Great Singers, Second Series: Malibran To TitiensFerris, George T. (George Titus)
History
Great Singers, Second Series: Malibran To Titiens
Ferris, George T. (George Titus)
Singers -- Biography
This was the first character which had awakened our young singer's
artistic sympathies, and toward it her secret ambition had long set.
She studied with the labor of love, and all the Maytide of her young
enthusiasm poured itself into her impersonation of Weber's beautiful
creation. At the last rehearsal before performance, she sang with such
intense ardor and feeling that the members of the orchestra laid aside
their instruments and broke into the most cordial applause. "I saw her
at the evening representation," says Fredrika Bremer. "She was then
in the spring of life--fresh, bright, and serene as a morning in May;
perfect in form; her hands and her arms peculiarly graceful, and lovely
in her whole appearance. She seemed to move, speak, and sing without
effort or art. All was nature and harmony. Her singing was distinguished
especially by its purity and the power of soul which seemed to swell in
her tones. Her 'mezzo voice' was delightful. In the night-scene where
_Agatha_, seeing her lover coming, breathes out her joy in rapturous
song, our young singer, on turning from the window at the back of
the stage to the spectators again, was pale for joy; and in that pale
joyousness she sang with a burst of outflowing love and life that called
forth not the mirth, but the tears of the auditors."
Jenny Lind has always regarded the character of _Agatha_ as the keystone
of her fame. From the night of this performance she was the declared
favorite of the Swedish public, and continued for a year and a half the
star of the opera of Stockholm, performing in "Euryanthe," "Robert
le Diable," "La Vestale," of Spontini, and other operas. She labored
meanwhile with indefatigable industry to remedy certain natural
deficiencies in her voice. Always pure and melodious in tone, it was
originally wanting in elasticity. She could neither hold her notes to
any considerable extent, nor increase nor diminish their volume with
sufficient effect; and she could scarcely utter the slightest cadence.
But, undaunted by difficulties, she persevered, and ultimately achieved
that brilliant and facile execution which, it is difficult to believe,
was partially denied her by nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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