitude was rising in +the musical firmament. In Germany many splendid gifts were showered on +her. The Queen of Prussia sent her a superb suite of emeralds, and Mme. +Sontag, with whom she sang at Frankfort, gave the young cantatrice a +valuable testimonial, which was alike an expression of her admiration +of Pauline Garcia and a memento of her regard for the name of the great +Malibran, whose passionate strains had hardly ceased lingering in the +ears of Europe. Paris first gathered its musical forces to hear the new +singer at the Théâtre de la Renaissance, December 15, 1838, eager to +compare her with Malibran. Among other numbers on the concert programme, +she gave a very difficult air by Costa, which had been a favorite song +of her sister's, an _aria bravura_ by De Bériot, and the "Cadence du +Diable," imitated from "Tartini's Dream," which she accompanied with +marvelous skill and delicacy. She shortly appeared again, and she +was supported by Rubini, Lablache, and Ivanhoff. The Parisian critics +recognized the precision, boldness, and brilliancy of her musical style +in the most unstinted expressions of praise. But England was the country +selected by her for the theatrical _début_ toward which her ambition +burned--England, which dearly loved the name of Garcia, so resplendent +in the art-career of Mme. Malibran. + +Her appearance in the London world was under peculiar conditions, which, +while they would enhance the greatness of success, would be almost +certainly fatal to anything short of the highest order of ability. The +meteoric luster of Mali-bran's dazzling career was still fresh in the +eyes of the public. The Italian stage was filled by Mme. Grisi, who, +in personal beauty and voice, was held nearly matchless, and had +an established hold on the public favor. Another great singer, Mme. +Persiani, reigned through the incomparable finish of her vocalization, +and the musical world of London was full of distinguished artists, +whose names have stood firm as landmarks in the art. The new Garcia, +who dashed so boldly into the lists, was a young, untried, inexperienced +girl, who had never yet appeared in opera. One can fancy the excitement +and curiosity when Pauline stepped before the footlights of the King's +Theatre, May 9, 1839, as _Desdemona_ in "Otello," which had been the +vehicle of Malibran's first introduction to the English public. The +reminiscence of an eminent critic, who was present, will be interesting. +"Nothing stranger, more incomplete in its completeness, more unspeakably +indicating a new and masterful artist can be recorded than that first +appearance. She looked older than her years; her frame (then a mere +reed) quivered this way and that; her character dress seemed to puzzle +her, and the motion of her hands as much. Her voice was hardly settled +even within its own after conditions; and yet, juaradoxical as it may +seem, she was at ease on the stage; because she brought thither instinct +for acting, experience of music, knowledge how to sing, and consummate +intelligence. There could be no doubt, with any one who saw that +_Desdemona_ on that night, that another great career was begun.... All +the Malibran fire, courage, and accomplishment were in it, and (some of +us fancied) something more beside." + +Pauline Garcia's voice was a rebel which she had had to subdue, not a +vassal to command, like the glorious organ of Mme. Grisi, but her harsh +and unmanageable notes had been tutored by a despotic drill into great +beauty and pliancy. Like that of her sister in quality, it combined the +two registers of contralto and soprano from low F to C above the lines, +but the upper part of an originally limited mezzo-soprano had been +literally fabricated by an iron discipline, conducted by the girl +herself with all the science of a master. Like Malibran, too, she had in +her voice the soul-stirring tone, the sympathetic and touching character +by which the heart is thrilled. Her singing was expressive, descriptive, +thrilling, full, equal and just, brilliant and vibrating, especially in +the medium and in the lower chords. Capable of every style of art, it +was adapted to all the feelings of nature, but particularly to outbursts +of grief, joy, or despair. "The dramatic coloring which her voice +imparts to the slightest shades of feeling and passion is a real +phenomenon of vocalization which can not be analyzed," says Escudier. +"No singer we ever heard, with the exception of Malibran," says another +critic, "could produce the same effect by means of a few simple notes. +It is neither by the peculiar power, the peculiar depth, nor the +peculiar sweetness of these tones that the sensation is created, but by +something indescribable in the quality which moves you to tears in the +very hearing." + +Something of this impression moved the general mind of connoisseurs on +her first dramatic appearance. Her style, execution, voice, expression, +and manner so irresistibly reminded her fellow-performers of the +lamented Malibran, that tears rolled down their cheeks, yet there +was something radically different withal peculiar to the singer. This +singular resemblance led to a curious incident afterward in Paris. A +young lady was taking a music-lesson from Lablache, who had lodgings in +the same house with Mlle. Garcia. The basso was explaining the manner in +which Malibran gave the air they were practicing. Just then a voice was +heard in the adjoining room singing the cavatina--the voice of Mdlle. +Garcia. The young girl was struck with a fit of superstitious terror as +if she had seen a phantom, and fainted away on her seat. + +Yet in person there was but a slight resemblance between the two +sisters. Pauline had a tall, slender figure in her youth, and her +physiognomy, Jewish in its cast, though noble and expressive, was so far +from being handsome that when at rest the features were almost harsh in +their irregularity. But, as in the case of many plain women, emotion and +sensibility would quickly transfigure her face into a marvelous beauty +and fascination, far beyond the loveliness of line and tint. Her +forehead was broad and intellectual, the hair jet-black, the complexion +pale, the large, black eyes ardent and full of fire. Her carriage was +singularly majestic and easy, and a conscious nobility gave her bearing +a loftiness which impressed all beholders. + +Her singing and acting in _Desdemona_ made a marked sensation. Though +her powers were still immature, she flooded the house with a stream of +clear, sweet, rich melody, with the apparent ease of a bird. Undismayed +by the traditions of Mali-bran, Pasta, and Sontag in this character, +she gave the part a new reading, in which she put something of her own +intense individuality. "By the firmness of her step, and the general +confidence of her deportment," said a contemporary writer, "we were at +first induced to believe that she was not nervous; but the improvement +of every succeeding song, and the warmth with which she gave the latter +part of the opera, convinced us that her power must have been confined +by something like apprehension." Kubini was the _Otello_, Tamburini, +_Iago_, and Lablache, _Elmiro_. Her performance in "La Cenerentola" +confirmed the good opinion of the public. Her pure taste and perfect +facility of execution were splendidly exhibited. "She has," said a +critic, "more feeling than Mme. Cinti Da-moreau in the part in which +the greater portion of Europe has assigned to her the preeminence, and +execution even now in nearly equal perfection." + +M. Viardot, a well-known French _littérateur_, was then director of the +Italian Opera in Paris, and he came to London to hear the new singer--in +whom he naturally felt a warm interest, as he had been an intimate +personal friend of Mme. Malibran. He was so delighted that he offered +her the position of prima donna for the approaching season, but +the timidity of the young girl of eighteen shrank from such a +responsibility, and she would only bind herself to appear for a few +nights. The French public felt a strong curiosity to hear the sister +of Mali-bran, and it was richly rewarded, for the magnificent style +in which she sang her parts in "Otello," "La Cenerentola," and "Il +Barbiere" stamped her position as that not only of a great singer, but a +woman of genius. The audacity and wealth of resource which she displayed +on the first representation of the latter-named opera wore worthy of +the daughter of Garcia and the sister of Malibran, Very imperfectly +acquainted with the music, she forgot an important part of the score. +Without any embarrassment, she instantly improvised not merely the +ornament, but the melody, pouring out a flood of dazzling vocalization +which elicited noisy enthusiasm. It was not Rossini's "Il Barbiere," but +it was successful in arousing a most flattering approbation. It may be +fancied, however, that, when she sang the _rôle_ of _Rosina_ a second +time, she knew the music as Rossini wrote it. + + +III. + +Mlle. Garcia was now fairly embarked on the hereditary profession of her +family, and with every prospect of a brilliant career, for never had a +singer at the very outset so signally impressed herself on the public +judgment, not only as a thoroughly equipped artist, but as a woman +of original genius. But she temporarily retired from the stage in +consequence of her marriage with M. Viardot, who had fallen deeply in +love with the fascinating cantatrice, shortly after his introduction to +her. The bridegroom resigned his position as manager of the Opera, and +the newly married couple, shortly after their nuptials in the spring of +1840, proceeded to Italy, M. Viardot being intrusted with an important +mission relative to the fine arts. Mme. Viardot did not return to the +stage till the spring of the following year. After a short season in +London, in which she made a deep and abiding impression, in the part of +_Orazia_ ("Gli Orazi ed i Curiazi"), and justified her right to wear the +crown of Pasta and Malibran, she was obliged by considerations of health +to return to the balmier climate of Southern Europe. + +While traveling in Spain, the native land of her parents, she was +induced to sing in Madrid, where she was welcomed with all the warmth of +Spanish enthusiasm. Her amiability was displayed during her performance +of _Desdemona_, the second opera presented. Pleased with the +unrestrained expressions of delight by the audience, she voluntarily +sang the _rondo finale_ from "Cenerentola." There was such a magic spell +on the audience that they could not be prevailed upon to leave, though +Mme. Viardot sang again and again for them. At last the curtain fell and +the orchestra departed, but the crowd would not leave the theatre. +The obliging cantatrice, though fatigued, directed a piano-forte to be +wheeled to the front of the stage, and sang, to her own accompaniment, +two Spanish airs and a French romance, a crowning act of grace which +made her audience wild with admiration and pleasure. An immense throng +escorted her carriage from the theatre to the hotel, with a tumult of +_vivas_. During this Spanish tour she appeared in opera in several +towns outside of the capital, in the important pieces of her répertoire, +including "Il Barbiere" and "Norma," operas entirely opposed to each +other in style, but in both of which she was favorably judged in +comparison with the greatest representatives of these characters. + +When this singer first appeared, every throne on the lyric stage seemed +to be filled by those who sat firm, and wore their crowns right regally +by the grace of divine gifts, as well as by the election of the people. +There seemed to be no manifest place for a new aspirant, no niche +unoccupied. But within three years' time Mme. Viardot's exalted rank +among the great singers of the age was no less assured than if she had +queened it over the public heart for a score of seasons, and in her +endowment as an artist was recognized a bounteous wealth of gifts to +which none of her rivals could aspire. Her resources appeared to be +without limit; she knew every language to which music is sung, every +style in which music can be written with equal fluency. All schools, +whether ancient or modern, severe or florid, sacred or profane, +severely composed or gayly fantastic, were easily within her grasp. +Like Malibran, she was a profoundly scientific musician, and possessed +creative genius. Several volumes of songs attest her inventive skill in +composition, and the instances of her musical improvisation on the stage +are alike curious and interesting. Such unique and lavish qualities as +these placed the younger daughter of Garcia apart from all others, even +as the other daughter had achieved a peculiarly original place in her +time. Like Lablache, in his basso _rôles_, Mme. Viardot, by her genius +completely revolutionized, both in dramatic conception and musical +rendering, many parts which had almost become stage traditions in +passing through the hands of a series of fine artists. But the fresher +insight of a vital originating imagination breathed a more robust +and subtile life into old forms, and the models thus set appear to be +imperishable. It has been more than hinted by friends of the composer +Meyerbeer, that, when his life is read between the lines, it will be +known that he owes a great debt to Pauline Viardot for suggestions and +criticism in one of his greatest operas, as it is well known that he +does to the tenor, Adolphe Nourrit, for some of the finest features of +"Robert le Diable" and "Les Huguenots." + +In October, 1842, Mme. Viardot made her reappearance on the French stage +at the Théâtre Italien as _Arsace_ in "Semiramide," supported by Mme. +Grisi and Tamburini. There was at this time such a trio of singers as +is rarely found at any one theatre, Pauline Viardot, Giulia Grisi, and +Fanny Persiani, each one possessing voice and talent of the highest +character in her own peculiar sphere. Not the smallest share of the +honors gathered by these artists came to Mme. Viardot who had for +intelligent and thoughtful connoisseurs a charm more subtile and binding +than that exercised by any of her rivals. At the close of the Paris +season she proceeded to Vienna, where her artistic gifts were highly +appreciated, and thence to Berlin, where Meyerbeer was then engaged in +composing his "Prophète." The dramatic conception of _Fides_, it may +be said in passing, was expressly designed for Pauline Viardot by the +composer, who had the most exalted esteem for her genius, both as a +musician and tragedienne. She was always a great favorite in Germany, +and Berlin and Vienna vied with each other in their admiration of this +gifted woman. In 1844 she stirred the greatest enthusiasm by singing at +Vienna with Ilonconi, a singer afterward frequently associated with her. + +Perhaps at no period of her life, though, did Mme. Viardot create a +stronger feeling than when she appeared in Berlin in the spring of 1847 +as _Rachel_ in Halévy's "La Juive." It was a German version, but the +singer was perfect mistress of the language, and though the music of +the opera was by no means well suited to the character of her voice, +its power as a dramatic performance and the passion of the singing +established a complete supremacy over all classes of hearers. The +exhibition on the part of this staid and phlegmatic German community was +such as might only be predicated of the volcanic temperament of Rome or +Naples. The roar of the multitude in front of her lodgings continued +all night, and it was dawn before she was able to retire to rest. +The versatility and kind heart of Mme. Viardot were illustrated in an +occurrence during this Berlin engagement. She had been announced as +_Alice_ in "Robert le Diable," when the _Isabella_ of the evening, Mlle. +Tuezck, was taken ill. The _impressario_ tore his hair in despair, for +there was no singer who could be substituted, and a change of opera +seemed to be the only option. Mme. Viardot changed the gloom of the +manager to joy. Rather than disappoint the audience, she would sing +both characters. This she did, changing her costume with each change +of scene, and representing in one opera the opposite _rôles_ of princess +and peasant. One can imagine the effect of this great feat on that +crowded Berlin audience, who had already so warmly taken Pauline Viardot +to their hearts. Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Dresden, Frankfort, Leipsic, +and other German cities were the scenes of a series of triumphs, and +everywhere there was but one voice as to her greatness as an artist, +an excellence not only great, but unique of its kind. Her répertoire at +this time consisted of _Desdemona, Cenerentola, Rosina, Camilla (in "Gli +Orazi"), Arsace, Norma, Ninetta, Amina, Romeo, Lucia, Maria di Rohan, +Leonora ("La Favorita" ), Zerlina, Donna Anna, Iphigénie (Gluck), the +Rachel of Halévy, and the Alice and Valentine of Meyerbeer_. + + +IV. + +Mme. Viardot's high position on the operatic stage of course brought her +into intimate association with the leading singers of her age, some of +whom have been mentioned in previous sketches. But there was one great +tenor of the French stage, Nourrit, who, though he died shortly after +Mme. Viardot's entrance on her lyric career, yet bore such relation +to the Garcia family as to make a brief account of this gifted artist +appropriate under this caption. Adolphe Nourrit, of whom the French +stage is deservedly proud, was the pupil of Manuel Garcia, the intimate +friend of Maria Malibran, and the judicious adviser of Pauline Viardot +in her earlier years. The son of a tenor singer, who united the business +of a diamond broker with the profession of music, young Nourrit received +a good classical education, and was then placed in the Conservatoire, +where he received a most thorough training in the science of music, as +well as in the art of singing. It was said of him in after-years that +he was able to write a libretto, compose the music to it, lead the +orchestra, and sing the tenor rôle in it, with equal facility. His first +appearance was in Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride," in 1821, his age then +being nineteen. Gifted with remarkable intelligence and ambition, he +worked indefatigably to overcome his defects of voice, and perfect his +equipment as an artist. Manuel Garcia, the most scientific and exacting +of singing teachers, was the _maestro_ under whom Nourrit acquired +that large and noble style for which he became eminent. He soon became +principal tenor at the Académie, and created all of the leading tenor +rôles of the operas produced in France for ten years. Among these may +be mentioned _Néoclès_ in "La Siège de Corinthe," _Masaniello_ in "La +Muette de Portici,"_Arnold_ in "Guillaume Tell," _Leonardo da Vinci_ +in Ginestell's "François I," _Un Lnconnu_ in "Le Dieu et la Bayadere," +_Robert le Diable, Edmond_ in "La Serment," _Nadir_ in Cherubini's "Ali +Baba," _Eleazar_ in "La Juive," _Raoul_ in "Les Huguenots," _Phobus_ in +Bertini's "La Esmeralda," and _Stradella_ in Niedermeyer's opera. + +Nourrit gave a distinct stamp and a flavor to all the parts he created, +and his comedy was no less refined and pleasing than his tragedy +was pathetic and commanding. He was idolized by the public, and his +influence with them and with his brother artists was great. He was +consulted by managers, composers, and authors. He wrote the words for +Eleazar's fine air in "La Juive," and furnished the suggestions on which +Meyerbeer remodeled the second and third acts of "Robert le Diable" and +the last act of "Les Huguenots." The libretti for the ballets of "La +Sylphide," "La Tempête," "L'île des Pirates," "Le Diable Boiteux," etc., +as danced by Taglioni and Fanny Elssler, were written by this versatile +man, and he composed many charming songs, which are still favorites +in French drawing-rooms. It was Nourrit who popularized the songs of +Schubert, and otherwise softened the French prejudice against modern +German music. In private life this great artist was so witty, genial, +and refined, that he was a favorite guest in the most distinguished and +exclusive _salons_. When Duprez was engaged at the opera it severely +mortified Nourrit, and, rather than divide the honors with a new singer, +he resigned his position as first tenor at the Académie, where he so +long had been a brilliant light. His farewell to the French public, +April 1, 1837, was the most flattering and enthusiastic ovation ever +accorded to a French artist, but he could not be induced to reconsider +his purpose. He was professor of lyric declamation at the Conservatoire, +but this position, too, he resigned, and went away with the design of +making a musical tour through France, Germany, and Italy. Nourrit, who +was subject to alternate fits of excitement and depression, was maddened +to such a degree by a series of articles praising Duprez at his expense, +that his friends feared for his sanity, a dread which was ominously +realized in Italy two years afterward, where Nourrit was then singing. +Though he was very warmly welcomed by the Italians, his morbid +sensibility took offense at Naples at what he fancied was an unfavorable +opinion of his _Pollio_ in "Norma." His excitement resulted in delirium, +and he threw himself from his bedroom window on the paved court-yard +below, which resulted in instant death. Nourrit was the intimate friend +of many of the most distinguished men of the age in music, literature, +and art, and his sad death caused sincere national grief. + +As a singer and actor, Nourrit had one of the most creative and +originating minds of his age. He himself never visited the United +States, but his younger brother, Auguste, was a favorite tenor in New +York thirty years ago. + +The part of _John of Leyden_ in "Le Prophète," whose gestation covered +many years of growth and change, was originally written for and in +consultation with Nourrit, just as that of Fides in the same opera was +remolded for and by suggestion of Pauline Viardot. Yet the opera did not +see the light until Nourrit's successor, Duprez, had vanished from the +stage, and his successor again, Roger, who, though a brilliant singer, +was far inferior to the other two in creative intellectuality, appeared +on the scene. Chorley asserts that Du-prez was the only artist he had +ever seen and heard whose peculiar qualities and excellences would +have enabled him to do entire musical and dramatic justice to the +arduous part of _John of Leyden_.... "I have never seen anything like a +complete conception of the character, so wide in its range of emotions; +and might have doubted its possibility, had I not remembered the +admirable, subtile, and riveting dramatic treatment of _Eleazar_ in 'La +Juive' (the _Shyloch_ of opera) by M. Duprez." + +This artist may be also included as belonging largely to the sphere +of Pauline Viardot's art-life. Albert Duprez, the son of a French +performer, was born in 1806, and, like his predecessor Nourrit, was a +student at the Conservatoire. At first he did not succeed in operatic +singing, but, recognizing his own faults and studying the great models +of the day, among them Nourrit, whom he was destined to supplant, he +finally impressed himself on the public as the leading dramatic singer +of France. According to Fetis and Castil-Blaze, he never had a superior +in stage declamation, and the finest actors of the Comédie Française +might well have taken a lesson from him. His first great success, which +caused his engagement in grand opera, was the creation of _Edgardo_ in +"Lucia di Lammermoor" at Naples in 1835. + +Two years later he made his _début_ at the Académie in "Guillaume +Tell," and his novel and striking reading of his part on this occasion +contributed largely to his fame. He was a leading figure at this theatre +for twelve years, and was the first representative of many important +tenor rôles, among which may be mentioned those of "Benvenuto Cellini," +"Les Martyrs," "La Favorita," "Dom Sebastien," "Otello," and "Lucia." +Duprez was insignificant, even repellent in his appearance, but, in +spite of these defects, his tragic passion and the splendid intelligence +displayed in his vocal art gave him a deserved prominence. Duprez +composed many songs and romances, chamber-music, two masses, and eight +operas, and was the author of a highly esteemed musical method, which is +still used at the Conservatoire, where he was a professor of singing. + +Another name linked with not a few of Mme. Viardot's triumphs is that +of Ronconi, a name full of pleasant recollections, too, for many of the +opera-goers of the last generation in the United States. There have been +only a few lyric actors more versatile and gifted than he, or who +have achieved their rank in the teeth of so many difficulties and +disadvantages. His voice was limited in compass, inferior in quality, +and habitually out of tune, his power of musical execution mediocre, his +physical appearance entirely without grace, picturesqueness, or dignity. +Yet Ronconi, by sheer force of a versatile dramatic genius, delighted +audiences in characters which had been made familiar to the public +through the splendid personalities of Tamburini and Lablache, +personalities which united all the attributes of success on the lyric +stage--noble physique, grand voice, the highest finish of musical +execution, and the actor's faculty. What more unique triumph can be +fancied than such a one violating all the laws of probability? Ronconi's +low stature and commonplace features could express a tragic passion +which could not be exceeded, or an exuberance of the wildest, quaintest, +most spontaneous comedy ever born of mirth's most airy and tameless +humor. Those who saw Ronconi's acting in this country saw the great +artist as a broken man, his powers partly wrecked by the habitual +dejection which came of domestic suffering and professional reverses, +but spasmodic gleams of his old energy still lent a deep interest to the +work of the artist, great even in his decadence. In giving some idea of +the impression made by Ronconi at his best, we can not do better than +quote the words of an able critic: "There have been few such examples +of terrible courtly tragedy in Italian opera as Signor Ronconi's +_Chevreuse_, the polished demeanor of his earlier scenes giving a +fearful force of contrast to the latter ones when the torrent of pent-up +passion nears the precipice. In spite of the discrepancy between all our +ideas of serious and sentimental music and the old French dresses, which +we are accustomed to associate with the _Dorantes_ and _Alcestes_ of +Molière's dramas, the terror of the last scene when (between his teeth +almost) the great artist uttered the line--'_Suir uscio tremendo lo +sguardo figgiamo_'--clutching the while the weak and guilty woman by +the wrist, as he dragged her to the door behind which her falsity was +screened, was something fearful, a sound to chill the blood, a sight to +stop the breath." This writer, in describing his performance of the part +of the _Doge_ in Verdi's "I Due Foscari," thus characterizes the last +act when the Venetian chief refuses to pardon his own son for the crime +of treason, faithful to Venice against his agonized affections as a +father: "He looked sad, weak, weary, leaned back as if himself ready to +give up the ghost, but, when the woman after the allotted bars of noise +began again her second-time agony, it was wondrous to see how the old +sovereign turned in his chair, with the regal endurance of one who says +'I must endure to the end,' and again gathered his own misery into his +old father's heart, and shut it up close till the woman ended. Unable to +grant her petition, unable to free his son, the old man when left alone +could only rave till his heart broke. Signor Ronconi's _Doge_ is not to +be forgotten by those who do not regard art as a toy, or the singer's +art as something entirely distinct from dramatic truth." + +His performance of the quack doctor _Dulcamara_, in "L'Elisir d'Amore," +was no less amazing as a piece of humorous acting, a creation matched +by that of the haggard, starveling poet in "Matilda di Shabran" and +_Papageno_ in Mozart's "Zauberflote." Anything more ridiculous and +mirthful than these comedy _chef-d'ouvres_ could hardly be fancied. The +same critic quoted above says: "One could write a page on his _Barber_ +in Rossini's master-work; a paragraph on his _Duke_ in 'Lucrezia +Borgia,' an exhibition of dangerous, suspicious, sinister malice such as +the stage has rarely shown; another on his _Podesta_ in 'La Gazza Ladra' +(in these two characters bringing him into close rivalry with Lablache, +a rivalry from which he issued unharmed); and last, and almost best of +his creations, his _Masetto_." Ronconi is, we believe, still living, +though no longer on the stage; but his memory will remain one of the +great traditions of the lyric drama, so long as consummate histrionic +ability is regarded as worthy of respect by devotees of the opera. + + +V. + +Mme. Viardot's name is, perhaps, more closely associated with the music +of Meyerbeer than that of any other composer. Her _Alice_ in "Robert le +Diable," her _Valentine_ in "Les Huguenots," added fresh luster to her +fame. In the latter character no representative of opera, in spite of +the long bead-roll of eminent names interwoven with the record of this +musical work, is worthy to be compared with her. This part was for years +regarded as standing to her what _Medea_ was to Pasta, _Norma_ to Grisi, +_Fidelio_ to Malibran and Schröder-Devrient, and it was only when she +herself made a loftier flight as _Fides_ in "Le Prophète" that this +special connection of the part with the _artist_ ceased. Her genius +always found a more ardent sympathy with the higher forms of music. "The +florid graces and embellishments of the modern Italian school," says a +capable judge, "though mastered by her with perfect ease, do not appear +to be consonant with her genius. So great an artist must necessarily be +a perfect mistress of all styles of singing, but her intellect evidently +inclines her to the severer and loftier school." She was admitted to be +a "woman of genius, peculiar, inasmuch as it is universal." + +Her English engagement at the Royal Italian Opera, in 1848, began with +the performance of _Amina_ in "La Sonnambula," and created a great +sensation, for she was about to contest the suffrages of the public with +a group of the foremost singers of the world, among whom were Grisi, +Alboni, and Persiani. Mme. Viardot's nervousness was apparent to all. +"She proved herself equal to Malibran," says a writer in the "Musical +World," speaking of this performance; "there was the same passionate +fervor, the same absorbing depth of feeling; we heard the same tones +whose naturalness and pathos stole into our very heart of hearts; we saw +the same abstraction, the same abandonment, the same rapturous awakening +to joy, to love, and to devotion. Such novel and extraordinary passages, +such daring nights into the region of fioriture, together with chromatic +runs ascending and descending, embracing the three registers of the +soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto, we have not heard since the days +of Malibran." Another critic made an accurate gauge of her peculiar +greatness in saying: "Mme. Viardot's voice grows unconsciously upon you, +until at last you are blind to its imperfections. The voice penetrates +to the heart by its sympathetic tones, and you forget everything in it +but its touching and affecting quality. You care little or nothing for +the mechanism, or rather, for the weakness of the organ. You are no +longer a critic, but spellbound by the hand of genius, moved by the +sway of enthusiasm that comes from the soul, abashed in the presence of +intellect." + +The most memorable event of this distinguished artist's life was her +performance, in 1849, of the character of _Fides_ in "Le Prophète." No +operatic creation ever made a greater sensation in Paris. Meyerbeer had +kept it in his portfolio for years, awaiting the time when Mme. Viardot +should be ready to interpret it, and many changes had been made from +time to time at the suggestion of the great singer, who united to her +executive skill an intellect of the first rank, and a musical knowledge +second to that of few composers. At the very last moment it is said that +one or more of the acts were entirely reconstructed, at the wish of the +representative of _Fides_, whose dramatic instincts were as unerring as +her musical judgment. No performance since that of Viardot, though the +most eminent singers have essayed the part, has equaled the first ideal +set by her creation from its possibilities. + +In this opera the principal interest pivots on the _mother_. The +sensuous, sentimental, or malignant phases of love are replaced by +the purest maternal devotion. It was left for Mme. Viardot to add an +absolutely new type to the gallery of portraits on the lyric stage. We +are told by a competent critic, whose enthusiasm in the study of +this great impersonation did not yet quite run away with his judicial +faculty: "Her remarkable power of self-identification with the character +set before her was, in this case, aided by person and voice. The mature +burgher woman in her quaint costume; the pale, tear-worn devotee, +searching from city to city for traces of the lost one, and struck +with a pious horror at finding him a tool in the hands of hypocritical +blasphemy, was till then a being entirely beyond the pale of the +ordinary prima donna's comprehension--one to the presentation of which +there must go as much simplicity as subtile art, as much of tenderness +as of force, as much renunciation of woman's ordinary coquetries as +of skill to impress all hearts by the picture of homely love, desolate +grief, and religious enthusiasm." M. Roger sang with Mme. Viardot in +Paris, but, when the opera was shortly afterward reproduced in London, +he was replaced by Signor Mario, "whose appearance in his coronation +robes reminded one of some bishop-saint in a picture by Van Ryek or +Durer, and who could bring to bear a play of feature without grimace, +into scenes of false fascination, far beyond the reach of the clever +French artist, M. Roger." The production of "Le Prophète" saved the +fortunes of the struggling new Italian Opera House, which had been +floundering in pecuniary embarrassments. + +The last season of Mme. Viardot in England was in 1858, during which she +sang to enthusiastic audiences in many of her principal characters, +and also contributed to the public pleasure in concert and the great +provincial festivals. The tour in Poland, Germany, and Russia which +followed was marked by a series of splendid ovations and the eagerness +with which her society was sought by the most patrician circles in +Europe. + +Her last public appearance in Paris was in 1862, and since that time +Mme. Viardot has occupied a professional chair at the Conservatoire. In +private life this great artist has always been loved and admired for +her brilliant mental accomplishments, her amiability, the suavity of her +manners, and her high principles, no less than she has been idolized by +the public for the splendor of her powers as musician and tragedienne. + + + + +FANNY PERSIANI. + +The Tenor Singer Tacchinardi.--An Exquisite Voice and Deformed +Physique.--Early Talent shown by his Daughter Fanny.--His Aversion +to her entering on the Stage Life.--Her Marriage to M. Persiani.--The +Incident which launched Fanny Persiani on the Stage.--Rapid Success as a +Singer.--Donizetti writes one of his Great Operas for her.--_Personnel_, +Voice, and Artistic Style of Mme. Persiani.--One of the Greatest +Executants who ever lived.--Anecdotes of her Italian Tours.-- +First Appearance in Paris and London.--A Tour through Belgium with +Rubini.--Anecdote of Prince Metternich.--Further Studies of Persiani's +Characteristics as a Singer.--Donizetti composes Another Opera for +her.--Her Prosperous Career and Retirement from the Stage.--Last +Appearance in Paris for Mario's Benefit. + + +I. + +Under the Napoleonic _régime_ the Odéon was the leading lyric theatre, +and the great star of that company was Nicholas Tacchinardi, a tenor in +whom nature had combined the most opposing characteristics. The +figure of a dwarf, a head sunk beneath the shoulders, hunchbacked, and +repulsive, he was hardly a man fitted by nature for a stage hero. Yet +his exquisite voice and irreproachable taste as a musician gave him a +long reign in the very front rank of his profession. He was so morbidly +conscious of his own stage defects that he would beg composers to write +for him with a view to his singing at the side scenes before entering +on the stage, that the public might form an impression of him by hearing +before his grotesque ugliness could be seen. Another expedient for +concealing some portion of his unfortunate figure was often practiced +by this musical Caliban, that of coming on the stage standing in a +triumphal car. But this only excited the further risibilities of his +hearers, and he was forced to be content with the chance of making his +vocal fascination condone the impression made by his ugliness. + +At his first appearance on the boards of the Odéon, he was saluted with +the most insulting outbursts of laughter and smothered ejaculations +of "Why, he's a hunchback!" Being accustomed to this kind of greeting, +Tacchinardi tranquilly walked to the footlights and bowed. "Gentlemen," +he said, addressing the pit, "I am not here to exhibit my person, but +to sing. Have the goodness to hear me." They did hear him, and when he +ceased the theatre rang with plaudits: there was no more laughter. His +personal disadvantages were redeemed by one of the finest and +purest tenor voices ever given by nature and refined by art, by his +extraordinary intelligence, by an admirable method of singing, an +exquisite taste in fioriture, and facility of execution. + +Fanny Tacchinardi was the second daughter of the deformed tenor, born at +Rome, October 4, 1818, three years after Tacchinardi had returned again +to his native land. Fanny's passion for music betrayed itself in her +earliest lisps, and it was not ignored by Tacchinardi, who gave her +lessons on the piano and in singing. At nine she could play with +considerable intelligence and precision, and sing with grace her +father's ariettas and _duettini_ with her sister Elisa, who was not only +an excellent pianist, but a good general musician and composer. The girl +grew apace in her art feeling and capacity, for at eleven she took part +in an opera as prima donna at a little theatre which her father had +built near his country place, just out of Florence. Tacchinardi was, +however, very averse to a professional career for his daughter, in spite +of the powerful bent of her tastes and the girl's pleadings. He had been +_chanteur de chambre_ since 1822 for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and +in the many concerts and other public performances over which he was +director his daughter frequently appeared, to the great delight of +amateurs. Fanny even at this early age had a voice of immense compass, +though somewhat lacking in sweetness and flexibility, defects which she +subsequently overcame by study and practice. As the best antidote to +the sweet stage poison which already began to run riot in her veins, +her father brought about an early marriage for the immature girl, and +in 1830 she was united to Joseph Persiani, an operatic composer of some +merit, though not of much note. She resided with her husband in her +father's house for several years, carefully secluded as far as possible +from musical influences, but the hereditary passion and gifts could +not be altogether suppressed, and the youthful wife quietly pursued her +studies with unbroken perseverance. + +The incident which irretrievably committed her energies and fortunes to +the stage was a singular one, yet it is not unreasonable to assume that, +had not this occurred, her ardent predilections would have found some +other outlet to the result to which she aspired. M. Fournier, a rich +French merchant, settled at Leghorn, was an excellent musician, and +carried this recreation of his leisure hours so far as to compose an +opera, "Francesca di Rimini," the subject drawn from the romance of +"Silvio Pellico." The wealthy merchant could find no manager who would +venture to produce the work of an amateur. But he was willing and able +to become his own _impressario_, and accordingly he set about forming an +operatic troupe and preparing the scenery for a public representation +of his dearly beloved musical labor. The first vocalists of Italy, Mmes. +Pisaroni and Rasallima Caradori, contralto and soprano, were engaged at +lavish salaries, and on the appointed day of the first rehearsal they +all appeared except Caradori, whose Florentine manager positively +forbade her singing as a violation of his contract. M. Fournier was in +despair, but at last some one remembered Mme. Persiani, who was known +as a charming dilettante. Her residence was not many miles away from +Leghorn, and it was determined to have recourse to this last resort, +for it was otherwise almost impossible to secure a vocalist of talent +at short notice. A deputation of M. Fournier's friends, among whom were +those well acquainted with the Tacchinardi family, formed an embassy to +represent the urgent need of the composer and implore the aid of Mme. +Persiani. With some difficulty the consent of husband and father was +obtained, and the young singer made her _début_ in the opera of the +merchant-musician. Mme. Persiani said in after-years that, had her +attempt been a successful one, it was very doubtful if she ever would +have pursued the profession of the stage. But her performance came +very near to being a failure. Her pride was so stung and her vanity +humiliated that she would not listen to the commands of husband and +father. She would become a great lyric artist, or else satisfy herself +that she _could_ not become one. The turning-point of her life had come. + +She found an engagement at the La Scala, Milan, and she speedily laid a +good foundation for her future renown. She sang at Florence with +Duprez, and Donizetti, who was then in the city, composed his "Rosmonda +d'Inghilterra" for these artists. For two years there was nothing of +specially important note in Mme. Persiani's life except a swift and +steady progress. An engagement at Vienna made her the pet of that city, +which is fanatical in its musical enthusiasm, and we next find her back +again in Italy, singing greatly to the satisfaction of the public in +such operas as "Romeo e Giulietta," "Il Pirata," "La Gazza Ladra," +and "L'Elisir d'Amore." Mme. Pasta was singing in Venice when Persiani +visited that city, and the latter did not hesitate to enter into +competition with her illustrious rival. Indeed, the complimentary +Venetians called her "la petite Pasta," though the character of her +talent was entirely alien to that of the great tragedienne of music. +Milan and Rome reechoed the voice of other cities, and during her stay +in Rome she appeared in two new operas, "Misantropia e Pentimento" and +"I Promessi Sposi." Among the artists associated with her during the +Roman engagement was Ronconi, who was then just beginning to establish +his great reputation. One of the most important events of her early +career was her association, in 1834, at the San Carlo, Naples, with +Duprez, Caselli, and La-blache. The composer Donizetti had always been +charmed with her voice as suiting the peculiar style of music in +which he excelled, and he determined to compose an opera for her. His +marvelous facility of composition was happily illustrated in this case. +The novel of "The Bride of Lammermoor" was turned into a libretto for +him by a Neapolitan poet, Donizetti himself, it is said, having written +the last act in his eagerness to save time and get it completed that +he might enter on the musical composition. The opera of "Lucia di +Lammermoor," one of the most beautiful of the composer's works, was +finished in little more than five weeks. The music of _Edgardo_ was +designed for the voice of M. Duprez, that of _Lucia_ for Mme. Persiani, +and the result was brilliantly successful, not only as suiting the +styles of those singers, but in making a powerful impression on the +public mind. Mme. Persiani never entered into any rivalry with those +singers who were celebrated for their dramatic power, for this talent +did not peculiarly stamp her art-work. But her impersonation of _Lucia_ +in Donizetti's opera was sentimental, impassioned, and pathetic to a +degree which saved her from the reproach which was sometimes directed +against her other performances--lack of unction and abandon. + + +II. + +The _personnel_ of Mme. Persiani could not be considered highly +attractive. She was small, thin, with a long, colorless face, and looked +older than her years. Her eyes were, however, soft and dreamy, her smile +piquant, her hair like gold-colored silk, and exquisitely long. Her +manner and carriage both on and off the stage were so refined and +charming, that of all the singers of the day she best expressed that +thorough-bred look which is independent of all beauty and physical +grace. "Never was there woman less vulgar, in physiognomy or in manner, +than she," says Mr. Chorley, describing Mme. Persiani; "but never was +there one whose appearance on the stage was less distinguished. She was +not precisely insignificant to see, so much as pale, plain, and anxious. +She gave the impression of one who had left sorrow or sickness at +home, and who therefore (unlike those wonderful deluders, the French +actresses, who, because they will not be ugly, rarely _look_ so) had +resigned every question of personal attraction as a hopeless one. She +was singularly tasteless in her dress. Her one good point was her hair, +which was splendidly profuse, and of an agreeable color." + +As a vocalist, it was agreed that her singing had the volubility, +ease, and musical sweetness of a bird: her execution was remarkable +for velocity. Her voice was rather thin, but its tones were clear as a +silver bell, brilliant and sparkling as a diamond; it embraced a range +of two octaves and a half (or about eighteen notes, from B to F in alt), +the highest and lowest notes of which she touched with equal ease and +sweetness. She had thus an organ of the most extensive compass known in +the register of the true soprano. Her facility was extraordinary; +her voice was implicitly under her command, and capable not only of +executing the greatest difficulties, but also of obeying the most daring +caprices--scales, shakes, trills, divisions, fioriture the most dazzling +and inconceivable. She only acquired this command by indefatigable +labor. Study had enabled her to execute with fluency and correctness +the chromatic scales, ascending and descending, and it was by sheer hard +practice that she learned to swell and diminish her accents; to emit +tones full, large, and free from nasal or guttural sounds, to manage +her respiration skillfully, and to seize the delicate shades of +vocalization. In fioriture and vocal effects her taste was faultless, +and she had an agreeable manner of uniting her tones by the happiest +transitions, and diminishing with insensible gradations. She excelled +in the effects of vocal embroidery, and her passion for ornamentation +tempted her to disregard the dramatic situation in order to give way +to a torrent of splendid fioriture, which dazzled the audience without +always satisfying them. + +The characters expressing placidity, softness, and feminine grace, like +_Lucia, Amina,_ and _Zerli-na_, involving the sentimental rather than +the passionate, were best fitted to Mme. Persiani's powers as artist. +She belonged to the same school as Sontag, not only in character +of voice, but in all her sympathies and affinities; yet she was not +incapable of a high order of tragic emotion, as her performance of the +mad scene of "Lucia di Lammermoor" gave ample proof, but this form of +artistic expression was not spontaneous and unforced. It was only well +accomplished under high pressure. Escudin said of her, "It is not only +the nature of her voice which limits her--it is also the expression +of her acting, we had almost said the ensemble of her physical +organization. She knows her own powers perfectly. She is not ambitious, +she knows exactly what will suit her, and is aware precisely of the +nature of her talent." Although she attained a high reputation in some +of Mozart's characters, as, for example, _Zerlina_, the Mozart music was +not well fitted to her voice and tastes. The brilliancy and flexibility +of her organ and her airy style were far more suited to the modern +Italian than to the severe German school. + +A charming compliment was paid by Malibran, who knew how to do such +things with infinite taste and delicacy, to Persiani, when the latter +lady was singing at Naples in 1835: while the representative of +_Lucia_ was changing her costume between the acts, a lady entered her +dressing-room, and complimented her in warmest terms on the excellence +of her singing. The visitor then took the long golden tresses floating +over Persiani's shoulders, and asked, "Is it all your own?" On being +laughingly answered in the affirmative, Malibran, for it was she, said, +"Allow me, signora, since I have no wreath of flowers to offer you, to +twine you one with your own beautiful hair." Mme. Persiani's artistic +tour through Italy, in 1835, culminated in Florence with one of those +exhibitions of popular tyranny and exaction which so often alternate +with enthusiasm in the case of audiences naturally ardent and +impressible, and consequently capricious. When the singer arrived at the +Tuscan capital, she was in such a weak and exhausted state that she did +not deem it prudent to sing. Her manager was, however, unbending, +and insisted on the exact fulfillment of her contract. After vain +remonstrances she yielded to her taskmaster, and appeared in "I +Puritani," trusting to the forbearance and kindness of her audience. +But a few notes had escaped her pale and quivering lips when the angry +audience broke out into loud hisses, marks of disapprobation which were +kept up during the performance. Mme. Persiani could not forgive this, +and, when she completely recovered her voice and energy a few weeks +after, she treated the lavish demonstrations of the public with the most +cutting disdain and indifference. At the close of her engagement, she +publicly announced her determination never again to sing in Florence, on +account of the selfish cruelty to which she had been subjected both by +the manager and the public. Persiani's fame grew rapidly in every part +of Europe. At Vienna, she was named chamber singer to the Austrian +sovereign, and splendid gifts were lavished on her by the imperial +family, and in the leading cities of Germany, as in St. Petersburg and +Moscow, the highest recognition of her talents was shown alike by court +and people. + +It was not till 1837 that Mme. Persiani ventured to make her first +appearance in Paris, a step which she took with much apprehension, for +she had an exaggerated notion of the captious-ness and coldness of the +French public. When she stepped on the stage, November 7th, the night of +her _début_ in "Sonnambula," she was so violently shaken by her emotions +that she could scarcely stand. The other singers were Rubini, Tamburini, +and Mlle. Allessandri, and the audience was of the utmost distinction, +including the foremost people in the art, literary, and social circles +of Paris. The _debutante_ was well received, but it was not until +she appeared in Cimarosa's "Il Matrimonio Segreto" that she was fully +appreciated. Rubini and Tamburini were with her in the cast, and the +same great artists participated also with her in the performance of +"Lucia," which set the final seal of her artistic won h in the +public estimate. She also appeared in London in the following year in +"Sonnambula." "It is no small risk to any vocalist to follow Malibran +and Grisi in a part which they both played so well," was the observation +of one critic, "and it is no small compliment to Persiani to say that +she succeeded in it." She had completely established herself as a +favorite with the London public before the end of the season, and +thereafter she continued to sing alternately in London and Paris for a +succession of years, sharing the applause of audiences with such artists +as Grisi, Viardot, Lablache, Tamburini, Rubini, and Mario. + +A tour through Belgium and the Rhenish provinces, partly operatic, +partly concertizing, which she took with Rubini in the summer and fall +of 1841, was highly successful from the artistic point of view, and +replete with pleasant incidents, among which may be mentioned their +meeting at Wiesbaden with Prince Metternich, who had come with a crowd +of princes, ministers, and diplomats from the château of Johannisberg +to be present at the concert. At the conclusion of the performance, the +Prince took Rubini by the arm, and walked up and down the salon with him +for some time. They had become acquainted at Vienna. "My dear +Rubini," said Metternich, "it is impossible that you can come so near +Johannisberg without paying me a visit there. I hope you and your +friends will come and dine with me to-morrow." The following day, +therefore, Rubini, Mme. Persiani, etc., went to the château, so +celebrated for the produce of its vineyards, where M. Metternich and his +princess did the honors with the utmost affability and cordiality. After +dinner, Rubini, unasked, sang two of his most admired airs; and +the Prince, to testify his gratification, offered him a basket of +Johannisberg, "to drink my health," he laughingly said, "when you reach +your château of Bergamo." Rubini accepted the friendly offering, and +begged permission to bring Mme. Rubini, before quitting the north of +Europe, to visit the fine château. Metternich immediately summoned his +major-domo, and said to him, "Remember that, if ever M. Rubini visits +Johannisberg during my absence, he is to be received as if he were its +master. You will place the whole of the château at his disposal so long +as he may please to remain." "And the cellar, also?" asked Rubini. "The +cellar, also," added the Prince, smiling: "the cellar at discretion." + + +III. + +The characteristics of Mme. Persiani's voice and art have already been +generally described sufficiently to convey some distinct impression of +her personality as a singer, but it is worth while to enter into some +more detailed account of the peculiar qualities which for many years +gave her so great a place on the operatic stage. Her acute soprano, +mounting to E flat _altissimo_, had in it many acrid and piercing notes, +and was utterly without the caressing, honeyed sweetness which, for +example, gave such a sensuous charm to the voice of Mme. Grisi. But she +was an incomparable mistress over the difficulties of vocalization. From +her father, Tacchinardi, who knew every secret of his art, she received +a full bequest of his knowledge. Her voice was developed to its utmost +capacity, and it was said of her that every fiber in her frame seemed +to have a part in her singing; there was nothing left out, nothing kept +back, nothing careless, nothing unfinished. So sedulous was she in the +employment of her vast and varied resources that she frequently rose +to an animation which, if not sympathetic, as warmth kindling warmth, +amounted to that display of conscious power which is resistless. +The perfection with which she wrought up certain scenes, such as the +"Sonnambula" _finale_ and the mad scene in "Lucia," judged from the +standard of musical style, was not surpassed in any of the dazzling +displays of the stage. She had the finest possible sense of accent, +which enabled her to give every phrase its fullest measure. + +Groups of notes were divided and expressed by her with all the precision +which the best violinists put into their bowing. The bird-like case with +which she executed the most florid, rapid, and difficult music was so +securely easy and unfailing as to excite something of the same kind of +wonder with which one would watch some matchless display of legerdemain. + +Another great musical quality in which she surpassed her contemporaries +was her taste and extraordinary facility in ornament. Always refined and +true in style, she showed a variety and brilliancy in her changes and +cadenzas which made her the envy of other singers. In this form of +accomplishment she was first among Italians, who, again, are first among +the singers of the world. Every passage was finished to perfection; and, +though there were other singers not inferior to her in the use of the +shake or the trill, yet in the attack of intervals distant from each +other, in the climbing up a series of groups of notes, ascending to the +highest in the scale, there was no singer of her own time or since who +could compete with her. Mr. Chorley tells us how convincingly these rare +and remarkable merits impressed themselves on him, "when, after a few +years' absence from our stage, Mme. Persiani reappeared in London, how, +in comparison with her, her younger successors sounded like so many +immature scholars of the second class." On her gala nights the spirit +and splendor of her execution were daring, triumphant, and irresistible, +if we can trust those who heard her in her days of greatness. +Moschcles, in his diary, speaks of the incredible difficulties which +she overcame, and compares her performance with that of a violinist, +while Mendelssohn, who did not love Italian music or the Italian +vocalization, said: "Well, I do like Mme. Persiani dearly. She is such +a thorough artist, and she sings so earnestly, and there is such a +pleasant _bitter_ tone in her voice." + +Donizetti met Mme. Persiani again in Vienna in 1842, and composed for +her his charming opera, "Linda di Chamouni," which, with the exception +of the "Favorita" and "Lucia," is generally admitted to be his best. +In this opera our singer made an impression nearly equal to that in +"Lucia," and it remained afterward a great favorite with her, and one in +which she was highly esteemed by the European public. + +The transformation of Covent Garden Theatre into a spacious and noble +opera-house in 1847, and the secession of the principal artists from Her +Majesty's Theatre, were the principal themes of musical gossip in the +English capital at that time. The artists who went over to the Royal +Italian Opera were Mines, Grisi and Persiani, Mlle. Alboni (then a +novelty on the English stage), and Signors Mario, Tamburini, Salvi, +Ronconi, Hovere, and Marini. M. Persiani was the director, and Signor +Costa the _chef d'orchestre_. Although the company of singers was a +magnificent combination of musical talent, and the presentation of opera +in every way admirable, the enterprise had a sickly existence for a +time, and it was not until it had passed through various vicissitudes, +and came finally into the hands of the astute Lumley, that the +enterprise was settled on a stable foundation. + +From 1850 to 1858 Mme. Persiani sang with her usual brilliant success in +all the principal cities of Europe, receiving, for special performances +in which she was a great favorite, the then remarkable sum of two +hundred pounds per night. Her last appearance in England was in the +spring of 1858, when she performed in "I Puritani," "Don Pasquale," +"Linda di Chamouni," and "Don Giovanni." In the following winter she +established her residence in Paris, with the view of training pupils for +the stage. Only once did she depart from her resolution of not singing +again in opera. This was when Signor Mario was about to take his benefit +in the spring of 1859. The director of the Theatre Italiens entreated +Persiani to sing _Zerlina_ to the _Don Giovanni_ of Mario, to which she +at last consented. "My career," she said, "began almost in lisping the +divine music of 'Don Giovanni'; it will be appropriately closed by the +interpretation of this _chef-d'ouvre_ of the master of masters, the +immortal Mozart." Mme. Persiani died in June, 1867, and her funeral +was attended by a host of operatic celebrities, who contributed to the +musical exercises of a most impressive funeral. Mme. Persiani, aside +from her having possessed a wonderful executive art in what may be +called the technique of singing, will long be remembered by students +of musical history as having, perhaps, contributed more than any other +singer to making the music of Donizetti popular throughout Europe. + + + + +MARIETTA ALBONI. + +The Greatest of Contraltos.--Marietta Alboni's Early +Surroundings.--Rossini's Interest in her Career.--First Appearance on +the Operatic Stage.--Excitement produced in Germany by her Singing.--Her +Independence of Character.--Her Great Success in London.--Description +of her Voice and Person.--Concerts in Taris.--The Verdicts of the Great +French Critics.--Hector Berlioz on Alboni's Singing.--She appears in +Opera in Paris.--Strange Indifference of the Audience quickly turned to +Enthusiasm.--She competes favorably in London with Grisi, Persiani, +and Viardot.--Takes the Place of Jenny Lind as Prima Donna at Her +Majesty's.--She extends her Voice into the Soprano Register.--Performs +_Fides_ in "Le Prophète."--Visit to America.--Retires from the Stage. + + +I. + +There was a time early in the century when the voice of Rosamunda +Pisaroni was believed to be the most perfect and delightful, not only +of all contraltos of the age, but to have reached the absolute ideal of +what this voice should be. She even for a time disputed the supremacy +of Henrietta Sontag as the idol of the Paris public, though the latter +great singer possessed the purest of soprano voices, and won no less +by her personal loveliness than by the charm of her singing. Pisaroni +excelled as much in her dramatic power as in the beauty of her voice, +and up to the advent of Marietta Alboni on the stage was unquestionably +without a rival in the estimate of critics as the artist who surpassed +all the traditions of the operatic stage in this peculiar line of +singing. But her memory was dethroned from its pedestal when the +gorgeous Alboni became known to the European public. + +Thomas Noon Talfourd applied to a well-known actress of half a century +since the expression that she had "corn, wine, and oil" in her looks. +A similar characterization would well apply both to the appearance +and voice of Mlle. Alboni, when she burst on the European world in the +splendid heyday of her youth and charms--the face, with its broad, sunny +Italian beauty, incapable of frown; the figure, wrought in lines +of voluptuous symmetry, though the _embonpoint_ became finally too +pronounced; the voice, a rich, deep, genuine contralto of more than +two octaves, as sweet as honey, and "with that tremulous quality which +reminds fanciful spectators of the quiver in the air of the calm, +blazing summer's noon"; a voice luscious beyond description. To this +singer has been accorded without dissent the title of the "greatest +contralto of the nineteenth century." + +The father of Marietta Alboni was an officer of the customs, who lived +at Casena in the Romagna, and possessed enough income to bestow an +excellent education on all his family. Marietta, born March 10, 1822, +evinced an early passion for music, and a great facility in learning +languages. She was accordingly placed with Signor Bagioli, a local +music-teacher, under whom she so prospered that at eleven she could read +music at sight, and vocalize with considerable fluency. Having studied +her solfeggi with Bagioli, she was transferred to the tuition of Mme. +Bertoletti, at Bologna. Here she had the good fortune to make the +acquaintance of Rossini, in whom she excited interest. Rossini gave +her some lessons, and expressed a high opinion of her prospects. "At +present," he said to some one inquiring about the young girl's talents, +"her voice is like that of an itinerant ballad singer, but the town +will be at her feet before she is a year older." It was chiefly through +Rossini's cordial admiration of her voice that Morelli, one of the +great _entrepreneurs_ of Italy, engaged her for the Teatro Communale +of Bologna. Here she made her first appearance as _Maffeo Orsini_, in +"Lucrezia Borgia," in 1842, Marietta then having reached the age of +twenty. She was then transferred to the La Scala, at Milan, where she +performed with marked success in "La Favorita." Rossini himself signed +her contract, saying, "I am the subscribing witness to your union with +renown. May success and happiness attend the union!" Her engagement was +renewed at the La Scala for four successive seasons. A tempting offer +from Vienna carried her to that musical capital, and during the three +years she remained there she won brilliant laurels and a fame which had +swiftly coursed through Europe; for musical connoisseurs visiting Vienna +carried away with them the most glowing accounts of the new contralto. +Her triumphs were renewed in Russia, Belgium, Holland, and Prussia, +where her glorious voice created a genuine _furore_, not less flattering +to her pride than the excitement produced at an earlier date by Pasta, +Sontag, and Malibran. An interesting proof of her independence and +dignity of character occurred on her first arrival in Berlin, before she +had made her _début_ in that city. + +She was asked by an officious friend "if she had waited on M------." +"No! who is this M------," was the reply. "Oh!" answered her inquisitor, +"he is the most influential journalist in Prussia." "Well, how does +this concern me?" "Why," rejoined the other, "if you do not contrive +to insure his favorable report, you are ruined." The young Italian drew +herself up disdainfully. "Indeed!" she said, coldly; "well, let it be as +Heaven directs; but I wish it to be understood that in _my_ breast the +woman is superior to the artist, and, though failure were the result, +I would never degrade myself by purchasing success at so humiliating a +price." The anecdote was repeated in the fashionable saloons of +Berlin, and, so far from injuring her, the noble sentiment of the young +_debutante_ was appreciated. The king invited her to sing at his court, +where she received the well-merited applause of an admiring audience; +and afterward his Majesty bestowed more tangible evidences of his +approbation. + +It was not till 1847 that Marietta Alboni appeared in England. Mr. +Beale, the manager of the Royal Italian Opera, the new enterprise which +had just been organized in the revolutionized Covent Garden Theatre, +heard her at Milan and was charmed with her voice. Rumors had reached +England, of course, concerning the beauty of the new singer's voice, but +there was little interest felt when her engagement was announced. The +"Jenny Lind" mania was at its height, and in the company in which +Alboni herself was to sing there were two brilliant stars of the first +luster, Grisi and Persiani. So, when she made her bow to the London +public as _Arsace_, in "Semiramide," the audience gazed at her with a +sort of languid and unexpectant curiosity. But Alboni found herself the +next morning a famous woman. People were astounded by this wonderful +voice, combining luscious sweetness with great volume and capacity. It +was no timid _débutante_, but a finished singer whose voice rolled out +in a swelling flood of melody such as no English opera-house had heard +since the palmiest days of Pisaroni. Musical London was electrified, +and Grisi, who sang in "Semiramide," sulked, because in the great +duet, "Giorno d'orrore," the thunders of applause evidently concerned +themselves with her young rival rather than with herself. Another +convincing proof of her power was that she dared to restore the +beautiful aria "In si barbara," which had been hitherto suppressed for +lack of a contralto of sufficient greatness to give it full effect. In +one night she had established herself as a trump card in the manager's +hand against the rival house, an accession which he so appreciated that, +unsolicited, he raised her salary from five hundred to two thousand +pounds. + +Mlle. Alboni's voice covered nearly three octaves, from E flat to C +sharp, with tones uniformly rich, full, mellow, and liquid. The quality +of the voice was perfectly pure and sympathetic, the articulation so +clear and fluent, even in the most difficult and rapid passages, that +it was like a performance on a well-played instrument. The rapidity +and certainty of her execution could only be compared to the dazzling +character of Mme. Persiani's vocalization. Her style and method were +considered models. Although her facility and taste in ornamentation were +of the highest order, Alboni had so much reverence for the intentions of +the composer, that she would rarely add anything to the music which she +interpreted, and even in the operas of Rossini, where most singers +take such extraordinary liberties with the score, it was Alboni's pride +neither to add nor omit a note. Perhaps her audiences most wondered at +her singular ease. An enchanting smile lit up her face as she ran the +most difficult scales, and the extreme feats of musical execution gave +the idea of being spontaneous, not the fruit of art or labor. Her +whole appearance, when she was singing, as was said by one enthusiastic +amateur, conveyed the impression of exquisite music even when the sense +of hearing was stopped. + +Alboni's figure, although large, was perfect in symmetry, graceful and +commanding, and her features regularly beautiful, though better fitted +for the expression of comedy than of tragedy. The expression of her +countenance was singularly genial, vivacious, and kindly, and her +eyes, when animated in conversation or in singing, flashed with great +brilliancy. Her smile was bewitching, and her laugh so infectious that +no one could resist its influence. + +Fresh triumphs marked Mlle. Alboni's London season to its close. In +"La Donna del Lago," "Lucrezia Borgia," "Maria de Rohan," and "La +Gazza Ladra" she was pronounced inimitable by the London critics. Mme. +Persiani's part in "Il Barbiere" was assumed without rehearsal and at +a moment's notice, and given in a way which satisfied the most exacting +judges. It sparkled from the first to the last note with enchanting +gayety and humor. + + +II. + +M. Duponchel, the manager of the Opéra in Paris, hastened to London to +hear Alboni sing, and immediately offered her an engagement. In October, +1847, she made her Parisian _début_. Her first appearance in concert was +with Alizard and Barroilhet. "Many persons, artists and amateurs," said +Fiorentino, "absolutely asked on the morning of her _début_, Who is +this Alboni? Whence does she come? What can she do?" And their +interrogatories were answered by some fragments of those trifling and +illusory biographies which always accompany young vocalists. There was, +however, intense curiosity to hear and see this redoubtable singer who +had held the citadel of the Royal Italian Opera against the attraction +of Jenny Lind, and the theatre was crowded to suffocation by rank, +fashion, beauty, and notabilities on the night of her first concert, +October 9th. When she stepped quietly on the stage, dressed in black +velvet, a brooch of brilliants on her bosom, and her hair cut _à la +Titus_, with a music-paper in her hand, there was just one thunder-clap +of applause, followed by a silence of some seconds. She had not one +acknowledged advocate in the house; but, when Arsace's cavatina, "Ah! +quel giorno," gushed from her lips in a rich stream of melodious sound, +the entire audience was at her feet, and the critics could not command +language sufficiently glowing to express their admiration. + +"What exquisite quality of sound, what purity of intonation, what +precision in the scales!" wrote the critic of the "Revue et Gazette +Musicale." "What _finesse_ in the manner of the breaks of the voice! +What amplitude and mastery of voice she exhibits in the 'Brindisi'; what +incomparable clearness and accuracy in the air from 'L'ltaliana' and the +duo from 'Il Barbiere!' There is no instrument capable of rendering with +more certain and more faultless intonation the groups of rapid notes +which Rossini wrote, and which Alboni sings with the same facility and +same celerity. The only fault the critic has in his power to charge +the wondrous artist with is, that, when she repeats a morceau, we hear +exactly the same traits, the same turns, the same fioriture, which was +never the case with Malibran or Cinti-Damoreau." + +"This vocal scale," says Scudo, speaking of her voice, "is divided into +three parts or registers, which follow in complete order. The first +register commences at F in the base, and reaches F in the _medium_. This +is the true body of the voice, whose admirable timbre characterizes and +colors all the rest. The second extends from G in the _medium_ to F on +the fifth line; and the upper part, which forms the third register, is +no more than an elegant superfluity of Nature. It is necessary next +to understand with what incredible skill the artist manages this +instrument; it is the pearly, light, and florid vocalization of +Persiani joined to the resonance, pomp, and amplitude of Pisaroni. No +words can convey an idea of the exquisite purity of this voice, always +mellow, always equable, which vibrates without effort, and each note of +which expands itself like the bud of a rose--sheds a balm on the ear, +as some exquisite fruit perfumes the palate. No scream, no affected +dramatic contortion of sound, attacks the sense of hearing, under the +pretense of softening the feelings." + +"But that which we admire above all in the artist," observes Fiorentino, +"is the pervading soul, the sentiment, the perfect taste, the inimitable +method. Then, what body in the voice! What largeness! What simplicity of +style! What facility of vocalization! What genius in the contrasts! What +color in the phrases! What charm! What expression! Mlle. Alboni sings as +she smiles--without effort, without fatigue, without audible and broken +respiration. Here is art in its fidelity! here is the model and example +which every one who would become an artist should copy." + +"It is such a pleasure to hear real singing," wrote Hector Berlioz. "It +is so rare; and voices at once beautiful, natural, expressive, flexible, +and _in time_, are so very uncommon! The voice of Mlle. Alboni possesses +these excellent qualities in the highest degree of perfection. It is +a magnificent contralto of immense range (two octaves and six notes, +nearly three octaves, from low E to C in alt), the quality perfect +throughout, even in the lowest notes of the lowest register, which +are generally so disastrous to the majority of singers, who fancy they +possess a contralto, and the emission of which resembles nearly always +a rattle, hideous in such cases and revolting to the ear. Mlle. +Alboni's vocalization is wonderfully easy, and few sopranos possess such +facility. The registers of her voice are so perfectly united, that in +her scales you do not feel sensible of the passage from one to another; +the tone is unctuous, caressing, velvety, melancholy, like that of +all pure sopranos, though less somber than that of Pisaroni, and +incomparably more pure and limpid. As the notes are produced without +effort, the voice yields itself to every shade of intensity, and +thus Mlle. Alboni can sing from the most mysterious piano to the most +brilliant forte. And this alone is what I call singing humanly, that +is to say, in a fashion which declares the presence of a human heart, +a human soul, a human intelligence. Singers not possessed of these +indispensable qualities should in my judgment be ranked in the category +of mechanical instruments. Mlle. Alboni is an artist entirely devoted to +her art, and has not up to this moment been tempted to make a trade +of it; she has never heretofore given a thought to what her delicious +notes--precious pearls, which she lavishes with such happy bounty--might +bring her in per annum. Different from the majority of contemporary +singers, money questions are the last with which she occupies herself; +her demands have hitherto been extremely modest. Added to this, the +sincerity and trustworthiness of her character, which amounts almost to +singularity, are acknowledged by all who have any dealings with her." + +After the greatness of the artist had fairly-been made known to the +public, the excitement in Paris was extraordinary. At some of the later +concerts more than a thousand applications for admission had to be +refused, and it was said that two theatres might have been thronged. +Alboni was nearly smothered night after night with roses and camellias, +and the stage was literally transformed into a huge bed of flowers, +over which the prima donna was obliged to walk in making her exits. +An amusing example of the _naïveté_ and simplicity of her character is +narrated. On the morning after her second performance, she was seated +in her hotel on the Boulevard des Italiens, reading the _feuilletons_ +of Berlioz and Fiorentino with a kind of childish pleasure, unconscious +that she was the absorbing theme of Paris talk. A friend came in, when +she asked with unaffected sincerity whether she had really sung "_assez +bien_" on Monday night, and broke into a fit of the merriest laughter +when she received the answer, "_Très bien pour une petite fille_." +"Alboni," writes this friend, "is assuredly for a great artist the most +unpretending and simple creature in the world. She hasn't the slightest +notion of her position in her art in the eyes of the public and musical +world." + + +III. + +Mme. Alboni's great success, it is said, made M. Vatel, the manager of +the Italiens, almost frantic with disappointment, for, acting on the +advice of Lablache, he had refused to engage her when he could have done +so at a merely nominal sum, and had thus left the grand prize open to +his rival. Her concert engagement being terminated, our prima donna made +a short tour through Austria, and returned to Paris again to make her +_début_ in opera on December 2d, in "Semiramide," with Mme. Grisi, +Coletti, Cellini, and Tagliafico, in the cast. The caprice of audiences +was never more significantly shown than on this occasion. Alboni, on +the concert stage, had recently achieved an unmistakable and brilliant +recognition as a great vocalist, and on the night of her first lyric +appearance before a French audience a great throng had assembled. +All the celebrities of the fashionable, artistic, and literary world, +princes, Government officials, foreign ministers, dilettanti, poets, +critics, women of wit and fashion, swelled the gathering of intent +listeners, through whom there ran a subdued murmur, a low buzz of +whispering, betraying the lively interest felt. Grisi came on after the +rising of the curtain and received a most cordial burst of applause. +At length the great audience was hushed to silence, and the orchestra +played the symphonic prelude which introduces the contralto air "Eccomi +alfin in Babilonia." Alboni glided from the side and walked slowly +to the footlights. Let an eye-witness complete the story: "There was a +sudden pause," says one who was present; "a feather might almost have +been heard to move. The orchestra, the symphony finished, refrained from +proceeding, as though to give time for the enthusiastic reception which +was Alboni's right, and which it was natural to suppose Alboni would +receive. But you may imagine my surprise and the feelings of the +renowned contralto when not a hand or a voice was raised to acknowledge +her! I could see Alboni tremble, but it was only for an instant. What +was the reason of this unanimous disdain or this unanimous doubt? call +it what you will. She might perhaps guess, but she did not suffer it +to perplex her for more than a few moments. Throwing aside the extreme +diffidence that marked her _entrée_, and the perturbation that resulted +from the frigidity of the spectators, she wound herself up to the +condition of fearless independence for which she is constitutionally and +morally remarkable, and with a look of superb indifference and conscious +power she commenced the opening of her aria. In one minute the crowd, +that but an instant before seemed to disdain her, was at her feet! The +effect of those luscious tones had never yet failed to touch the heart +and rouse the ardor of an audience, educated or uneducated." Alboni's +triumph was instantaneous and complete; it was the greater from the +moment of anxious uncertainty that preceded it, and made the certainty +which succeeded more welcome and delightful. From this instant to the +end of the opera, Alboni's success grew into a triumph. During the first +act she was twice recalled; during the second act, thrice; and she was +encored in the air "In si barbara," which she delivered with pathos, and +in the cabaletta of the second duet with _Semiramide_. She followed +in "La Cenerentola," and it may easily he fancied that her hearers +compensated in boisterous warmth of reception for the phlegmatic +indifference shown on the first night. + +The English engagement of Mlle. Alboni the following year at Covent +Garden was at a salary of four thousand pounds, and the popularity she +had accomplished in England made her one of the most attractive features +of the operatic season. Her delicious singing and utter freedom from +aught that savored of mannerism or affectation made her power of +captivation complete in spite of her lack of dramatic energy. She sang +in the same company with Grisi, Persiani, and Viardot, while Mario and +Tamburini added their magnificent voices to this fine constellation of +lyric stars. When she returned to London in 1849, Jenny Lind had retired +from the stage where she had so thoroughly bewitched the public, and +Mlle. Alboni became the leading attraction of Her Majesty's Theatre, +thus arraying herself against the opera organization with which she had +been previously identified. Among the other members of the company were +Lablache and Ronconi. Mlle. Alboni seemed to be stung by a feverish +ambition at this time to depart from her own musical genre, and shine in +such parts as _Rosina, Ninetta, Zerlina_ ("Don Giovanni ") and _Norina_ +("Don Pasquale"). The general public applauded her as vehemently as +ever, but the judicious grieved that the greatest of contraltos should +forsake a realm in which she blazed with such undivided luster. + +It is difficult to fancy why Alboni should have ventured on so dangerous +an experiment. It may be that she feared the public would tire of her +luscious voice, unperturbed as it was by the resistless passion and +sentiment which in such singers as Malibran, Pasta, and Viardot, had +overcome all defects of voice, and given an infinite freshness and +variety to their tones. It may be that the higher value of a soprano +voice in the music market stirred a feeling in Alboni which had been +singularly lacking to her earlier career. Whatever the reason might have +been, it is a notorious fact that Mlle. Alboni deliberately forced the +register upward, and in doing so injured the texture of her voice, +and lost something both of luscious tone and power. In later years she +repented this artistic sin, and recovered the matchless tones of her +youth in great measure, but, as long as she persevered in her ambition +to be a _soprano_, the result was felt by her most judicious friends to +be an unfortunate one. + +A pleasant incident, illustrating Alboni's kindness of heart, occurred +on the eve of her departure for Italy, whither she was called by family +reasons. Her leave-taking was so abrupt that she had almost forgotten +her promise to sing in Paris on a certain date for the annual benefit of +Filippo Galli, a superannuated musician. The suspense and anxiety of the +unfortunate Filippo were to be more easily imagined than described when, +asked if Alboni would sing, he could not answer definitively--"Perhaps +yes, perhaps no." He sold very few tickets, and the rooms (in the Salle +Hera) were thinly occupied. She, however, had not forgotten her promise; +at the very moment when the matinée was commencing she arrived, in time +to redeem her word and reward those who had attended, but too late to be +of any service to the veteran. Galli was in despair, and was buried +in reflections neither exhilarating nor profitable, when, some minutes +after the concert, the comely face and portly figure of Alboni appeared +at the door of his room. "How much are the expenses of your +concert?" she kindly inquired. "_Mia cara_," dolorously responded the +bénéficiaire, "_cinque centifranci_ [five hundred francs]." "Well, +then, to repair the loss that I may have caused you," said the generous +cantatrice, "here is a banknote for a thousand francs. Do me the favor +to accept it." This was only one of the many kind actions she performed. + +Mlle. Alboni's Paris engagement, in the spring of 1850, was marked by a +daring step on her part, which excited much curiosity at the time, +and might easily have ended in a most humiliating reverse, though its +outcome proved fortunate, that undertaking being the _rôle_ of _Fides_ +in "Le Prophète," which had become so completely identified with the +name of Viardot. It was owing as much, perhaps, to the insistance of the +managers of the Grand Opéra as to the deliberate choice of the singer +that this experiment was attempted. Meyerbeer perhaps smiled in his +sleeve at the project, but he interposed no objection, and indeed went +behind the scenes to congratulate her on her success during the night of +the first performance. Alboni's achievement was gratifying to her pride, +but it need not be said that her interpretation of _Fides_ was +radically different from that of Mme. Viardot, which was a grand +tragic conception, akin to those created by the genius of Pasta and +Schröder-Devrient. The music of "Le Prophète" had never been well fitted +to Viardot's voice, and it was in this better adaptation of Alboni to +the vocal score that it may be fancied her success, such as it was, +found its root. It was significant that the critics refrained from +enlarging on the dramatic quality of the performance. Mlle. Alboni +continued her grasp of this varied range of lyric character during her +seasons in France, Spain, and England for several years, now assuming +_Fides_, now _Amino_, in "Sonnambula," now _Leonora_ in "Favorita," +and never failing, however the critics might murmur, in pleasing the +ultimate, and, on the whole, more satisfactory bench of judges, +the public. It was no new thing to have proved that the mass of +theatre-goers, however eccentric and unjustifiable the vagaries of a +favorite might be, are inclined to be swayed by the cumulative force +of long years of approval. In the spring of 1851, Mlle. Alboni, among +several of her well-established personations, was enabled to appear in a +new opera by Auber, "Corbeille d'Oranges," a work which attained only +a brief success. It became painfully apparent about this time that the +greatest of contralto singers was losing the delicious quality of her +voice, and that her method was becoming more and more conventional. Her +ornaments and fioriture never varied, and this monotony, owing to the +indolence and _insouciance_ of the singer, was never inspired by that +resistless fire and geniality which made the same cadenzas, repeated +night after night by such a singer as Pasta, appear fresh to the +audience. + +Mlle. Alboni's visit to the United States in 1852 was the occasion of a +cordial and enthusiastic welcome, which, though lacking in the fury and +excitement of the "Jenny Lind" mania, was yet highly gratifying to the +singer's _amour propre_. There was a universal feeling of regret that +her tour was necessarily a short one. Her final concert was given at +Metropolitan Hall, New York, on May 2, 1852, the special occasion +being the benefit of Signor Arditi, who had been the conductor of +her performances in America. The audience was immense, the applause +vehement. + +The marriage of Alboni to the Compte de Pepoli in 1853 caused a rumor +that she was about to retire from the stage. But, though she gave +herself a furlough from her arduous operatic duties for nearly a year, +she appeared again in Paris in 1854 in "La Donna del Lago" and other of +the Rossinian operas. Her London admirers, too, recognized in the newly +married prima donna all the charm of her youth. + +In July, 1855, she was at the Grand Opéra, in Paris, performing in "Le +Prophète," etc., with Roger, having contracted an engagement for three +years. In 1856 she was at Her Majesty's Theatre with Piccolomini, +and made her first appearance in the character of _Azucena_ in "Il +Trovatore." Her performances were not confined to the opera-house; she +sang at the Crystal Palace and in the Surrey Music Hall. In October she +was again at the Italiens, commencing with "La Cenerentola." She then, in +conjunction with Mario, Graziani, and Mme. Frezzolini, began performing +in the works of Verdi. "Il Trovatore" was performed in January, 1857, +and was followed by "Rigoletto," which was produced in defiance of the +protestations of Victor Hugo, from whose play, "Le Roi s'amuse," the +libretto had been taken. Victor Hugo declared that the representation of +the opera was an infringement of his rights, as being simply a piracy of +his drama, and he claimed that the Theatre Italiens should be restrained +from performing it. The decision of the court was, however, against the +irascible poet, and he had to pay the costs of the action. + +But why should the reader be interested in a yearly record of the +engagements of a great singer, after the narrative of the early +struggles by which success is reached and the means by which success +is perpetuated has come to an end? The significance of such a recital +is that of ardent endeavor, persistent self-culture, and unflagging +resolution. Mme. Alboni continued to sing in the principal musical +centers of Western Europe till 1864, when she definitely retired from +the stage, and settled at her fine residence in Paris, midst the ease +and luxury which the large fortune she had acquired by professional +exertion enabled her to maintain. She occasionally appeared in opera and +concert to the great delight of her old admirers, who declared that the +youthful beauty and freshness of her voice had returned to her. Since +the death of her husband she has only sung in public once, and then in +Rossini's Mass, in London in 1871. + +Both the husband and the brothers of Alboni were gallant soldiers in the +Italian war of independence, and received medals and other distinctions +from Victor Emanuel. Mme. Alboni in private life is said to be one of +the most amiable, warm-hearted, and fascinating of women, and to take +the deepest interest in helping the careers of young singers by advice, +influence, and pecuniary aid. In social life she is quite as much the +idol of her friends as she was for so many years of an admiring public. + + + + +JENNY LIND. + +The Childhood of the "Swedish Nightingale."--Her First Musical +Instruction.--The Loss and Return of her Voice.--Jenny Lind's +Pupilage in Paris under Manuel Garcia.--She makes the Acquaintance of +Meyerbeer.--Great Success in Stockholm in "Robert le Diable."--Fredrika +Bremer and Hans Christian Andersen on the Young Singer.--Her _Début_ +in Berlin.--Becomes Prima Donna at the Royal Theatre.--Beginning of +the Lind Enthusiasm that overran Europe.--She appears in Dresden in +Meyerbeer's New Opera, "Feldlager in Schliesen."--Offers throng in from +all the Leading Theatres of Europe.--The Grand _Furore_ in Every Part +of Germany.--Description of Scenes in her Musical Progresses.--She makes +her _Début_ in London.--Extraordinary Excitement of the English Public, +such as had never before been known.--Descriptions of her Singing +by Contemporary Critics.--Her Quality as an Actress.--Jenny Lind's +_Personnel_.--Scenes and Incidents of the "Lind" Mania.--Her Second +London Season.--Her Place and Character as a Lyric Artist.--Mlle. +Lind's American Tour.--Extraordinary Enthusiasm in America.--Her +Lavish Generosity.--She marries Herr Otto Goldschmidt.--Present Life of +Retirement in London.--Jenny Lind as a Public Benefactor. + + +I. + +The name of Jenny Lind shines among the very brightest in the Golden +Book of Singers, and her career has been one of the most interesting +among the many striking personal chapters in the history of lyric music. +It was not that the "Swedish Nightingale" was supremely great in any +chief quality of the lyric artist. Others have surpassed her in natural +gifts of voice, in dramatic fervor, in versatility, in perfect vocal +finish. But to Jenny Lind were granted all these factors of power in +sufficiently large measure, and that power of balance and coordination +by which such powers are made to yield their highest results. An +exquisitely serene and cheerful temperament, a high ambition, great +energy and industry, and such a sense of loyalty to her engagements that +she always gave her audience the very best there was in her--these were +some of the moral phases of the art-nature which in her case proved of +immense service in achieving her great place as a singer, and in holding +that place secure against competition for so many years. + +The parents of Jenny Lind were poor, struggling folk in the city of +Stockholm, who lived precariously by school-teaching. Jenny, born +October 6, 1821, was a sickly child, whose only delight in her long, +lonely hours was singing, the faculty for which was so strong that at +the age of three years she could repeat with unfailing accuracy any song +she once heard. Jenny shot up into an awkward, plain-featured girl, with +but little prospect of lifting herself above her humble station, +till she happened, when she was about nine years old, to attract the +attention of Frau Lundburg, a well-known actress, who was delighted with +the silvery sweetness of her tones. It was with some difficulty that the +prejudices of the Linds could be overcome, but at last they reluctantly +consented that she should be educated with a view to the stage. +The little Jenny was placed by her kind patroness under the care of +Croelius, a well-known music-master of Stockholm, and her abilities were +not long in making their mark. The old master was proud of his pupil, +and took her to see the manager of the Court theatre, Count Pücke, +hoping that this stage potentate's favor would help to push the fortune +of his _protégée_. The Count, a rough, imperious man, who mayhap had +been irritated by numerous other appeals of the same kind, looked coldly +on the plainly clad, insignificant-looking girl, and said: "What shall +we do with such an ugly creature? See what feet she has! and then her +face! She will never be presentable. Certainly, we can't take such a +scarecrow." The effect of such a salutation on a timid, shrinking child +may be imagined. Croelius replied, with honest indignation, "If you will +not take her, I, poor as I am, will myself have her educated for the +stage." Count Pücke, who under a rough husk had some kindness of heart, +then directed Jenny to sing, and he was so pleased with the quality and +sentiment of her simple song that he admitted her into the theatrical +school, and put her under the special tuition of Herr Albert Berg, +the director of the operatic class, who was assisted by the well-known +Swedish composer, Lindblad. + +In two years' time the young Jenny Lind had created for herself the +reputation of being a prodigy. It was not only that she possessed an +exquisite voice, but a precocious conception and originality of style. +Her dramatic talent also showed promising glimpses of what was to come, +and everything appeared to point to a shining stage career, when there +came a crushing calamity. She lost her voice. She was now twelve years +old, and in her childish perspective of life this disaster seemed +irretrievable, the sunshine of happiness for ever clouded. To become a +singer in grand opera had been the great aspiration of her heart. Her +voice gone, she was soon forgotten by the fickle public who had looked +on this young girl as a chrysalis soon to burst into the glory of a +fuller life. It showed the resolute stuff which nature had put into this +young girl, that, in spite of this crushing downfall of her ambition, +she continued her instrumental and theoretical studies with unremitting +zeal for nearly four years. At the end of this period the recovery of +her voice occurred as abruptly as her loss of it had done. + +A grand concert was to be given at the Court theatre, in which the +fourth act of "Robert le Diable" was to be a principal feature. No one +of the singers cared for the part of _Alice_, as it had but one solo, +and in the emergency Herr Berg thought of his unlucky young _élève_, +Jenny Lind, who might be trusted with such a minor responsibility. The +girl meekly consented, though, when she appeared on the stage, she shook +with such evident trepidation and nervousness that her little remaining +power of voice threatened to be destroyed. Perhaps the passion and +anxiety under which she was laboring wrought the miracle. She sang the +aria allotted her with such power and precision, and the notes of +her voice burst forth with such beauty and fullness of tone, that the +audience were carried away with admiration. The recently despised young +vocalist became the heroine of the evening. Berg, the director of the +music, was amazed, and on the next day acquainted Jenny Lind that he +had selected her to undertake the _rôle_ of _Agatha_ in Weber's "Der +Freischutz." + +This was the first character which had awakened our young singer's +artistic sympathies, and toward it her secret ambition had long set. +She studied with the labor of love, and all the Maytide of her young +enthusiasm poured itself into her impersonation of Weber's beautiful +creation. At the last rehearsal before performance, she sang with such +intense ardor and feeling that the members of the orchestra laid aside +their instruments and broke into the most cordial applause. "I saw her +at the evening representation," says Fredrika Bremer. "She was then +in the spring of life--fresh, bright, and serene as a morning in May; +perfect in form; her hands and her arms peculiarly graceful, and lovely +in her whole appearance. She seemed to move, speak, and sing without +effort or art. All was nature and harmony. Her singing was distinguished +especially by its purity and the power of soul which seemed to swell in +her tones. Her 'mezzo voice' was delightful. In the night-scene where +_Agatha_, seeing her lover coming, breathes out her joy in rapturous +song, our young singer, on turning from the window at the back of +the stage to the spectators again, was pale for joy; and in that pale +joyousness she sang with a burst of outflowing love and life that called +forth not the mirth, but the tears of the auditors." + +Jenny Lind has always regarded the character of _Agatha_ as the keystone +of her fame. From the night of this performance she was the declared +favorite of the Swedish public, and continued for a year and a half the +star of the opera of Stockholm, performing in "Euryanthe," "Robert +le Diable," "La Vestale," of Spontini, and other operas. She labored +meanwhile with indefatigable industry to remedy certain natural +deficiencies in her voice. Always pure and melodious in tone, it was +originally wanting in elasticity. She could neither hold her notes to +any considerable extent, nor increase nor diminish their volume with +sufficient effect; and she could scarcely utter the slightest cadence. +But, undaunted by difficulties, she persevered, and ultimately achieved +that brilliant and facile execution which, it is difficult to believe, +was partially denied her by nature. + +Jenny Lind's tribulations, however, were not yet over. She had +overstrained an organ which had not gained its full strength, and it was +discovered that her tones were losing their freshness. The public began +to lose its interest, and the opera was nearly deserted, for Jenny Lind +had been the singer on whom main dependence was placed. She felt a deep +conviction that she had need of further teaching, and that of a quality +and method not to be attained in her native city. Manuel Garcia had +formed more famous prima donnas than any other master, and it was Jenny +Lind's dream by night and day to go to this magician of the schools, +whose genius and knowledge had been successfully imparted to so many +great singers. But to do this required no small amount of funds, and to +raise a sufficient sum was a grave problem. There were not in Stockholm +a large number of wealthy and generous connoisseurs, such as have +been found in richer capitals, eager to discover genius and lavish +in supplying the means of its cultivation. No! she must earn the +wherewithal herself. So, during the operatic recess, the plucky maiden +started out under the guardianship of her father, and gave concerts in +the principal towns of Sweden and Norway, through which she managed +to amass a considerable sum. She then bade farewell to her parents and +started for Paris, her heart again all aflame with hope and confidence. + + +II. + +Manuel Garcia received Jenny Lind kindly, who was fluttered with +anxiety. The master's verdict was not very encouraging. When he had +heard her sing, "My good girl," he said, "you have no voice; or, I +should rather say, you had a voice, but are now on the verge of losing +it. Your organ is strained and worn out, and the only advice I can offer +you is to recommend you not to sing a note for three months. At the end +of that time come to me, and I'll see what I can do for you." This was +heart-breaking, but there was no appeal, and so, at the end of three +wearisome months, Jenny Lind returned to Garcia. He pronounced her voice +greatly strengthened by its rest. Under the Garcia method the young +Swedish singer's voice improved immensely, and, what is more, her +conception and grasp of musical method. The cadences and ornaments +composed by Jenny were in many cases considered worthy by the master of +being copied, and her progress in every way pleased Garcia, though he +never fancied she would achieve any great musical distinction. Another +pupil of Garcia's was a Mlle. Nissen, who, without much intellectuality, +had a robust, full-toned voice. Jenny Lind often said that it reduced +her to despair at times to hear the master hold up this lady as an +example, all the while she felt her own great superiority, the more +lofty quality of her ambition. Garcia would say: "If Jenny Lind had the +voice of Nissen, or the latter Lind's brains, one of them would become +the greatest singer in Europe. If Lind had more voice at her disposal, +nothing would prevent her from becoming the greatest of modern singers; +but, as it is, she must be content with singing second to many who will +not have half her genius." It is quite amusing to note how quickly this +dogmatic prophecy of the great maestro disproved itself. + +After nearly a year under Garcia's tuition she was summoned home. The +Swedish musician who brought her the order to return to her duties +at the Stockholm Court Theatre, from which she had been absent by +permission, was a friend of Meyerbeer, and through him Jenny Lind +was introduced to the composer. Meyerbeer, unlike Garcia, promptly +recognized in her voice "one of the finest pearls in the world's chaplet +of song," and was determined to hear her under conditions which would +fully test the power and quality of so delicious an organ. He arranged +a full orchestral rehearsal, and Jenny Lind sang in the _salon_ of the +Grand Opéra the three great scenes from "Robert le Diable," "Norma," and +"Der Freischutz." The experiment vindicated Meyerbeer's judgment, and +Jenny Lind could then and there have signed a contract with the manager, +whom Meyerbeer had taken care to have present, had it not been for the +spiteful opposition of a distinguished prima donna, who had an undue +influence over the managerial mind. + +The young singer returned to Stockholm a new being, assured of her +powers, self-centered in her ambition, and with a right to expect a +successful career for herself. Her preparation had been accompanied with +much travail of spirit, disappointment, and suffering, but the harvest +was now ripening for the reaper. The people of Stockholm, though they +had let her depart with indifference, received her back right cordially, +and, when she made her first reappearance as _Alice_, in "Robert le +Diable," the welcome had all the fury of a great popular excitement. Her +voice had gained remarkable flexibility and power, the quality of it +was of a bell-like richness, purity, and clearness; her execution +was admirable, and her dramatic power excellent. The good people of +Stockholm discovered that they had been entertaining an angel unawares. +Though Jenny Lind was but little known out of Sweden, she soon received +an offer from the Copenhagen opera, but she dreaded to accept the offer +of the Danish manager. "I have never made my appearance out of Sweden," +she observed; "everybody in mv native land is so affectionate and kind +to me, and if I made my appearance in Copenhagen and should be hissed! +I dare not venture on it!" However, the temptations held out to her, and +the entreaties of Burnonville, the ballet-master of Copenhagen, who had +married a Swedish friend of Jenny Lind's, at last prevailed over the +nervous apprehensions of the young singer, and Jenny made her first +appearance in Copenhagen as _Alice_, in "Robert le Diable." "It was +like a new revelation in the realms of art," says Andersen ("Story of my +Life"); "the youthful, fresh voice forced itself into every heart; +here reigned truth and nature, and everything was full of meaning and +intelligence. At one concert she sang her Swedish songs. There was +something so peculiar in this, so bewitching, people thought nothing +about the concert-room; the popular melodies uttered by a being so +purely feminine, and bearing the universal stamp of genius, exercised +the omnipotent sway--the whole of Copenhagen was in a rapture." Jenny +Lind was the first singer to whom the Danish students gave a serenade; +torches blazed around the hospitable villa where the serenade was +given, and she expressed her thanks by again singing some Swedish airs +impromptu. "I saw her hasten into a dark corner and weep for emotion," +says Andersen. "'Yes, yes! said she, 'I will exert myself; I will +endeavor; I will be better qualified than I now am when I again come to +Copenhagen.'" + +"On the stage," adds Andersen, "she was the great artist who rose above +all those around her; at home, in her own chamber, a sensitive young +girl with all the humility and piety of a child. Her appearance in +Copenhagen made an epoch in the history of our opera; it showed me art +in its sanctity: I had beheld one of its vestals." + +Jenny Lind was one of the few who regard art as a sacred vocation. +"Speak to her of her art," says Frederika Bremer, "and you will wonder +at the expansion of her mind, and will see her countenance beaming +with inspiration. Converse then with her of God, and of the holiness of +religion, and you will see tears in those innocent eyes: she is great as +an artist, but she is still greater in her pure human existence!" + +"She loves art with her whole soul," observes Andersen, "and feels her +vocation in it. A noble, pious disposition like hers can not be spoiled +by homage. On one occasion only did I hear her express her joy in her +talent and her self-consciousness. It was during her last residence in +Copenhagen. Almost every evening she appeared either in the opera or +at concerts; every hour was in requisition. She heard of a society, the +object of which was to assist unfortunate children, and to take them out +of the hands of their parents, by whom they were misused and compelled +either to beg or steal, and to place them in other and better +circumstances. Benevolent people subscribed annually a small sum each +for their support; nevertheless, the means for this excellent purpose +were very limited. 'But have I not still a disengaged evening?' said +she; 'let me give a night's performance for the benefit of those poor +children; but we will have double prices!' Such a performance was given, +and returned large proceeds. When she was informed of this, and that by +this means a number of poor people would be benefited for several years, +her countenance beamed, and the tears filled her eyes. 'It is, however, +beautiful,' she said, 'that I can sing so.'" + +Every effort was made by Jenny Lind's friends and admirers to keep her +in Sweden, but her genius spoke to her with too clamorous and exacting +a voice to be pent up in such a provincial field. There had been some +correspondence with Meyerbeer on the subject of her securing a Berlin +engagement, and the composer showed his deep interest in the singer by +exerting his powerful influence with such good effect that she was +soon offered the position of second singer of the Royal Theatre. Her +departure from Stockholm was a most flattering and touching display of +the public admiration, for the streets were thronged with thousands of +people to bid her godspeed and a quick return. + +The prima donna of the Berlin opera was Mlle. Nissen, who had been with +herself under Garcia's instruction, and it was a little humiliating +that she should be obliged to sing second to one whom she knew to be her +inferior. But she could be patient, and bide her time. In the mean while +the sapient critics regarded her with good-natured indifference, and +threw her a few crumbs of praise from time to time to appease her +hunger. At last she had her revenge. One night at a charity concert, +the fourth act of "Robert le Diable" was given, and the solo of _Alice_ +assigned to Jenny Lind. She had barely sung the first few bars when the +audience were electrified. The passion, fervor, novelty of treatment, +and glorious breadth of voice and style completely enthralled them. +They broke into a tempest of applause, and that was the beginning of +the "Lind madness," which, commencing in Berlin, ran through Europe with +such infectious enthusiasm. During the remaining three months of the +Berlin season, she was the musical idol of the Berlinese, and poor Mlle. +Nissen found herself hurled irretrievably from her throne. It was about +this time, near the close of 1843, that Mlle. Lind received her first +offer of an English engagement from Mr. Lumley, who had sent an agent to +Berlin to hear her sing, and make a report to him on this new prodigy. +No contract, however, was then entered into, Jenny Lind going to +Dresden instead, where her friend Meyerbeer was engaged in composing his +"Feldlager in Schliesen," the first part of which, _Vielka_, was offered +to her and accepted. She acquired the German language sufficiently +well in two months to sing in it, but it is rather a strange fact that, +though Mlle. Lind during her life learned not less than five languages +besides her own, she never spoke any of them with precision and purity, +not even Italian. + + +III. + +After an operatic campaign in Dresden, in the highest degree pleasant to +herself and satisfactory to the public, in which she sang, in addition +to _Vielka_, the parts of _Norma, Amina_, and _Maria_ in "La Figlia +del Reggimento," Jenny Lind returned to Stockholm to take part in the +coronation of the King of Sweden. Her fame spread throughout the musical +world with signal swiftness, and offers came pouring in on her from +London, Paris, Florence, Milan, and Naples. This northern songstress was +becoming a world's wonder, not because people had heard, but because the +few carried far and wide such wonderful reports of her genius. Her tour +in the summer of 1844 through the cities of Scandinavia and Germany +was almost like the progress of a royal personage, to which events had +attached some special splendor. Costly gifts were lavished on her, her +journeys through the streets were besieged by thousands of admiring +followers, her society was sought by the most distinguished people in +the land. The Countess of Rossi (Henrietta Sontag) paid her the tribute +of calling her "the first singer of the world." After a five months' +engagement in Berlin, the Swedish singer made her _début_ in "Norma," at +Vienna, on April 22, 1845. The Lind enthusiasm had been rising to +fever heat from the first announcement of her coming, and the prices of +admission had been doubled, much to the discomfort of poor Jenny Lind, +who feared that the over-wrought anticipation of the public would be +disappointed. But when she ascended the steps of the Druid altar and +began to sing, then the storm of applause which interrupted the opera +for several minutes decided the question unmistakably. + +After a brief return to her native city, she reappeared in Berlin, which +had a special claim on her regard, for it was there that her genius +had been first fully recognized and trumpeted forth in tones which rang +through the civilized world. She again received a liberal offer from +England, this time from Mr. Bunn, of the Drury Lane Theatre, and an +agreement was signed, with the names of Lord Westmoreland, the British +minister, and Meyerbeer as witnesses. The singer, however, was not +altogether satisfied with the contract, a feeling which increased when +she again was approached by Mr. Lumley's agent. There were many strong +personal and professional reasons why she preferred to sing under Mr. +Lumley's management, and the result was that she wrote to Mr. Bunn, +asking to break the contract, and offering to pay two thousand +pounds forfeit. This was refused, and the matter went into the courts +afterward, resulting in twenty-five hundred pounds damages awarded to +the disappointed manager. + +Berlin enthusiasm ran so high that the manager was compelled to reengage +her at the rate of four thousand pounds per year, with two months' +_congé_. The difficulty of gaining admission into the theatre, even when +she had appeared upward of a hundred nights, was so great, that it was +found necessary, in order to prevent the practice of jobbing in tickets, +which was becoming very prevalent, to issue them according to the +following directions, which were put forth by the manager: "Tickets must +be applied for on the day preceding that for which they are required, +by letter, signed with the applicant's proper and Christian name, +profession, and place of abode, and sealed with wax, bearing the +writer's initials with his arms. No more than one ticket can be +granted to the same person; and no person is entitled to apply for two +consecutive nights of the enchantress's performance." Her reputation and +the public admiration swelled month by month. Mendelssohn engaged her +for the musical festival at Aix-La-Chapelle, where he was the conductor, +and was so delighted with her singing that he said, "There will not be +born in a whole century another being so largely gifted as Jenny Lind." +The Emperor of Russia offered her fifty-six thousand francs a month for +five months (fifty-six thousand dollars), a sum then rarely equaled in +musical annals. + +The correspondent of the "London Athenaeum" gave an interesting sketch +of the feeling she created in Frankfort: + +"Dine where you would, you heard of Jenny Lind, when she was coming, +what she would sing, how much she was to be paid, who had got places, +and the like; so that, what with the _exigeant_ English dilettanti +flying at puzzled German landlords with all manner of Babylonish +protestations of disappointment and uncertainty, and native High +Ponderosities ready to trot in the train of the enchantress where she +might please to lead, with here and there a dark-browed Italian prima +donna lowering, Medea-like, in the background, and looking daggers +whenever the name of 'Questa Linda!' was uttered--nothing, I repeat, can +be compared to the universal excitement, save certain passages ('green +spots' in the memory of many a dowager Berliner) when enthusiasts rushed +to drink Champagne out of Sontag's shoe.... In 'La Figlia del +Reggimento,' compared with the exhibitions of her sister songstresses +now on the German stage, Mlle. Lind's personation was like a piece of +porcelain beside tawdry daubings on crockery." + +Jenny Lind's last appearance in Vienna before departing for England was +again a lighted match set to a mass of tinder, it raised such a +commotion in that music-loving city. The imperial family paid her the +most marked attention, and the people were inclined to go to any +extravagances to show their admiration. During these performances, the +stalls, which were ordinarily two florins, rose to fifty, and sometimes +there would be thousands of people unable to secure admission. On the +last night, after such a scene as had rarely been witnessed in any +opera-house, the audience joined the immense throng which escorted her +carriage home. Thirty times they summoned her to the window with cries +which would not be ignored, shouting, "Jenny Lind, say you will come +back again to us!" The tender heart of the Swedish singer was so +affected that she stood sobbing like a child at the window, and threw +flowers from the mass of bouquets piled on her table to her frenzied +admirers, who eagerly snatched them and carried them home as treasures. + +On her departure from Stockholm for London, the demonstration was most +affecting, and showed how deep the love of their great singer was rooted +in the hearts of the Swedes. Twenty thousand people assembled on the +quay, military bands had been stationed at intervals on the route, and +her progress through the streets was like that of a queen. She embarked +amid cheers, music, and tears, and, as she sailed out of the harbor, the +rigging of the vessels was decorated with flags, and manned, while the +artillery from the war vessels thundered salutes. All this sounds like +exaggeration to us now, but those who remember the enthusiasm kindled +by Jenny Lind in America can well believe the accounts of the feeling +called out by the "Swedish Nightingale" everywhere she went in Europe. + +When Mlle. Lind arrived in London, she was received by her friend Mrs. +Grote, wife of the great historian, and for several weeks was her guest, +the most distinguished men and women calling to pay their respects to +the gifted singer. She secluded herself, however, as much as possible +from general society, and it may be said, during the larger part of her +London engagement, lived in seclusion, much to the disgust of the social +celebrities who were eager to lionize her. Lablache, the basso, was one +of the first to hear Jenny sing. His pleasant criticism, "Every note was +like a perfect pearl," got to her ears. The _naïve_ and charming jest by +which she made her acknowledgment is quite worth the repeating. Stepping +to the side of Lablache one morning at rehearsal, she made a courtesy, +and borrowed his hat from the smiling basso. She then placed her lips to +the edge and sang into its capacious depths a beautiful French romance. +At the conclusion of the song, she ordered Lablache, who was bewildered +by this fantastic performance, to kneel before her, as she had a +valuable present for him, declaring that on his own showing she was +giving him a hatful of "pearls." Lablache was so delighted by this +simple and innocent gayety that he avowed he could not be more pleased +if she had given him a hatful of diamonds. + + +IV. + +Mr. Lumley had prepared the English public for the coming of Mlle. Lind +with consummate skill. The game of suspense was artfully managed to stir +curiosity to the uttermost. The provocations of doubt and disappointment +had been made to stimulate the musical appetite. There was a powerful +opposition to Lumley at the other theatre--Grisi, Persiani, Alboni, +Mario, and Tamburini--and the shrewd _impressario_ played all the cards +in his hand for their full value. It had been asserted that Mlle. Lind +would not come to England, and that no argument could prevail on her +to change her resolution, and this, too, after the contract was +signed, sealed, and delivered. The opera world was kept fevered by such +artifices as stories of broken pledges, long diplomatic _pour parlera_, +special messengers, hesitation, and vacillation, kept up during many +months. Lumley in his "Reminiscences" has described how no stone was +left unturned, not a trait of the young singer's character, public or +private, left un-_exploité_, by which sympathy and admiration could be +aroused. After appearing as the heroine of one of Miss Bremer's novels, +"The Home," the splendors of her succeeding career were glowingly set +forth. The panegyrics of the two great German composers, Mendelssohn and +Meyerbeer, were swollen into the most flowing language. All the secrets +of Jenny Land's life were made the subjects of innumerable puffs by the +paragraph makers, and her numerous deeds of charity were trumpeted in +clarion tones, as if she, a member of a profession famous for its deeds +of unostentatious kindness, were the only one who had the right to +wear the lovely crown of mercy and beneficence. All this machinery of +advertisement, though wofully opposed to all the instincts of Jenny +Lind's modest and timid nature, had the effect of fixing the popular +belief into a firm faith that what had cost so much trouble to secure +must indeed be unspeakably precious. + +The interest and curiosity of the public were, therefore, wrought up +to an extraordinary pitch. Her first appearance was on May 4, 1847, as +_Alice_, in "Robert le Diable," a part so signally identified with +her great successes. "The curtain went up, the opera began, the cheers +resounded, deep silence followed," wrote the critic of the "Musical +World," "and the cause of all the excitement was before us. It opened +its mouth and emitted sound. The sounds it emitted were right pleasing, +honey-sweet, and silver-toned. With all this, there was, besides, a +quietude that we had not marked before, and a something that hovered +about the object, as an unseen grace that was attired in a robe of +innocence, transparent as the thin surface of a bubble, disclosing +all, and making itself rather felt than seen." Chorley tells us that +Mendelssohn, who was sitting by him, and whose attachment to Jenny +Lind's genius was unbounded, turned round, watched the audience as +the notes of the singer swelled and filled the house, and smiled +with delight as he saw how completely every one in the audience +was magnetized. The delicious sustained notes which began the first +cavatina died away into a faint whisper, and thunders of applause went +up as with one breath, the stentorian voice of Lablache, who was sitting +in his box, booming like a great bell amid the din. The excitement +of the audience at the close of the opera almost baffles description. +Lumley's hopes were not in vain. Jenny Lind was securely throned as the +operatic goddess of the town, and no rivalry had power to shake her from +her place. + +The judgment of the musical critics, though not intemperate in praise, +had something more than a touch of the public enthusiasm. "It is wanting +in that roundness and mellowness which belongs to organs of the South," +observed a very able musical connoisseur. "When forced, it has by no +means an agreeable sound, and falls hard and grating on the ears. It +is evident that, in the greater part of its range, acquired by much +perseverance and study, nature has not been bountiful to the Swedish +Nightingale in an extraordinary degree. But art and energy have supplied +the defects of nature. Perhaps no artist, if we except Pasta, ever +deserved more praise than Jenny Lind for what she has worked out of bad +materials. From an organ neither naturally sweet nor powerful, she has +elaborated a voice capable of producing the most vivid sensations. +In her mezzo-voce singing, scarcely any vocalist we ever heard can be +compared to her. The most delicate notes, given with the most perfect +intonation, captivate the hearers, and throw them into ecstasies of +delight. This is undoubtedly the great charm of Jenny Lind's singing, +and in this respect we subscribe ourselves among her most enthusiastic +admirers.... She sustains a C or D in alt with unerring intonation and +surprising power. These are attained without an effort, and constitute +another charm of the Nightingale's singing. + +"In pathetic music Jenny Lind's voice is heard to much advantage. +Indeed, her vocal powers seem best adapted to demonstrate the more +gentle and touching emotions. For this reason her solo singing is almost +that alone in which she makes any extraordinary impression. In ensemble +singing, excepting in the piano, her voice, being forced beyond its +natural powers, loses all its beauty and peculiar charm, and becomes, +in short, often disagreeable.... Her voice, with all its charm, is of +a special quality, and in its best essays is restricted to a particular +class of lyrical compositions.... As a vocalist, Jenny Lind is entitled +to a very high, if not the highest, commendation. Her perseverance and +indomitable energy, joined to her musical ability, have tended to +render her voice as capable and flexible as a violin. Although she never +indulges in the brilliant flights of fancy of Persiani, nor soars +into the loftiest regions of fioriture with that most wonderful of all +singers, her powers of execution are very great, and the delicate taste +with which the most florid passages are given, the perfect intonation of +the voice, and its general charm, have already produced a most decided +impression on the public mind. By the musician, Persiani will be always +more admired, but Jenny Lind will strike the general hearer more." + +Another contemporaneous judgment of Jenny Lind's voice will be of +interest to our readers: "Her voice is a pure soprano, of the fullest +compass belonging to voices of this class, and of such evenness of +tone that the nicest ear can discover no difference of quality from the +bottom to the summit of the scale. In the great extent between A below +the lines and D in alt, she executes every description of passage, +whether consisting of notes 'in linked sweetness long drawn out,' or +of the most rapid flights and fioriture, with equal facility and +perfection. Her lowest notes come out as clear and ringing as the +highest, and her highest are as soft and sweet as the lowest. Her tones +are never muffled or indistinct, nor do they ever offend the ear by +the slightest tinge of shrillness; mellow roundness distinguishes every +sound she utters. As she never strains her voice, it never seems to be +loud; and hence some one who busied himself in anticipatory depreciation +said that it would be found to fail in power, a mistake of which +everybody was convinced who observed how it filled the ear, and how +distinctly every inflection was heard through the fullest harmony of the +orchestra. The same clearness was observable in her pianissimo. When, in +lier beautiful closes, she prolonged a tone, attenuated it by degrees, +and falling gently upon the final note, the sound, though as ethereal +as the sighing of a breeze, reached, like Mrs. Siddons's whisper in Lady +Macbeth, every part of the immense theatre. Much of the effect of this +unrivaled voice is derived from the physical beauty of its sound, but +still more from the exquisite skill and taste with which it is used, and +the intelligence and sensibility of which it is the organ. Mlle. Lind's +execution is that of a complete musician. Every passage is as highly +finished, as perfect in tone, tune, and articulation, as if it proceeded +from the violin of a Paganini or a Sivori, with the additional charm +which lies in the human _voice_ divine. Her embellishments show +the richest fancy and boundless facility, but they show still more +remarkably a well-regulated judgment and taste." + +Mlle. Lind could never have been a great actress, and risen into that +stormy world of dramatic power, where the passion and imagination of +Pasta, Schröder-Devrient, Malibran, Viardot, or even Grisi, wrought +such effects, but, within the sphere of her temperament, she was easy, +natural, and original. One of her eulogists remarked: "Following her own +bland conceptions, she rises to regions whence, like Schiller's maid, +she descends to refresh the heart and soul of her audience with gifts +beautiful and wondrous"; but, as she never attempted the delineation of +the more stormy and vehement passions, it is probable that she was more +cognizant of her own limitations, than were her critics. + +She was not handsome, but of pleasing aspect. A face of placid +sweetness, expressive features, soft, dove-like-blue eyes, and very +abundant, wavy, flaxen hair, made up a highly agreeable _ensemble_, +while the slender figure was full of grace. There was an air of virginal +simplicity and modesty in every movement which set her apart among her +stage sisters. To this her character answered in every line; for, moving +in the midst of a world which had watched every action, not the faintest +breath of scandal ever shaded the fair fame of this Northern lily. + +The struggle for admission after the first night made the attempt to +get a seat except by long préarrangement an experience of purgatory. +Twenty-five pounds were paid for single boxes, while four or five +guineas were gladly given for common stalls. Hours were spent before the +doors of the opera-house on the chance of a place in the pit. It is said +that three gentlemen came up from Liverpool with the express purpose of +hearing the new _diva_ sing, spent a week in trying to obtain seats, and +returned without success. No such mania for a singer had ever fired the +phlegmatic blood of the English public. Articles of furniture and dress +were called by her name; portraits and memoirs innumerable of her were +published. + +During the season she appeared in "Robert le Diable," "Sonnambula," +"Lucia" "La Figlia del Reggimento," and "Norma," as well as in a new +opera by Verdi, "I Masnadieri," which even Jenny Lind's genius and +popularity could not keep on the surface. At the close of the season, +her manager, Lumley, presented her a magnificent testimonial of pure +silver, three feet in height, representing a pillar wreathed with +laurel, at the feet of which wore seated three draped figures, Tragedy, +Comedy, and Music. Her tour through the provinces repeated the sensation +and excitement of London. Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and +Dundee vied with the great capital in the most extravagant excesses +of admiration, and fifteen guineas were not infrequently paid for the +privilege of hearing her. For two concerts in Edinburgh Mlle. Lind +received one thousand pounds for her services, and the management made +twelve hundred pounds. Such figures are referred to simply as affording +the most tangible estimate of the extent and violence of the Lind fever. + + +V. + +Yet with all this flattery and admiration, which would have fed the +conceit of a weaker woman to madness, Jenny Lind remained the same +quiet, simple-hearted, almost diffident woman as of yore. The great +pianist and composer Moscheles writes: "What shall I say of Jenny Lind? +I can find no words adequate to give you any idea of the impression she +has made.... This is no short-lived fit of public enthusiasm. I wanted +to know her off the stage as well as on; but, as she lives at some +distance from me, I asked her in a letter to fix upon an hour for me to +call. Simple and unceremonious as she is, she came the next day herself, +bringing the answer verbally. So much modesty and so much greatness +united are seldom if ever to be met with; and, although her intimate +friend Mendelssohn had given me an insight into the noble qualities of +her character, I was surprised to find them so apparent." + +From a variety of accounts we are justified in concluding that never had +there been such a musical enthusiasm in London. Since the days when the +world fought for hours at the pit-door to see the seventh farewell of +Siddons, nothing had been seen in the least approaching the scenes +at the entrance of the theatre on the "Lind" nights. Of her various +impersonations during the season of 1847, her _Amina_ in "Sonnambula" +made the deepest impression on the town, as it was marked by several +original features, both in the acting and singing, which were remarkably +effective. Her performance of _Norma_ was afterward held by judicious +critics to be far inferior to that of Grisi in its dramatic aspect; but, +when the mania was at its height, those who dared to impeach the ideal +perfection of everything done by the idol of the hour were consigned +to perdition as idiotic slanderers. Chorley wrote with satirical +bitterness, though himself a warm admirer of the "Swedish Nightingale": +"It was a curious experience to sit and to wait for what should come +next, and to wonder whether it really was the case that music never had +been heard till the year 1847." + +Mlle. Lind passed the winter at Stockholm, and it is needless to speak +of the pride and delight of her townspeople in the singer who had +created such an unprecedented sensation in the musical world. All the +places at the theatre when she sang fetched immense premiums, especially +as it was known that the professional gains of Jenny Lind during this +engagement were to be devoted to the endowment of an asylum for the +support of decayed artists, and a school for young girls studying +music. When she left Stockholm again for London, the scene was even +more brilliant and impressive than that which had marked her previous +departure for England. + +The "Lind" mania in the English capital during the spring of 1848 raged +without diminution. The anecdotes of her munificent charity, piety, +and goodness filled the public prints and fed the popular idolatry. She +added to her repertoire this season the _rôles_ of _Susanna_ in +Mozart's great comic opera, _Elvira_ in "Puritani," _Adina_ in "L'Elisir +d'Amore," and _Giulia_ in Spontini's "Vestale." As _Giulia_ she reached +her high-water mark in tragedy, and as _Adina_ in "L'Elisir" she was +deliciously arch and fascinating. After the opera had closed, she +remained in England during the summer and winter, owing to the +disturbed state of the Continent, and gave extended concert tours in the +provinces, for which she received immense sums of money. Many concerts +she also devoted to charitable purposes, and splendid acknowledgments +were made as gifts to her by corporations and private individuals in +recognition of her lavish benevolence. Jenny Lind had now determined to +take leave of the lyric stage, and in the April season of 1849 she gave +a limited season of farewell performances at Her Majesty's Theatre. The +last appearance was on May 10th in her original character of _Alice_. +The opera-house presented on that night of final adieu one of those +striking scenes which words can hardly depict without seeming to be +extravagant. The crowd was dense in every nook and corner of the house, +including all the great personages of the realm. The whole royal family +were present, the Houses of Parliament had emptied themselves to swell +the throng, and everybody distinguished in art, letters, science, or +fashion contributed to the splendor of the audience. When the curtain +fell, and the deafening roar of applause, renewed again and again, had +ceased, Jenny Lind came forward, led by the tenor Gardoni. She +retired, but was called again in front of the curtain, and bowed her +acknowledgments. A third time she was summoned, and this time she stood, +her eyes streaming with tears, while the audience shouted themselves +hoarse, so prolonged and irrepressible was the enthusiasm. + +Now that the "Lind" fever is a thing of the past, it is possible to +survey her genius as a lyric artist in the right perspective. Her voice +was of bright, thrilling, and sympathetic quality, with greater strength +and purity in the upper register, but somewhat defective in the other. +These two portions of her voice she united, however, with great artistic +dexterity, so that the power of the upper notes was not allowed to +outshine the lower. Her execution was great, though inferior to that of +Persiani and the older and still greater singer, Catalani. It appeared, +perhaps, still greater than it was, on account of the natural reluctance +of the voice. Her taste in ornamentation was original and brilliant, +but always judicious, a moderation not often found among great executive +singers. She composed all her own cadenzas, and many of them were of +a character and performance such as to have evoked the strongest +admiration of such musical authorities as Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, and +Moscheles for their creative science. Her pianissimo tones were so fined +down that they had almost the effect of ventriloquism, so exquisitely +were they attenuated; and yet they never lost their peculiarly musical +quality. As an actress Jenny Lind had no very startling power, and but +little versatility, as her very limited opera repertory proved; but +into what she did she infused a grace, sympathy, and tenderness, which, +combined with the greatness of her singing and some indescribable +quality in the voice itself, produced an effect on audiences with but +few parallels in the annals of the opera. It is a little strange that +Jenny Lind would never sing in Paris, but obstinately refused the most +tempting offers. Perhaps she never forgot the circumstances of her first +experience with a Parisian _impressario_. + +It was at Lubeck, Germany, where she was singing in concert in 1849, +that she concluded a treaty with Mr. Barnum for a series of one hundred +and fifty concerts in America under his auspices. The terms were +one thousand dollars per night for each of the performances, and the +expenses of the whole troupe, which consisted of Sig. Belletti and +Julius Benedict (since Sir Julius Benedict). The period intervening +before her American tour was occupied in concert-giving on the continent +and in England. The proceeds of these entertainments were given to +charity, and the demonstrations of the public everywhere proved how +firmly fixed in the heart of the music-loving public the great Swedish +singer remained. Her last appearance before crossing the ocean was at +Liverpool, before an audience of more than three thousand people, when +the English people gave their idol a most affecting display of their +admiration. + + +VI. + +Mr. Barnum, no mean adept himself in the science of advertising, took +a lesson from the ingenious trickery of Mr. Lumley in whetting the +appetite of the American public for the coming of the Swedish _diva_. +He took good care that the newspapers should be flooded with the most +exaggerated and sensational anecdotes of her life and career, and day +after day the people were kept on the alert by columns of fulsome praise +and exciting gossip. On her arrival in New York, in September, 1850, +both the wharf and adjacent streets were packed with people eager to +catch a glimpse of the great singer. Her hotel, the Irving House, was +surrounded at midnight by not less than thirty thousand people, and she +was serenaded by a band of one hundred and thirty musicians, who had +marched up, led by several hundreds of red-shirted firemen. The American +furore instantly took on the proportions of that which had crazed the +English public. The newspapers published the names of those who had +bought tickets, and printed a fac-simile of the card which admitted the +owner to the concert building. The anxiety to see Mlle. Lind, when she +was driving, was a serious embarrassment to her, and at the "public +reception" days, arranged for her, throngs of ladies filled her +drawing-rooms. Costly presents were sent to her anonymously, and in +every way the public displayed similar extravagance. On the day of the +first concert, in spite of the fierce downpour of rain, there were five +thousand persons buying tickets; and the price paid for the first ticket +to the first concert, six hundred dollars, constitutes the sole title to +remembrance of the enterprising tradesman who thus sought to advertise +his wares. + +Nothing was talked of except Jenny Lind, and on the night of the first +appearance, September 11th, seven thousand throats burst forth in +frantic shouts of applause and welcome, as the Swedish Nightingale +stepped on the Castle Garden stage in a simple dress of white, and as +pallid with agitation as the gown she wore. She sang "Casta Diva," a +duo with Belletti, from Rossini's "Il Turco in Italia," and the Trio +Concertante, with two flutes, from Meyerbeer's "Feldlager in Schliesen," +of which Moscheles had said that "it was, perhaps, the most astonishing +piece of bravura singing which could possibly be heard." These pieces, +with two Swedish national songs, were received with the loudest salvos +of applause. The proceeds of this first concert were twenty-six +thousand dollars, of which Jenny Lind gave her share to the charitable +institutions of New York, and, on learning that some of the members of +the New York orchestra were in indigent circumstances, she generously +made them a substantial gift. Her beneficent actions during her entire +stay in America are too numerous to detail. Frequently would she flit +away from her house quietly, as if about to pay a visit, and then she +might be seen disappearing down back lanes or into the cottages of +the poor. She was warned to avoid so much liberality, as many unworthy +persons took unfair advantage of her bounty; but she invariably replied, +"Never mind; if I relieve ten, and one is worthy, I am satisfied." She +had distributed thirty thousand florins in Germany; she gave away in +England nearly sixty thousand pounds; and in America she scattered in +charity no less than fifty thousand dollars. + +To record the experiences of the Swedish Nightingale in the different +cities of America would be to repeat the story of boundless enthusiasm +on the part of the public, and lavish munificence on the part of the +singer, which makes her record nobly monotonous. There seemed to be no +bounds to the popular appreciation and interest, as was instanced one +night in Baltimore. While standing on the balcony of her hotel bowing to +the shouting multitude, her shawl dropped among them, and instantly it +was torn into a thousand strips, to be preserved as precious souvenirs. + +Jenny Lind did not remain under Mr. Barnum's management during the +whole of the season. A difficulty having risen, she availed herself of a +clause in the contract, and by paying thirty thousand dollars broke the +engagement. The last sixty nights of the concert series she gave under +her own management. In Boston, February 5, 1852, the charming singer +married Mr. Otto Goldschmidt, the pianist, who had latterly been +connected with her concert company. The son of a wealthy Hamburg +merchant, Mr. Goldschmidt had taken an excellent rank as a pianist, +and made some reputation as a minor composer. Mme. Goldschmidt and her +husband returned to Europe in 1852, this great artist having made about +one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in her American tour, aside +from the large sums lavished in charity. After several years spent in +Germany, M. and Mme. Goldschmidt settled permanently in London, where +they are still residing. She has frequently appeared in concert and +oratorio till within a year or two, and, as the mother of an interesting +family and a woman of the most charming personal character, is warmly +welcomed in the best London society. It must be recorded that the +whole of her American earnings was devoted to founding and endowing art +scholarships and other charities in her native Sweden; while in England, +the country of her adoption, among other charities, she has given +a whole hospital to Liverpool, and a wing of another to London. +The scholarship founded by her friend Felix Mendelssohn has largely +benefited by her help, and it may be truly said that her sympathy has +never been appealed to in vain, by those who have any reasonable claim. +Competent judges have estimated that the total amount given away by +Jenny Lind in charity and to benevolent institutions will reach at least +half a million of dollars. + + + + +SOPHIE CRUVELLI. + +The Daughter of an Obscure German Pastor.--She studies Music in +Paris.--Failure of her Voice.--Makes her _Début_ at La Fenice.--She +appears in London during the Lind Excitement.--Description of her +Voice and Person.--A Great Excitement over her Second Appearance +in Italy.--_Début_ in Paris.--Her Grand Impersonation in +"Fidelio."--Critical Estimates of her Genius.--Sophie Cruvelli's +Eccentricities.--Excitement in Paris over her _Valentine_ in "Les +Huguenots."--Different Performances in London and Paris.--She retires +from the Stage and marries Baron Vigier.--Her Professional Status.--One +of the Most Gifted Women of any Age. + + +I. + +The great cantatrice of whom we shall now give a sketch attained a +European reputation hardly inferior to the greatest, though she retired +from the stage when in the very golden prime of her powers. Like +Catalani, Persiani, and other distinguished singers, she was severely +criticised toward the last of her operatic career for sacrificing good +taste and dramatic truth to the technique of vocalization, but this +is an extravagance so tempting that but few singers have been entirely +exempt from it. Perhaps, in these examples of artistic austerity, +one may find the cause as much in vocal limitations as in deliberate +self-restraint. + +Sophie Cruvelli was the daughter of a Protestant clergyman named +Cruwell, and was born at Bielefeld, in Prussia, in the year 1830. She +displayed noticeable aptitude for music at an early age, and a moderate +independence with which the family was endowed enabled Mme. Cruwell +to take Sophie, at the age of fourteen, to Paris that she might obtain +finishing lessons. Permarini and Bordogni were the masters selected, and +the latter, who perceived the latent greatness of his pupil, spared no +efforts, nor did he spare Sophie, for he was a somewhat stern, austere +teacher. For two years he would permit her to sing nothing but vocal +scales, and composed for her the most difficult _solfeggi_. Mme. +Cruwell then returned to Paris, and insisted that her daughter had made +sufficient progress in the study of French and music, and might very +well return home. Bordogni indignantly replied that it would be criminal +to rob the musical world of such a treasure as the Fraulein Cruwell +would prove after a few years of study. The mother yielded, saying: "If +my daughter devotes herself to the stage and fully embraces an artistic +career, we may endeavor to submit to further sacrifices; but, if +merely destined to bring up a family, she has learned quite enough of +_solfeggi_; her little fortune will all be swallowed up by her music +lessons." It was thus settled that Sophie should become a singer, and, +in accordance with Bordogni's advice, she proceeded to Milan, Italy, to +complete her musical studies. + +But a dreadful discovery threw her into despair when she arrived at her +new quarters--she had lost her voice. Not a sound could be forced from +her throat. Sophie was in despair, for this was, indeed, annihilation to +her hopes, and there seemed nothing in fate for her but to settle +down to the average life of the German housewife, "to suckle fools and +chronicle small beer," when, on the eve of departure for Bielefeld, +Signor Lamperti, the famous teacher, announced himself. The experienced +maestro advised them to wait, reasoning that the loss of voice was +rather the result of fatigue and nervousness than of any more radical +defect. It was true, for a few days only had passed when Sophie's voice +returned again in all its power. Lamperti devoted himself assiduously +to preparing the young German singer for her _début_, and at the end of +1847 she was enabled to appear at La Fenice, under the Italianized name +of Cruvelli, in the part of _Dona Sol_ in "Ernani." This was followed +by a performance of _Norma_, and in both she made a strong impression +of great powers, which only needed experience to shine with brilliant +luster. The fact that her instructor permitted her to appear, +handicapped as she was by inexperience and stage ignorance, in _rôles_ +not only marked by great musical difficulty, but full of dramatic +energy, indicates what a high estimate was placed on her powers. + +Mr. Lumley, the English _impressario_, was at this time scouring Italy +for fresh voices, and, hearing Mlle. Cru veil i, secured her for his +company, which when completed consisted of Mmes. Persiani and Viardot, +Miles. Alboni and Cruvelli, Signori Cuzzani, Belletti, Gardoni, and +Polonini. Mlle. Cruvelli was now eighteen, and in spite of the Lind +mania, which was raging at white heat, the young German cantatrice made +a strong impression on the London public. Her first appearance was in +"Ernani," on February 19, 1848. The performance was full of enthusiasm +and fire, though disfigured by certain crudities and the violence of +unrestrained passion. Her voice, in compass from F to F, was a clear, +silvery soprano, and possessed in its low notes something of the +delicious quality of the contralto, that bell-like freshness and +sonority which is one of the most delightful characteristics of the +human voice. Her appearance was highly attractive, for she possessed a +finely molded figure of middle height, and a face expressive, winning, +and strongly marked. She further appeared as _Odabella_ in "Attila," and +as _Lucrezia_ in "I Due Foscari," both of which performances were very +warmly received. During the season she also sang in "Nino," "Lucrezia +Borgia," "Il Barbiere," and "Nozze di Figaro." Her _Rosina_ in Rossini's +great comic opera was a piquant and attractive performance. + + +II. + +The prevalence of the Lind fever, which seemed to know no abatement, +however, made a London engagement at this period not highly flattering +to other singers, and Mlle. Cruvelli beat a retreat to Germany, where +she made a musical tour. She was compelled to leave Berlin by the +breaking out of the Revolution, and she made, an engagement for the +Carnival season at Trieste, during which time she gave performances in +"Attila," "Norma," "Don Pasquale," and "Macbeth," and other operas +of minor importance, covering a wide field of characters, serious and +comic. In 1850 we hear of Mlle. Cruvelli creating a very great sensation +at Milan at La Scala. Genoa was no less enthusiastic in its welcome of +the young singer, who had left Italy only two years before, and returned +a great artist. No stall could be obtained without an order at least a +week in advance. + +In April, 1850, she made her first Parisian appearance at the Théâtre +Italien in Paris, under Mr. Lumley's management, as _Elvira_ to Mr. Sims +Reeves's _Ernani_, and the French critics were highly eulogistic over +this fresh candidate for lyric honors. She did not highly strike +the perfect key-note of her genius till she appeared as _Leonora_ in +"Fidelio," at Her Majesty's Theatre, in London, on May 20, 1851, Sims +Reeves being the _Florestan_. Her improvement since her first London +engagement had been marvelous. Though scarcely twenty, Mlle. Cruvelli +had become a great actress, and her physical beauty had flowered +into striking loveliness, though of a lofty and antique type. Her +sculpturesque face and figure, her great dramatic passion, and the +brilliancy of her voice produced a profound sensation in London. Her +_Leonora_ was a symmetrical and noble performance, raised to tragic +heights by dramatic genius, and elaborated with a vocal excellence which +would bear comparison with the most notable representations of that +great _rôle_: "From the shuddering expression given to the words, 'How +cold it is in this subterranean vault!' spoken on entering _Florestan's_ +dungeon," said one critic, "to the joyous and energetic duet, in +which the reunited pair gave vent to their rapturous feelings, all was +inimitable. Each transition of feeling was faithfully conveyed, and the +suspicion, growing by degrees into certainty, that the wretched prisoner +is _Florestan_, was depicted with heart-searching truth. The internal +struggle was perfectly expressed." + +"With Mlle. Cruvelli," says this writer, "_Fidelio_ is governed +throughout by one purpose, to which everything is rendered subservient. +Determination to discover and liberate her husband is the mainspring not +only of all her actions, and the theme of all her soliloquies, but, +even when others likely to annunce her design in any way are acting or +speaking, we read in the anxious gaze, the breathless anxiety, the head +bent to catch the slightest word, a continuation of the same train of +thought and an ever-living ardor in the pursuit of the one cherished +object. In such positions as these, where one gifted artist follows +nature with so delicate an appreciation of its most subtile truths, +it is not easy for a character occupying the background of the stage +picture to maintain (although by gesture only) a constant commentary +upon the words of others without becoming intrusive or attracting an +undue share of attention. Yet Cruvelli does this throughout the first +scene (especially during the duet betwixt _Rocco_ and _Pizarro_, in +which _Fidelio_ overhears the plan to assassinate her husband) with a +perfection akin to that realized by Rachel in the last scene of 'Les +Horaces,' where Camille listens to the recital of her brother's victory +over her lover; and the result, like that of the chorus in a Greek +drama, is to heighten rather than lessen the effect. These may be +considered minor points, but, as necessary parts of a great conception, +they are as important, and afford as much evidence of the master mind, +as the artist's delivery of the grandest speeches or scenes." + +"Mlle. Cruvelli," observes another critic, "has the power of expressing +joy and despair, hope and anxiety, hatred and love, fear and resolution, +with equal facility. She has voice and execution sufficient to master +with ease all the trying difficulties of the most trying and difficult +of parts." + +_Norma_ was Sophie's second performance. "Before the first act was over, +Sophie Cruvelli demonstrated that she was as profound a mistress of the +grand as of the romantic school of acting, as perfect an interpreter +of the brilliant as of the classical school of music." She represented +_Fidelio_ five times and _Norma_ thrice. + +Her features were most expressive, and well adapted to the lyric stage; +her manner also was dramatic and energetic. She was highly original, +and always thought for herself. Possessing a profound insight into +character, her conception was always true and just, while her execution +continually varied. "The one proceeds from a judgment that never errs, +the other from impulse, which may possibly lead her astray. Thus, +while her _Fidelio_ and her _Norma_ are never precisely the same on +two consecutive evenings, they are, nevertheless, always _Fidelio_ and +_Norma_.... She does not calculate. She sings and acts on the impulse of +the moment; but her performance must always be impressive, because it +is always true to one idea, always bearing upon one object--the vivid +realization of the character she impersonates to the apprehension of her +audience." So much was she the creature of impulse that, even when she +would spend a day, a week, a month, in elaborating a certain passage--a +certain dramatic effect--perhaps on the night of performance she would +improvise something perfectly different from her preconceived idea. + +Her sister Marie made her _début_ in Thalberg's _Florinda_, in July, +with Sophie. She was a graceful and charming contralto; but her timidity +and an over-delicacy of expression did not permit her then to display +her talents to the greatest advantage. The brother of the sisters +Cruvelli was a fine barytone. + + +III. + +At the close of 1851 Sophie went again to the Théâtre Italien, and the +following year she again returned to London to sing with Lablache +and Gardoni. During this season she performed in "La Sonnambula," "Il +Barbiere," and other operas of the florid Italian school, charming +the public by her lyric comedy, as she had inspired them by her tragic +impersonations. Cruvelli had always been remarkable for impulsive and +eccentric ways, and no engagement ever operated as a check on these +caprices. One of these whims seized the young lady in the very height of +a brilliantly successful engagement, and one day she took French leave +without a word of warning. The next that was heard of Sophie Cruvelli +was that she was singing at Wiesbaden, and then that she had appeared +as _Fides_ in "Le Prophète" at Aix-La-Chapelle. Cruel rumors were +circulated at her expense; but she showed herself as independent of +scandal as she had been of professional loyalty to a contract. + +Sophie Cruvelli's engagement at the Grand Opéra in Paris in January, +1854, filled Paris with the deepest excitement, for she was to make +her appearance in the part of _Valentine_ in "Les Huguenots." The terms +given were one hundred thousand francs for six months. Meyerbeer, who +entertained a great admiration for Sophie's talents, set to work +on "L'Africaine" with redoubled zeal, for he destined the _rôle_ of +_Selika_ for her. A fortnight ahead orchestra stalls were sold for two +hundred francs, and boxes could not be obtained. The house was crowded +to the ceiling, and the Emperor and Empress arrived some time before +the hour of beginning on the night of "Les Huguenots." Everywhere +the lorgnette was turned could be seen the faces of notabilities like +Meyerbeer, Auber, Benedict, Berlioz, Alboni, Mme. Viardot, Mario, +Tamburini, Vivire, Théophile Gautier, Fiorentino, and others. The +verdict was that Cruvelli was one of the greatest of _Valentines_, and +Meyerbeer, who was morbidly sensitive over the performance of his +own works, expressed his admiration of the great singer in the most +enthusiastic words. + +Soon after this, she appeared as _Julia_ in Spontini's "Vestale," and, +as a long time had elapsed since its production, there was aroused the +most alert curiosity to hear Cruvelli in a great part, in which but few +singers had been able to make a distinguished impression. She acted the +_rôle_ with a vehement passion which aroused the deepest feeling in the +Parisian mind, for it was a long time since they had heard an artist who +was alike so great an actress and so brilliant a vocalist. One writer +said, "She is the only cantatrice who acts as well as sings"; said one +critic, "She would have made a grand tragedienne." Fickle Paris had +forgotten Pasta, Malibran, and even Mme. Viardot, who was then in the +very flush of her splendid powers. + + +IV. + +From Paris Mlle. Cruvelli went to London, where she sang an engagement +at the Royal Italian Opera, making her opening appearance as +_Desdemona_, in the same cast with Tamburini and Ronconi. Her terms +during the season were two hundred and fifty pounds a night. Her other +parts were _Leonora_ ("Fidelio"), and _Donna Anna_ ("Don Giovanni"), and +the performances were estimated by the most competent judges to be on +a plan of artistic excellence not surpassed, and rarely equaled, in +operatic annals. Mlle. Cruvelli revived the Parisian excitement of the +previous season by her appearance at the Grand Opéra, as _Alice_ in +"Robert le Diable." The audience was a most brilliant one, and their +reception of the artist was one of the most prolonged and enthusiastic +applause. She continued to sing in Paris during the summer months and +early autumn, and was the reigning goddess of the stage. All Paris was +looking forward to the production of "Les Huguenots" in October with a +great flutter of expectation, when Sophie suddenly disappeared from the +public view and knowledge. The expected night of the production of "Les +Huguenots" on a scale of almost unequaled magnificence arrived, and +still the representative of _Valentine_ could not be found. Sophie had +treated the public in a similar fashion more than once before, and +it may be fancied that the Parisians were in a state of furious +indignation. Great surprise was felt that she should have forfeited so +profitable an engagement--four thousand pounds for the season, with +the obligation of singing only two nights a week. She had abandoned +everything, injured her manager, M. Fould, and insulted the public for +the gratification of a whim. No adequate reason could be guessed at for +such eccentricity, not even the excuse of an _affaire de coeur_, which +would go further in the minds of Frenchmen than any other justification +of capricious courses. Her furniture and the money at her banker's were +seized as security for the forfeit of four thousand pounds stipulated by +her contract in case of breach of engagement, and her private papers and +letters were opened and read. + +About a month after her sudden flight, M. Fould received a letter from +the errant _diva_, in which she demanded permission to return and +fill her contract. M. Fould consented, and accepted her plea of "a +misunderstanding," but the public were not so easily placated, and +when she appeared on the stage as _Valentine_ the audience hissed her +violently. Sophie was not a whit daunted, but, confident in her power to +charm, put all the fullness of her powers into her performance, and she +soon had the satisfaction of learning by the enthusiasm of the plaudits +that the Parisians had forgiven their favorite. + +Sophie Cruvelli continued on the stage till 1855, and, although her +faults of violence and exaggeration continued to call out severe +criticism, she disarmed even the attacks of her enemies by the +unquestionable vigor of her genius as well as by the magnificence of a +voice which had never been surpassed in native excellence, though many +had been far greater in the art of vocalization. Her last performance, +and perhaps one of the grandest efforts of her life, was the character +of _Helene_ in Verdi's "Les Vêpres Siciliennes," the active principal +parts having been taken by Bonnehée, Gueymard, and Obin. The production +of the work was on a splendid scale, and the opera a great success. "The +audience was electrified by the tones of her magnificent voice, which +realized with equal effect those high inspirations that demand passion, +force, and impulse, and those tender passages that require delicacy, +taste, and a thorough knowledge of the art of singing. No one could +reproach Mlle. Cruvelli with exaggeration, so well did she know how +to restrain her ardent nature." "Cruvelli is the Rachel of the Grand +Opéra!" exclaimed a French critic. From these estimates it may be +supposed that, just as she was on the eve of passing out of the +profession in which she had already achieved such a splendid place at +the age of twenty-five, a great future, to which hardly any limits could +be set, was opening the most fascinating inducements to her. The faults +which had marred the full blaze of her genius had begun to be mellowed +and softened by experience, and there was scarcely any pitch of artistic +greatness to which she might not aspire. + +Rumors of her approaching marriage had already begun to circulate, and +it soon became known that Sophie Cruvelli was about to quit the stage. +On January 5, 1856, she married Baron Vigier, a wealthy young Parisian, +the son of Count Vigier, whose father had endowed the city of Paris with +the immense bathing establishments on the Seine which bear his name, +and who, in the time of the Citizen King, was a member of the Chamber of +Deputies, and afterward a peer of France. Mme. Vigier resides with her +husband in their splendid mansion at Nice, and, though she has sung on +many occasions in the salons of the fashionable world and for charity, +she has been steadfast in her retirement from professional life. She +has composed many songs, and even some piano-forte works, though her +compositions are as unique and defiant of rules as was her eccentric +life. + +Sophie Cruvelli was only eight years on the operatic stage, but during +that period she impressed herself on the world as one of the great +singers not only of her own age, but of any age; yet far greater in her +possibilities than in her attainment. She had by no means reached +the zenith of her professional ability when she suddenly retired into +private life. There have been many singers who have filled a more +active and varied place in the operatic world; never one who was more +munificently endowed with the diverse gifts which enter into the highest +power for lyric drama. She had queenly beauty of face and form, the most +vehement dramatic passion, a voice alike powerful, sweet, and flexible, +and an energy of temperament which scorned difficulties. Had her +operatic career extended itself to the time, surely foreshadowed in her +last performances, when a finer art should have subdued her grand gifts +into that symmetry and correlation so essential to the best attainment, +it can hardly be questioned that her name would not have been surpassed, +perhaps not equaled, in lyric annals. A star of the first magnitude was +quenched when the passion of love subdued her professional ambition. +Sophie Cruvelli, though her artistic life was far briefer than those +of other great singers, has been deemed worthy of a place among these +sketches, as an example of what may be called the supreme endowment of +nature in the gifts of dramatic song. + + + + +THERESA TITIENS. + +Born at Hamburg of an Hungarian Family.--Her Early Musical +Training.--First Appearance in Opera in "Lucrezia Borgia."--Romance of +her Youth.--Rapid Extension of her Fame.--Receives a _Congé_ from +Vienna to sing in England.--Description of Mlle. Titiens, her Voice, +and Artistic Style.--The Characters in which she was specially +eminent.--Opinions of the Critics.--Her Relative Standing in +the Operatic Profession.--Her Performances of _Semiramide_ and +_Medea_--Latter Years of her Career.--Her Artistic Tour in America.--Her +Death, and Estimate placed on her Genius. + + +I. + +Theresa Titiens was the offshoot of an ancient and noble Hungarian +family, who emigrated to Hamburg, Germany, on account of political +difficulties. Born in June, 1834, she displayed, like other +distinguished singers, an unmistakable talent for music at an early +period, and her parents lost no time in obtaining the best instruction +for her by placing her under the charge of an eminent master, when she +was only twelve years of age. At the age of fourteen, her voice had +developed into an organ of great power and sweetness. It was a high +soprano of extensive register, ranging from C below the line to D in +alt, and of admirable quality, clear, resonant, and perfectly pure. The +young girl possessed powers which only needed culture to lift her to a +high artistic place, and every one who heard her predicted a commanding +career. She was sent to Vienna to study under the best German masters, +and she devoted herself to preparation for her life-work with an ardor +and enthusiasm which were the best earnest of her future success. + +On returning to Hamburg in 1849, she easily obtained an engagement, and +with the daring confidence of genius she selected the splendid _rôle_ +of _Lucrezia Borgia_ as the vehicle of her _début_. Mme. Grisi had fixed +the ideal of this personation by investing it with an Oriental +passion and luxury of style; but this did not stay the ambition of the +_débutante_ of fifteen years. Theresa at this time was very girlish in +aspect, though tall and commanding in figure, and it may be fancied did +not suit the ripe and voluptuous beauty, the sinister fascination of +the Borgia woman, whose name has become traditional for all that is +physically lovely and morally depraved. If the immature Titiens did not +adequately reach the ideal of the character, she was so far from failing +that she was warmly applauded by a critical audience. She appeared in +the same part for a succession of nights, and her success became more +strongly assured as she more and more mastered the difficulties of her +work. To perform such a great lyric character at the age of fifteen, +with even a fair share of ability, was a glowing augury. + +This early introduction to her profession was stamped by circumstances +of considerable romantic interest. A rich young gentleman, a scion of +one of the best Hamburg families, became passionately enamored of the +young cantatrice. After a brief but energetic courtship, he offered +her his hand, which Theresa, whose young heart had been touched by his +devotion, was not unwilling to accept, but the stumbling-block in the +way was that the family of the enamored youth were unwilling that his +future wife should remain on the stage. At last it was arranged that +Theresa should retire from the stage for a while, the understanding +being that, if at the end of nine months her inclination for the stage +should remain as strong, she should return to the profession. It was +tacitly a choice between marriage and a continuance of her professional +ambition. When the probation was over, the young cantatrice again +appeared before the footlights, and the unfortunate lover disappeared. + +The director of opera at Frankfort-on-the-Main, having heard Mlle. +Titiens at Hamburg was so pleased that he made her an offer, and in +pursuance of this she appeared in Frankfort early in 1850, where she +made a most brilliant and decided success. Her reputation was now +growing fast, and offers of engagement poured in on her from various +European capitals. The director of the Imperial Opera at Vienna traveled +to Frankfort especially to hear her, and as her old contract with the +Frankfort _impressario_ was on the eve of expiration, and Mlle. Titiens +was free to accept a new offer, she gladly availed herself of the chance +to accept the opportunity of singing before one of the most brilliant +and critical publics of Europe. She made her _début_ at Vienna in 1856, +and was received with the most flattering and cordial approbation. She +appeared in the _rôle_ of _Donna Anna_ ("Don Giovanni"), and at the +close of the opera had numerous recalls. Her success was so great that +she continued to sing in Vienna for three consecutive seasons, and +became the leading favorite of the public. The operas in which she +made the most vivid impression were "Norma," "Les Huguenots," "Lucrezia +Borgia," "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Fidelio," and "Trovatore"; and her +versatility was displayed in the fact that when she was called on, +through the illness of another singer, to assume a comic part, she won +golden opinions from the public for the sparkle and grace of her style. + + +II. + +The English manager, Mr. Lumley, had heard of Mlle. Titiens and the +sensation she had made in Germany. So he hastened to Vienna, and made +the most lavish propositions to the young singer that she should appear +in his company before the London public. She was unable to accept his +proposition, for her contract in Vienna had yet a year to run; but, +after some negotiations, an arrangement was made which permitted +Mlle. Titiens to sing in London for three months, with the express +understanding that she should not surpass that limit. + +She made her first bow before an English audience on April 13, 1858, as +_Valentine_ in Meyerbeer's _chef d'oeuvre_, Giuglini singing the part of +_Raoul_ for the first time. She did not understand Italian, but, under +the guidance of a competent master, she memorized the unknown words, +pronunciation and all, so perfectly that no one suspected but that she +was perfectly conversant with the liquid accents of that "soft bastard +Latin" of the South. Success alone justified so dangerous an experiment. +The audience was most fashionable and critical, and the reception of the +new singer was of the most assuring kind. + +The voice of Mlle. Titiens was a pure soprano, fresh, penetrating, even, +powerful, unusually rich in quality, extensive in compass, and of great +flexibility. It had a bell-like resonance, and was capable of expressing +all the passionate and tender accents of lyric tragedy. Theresa Titiens +was, in the truest, fullest sense of the word, a lyric artist, and +she possessed every requisite needed by a cantatrice of the highest +order--personal beauty, physical strength, originality of conception, +a superb voice, and inexhaustible spirit and energy. Like most German +singers, Mlle. Titiens regarded ornamentation as merely an agreeable +adjunct in vocalization; and in the music of _Valentine_ she sang only +what the composer had set down--neither more nor less--but that was +accomplished to perfection. + +As an actress, her tall, stately, elegant figure was admirably +calculated to personate the tragic heroines of opera. Her face at this +time was beautiful, her large eyes flashed with intellect, and her +classical features were radiant with expression; her grandeur of +conception, her tragic dignity, her glowing warmth and _abandon_ +rendered her worthy of the finest days of lyric tragedy. She was +thoroughly dramatic; her movements and gestures were singularly noble, +and her attitudes on the stage had classical breadth and largeness, +without the least constraint. + +As _Leonora_, in "Trovatore," she was peculiarly successful, and +her _Donna Anna_ literally took the audience by storm, through the +magnificence of both the singing and acting. In June she made her +appearance as _Lucrezia Borgia_. The qualities which this part demands +are precisely those with which Mlle. Titiens was endowed--tragic power, +intensity, impulsiveness. Her commanding figure and graceful bearing +gave weight to her acting, while in the more tender scenes she was +exquisitely pathetic, and displayed great depth of feeling. "Com' è +bello" was rendered with thrilling tenderness, and the allegro which +followed it created a _furore_; it was one of the most brilliant +_morceaux_ of florid decorative vocalism heard for years, the upper C in +the cadenza being quite electrical. At the end of the first and second +acts, the heartrending accents of a mother's agony, wrung from the +depths of her soul, and the scornful courage tempered with malignant +passion, were contrasted with consummate power. It was conceded that +Grisi herself never rose to a greater pitch of dramatic truth and power. + +Mlle. Titiens was unable to get an extension of her _congé_, and, much +to the regret of her manager and the public, returned to Vienna early +in the autumn. Instantly that she could free herself from professional +obligation, she proceeded to Italy to acquire the Italian language, a +feat which she accomplished in a few months. Here she met Mr. Smith, the +manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, and effected an arrangement with him, +in consequence of which she inaugurated her second London season on May +3, 1859, with the performance of _Lucrezia Borgia_. Mlle. Titiens sang +successively in the characters which she had interpreted during her +previous visit to London, adding to them the magnificent _rôle_ of +_Norma_, whose breadth and grandeur of passion made it peculiarly +favorable for the display of her genius. Near the close of the season +she appeared in Verdi's "Vêpres Siciliennes," in which, we are told, +"she sang magnificently and acted with extraordinary passion and vigor. +At the close of the fourth act, when _Helen_ and _Procida_ are led to +the scaffold, the conflicting emotions that agitate the bosom of the +heroine were pictured with wonderful truth and intensity by Mlle. +Titiens." From London the singer made a tour of the provinces, where she +repeated the remarkable successes of the capital. At the various musical +festivals, she created an almost unprecedented reputation in oratorio. +The largeness and dignity of her musical style, the perfection of a +voice which responded to every intention of the singer, her splendor +of declamation, stamped her as _par excellence_ the best interpreter of +this class of music whom England had heard in the more recent years of +her generation. Her fame increased every year, with the development +of her genius and artistic knowledge, and it may be asserted that no +singer, with the exception of Grisi, ever held such a place for a long +period of years in the estimate of the English public. + + +III. + +During the season of 1860 she added fresh laurels to those which she +had already attained, and sang several new parts, among which maybe +mentioned Flotow's pretty ballad opera of "Martha" and Rossini's +"Semiramide." Her performance in the latter work created an almost +indescribable sensation, so great was her singing, so strong and +picturesque the dramatic effects which she produced. One of the +sensations of the season was Titiens's rendering of "Casta Diva," in +"Norma." Though many great vocalists had thrilled the public by their +rendering of this celebrated aria, no one had ever yet given it +the power so to excite the enthusiasm of the public. Mlle. Titiens +performed also in the opera of "Oberon" for the first time, with great +success. But the _pièce de resistance_ of the season was Rossini's great +tragic opera. "In Titiens's _Semiramide_," said a critic of the time, +"her intellectuality shines most, from its contrasting with the part she +impersonates--a part which in no wise assists her; but, as in a picture, +shadow renders a light more striking. In the splendid aria, 'Bel +Raggio,' the _solfeggi_ and fioriture that she lavishes on the +audience were executed with such marvelous tone and precision that she +electrified the house. The grand duet with Alboni, 'Giorno d'orrore,' +was exquisitely and nobly impressive from their dramatic interpretation +of the scene." + +In 1861 Mlle. Titiens made an engagement with Mr. Mapleson, under whose +control she remained till her career was cut short by death. Associated +with her under this first season of the Mapleson _régime_ were Mme. +Alboni, the contralto, and Signor Giuglini, the tenor. Her performance +in the "Trovatore" drew forth more applause than ever. "Titiens is the +most superb _Leonora_ without a single exception that the Anglo-Italian +stage has ever witnessed," wrote an admiring critic. Among other +brilliant successes of the season was her performance for the first time +of _Amelia_ in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera," which was a masterpiece +of vocalization and dramatic fire. The great German cantatrice was now +accepted as the legitimate successor of Pasta, Malibran, and Grisi, +and numerous comparisons were made between her and the last-named great +singer. No artists could be more unlike in some respects. Titiens lacked +the adroitness, the fluent melting grace, the suavity, of the other. +"But," one critic justly remarks, "in passionate feeling, energy, power +of voice, and grandeur of style, a comparison may be established. In +certain characters Grisi has left no one to fill her place. These will +be found mostly in Rossini's operas, such as _Semiramide, Ninetta, +Desdemona, Pamira_ ('L'Assedio di Corinto'), _Elene_, etc., to which we +may add _Elvira_ in 'I Puritani,' written expressly for her. In not one +of these parts has anybody created an impression since she sang them. +They all belong to the repertoire of pure Italian song, of which +Giulietta Grisi was undoubtedly the greatest mistress since Pasta. That +Mlle. Titiens could not contend with her on her own Ausonian soil no one +will deny. Her means, her compass, her instincts, all forbade. There +is, however, one exception--_Norma_, in which the German singer may +challenge comparison with the Italian, and in which she occasionally +surpasses her. In the French and German repertoire the younger artist +has a decided advantage over the elder, in possessing a voice of such +extent as to be enabled to execute the music of the composers without +alteration of any kind. Everybody knows that Mlle. Titiens has not only +one of the most magnificent and powerful voices ever heard, but also one +of the most extraordinary in compass. To sing the music of _Donna Anna, +Fidelio, Valentine_, etc., without transposition or change, and to sing +it with power and effect, is granted to few artists. Mlle. Titiens is +one of these great rarities, and, therefore, without any great +stretch of compliment, we may assert that, putting aside the Rossinian +repertoire, she is destined to wear the mantle of Grisi." + +In no previous season was Mlle. Titiens so popular or so much admired +as during the season of 1862. Her most remarkable performance was +the character of _Alice_, in Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable." "Mlle. +Titiens's admirable personation of _Alice_," observes the critic of a +leading daily paper, "must raise her to a still higher rank in public +estimation than that she has hitherto so long sustained. Each of the +three acts in which the German soprano was engaged won a separate +triumph for her. We are tired of perpetually expatiating on the splendid +brightness, purity, and clearness of her glorious voice, and on the +absolute certainty of her intonation; but these mere physical requisites +of a great singer are in themselves most uncommon. Irrespectively of the +lady's clever vocalization, and of the strong dramatic impulse which she +evinces, there is an actual sensual gratification in listening to her +superb voice, singing with immovable certainty in perfect tune. +Her German education, combined with long practice in Italian opera, +peculiarly fit Mlle. Titiens for interpreting the music of Meyerbeer, +who is equally a disciple of both schools." + + +IV. + +Mlle. Titiens was such a firmly established favorite of the English +public that, in the line of great tragic characters, no one was held +her equal. The most brilliant favorites who have arisen since her +star ascended to the zenith have been utterly unable to dispute her +preeminence in those parts where height of tragic inspiration is united +with great demands of vocalization. Cherubini's opera of "Medea," a work +which, had never been produced in England, because no soprano could +be found equal to the colossal task of singing a score of almost +unprecedented difficulty in conjunction with the needs of dramatic +passion no less _exigeant_, was brought out expressly to display her +genius. Though this classic masterpiece was not repeated often, and +did not become a favorite with the English public on account of the +old-fashioned austerity of its musical style, Titiens achieved one of +the principal triumphs of her life in embodying the character of the +Colchian sorceress as expressed in song. Pasta's _Medea_, created +by herself musically and dramatically out of the faded and correct +commonplace of Simon Mayer's opera, was fitted with consummate skill to +that eminent artist's idiosyncrasies, and will ever remain one of the +grand traditions of the musical world. To perform such a work as that +of Cherubini required Pasta's tragic genius united with the voice of +a Catalani, made, as it were, of adamant and gold. To such an ideal +equipment of powers, Titiens approached more nearly than any other +singer who had ever assayed the _rôle_ in more recent times. One of +the noblest operas ever written, it has been relegated to the musical +lumber-room on account of the almost unparalleled difficulties which it +presents. + +It is not desirable to catalogue the continued achievements of Mlle. +Titiens season by season in England, which country she had adopted as +her permanent home. She had achieved her place and settled the character +of her fame. Year after year she shone before the musical world of +London, to which all the greatest singers of the world resort to obtain +their final and greatest laurels, without finding her equal in the +highest walks of the lyric stage. As her voice through incessant work +lost something of its primal bloom, Mlle. Titiens confined her +repertory to a few operas such as "Trovatore," "Norma," "Don Giovanni," +"Semiramide," etc., where dramatic greatness is even more essential than +those dulcet tones so apt to vanish with the passage of youth. As an +oratorio singer, she held a place to the last unequaled in musical +annals. + +In 1875 Mlle. Titiens visited America, on a concert and operatic +tour which embraced the principal cities of the country. She was well +received, but failed, through the very conditions and peculiarities of +her genius, to make that marked impression on the public mind which +had sometimes, perhaps, been achieved by artists of more shallow and +meretricious graces. The voice of Mlle. Titiens had begun to show the +friction of years, and though her wonderful skill as a vocalist covered +up such defects in large measure, it was very evident that the greatest +of recent German singers had passed the zenith of her fascination as +a vocalist. But the grand style, the consummate breadth and skill in +phrasing, that gradation of effects by which the intention of a composer +is fully manifested, the truth and nobility of declamation, that repose +and dignity of action by which dramatic purpose reaches its goal +without a taint of violence or extravagance--in a word, all those great +qualities where the artist separates from the mere vocalist were +so finely manifested as to gain the deepest admiration of the +_cognoscenti_, and justify in the American mind the great reputation +associated with the name of Mlle. Titiens. On her return to Europe, she +continued to sing with unimpaired favor in opera, concert, and oratorio, +until she was seized with the fatal illness which carried her off in +1879. Her death was the cause of deep regret among musical circles in +England and on the Continent, for she left no successor in the line +of her greatness. So far as any survey of the field could justify a +judgment, liable at any time to be upset by the sudden apparition of +genius hitherto hampered by unfavorable conditions, Mlle. Titiens was +the last of that race of grand dramatic singers made splendid by +such beacon lights as Pasta, Malibran, Schröder-Devrient, Grisi, and +Viardot-Garcia. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Great Singers, Second Series, by George T. 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