Part 2 (2/2)

BY

MARIE AYCARD

TWO centuries ago, under the do, when intellect and ere the daily pastiallantry was a habit and politeness a duty--there was a char, the description of the character, person, and talents of those who had any claim to celebrity This fashi+on of pen-and-ink portraits, consecrated by La Rochefoucauld, who sketched his own--by Madame Lafayette, who sketched that of her illustrious friend--has disappeared with the great nas of those days, when toil andwere not the only objects of life

Occupied, however, Madam, like all other people, as I am, I shall find time to trace, with a rapid and truthful pen, those eminent qualities which all adrace which fascinates, you also possess _esprit_ and native refinement, without which every other quality loses its charm You have a marvellous talent--how shall I describe this! How can we explain by what natural refinement, by what intellectual labor, you have ! That ineffable voice, which goes directly to the heart, and dwells for ever in theshades of expression--those bold and brilliant erace, and made inimitable by art--you possess all Oh, music of the spheres, of which we dream but never hear!--you alone have revealed it, for you alone possess that touching language, at once radiant and heart-thrilling, yet penetrating, like all real beauty, like that divine essence whence you emanate When you appear on the scene, which you instantly transform into a brilliant saloon, one would think he had been admitted by special favor to one of those courtly representations given to indulge the caprice of so those numerous wreaths you knoell hoear

How much admiration have you not excited in the different parts you have filled, with equal inspiration and science! How have eyes and ears both been chariment”--a creation understood and interpreted by yourself alone!--where, in spite of yourself, the harive to the whole character a mysterious poetry, which infects the very air around you!

With what inimitable art you represent that ini, corace those little sins whichat the same time the woman who attracts us by the qualities we love and the faults we adore Ah, whether you express either joy or sorrow, you chared natures, you can feel everything, because you can understand everything You are merciful and charitable--misfortune has never applied to you in vain--never has the cry of the sufferer been listened to by you without reply Succoring the one, consoling the other, you give to ing, and generous, all those who coracious s You have so et so soon what you give--you appear so happy to oblige--that you seem to be indebted to those whom you serve Artist and accomplished woman, you possess the two endowments so rare in this world--iiven you two nobilities--that of ancestry and that of the soul

I have nothingin vain for an expression to portray so admirable a character This is your portrait, Madam--and I leave the world to determine whether it is correct

HENRIETTE SONTAG

(COUNTESS DE ROSSI)

BY MR SCUDO,[A]

(_Member of the Institut Francais_)

AMONG the rare consolations which have lately been vouchsafed to the devotees of e of a celebrated artist who had been its orna enchanted Europe by the beauty of her voice, by her marvellous vocalization, and the charms of her person, suddenly disappeared from the eyes of her numerous admirers, and hid the splendor of an incontestable and painfully acquired reputation under the veil ofbecaed a diaderaceful Muse became an humble ambassadress A political revolution, which overturned society, was necessary to restore to us the eminent vocalist e have so much admired Madame de Rossi, who, most happily for our enjoyment, has lost her embassy and a part of her fortune, as we are assured, has again beco astonished the fashi+onable world of London, which received her during the past winter with great distinction, Made has determined to present herself also, after a silence of twenty years, before that Parisian public whose discri acclamations formed then the most brilliant portion of her faiven at the Conservatoire; but before expressing our appreciation of a talent yet so admirable, we may be permitted, perhaps, to speak briefly of the youth of this celebrated woman, who has been so tried by destiny

[A] Scudo was a pupil of the great Choron, an intimate of Rossini, and has had the entree of all the uished musical circles on the continent for the past thirty years He is a prominent contributor to the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, the _Revue de Paris_, and the _Revue Independant_, from one of which publications this article is taken--_Note of the Translator_

Henriette Sontag was born at Coblentz in Prussia, of one of those faiven us such a poetic description in his _Wilhelht like the halcyon, upon the crests of stormy waves, she early knew the vicissitudes and trials of an artist's life At the age of six years she made her first appearance at Darhter of the Danube), an opera very popular in Germany, where, in the character of _Salorace and just intonation Three years afterwards, having lost her father, Henriette Sontag went to Prague with her mother, where she played children's parts, under the direction of Weber, as then director of the orchestra of the theatre Her precocious success obtained for her, by singular favor, perh she had not yet reached the age required by its rules

There, for four years she studied vocal music, the piano-forte, and the elements of vocalization An indisposition of the _priave her the opportunity to appear for the first time in a part of some importance, that of the _Princess of Navarre_ in Boildieu's opera, _John of Paris_ She was then fifteen The flexibility of her voice, her budding charitation which stirred her heart and filled it with ured well for the future of her professional life Fro went to Vienna, where she ood counsels developed the rich gifts which she had received fro alternately German and Italian opera, she was able to prove her powers in these two strongly contrasting languages, and to choose with deliberation between the dazzling caprices of Italian music and the sober and profound accents of the new Ger in Ger, she went to that city, the centre of the philosophical and literary discussion, and acquired a great reputation by the manner in which she interpreted Weber's _Der Freyschutz_ and _Euryanthe_

The adreat co enerous spirits ished to disenthral Gern rule, as well in the realm of fancy as in that of politics; they sounded with enthusias, whose nahout Germany as that of a virtuoso of the first order, born to renew thethat Mara, that fahteenth century, was educated under the care of the venerable Professor Hiller It was vouchsafed to M'lle Sontag to dedicate a an and a vocalization almost unknown on that side of the Rhine, to the perfororous and profound music of Weber, Beethoven, Spohr, and all those new Gern scepticisenius Overwhele, celebrated by all the brillianther praises, and followed by the _hourras_ of the Ger was called to Berlin, where she appeared with istadt It was at Berlin, it will be remembered, that _Der Freyschutz_ was represented for the first time It was at Berlin, a protestant and rationalistic city, the centre of an intellectual and political ht to concentrate within itself the life of Gerned the spirit of tradition, sensuality, the gaiety and the light melodies of Italy; it was at Berlin, we say, that the new school of dramatic music founded by Weber, had taken foothold Made was received with enthusiaselian philosophers found in her a subject for their learned conised in her limpid and sonorous voice ”_the subjective blended with the objective in an absolute unity_” The old King of Prussia received her at court with parental kindness It was there that diplo, and to effect a breach in the heart of theherself of a leave of absence which had been granted her, M'lle Sontag came finally to Paris, and appeared at the Italian Theatre on the fifteenth of June, 1826, in the part of _Rosina_ in _Il Barbiere di Seviglia_ Her success was brilliant, especially in Rode's variations, which she introduced in the second act during the singing lesson This success she at once confiro_ and _L'Italiana in Algieri_; es of which, written for a contralto voice, she was obliged to transpose Upon her return to Berlin she was received with redoubled manifestations of interest She remained in this city until the close of the year 1826; when, abandoning Germany, and the school which had formed her in the very sanctuary of its nationality, she fixed herself at Paris M'lle Sontag first appeared in the character of _Desdemona_ in the opera _Otello_, on the second of January, 1828

She was one of that constellation of admirable virtuosos who at that epoch char whom Mada shone as stars of the first nitude

Between the last two vocalists, so different in their styles, there was declared one of those fruitful rivalries of which Hoffiven us so dramatic a picture This rivalry was pushed so far between the imperious Juno and the blonde Venus that they could not re in the same opera, which happened in _Don Giovanni_ or _Semiramide_, their stupendous jealousy manifested itself by malicious cadenzas and rockets of sound which inflamed their hearers Noas the Trojans burst all bonds, and now the Greeks The parterre rose and fell like the waves of the sea under the touch of the divinities of Oly having to sing a duett at a princely mansion, the fusion of two voices so different in quality and in the character of their expression, produced so grand an effect that the success of the two great vocalists worked their reconciliation From that moment a calm rested _sul mare infido_

Even in the midst of such successes and festivals of art, a black spot shows itself upon the horizon: diplomacy labored secretly to work confusion--its protocols beca was about to quit the stage to devote herself to more serious duties For a year past she had been secretlyto share his happiness with the world M'lle Sontag took leave of the Parisian public at a perforiven at the opera, in January of 1830 Upon her return to Berlin, her friends and nuive a few representations, and she quitted the stage definitively twoupon the new path of life which she had chosen, and before laying aside the brilliant renohich had been so justly acquired, M'lle Sontag went a journey to Russia, giving at Warsaw, Moscow, St

Petersburgh, and afterwards at Ha and other principal cities of Germany, concerts equally brilliant and profitable

It was after this journey that, under the na the fortunes of her husband, she passed successively ue, Frankfort, and Berlin, heard only in those asseuished societies of Europe which the revolution of February has shaken to its very foundations

Made possesses a soprano voice of unusual coreat equality, and of a marvellous flexibility From theof a silver bell, and never need we fear either a doubtful intonation or an ill-balanced phrase in her wonderful displays of vocalization This rare flexibility of organ is the result of incessant labor, judiciously directed to the developifts of nature Until her arrival at Vienna, where she had opportunity to hear the great virtuosos of Italy, M'lle Sontag had been guided only by her own happy instincts, and the tastes,It is to the counsels of Madame Maineville-Fodor, and yet more to the exaer set daily before her, that M'lle Sontag owes the expanding of those native pohich till then had rested, folded as it were, within their bud The contest with such rivals as Mad Pisaroni and Mad Malibran--those heroic coes of Vienna, Paris, and London--accoone of the ers of Europe