Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
With all deference to M. Scudo, who is rather smart than accurate, we
will remark that the applause of the Berliners was elicited less by
the nationality of the music than by the excellence of the singing;
and that they were perfectly satisfied to listen to translations of
Rossini, and to the music then in vogue in the other chief opera
houses of Europe. Doubtless they were proud of their countrywoman;
and their jealousy and indignation were highly excited when, after
a visit to Paris, she came back to Berlin with the avowed intention
of returning to the French capital. This raised a storm, and on her
first appearance at the Koenigstadt, she was received, probably for
the first and last time in her life, with a storm of groans and
hisses. So violent was the tumult that the other actors left the
stage in alarm; but the Sontag remained, strong in her right and
regardless of the unmerited hurricane of censure, and of the almost
menacing adjurations addressed to her by the audience to break off
with the French, and remain in her own country. At last, hopeless
of making an impression on the resolute young lady, the incensed
Prussians calmed themselves, and from that night to the day of her
departure she was as popular as ever.
At Paris was fully confirmed the favourable judgment passed upon
Mademoiselle Sontag at Prague, Vienna, and Berlin. And, in one
respect, her triumph there was more important and complete than any
she had previously enjoyed--more important, not so much on account of
the superior critical acumen and taste of her hearers, as by reason
of the formidable rivals with whom she had to compete. We are far
from belonging to that class of persons--a class confined, as we
believe, almost exclusively to France--which holds the favourable
verdict of the Parisian musical world the most difficult to obtain,
and the most flattering to the artist, of any in Europe. This notion
has been diligently set abroad by the Parisians themselves, who,
with characteristic self-complacency, look upon their tribunal as
the court of last appeal in matters of art and music. The only solid
ground upon which such a presumption can plausibly be sustained, is
the fact that Paris (by its gaiety and central position the European
metropolis of pleasure) annually assembles,--or did assemble, before
recent disastrous follies closed its saloons and deterred foreign
visitors--a very large portion of the intellectual and art-loving
of all countries. Upon this basis rests the sole claim of Paris
to fastidiousness and infallibility of judgment. This only can
give superior value to the laurel wreaths bestowed in the Salle
Ventadour, or the Rue Lepelletier, over those that may be acquired
in half-a-dozen other European opera houses. As regards the worth
of the verdict of an exclusively French audience, we confess that,
when we see the crowds that are attracted, and the enthusiasm that
is excited, by the usually flimsy and second-rate music given at
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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