Untitled

Waipawa Mail, Volume VI, Issue 671, 18 July 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

The once celebrated Pasta is still living;. Madame Alboni discovered her living obscurely in a villa on the shores of Lake Como. The door was opened by a dirty, unkempt, old woman, who showed the visitor in, saying “ The Signora Pasta will be here directly.” Madame Pasta presently appeared, and Alboni saw her to be the venerable person who had opened the door, but with her negligent toilette slightly repaired. After some conversation she opened her piano ; her lingers strayed over the keys as though she were seeking some forgotten melody, and Chen her voice suddenly broke forth in the magnificent cavatina from 4 ‘ Tancred i, ” “ Ditan ti pal jflt i. ” It was like theevocation of a magic world from the past. The aged lady had become transfigured ; she had recovered her youth, and belonged again to the era of her triumphs.” Mr Owen Dove’s “ Not a Word,” is voted an outrageously vulgar and irredeemably stupid failure at the Avenue. It is compounded of touches of Palais Royal farces and Boccaccioan reminiscences. “O, fond dove! Oh, foolish dove ” is the critical refrain.