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
Her fame so increased that the Fraeulein Schroeder soon made an art-tour
through Germany. Her appearances at Cassel in the spring of 1823, in
such characters as _Pamina_ and _Agathe_, produced a great sensation.
At Dresden she also evoked a large share of popular enthusiasm, and her
name was favorably compared with the greatest lights of the German lyric
stage. While singing at this capital she met Carl Devrient, one of the
principal dramatic tenors of Germany, and, an attachment springing up
between the pair, they were married. The union did not prove a happy
one, and Mme. Schroeder-Devrient had bitter occasion to regret that she
had tied her fortunes to a man utterly unworthy of love and respect.
She remained for several years at Dresden, and among other operas she
appeared in Weber's "_Euryanthe_," with Mme. Funk, Herr Berg-mann, and
Herr Meyer. She also made a powerful impression on the attention of
both the critics and the public in Cherubini's "Faniska," and Spohr's
"Jessonda," both of which operas are not much known out of Germany,
though "Faniska" was first produced at the Theatre Feydeau, in Paris,
and contributed largely to the fame of its illustrious composer. The
austere, noble music is not of a character to please the multitude who
love what is sensational and easily understood. When "Faniska" was first
produced at the Austrian capital in the winter of 1805, both Haydn and
Beethoven were present. The former embraced Cherubini, and said to him,
"You are my son, worthy of my love"; while Beethoven cordially hailed
him as "the first dramatic composer of the age." The opera of "Faniska"
is based on a Polish legend of great dramatic beauty, and the unity of
idea and musical color between it and Beethoven's "Fidelio" has often
excited the attention of critics. It is perhaps owing to this dramatic
similarity that Mme. Schroeder-De vrient made as much reputation by
her performance of it as she had already acquired in Beethoven's lyric
masterpiece.
In 1828 she went to Prague, and thence to Berlin, where her marriage was
judicially dissolved, she retaining her guardianship of her son, then
four years old. Spontini, who was then the musical autocrat of Berlin,
conceived a violent dislike to her, and his bitter nature expressed
itself in severe and ungenerous sarcasms. But the genius of the singer
was proof against the hostility of the Franco-Italian composer, and the
immense audiences which gathered to hear her interpret the chef-d'ouvres
of Weber, whose fame as the great national composer of Germany was
then at its zenith, proved her strong hold on the hearts of the German
people. Spontini's prejudice was generally attributed to Mme. Devrient's
dislike of his music and her artistic identification with the heroines
of Weber, for whose memory Spontini entertained much the same envious
hate as Salieri felt for Mozart in Vienna at an earlier date.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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