The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3Poe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American
The impression she produced upon the company seemed
electrical—but the effect upon myself was something even more. I
know not how adequately to describe it. It arose in part, no
doubt, from the sentiment of love with which I was imbued; but
chiefly from my conviction of the extreme sensibility of the
singer. It is beyond the reach of art to endow either air or
recitative with more impassioned expression than was hers. Her
utterance of the romance in Otello—the tone with which she gave
the words “Sul mio sasso,” in the Capuletti—is ringing in my
memory yet. Her lower tones were absolutely miraculous. Her voice
embraced three complete octaves, extending from the contralto D
to the D upper soprano, and, though sufficiently powerful to have
filled the San Carlos, executed, with the minutest precision,
every difficulty of vocal composition—ascending and descending
scales, cadences, or fiorituri. In the final of the Somnambula,
she brought about a most remarkable effect at the words:
Ah! non guinge uman pensiero
Al contento ond ’io son piena.
Here, in imitation of Malibran, she modified the original phrase
of Bellini, so as to let her voice descend to the tenor G, when,
by a rapid transition, she struck the G above the treble stave,
springing over an interval of two octaves.
Upon rising from the piano after these miracles of vocal
execution, she resumed her seat by my side; when I expressed to
her, in terms of the deepest enthusiasm, my delight at her
performance. Of my surprise I said nothing, and yet was I most
unfeignedly surprised; for a certain feebleness, or rather a
certain tremulous indecision of voice in ordinary conversation,
had prepared me to anticipate that, in singing, she would not
acquit herself with any remarkable ability.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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