Famous Singers of To-day and YesterdayLahee, Henry Charles
History
Famous Singers of To-day and Yesterday
Lahee, Henry Charles
Singers
His daughter Fanny showed a passion for music almost as an infant, and
was carefully trained by her father. At eleven years of age she took
part in an opera as prima donna at a little theatre which Tacchinardi
had built near his country-place just out of Florence. She had a voice
of immense compass, to which sweetness and flexibility were added by
study and practice. She married Joseph Persiani, an operatic composer,
at the age of twelve, for her father did not wish her to go on the
stage, and thought that an early marriage would change her tastes. For
several years she lived in seclusion at her husband's house; but at last
an opportunity offered to sing in opera, and she was unable to resist
it. Madame Persiani belonged to the same style as Sontag, not only in
character of voice but in all her sympathies and affinities. Moscheles,
in his diary, speaks of the incredible technical difficulties which she
overcame, and compares her performance with that of a violinist, for she
could execute the most florid, rapid, and difficult music with such ease
as to excite the wonder of her hearers. Aside from her wonderful
executive art in singing, Madame Persiani will be remembered as having
contributed, perhaps, more than any other singer to making the music of
Donizetti popular. Her death occurred in 1867.
The name of Jenny Lind will be remembered when Malibran, Grisi, and many
of the greatest singers have sunk into oblivion, because of her good
works. Besides being one of the few perfect singers of the century, her
life was characterized by deep religious principles and innumerable
charitable works, of which not the least was the use of the fortune of
over $100,000, which she made during her American tour, in founding art
scholarships and other charities in Sweden, her native land.
Jenny Lind was born in 1820 at Stockholm, and was the daughter of poor
but educated parents, her father being a teacher of languages and her
mother a schoolmistress.
From her cradle she showed the greatest delight in music, and at the age
of three she could sing with accuracy any song that she had heard. Her
musical education began at the age of nine; but, notwithstanding the
brilliant career predicted for her by her friends, her life for many
years was a history of patient hard work and crushing disappointments.
When she was presented by her singing teacher to Count Puecke, the
director of the court theatre at Stockholm, with a view to getting her
admitted to the school of music connected with it, she made no
impression on him, and it was only by great persuasion that he could be
induced to accept her.
In this theatre she appeared in child's parts while scarcely in her
teens, but when she was about thirteen years old her voice suddenly
failed. She continued patiently with her other musical studies, and in
four or five years her voice returned as suddenly as it had left her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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