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
Sophie Cruvelli continued on the stage till 1855, and, although her
faults of violence and exaggeration continued to call out severe
criticism, she disarmed even the attacks of her enemies by the
unquestionable vigor of her genius as well as by the magnificence of a
voice which had never been surpassed in native excellence, though many
had been far greater in the art of vocalization. Her last performance,
and perhaps one of the grandest efforts of her life, was the character
of _Helene_ in Verdi's "Les Vepres Siciliennes," the active principal
parts having been taken by Bonnehee, Gueymard, and Obin. The production
of the work was on a splendid scale, and the opera a great success. "The
audience was electrified by the tones of her magnificent voice, which
realized with equal effect those high inspirations that demand passion,
force, and impulse, and those tender passages that require delicacy,
taste, and a thorough knowledge of the art of singing. No one could
reproach Mlle. Cruvelli with exaggeration, so well did she know how
to restrain her ardent nature." "Cruvelli is the Rachel of the Grand
Opera!" exclaimed a French critic. From these estimates it may be
supposed that, just as she was on the eve of passing out of the
profession in which she had already achieved such a splendid place at
the age of twenty-five, a great future, to which hardly any limits could
be set, was opening the most fascinating inducements to her. The faults
which had marred the full blaze of her genius had begun to be mellowed
and softened by experience, and there was scarcely any pitch of artistic
greatness to which she might not aspire.
Rumors of her approaching marriage had already begun to circulate, and
it soon became known that Sophie Cruvelli was about to quit the stage.
On January 5, 1856, she married Baron Vigier, a wealthy young Parisian,
the son of Count Vigier, whose father had endowed the city of Paris with
the immense bathing establishments on the Seine which bear his name,
and who, in the time of the Citizen King, was a member of the Chamber of
Deputies, and afterward a peer of France. Mme. Vigier resides with her
husband in their splendid mansion at Nice, and, though she has sung on
many occasions in the salons of the fashionable world and for charity,
she has been steadfast in her retirement from professional life. She
has composed many songs, and even some piano-forte works, though her
compositions are as unique and defiant of rules as was her eccentric
life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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