A MUSICAL BIOGRAHPY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15511, 11 January 1911, Page 2

A MUSICAL BIOGRAHPY.

“Clara Novello’s Reminiscences.” which have been compiled by her daughter, the Oontessa Valeria Gigliucci, and published by Jlklwin Arnold, are exetvemely pleasant to peruse. Tlie singer's career was a consistently happy and successful one, and, like most celebrities, it was embellished with many diverting incidents. Here- is one of them: — The late W. S- Rockstro was fond, of telling n story of which Clara Novello was the heroine; it will bear repetition, apropos of this revival of the English version of Pacini’s ‘ Saffo.” Mr Rockstro, who was at the susceptible age of twenty, watched the performance with intense interest: at the close he was horrified to see the singer walk up a rocky pathway until she reached the topmost, point of the scene, from whence she threw herself down in such a way as to make him think she must have killed herself, or at least been injured seriously, out of devotion to hor art.. He had' had the honour of an introduction to Miss Novello, and on the following day he called to "inquire after her health. Sho received him with peals of laughter, and assured him that, his anxiety was thrown away. She then explained that she herself did nothing but remain behind tho first rock which she passed in her progress. A “super” dressed exactly tike her performed the next stage of tho journey, being replaced at another rock by another rather smaller in size. So the succession went on of ladies gradually diminishing in stature as they receded, each driven onward by despair, until at last a small child at the top, with distraught gestures, threw down a bundle of rags into the fathomless abyss. So that Saffo herself was safe and sound all the time.

In Clara Novollo’s youth she came in contact with many famous literary men at her parents' college at Shacklewell. She says:— The cottage had several parlours, all looking into the garden. Into these often came to tea Leigh Hunt; Mrs Shelley, widow of the poet; Mrs WilMrs Hogg: Charles Lamb and his sister. Even thus early I felt those sympathies, and the reverse, which have been mine all through life. How I loved dear Charles Lamb! I once hid—to avoid the ignominy of going to bed—in the upright (cabinet) pianoforte, which in its lowest part had a sort of tiny cupboard. In this I fell asleep, awakening only when the party was supping. My appearance from beneath tho pianoforte was hailed with surprise by all, and with anger from my mother; but Charles Lamb not, only took me under his protection, but obtained that henceforth I should never again he sent to bed when he came, but, —glory and delight I —always sit up to suppor. Of Maliban, Clara Novello says:— Impetuous to frenzy she was gener-

ous in the extreme. Once slio took cold, which prevented her, at the last moment, singing Somnabuln—iri English—at Drury Lane, when crowds already filled the house, hours before the time' of performance. On the manager telling her, in despair, that besides loss of money these disappointed people would ho dangerous, she said, ‘ I can’t speak above my breath ; I should have to do it in dumb show!” Bunn at once caught at this outburst as if seriously meant, and on his knees begged her to try this; and she, fired by the novelty, did so. The grateful public raved in praise of this surprising tour de force, and the sensation it made filled the papers. So Bunn had tho unlucky impudence to beg her to repeat this marvel, to satisfy curiosity, and she, all impulse, hurled at his head, for an answer, some music-books she held—offended, as an artist, to be asked to join in a low charlatanerie for speculation. The adoration which the fair sex lavished on Liszt rather disgusted Clara Novello, who says:— Liszt was at this time (1840) in Milan: a poseur by nature he was almost driven to eccentricities by the frenzies of women over him, some of whom absolutely pursued him, nay, ran him down. At Vienna, as elsewhere, when ho broke the strings of the piano during concerts, the women rushed on to the platform to seize them and have bracelets made of them; and when he left Vienna, fifteen or twenty carriagefuls of the.se cracked creatures pursued him as far as the first station where change of post-horses took place. Clara Novello tells an amusing anecdote in connection with the late Queen Victoria. She says :

In Berlin I had a droll sample of German linguistic talent and self-assur-ance: an elderly literary man, having heard me sing “ Gcd Save the Queen,” as I often did, called on me to offer his own new, and—as he considered—more appropriate words to that hymn, only one line of which, alas! can I remember: “0. beauteous name which doth combine both Vig and Tory (Victoria!) . . . ’’ I had the fun of repeating this, years after, to Prince Albert, when, during the intervals of a State concert, he came to compliment the artists, and it so upset his Court gravity that his uncontrollable laughter attracted notice, and a messenger came to call him to tea—and order 1 I fancy. Altogether, the book is most readable, and the introductory memoir by Arthur D. Coleridge is excellent. The work is well illustrated.