The most distinguished singer the world has ever seen, Maria Felicita Malibran, was born in 1808. At the age of five she played a child's part in Paër's "Agnese," at the "Fiorentini," Naples. So precocious was she that, after a few nights of this opera, she actually began to sing the part of "Agnese" in the duet of the second Act, a piece of audacity which was applauded by the public.
She soon learned to speak fluently Spanish, Italian, French, English and German. In London as a nine-year-old she had good teaching on the piano, and made such rapid progress that she was able to play J. S. Bach's clavier-works. In this way she acquired sound taste in music.
At the early age of fifteen she was made by her father to learn singing under his own direction; and, in spite of the fear which his violent temper inspired, she soon showed the individuality and originality of her genius. Two years had barely elapsed when, in 1824, Garcia allowed her to appear for the first time before a musical club which he had just established. There she produced a great sensation. From the first moment of her appearance she showed evident talents for the stage both as singer and actress. Her extreme youth, her prettiness, her pleasing voice, and sprightly easy action, as Rosina in 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia,' in which part she made her début, gained her general favour.
We see clearly in this progress that the popularity of the female singer is a phenomenon more of excessive hetero-sexualism than of musical art do we not.
Anyway, she rapidly "improved," and acquired confidence, experience, and the habit of the stage. She had scarcely made her début when the enthusiasm of the public knew no bounds; and, in the midst of her popularity, Garcia gave her in marriage to M. Malibran, an elderly and seemingly wealthy French merchant, in spite of her repugnance to the union. This marriage, celebrated on March the twenty-fifth, 1826, was as unhappy as it was ill-assorted; a year had hardly elapsed before the young wife found herself, on Malibran's bankruptcy, free to leave him, and she seized the opportunity.
Her genius for dramatic singing was at once recognised, though her style was marred by a questionable taste in her choice of ornament. The public, at first doubting, soon welcomed her as a really great singer, and were particularly struck with wonder and delight at the novelty and originality of her style.
In the season of 1829 Malibran made her reappearance in London, where she shared the applause of the public with Sontag, and the same result followed her singing with that artist at Paris in the autumn. She was principal soprano at the Gloucester Festival of 1829, and when engaged again at the Italian Opera in Paris in January 1830, she was paid frs. 1075 for each representation. This was less than she had received from Laporte in London, for he had given her frs. 13,333·33 a month, an odd sum, unless it meant frs. 40,000 for three months; and she stipulated to appear only twice a week, making each of those appearances cost frs. 1666·66, or about £66. Though she certainly continued to draw no higher salary at the Paris Opera in 1830 and 1831, and her charge for singing at private concerts in London, in 1829, was only twenty-five guineas, yet Alfred Bunn engaged her, soon after, for nineteen nights at £125 per night, payable in advance.
Sontag, marrying and retiring from the stage early in 1830, left Malibran mistress of the field, and henceforth she had no rival, but continued to sing each season in London and Paris with ever-increased éclat. In 1830 an attachment sprang up between her and Charles de Bériot the violinist; and this ended only with her life. They built in 1831 a handsome villa at Ixelles, a suburb of Brussels, to which they returned after every operatic campaign.
Malibran retired to Brussels in December 1832, and her son, Charles Wilfrid, was born on February the twelfth, 1833. In the following spring she came to London, and sang at Drury Lane, in English Opera, receiving frs. 80,000 for forty representations, with two benefits which produced not less than frs. 50,000. The prices offered to her increased each year to an unprecedented extent. She received at the Opera in London, during May and June 1835, £2775 for twenty-four appearances. Sums, the like of which had not been heard of before in such cases, were paid to her at the provincial festivals in England, and her last engagement at Naples was for frs. 80,000 for forty nights, with 2½ benefits, while that which she had accepted at Milan from the Duke Visconti, the director of La Scala, was, exclusively of some other profitable conditions, frs. 450,000 for 185 performances, viz. seventy-five in 1835-36, seventy-five in 1836-37, and thirty-five in the autumn of 1838.
Her marriage was eventually annulled by the Courts at Paris, and on March the twenty-sixth, 1836, she married de Bériot, with whom she returned immediately to Brussels. It is noteworthy though that she chose to retain the Malibran name.
In the following April, once more in London, Mme. Malibran de Bériot had a fall from her horse. She was dragged some distance along the road, and received serious injuries to her head, from which she never entirely recovered; but her wonderful energy enabled her for a time to disregard the consequences of this accident. In September she came to England again, for the Manchester Festival, - at which her short, brilliant life came to an end. She had arrived, with her husband, after a rapid journey from Paris, on Sunday, September the eleventh, 1836. On the following evening she sang in no less than fourteen pieces. On the Tuesday, though weak and ill, she insisted on singing both morning and evening. On Wednesday, the fourteenth, her state was still more critical, but she contrived to sing the last sacred music in which she ever took part, "Sing ye to the Lord," with thrilling effect; but that same evening her last notes in public were heard, in the duet, with Mme. Caradori Allan, "Vanne se alberghi in petto," from "Andronico." This was received with immense enthusiasm, the last movement was encored, and Malibran actually accomplished the task of repeating it. It was her last effort. While the concert-room still rang with applause, she was fainting in the arms of her friends; and, a few moments later, she was conveyed to her hôtel (the Mosley Hôtel, Manchester). Here she expired, after nine days of nervous fever, in the prostration which naturally followed upon the serious injuries her brain had received from the accident which had befallen her in the midst of a life of perpetual excitement. She expired on Friday, September the twenty-third, 1836, about twenty minutes before midnight, under the care of her own doctor, a homœopath, Belluomini, who had declined to act with the two regular physicians who had at first attended her. She was but twenty-eight years of age when she died.
Two hours after her death de Bériot was, with Belluomini, in a carriage on his way to Brussels, to secure the property of his late wife.
It is difficult to appreciate the charm of a singer whom one has never heard. In the case of Maria Malibran it is exceptionally difficult, for the charm seems to have consisted chiefly in the peculiarity of timbre and unusual extent of her voice, in her excitable temperament which prompted her to improvise passages of strange audacity upon the stage, and on her strong musical feeling which kept those improvisations nearly, but not quite, always within the bounds of good taste. That her voice was not faultless, either in quality or uniformity, seems certain. It was a contralto, having much of the soprano register superadded, and with an interval of dead notes intervening, to conceal which she used great ingenuity, with almost perfect success. It was, after all, her mind that helped to enslave her audience; without that mental originality her defective vocal organ would have failed to please where, in fact, it provoked raptures. The essence of slavery has always lain in the acquiescence of its victims has it not.
She soon learned to speak fluently Spanish, Italian, French, English and German. In London as a nine-year-old she had good teaching on the piano, and made such rapid progress that she was able to play J. S. Bach's clavier-works. In this way she acquired sound taste in music.
At the early age of fifteen she was made by her father to learn singing under his own direction; and, in spite of the fear which his violent temper inspired, she soon showed the individuality and originality of her genius. Two years had barely elapsed when, in 1824, Garcia allowed her to appear for the first time before a musical club which he had just established. There she produced a great sensation. From the first moment of her appearance she showed evident talents for the stage both as singer and actress. Her extreme youth, her prettiness, her pleasing voice, and sprightly easy action, as Rosina in 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia,' in which part she made her début, gained her general favour.
We see clearly in this progress that the popularity of the female singer is a phenomenon more of excessive hetero-sexualism than of musical art do we not.
Anyway, she rapidly "improved," and acquired confidence, experience, and the habit of the stage. She had scarcely made her début when the enthusiasm of the public knew no bounds; and, in the midst of her popularity, Garcia gave her in marriage to M. Malibran, an elderly and seemingly wealthy French merchant, in spite of her repugnance to the union. This marriage, celebrated on March the twenty-fifth, 1826, was as unhappy as it was ill-assorted; a year had hardly elapsed before the young wife found herself, on Malibran's bankruptcy, free to leave him, and she seized the opportunity.
Her genius for dramatic singing was at once recognised, though her style was marred by a questionable taste in her choice of ornament. The public, at first doubting, soon welcomed her as a really great singer, and were particularly struck with wonder and delight at the novelty and originality of her style.
In the season of 1829 Malibran made her reappearance in London, where she shared the applause of the public with Sontag, and the same result followed her singing with that artist at Paris in the autumn. She was principal soprano at the Gloucester Festival of 1829, and when engaged again at the Italian Opera in Paris in January 1830, she was paid frs. 1075 for each representation. This was less than she had received from Laporte in London, for he had given her frs. 13,333·33 a month, an odd sum, unless it meant frs. 40,000 for three months; and she stipulated to appear only twice a week, making each of those appearances cost frs. 1666·66, or about £66. Though she certainly continued to draw no higher salary at the Paris Opera in 1830 and 1831, and her charge for singing at private concerts in London, in 1829, was only twenty-five guineas, yet Alfred Bunn engaged her, soon after, for nineteen nights at £125 per night, payable in advance.
Sontag, marrying and retiring from the stage early in 1830, left Malibran mistress of the field, and henceforth she had no rival, but continued to sing each season in London and Paris with ever-increased éclat. In 1830 an attachment sprang up between her and Charles de Bériot the violinist; and this ended only with her life. They built in 1831 a handsome villa at Ixelles, a suburb of Brussels, to which they returned after every operatic campaign.
Malibran retired to Brussels in December 1832, and her son, Charles Wilfrid, was born on February the twelfth, 1833. In the following spring she came to London, and sang at Drury Lane, in English Opera, receiving frs. 80,000 for forty representations, with two benefits which produced not less than frs. 50,000. The prices offered to her increased each year to an unprecedented extent. She received at the Opera in London, during May and June 1835, £2775 for twenty-four appearances. Sums, the like of which had not been heard of before in such cases, were paid to her at the provincial festivals in England, and her last engagement at Naples was for frs. 80,000 for forty nights, with 2½ benefits, while that which she had accepted at Milan from the Duke Visconti, the director of La Scala, was, exclusively of some other profitable conditions, frs. 450,000 for 185 performances, viz. seventy-five in 1835-36, seventy-five in 1836-37, and thirty-five in the autumn of 1838.
Her marriage was eventually annulled by the Courts at Paris, and on March the twenty-sixth, 1836, she married de Bériot, with whom she returned immediately to Brussels. It is noteworthy though that she chose to retain the Malibran name.
In the following April, once more in London, Mme. Malibran de Bériot had a fall from her horse. She was dragged some distance along the road, and received serious injuries to her head, from which she never entirely recovered; but her wonderful energy enabled her for a time to disregard the consequences of this accident. In September she came to England again, for the Manchester Festival, - at which her short, brilliant life came to an end. She had arrived, with her husband, after a rapid journey from Paris, on Sunday, September the eleventh, 1836. On the following evening she sang in no less than fourteen pieces. On the Tuesday, though weak and ill, she insisted on singing both morning and evening. On Wednesday, the fourteenth, her state was still more critical, but she contrived to sing the last sacred music in which she ever took part, "Sing ye to the Lord," with thrilling effect; but that same evening her last notes in public were heard, in the duet, with Mme. Caradori Allan, "Vanne se alberghi in petto," from "Andronico." This was received with immense enthusiasm, the last movement was encored, and Malibran actually accomplished the task of repeating it. It was her last effort. While the concert-room still rang with applause, she was fainting in the arms of her friends; and, a few moments later, she was conveyed to her hôtel (the Mosley Hôtel, Manchester). Here she expired, after nine days of nervous fever, in the prostration which naturally followed upon the serious injuries her brain had received from the accident which had befallen her in the midst of a life of perpetual excitement. She expired on Friday, September the twenty-third, 1836, about twenty minutes before midnight, under the care of her own doctor, a homœopath, Belluomini, who had declined to act with the two regular physicians who had at first attended her. She was but twenty-eight years of age when she died.
Two hours after her death de Bériot was, with Belluomini, in a carriage on his way to Brussels, to secure the property of his late wife.
It is difficult to appreciate the charm of a singer whom one has never heard. In the case of Maria Malibran it is exceptionally difficult, for the charm seems to have consisted chiefly in the peculiarity of timbre and unusual extent of her voice, in her excitable temperament which prompted her to improvise passages of strange audacity upon the stage, and on her strong musical feeling which kept those improvisations nearly, but not quite, always within the bounds of good taste. That her voice was not faultless, either in quality or uniformity, seems certain. It was a contralto, having much of the soprano register superadded, and with an interval of dead notes intervening, to conceal which she used great ingenuity, with almost perfect success. It was, after all, her mind that helped to enslave her audience; without that mental originality her defective vocal organ would have failed to please where, in fact, it provoked raptures. The essence of slavery has always lain in the acquiescence of its victims has it not.
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