It is just twenty years since Grisi first appeared among
us; and never surely, as Burke said of Marie-Antoinette, was there a more delightful vision. Her debitt in the Puritani—how it turned everybody's head— how young and old went about the streets humming to themselves and one another "Son vergin vezzosa "—seem reminiscences of yesterday. She was then very young, and not much known even on the Continent ; and it was from her first appearances in Paris and London in the same year that we date the commencement of her fame. For these twenty years she has not been absent from us a single season—as the swallows came with the spring, so came Grisi, and till she came we could not feel that the season of song had set in. During these twenty years she has taken a greater and greater hold of the public. If she has gradually lost something (and it has been marvellously little) of the bloom and freshness of youth, she has gained much more in expansion of mind and in the ripening of her powers as an artist. In the days of her youthful prime she did many things which she has wisely discontinued to attempt ; but she has never been so grand and impassioned a Norma, so dark and tragic a Luerezia Borgia, as she is now, when her career is about to end.
It was in Norma that she appeared on Thursday. The scene was most interesting; but its features—the previous excitement, the overflowing house, the thunders of applause which hailed her entrance and were re- peated again and again during the evening—may be left to the imagination. She was visibly and deeply affected. As she made her necessarily prolonged obeisances, she trembled in every limb ; and when she essayed to speak, the first words of her address to the people, " Sediziose voci !" were uttered with a breathless agitation, very unlike the lofty commanding tone which belongs to them, but much more affecting at a moment when everybody was thinking less of the feel- ings of the character than of the actress. She looked as noble and graceful as ever, but not very strong ; and the sound of her voice corresponded with her aspect. The "Casts diva" was sung with less than her usual power, but even more than her usual beauty—nothing could be more exquisite than the "linked sweetness" of her long-drawn tones. As she proceeded with the part, every sign of languor disappeared ; her voice re- gained its strength, her action its force and energy, and Norma again stood before us in all her matchless splendour.
The other operas in which it is announced that Grisi will appear are Les Huguenots, La Favorita, .Don Pasquale, and Luerezia Borgia. Her fare- well performances are limited to twelve, but it seems probable that they will be extended beyond this number.
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