GREAT SINGERS. (FROM "THIRTY YEARS' MUSICAL RECOLLECTIONS," BY UNKNOWN.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVIII, Issue 1630, 11 October 1862, Page 5

GREAT SINGERS. (FROM "THIRTY YEARS' MUSICAL RECOLLECTIONS," BY UNKNOWN.

MAUBRAN. — She liny not have l>een beautiful ; but she was butter than beautiful — insomuch as a speaking Spanish human counttuianco by Murillo is tui tunes moi c fascinating than many a faultless angel face such as Guulo could paint. Thcie was health of tint, with but a slight touch of the yellow lose, in her complexion ; great mobility of expression in hoi fwituies; an honest, dnect brightness oi oyo j a lehneincnt in liie form of hei head, and in the set of it on her whouldois, uuue obvious in IS3O than it could be in ISOO, when the tlesne of feiunlo beauty seems to be to obhttnato that winch so thoroughly e\pi esses gia<-o, high-breeding and clmractei— the unn of the head. But Mahbran had her own tastes and fashions m dress. She knew what suited hei featuu t. At a tune when public singeis indulged in clowning themselves with hearses of feathers and gigantic hats (the k\m of winch to day seems so absuiil m some cancature by Chalon) I lemember to have seen her braided hail ended by a fine Venetian chain— w ith one small gold coin, sei ving for clasp, above hei foiehead, and attiacting cveiy tye by the thoiough fitness of the ornament to its we.irer Perhaps the chain nnd the com indicated the chaiaoterof a woman — if not in her life, m hei heart at least— thoioughly, fearlessly onginal ll>r voice was not natuuilly a voice ot fiist-iate quality. It was a mezzo so]» ano extended upwauls and downwaids l>y that haidy and tremendous exeicise, the intioduction of which has been atenbed to the appeal ance of her father, in singing .md tuition. To buppoit tins no common stiongth and tenacity of fiame aie necessaiy , and peihaps the discipline tan never be tully wiought out without some saciifiee of power and certainty. Ab it was, the gill was eaily put into possession of an instrument two octaves and a half, if not moie, in compass, weakest in the tones betwixt F and F— a weakness audaciously and incomparably disguised by the forms of execution, modification and ornament which she selected. Hei topmost and deepest notes were peipotually used in connected contrast, whatever the song might be— whethei it was the bnuuia fiom "Ine^ di Castio," or Haydn's " With venture clad." On the stage her flights and sallies told w ith electric ellect. There waR much of her restless and imp issioned Southern natuie m them— as much of a musical invention and skill, which required no mastoi to piompt or to regulate her cadences ; but theie was something, too, of an mBtiuctive eagerness on hei pait to evade display m the portion ot hei voice to which display would have been the least becoming In some deg'ee, that winch began by being an individuality with hei, has become a sort of necessity to all who have been subjected to a similar framing. llubini. — Ru bin i'k career m this countiy was miuked by yeatly pi ogress in public aftection moie signally than any of his bi other or sister aitists There weie peculiarities to which we had to hibituate oursehes. He was in no lespect calculated to please tiie eye ; for the openness of his countenance could not lcdeem the meanness of features impaimi by small po\. His figuie was aw kwaid ; he dressed as any one else pleased, without a thought of Ins own as to taste, chanictei, or piciuresqueefieet — (in this how different to lnssiuces-jor) 1 He raiely tned to act, the moment of the cinse in the contract scene of '' Luci.v " being the only attempt of the kind that I can call to mind The voice and the expiessiou were, with him, to "do it all" Before, howevei, ilubini came to England his voico had contiacted that soit of thrilling or tioinbling habit, then new here, which of late lias been abused ad nauieum It was no longer in its pi line- hardly capa ble, peihaps, of being produced mezzofuite or piano ! for which reason he had adopted a style of extreme contiast betwixt sott, and loud, winch many ears were unable, for a long period, to relish. After a tune these v hemeiices (in themselves vicious) weie foigotten foi the sake of th>* transcendent qualities by w Inch they were accompanied, though in the la->t yeais of his -eign they w ere exaggerated into the alternation of ascaictlyaudible whisper and a shout , and it was said, not untiuly, that it would be haully possible to foim any idea i of a new tenoi pait were it pi evented for the lust time by Hubim, so largely did ineinon and knowledge of Ins intentions aid his public Fuithei, he was to be easily surpassed by e\ery one in Ins declamation Here and theio (as in the gaiden scene in Othcllu with Iago) he loused himself to give point and passion to ins tecitntne But such an awakening was exceptional, since, for the most pait, he went thiough this pait of Ins task with co rfect accent, but without any leinuliable intelligence — in this respect an litter contiast to M Dupiev One r mcmbeis Ilubini not by this 01 by the oth' l chiraftei, but by his songs Yet more, his tisto in oinammt wis often qiitstion ible His facility was apt to tempt him into enormous 7 oidade eadenzui which had little \aiiety In Poahno's gieat song, ' Pua che spunti " {It Miilumoiuu), he revelled n. embit ideucs ot the plnase 111 ict-iided time winch oceu.s ]Ust before the close, which, however ingenious and wonileiful as \ocal display, I always felt to be supeiabundant M uiio — -It will not satisfy many of Signor Mario's enthusiastic adnmeia to be told that, tlnous/hout Ins caieer, he has nevei wliolly got beyond amateiuslnp — his never been a thoiough artist, aimed at all points for his duties he foi c the )>ublic Such, howevei, is the case The cbaim of pei-,onal appeal ance and giacuful dtmcauoui, borne out by ii \olce the puisuasive sweet nei-s of whicli can ne\er ha\e been exceeded, tia-s fascinated e\eijone — the stem as well as the senti mental — into foi getting incompleteness and deficient 11 } 1 , which diligent and thoughtful study might have remedied eie Kulnni's successor had been on the stage a touple of \eais There has been no desire, no po»sibillty of leckomng with one ko genially endowed by Native— with m> much of the poet and the painter 111 Ins composition, and of the nobleman 111 his beaung Line's, rules, pitcedents coinpausons, must sometimes lie foi'gotton , and it is well Those do not know the least or judge the woist, who l.mly siurendei themselves to then sympathies — when they cannot help it Grist — As an artist calculated to engage and letuin the avenge public, without tin k or affect ilion, and to sat^fy, by hei balance of chaiimng attributes— by the as«ui ance, moieovei, that she w, is giving the best she know how to trivo — she satisfied even those who had leceued much gi eater pWsnre, and had been impiesscd with much deeper emotion, in the perfoi mmcc ot otheis I have never tned of Madame Gnsi, duung five and twenty yeais , but I ha«e never been, in hei cast*, under one of those spells of intense tnj.iyinent and sensation which make an epoch in life, and which leave a punt on memory never to be cancelled by an) latei attraction — nevei to be foigotten so long as life and powei to leceive shall enduie. Pasta. — Ah an artist who could turn natural deficiencies into i.ire beauties— w ho could make us forgive others winch cannot be thus tiaiisfonned by the piesc-nce and powei of (Jenuis, Tiuth and Thought in one who Imb (Hinted deeper irnpief-'ions on the memm ipi of those that heat d her than any othei female singer — Madame Pasta must l)e placed hist in the Hist rank of all who have appealed 111 England during the last thirty years Hei gieat triumphs, however, belong to a period somewhat earlier The way was long and laborious by which Madame Pasta arrived at her tin one The ninety nine lequisites of a singer (accord-lit; to the well-known Italian adage) had been dennd to hei Hi 1 \oiee was, originally, limited, husky and weak — without chirm, without flexibility — a mediocre mez-o soprano. Though her countenance spoke, the feature-" were cast 111 that coarse mould which ib common in Italy. Her arms were fine, l>ut her figuie was shoit and clumsy. She walked heavily — almost unequally. No can.didn.tc) for musical Hovereignity e\ei picseiited herself withAvhat must have seemed a moie Rlendei and nnpeifeet list of cicdi-ntials — and by these accordingly, she was rated at the outset of her career. Jenny Lind —Her execution was gieat ; and, as is always the case with voices originally reluctant, seemed greater than it really was. Her Bhake (a grace ri rliculously despised of l.vte) was true and brilhapt — her taste m ornament was altogether 01 iginal. In a hong from Bmtrieedi Tenda which she adopted, there was a chioinatic cadence, ascending to E in alttesivio, and descending to the note whence it had risen, which could not tie paiagoned, of late days, as an evidence of tnisteryand accomplishment She used hei pianissimo tones so ns to make them resemble an effect of ventriloquism. One eveiy note that she sang — in every bir that she delivered — a skilled and careful musician was to be detected No piecise appieciatum of her expiesbion iR possible. "It is the soul that sees, " says Crabbe. Not a little of the effect produced by the artist on his audience is brought thither by the latter, who cannot stay to inquiie how and wheiefore his sympathies aie engaged. Whatsoever weie the predisposing causes, and let them be allowed for ever so la gely, Mdlle. Lind did witho t doubt satisfy the latger number of hei au litois, by giving them the impiession that she was the pusses&oi pf deep and true feeling. This satisfaction 1 only shaicd at intervals, I will endeavour to offei mull reasons for this qualified, admiration as can lie given in a mattey ao dohofVto, ft»d to suppo t them by an illustration or two. I* ~ advantageous to Millie Lind H— • - .vas d.shei cm eer, to-- . ... sue ha.l, throughout T .ug in stianuo languages — German, xtahan -last of all, English Though she mastcied all the tlnee with hei wonted industry, she delivered noneof them with finished cle mess Tins gave moie heaviness to li.il style than is consistent with leal expicssion. There was always in her singing an element of conflict, beside that which might bo discerned in the management of her voice.