MALI B RAN.
iT is with bitter sorrow of heart that we record the death of Madame MALIBRAN. We have heard singers, in years gone by, of whose powers we cherish a vivid and grateful recollection, and we look around among those who are living for some of present excellence and greater promise ; but in MALIBRAN were united all the powers and capabilities, all the gifts and graces, that were scattered among her predecessors and contemporaries. She was the very impersonation of the vocal art; every depth of which she bad fathomed—every elevation attained. Nature had been most bountiful to her : her voice was unrivalled for compass, volume, and richness ; her mind was powerful, her penetration quick, her talent wide and large. Whatever she undertook to do, she did well ; and the rapidity with which she grasped at and attained acquirements of various kinds, was marvellous. She had an in- nate perception of beauty and grace in every art. We have dis- coursed with her about pictures and architecture—about the Latin classics—the poetry of DANTE and of GOETHE—the drama of England; and found a mind not tinged but impregnated with a love of all that was great and enduring of every country and age. Her mind was perpetually athirst after knowledge. Accident had facilitated the natural quickness with which she acquired lan- guages: she could scarcely be said to be the property of any country—she was emphatically and almost alone a European. The reply to an inquiry which we once made, after bearing her converse with equal facility in several languages—of what country she was?—we distinctly recollect: "I was born," said she, "at Paris, in the parish of St. Pierre; my father as you know, was a Spaniard ; therefore French and Spanish 1 learned as every child learns a language : early I came to England, and after residing here some years, where I studied your language closely, I went to the United States "—one of her indescribable looks accompanied this pint of her narrative—" there my English was kept up—not, I believe, improved : the Italian Opera-house has been the cradle in which I was nursed; and German I have acquired that I might grasp and enjoy its musical wealth—that I may speak it with facility and every day, my own servant is a German. There! that is the history of my being so learned !" The father of MALIBRAN, though a tyrant and a ruffian, was a first-rate teacher of his art ; and she was no dull or unwilling pupil : she applied herself not merely to learn to sing, but to learn her art thoroughly and deeply. This knowledge shone forth in whatever style she attempted : her singing was that of a well-instructed musician : caprice or indolence might sometimes lead her astray, but she never erred through ignorance. A cu- rious instance of her musical tact as well as her knowledge occurred soon after her first appearance in Englcnd as Madame MALIBRAN. She was engaged at the Chester Festival, and one of the songs allotted to her was "Praise the Lord," (from HAN- DEL'S Esther,) to which GREATOREX had appended a !Ong and very inappropriate double cadence for the voice and organ. She sung it at rehearsal without any remark ; but the next day at performance she produced one which she had written in the inter- val, so completely in accordance with the style of the song, so perfectly adapted to the character of the organ, and so superior in .every respect to that of the Conductor, that it might have been taken for the work of a veteran of the Handelian school. But the truth is, that she was of no school exclusively. Vocal music, whether of HANDEL, MOZART, CIMAROSA or BEETHOVEN, which came from the heart and appealed to the heart, washer language : discerning where the true strength of each school resided, she
threw herself into and became identified with it. Take four of
her songs as illustrations : " Farewell ye limpid springs "—" Non piu di fiori "—"Deh parlate "—" 0 Hoffnung." Here is almost as much variety of style as the vocal art can exhibit ; yet we should hesitate to which of these the superiority should be awarded. She felt each equally, and expressed each as if she had given to that school exclusive devotion. We say nothing of the inexpressible grace and archness with which she sung her national melodies, Spanish, French, and Neapolitan—of the lustre with which she invested the dulness of BELLINI, or the grace which she infused into HORN'S ballads: these were musical playthings, with which she was wont to amuse herself: we fix upon the highest efforts of which a singer is capable, and all of these she had equally attained.
We only felt disposed to quarrel with her for inlisting such talents as hers in the performance of what was mean and trifling : but this was one of the traits of her extraordinary character. Ardent, sensitive, impassioned in the highest degree, she ,was capricious and wayward; she delighted in astonishing by the versatility as well as captivating by the solidity of her powers. She was ambitious of showing her proficiency in musical alchemy— in transmuting the duller and grosser metals into gold. She was the creature of impulse—hard to advise, impatient of restraint, generous to profusion, now playful as a kitten, and now ferocious as a tiger : but once inlist her feelings in what she had to do, and you were sure of the result. By a perverse ignorance which knew not the right employment of her powers, HANDEL'S bra- vura oratorio songs were uniformly allotted to her at every fes- tival or sacred performance at which she appeared,—with one only exception : at the Norwich Festival of 1833, she sang the "Fare- well" from Jrphaur ; and if we were to single out one as her greatest effort, it wouid be this song. We had often heard, but never felt it before; and we need no repetition of an impression too deep and too vivid for time to efface. At Manchester she was degraded to the level of "Gratias agimus." Her impetuosity and ardent temperament, combined with her extensive and sound musical knowledge and her unrivalled voice, rendered her singing more varied than that of any performer we ever heard. With most singers, the mode in which a song shall be sung is an affair of deliberate study and trial—it is always the same : but with MALIBRAN it assumed every possible variety of colour, as she happened to be excited or depressed—as she found a sympathizing and discriminating or a dull and ignorant audi- ence: sometimes her spirits would effervesce in passages of the most joyous and sparkling character, at others she would make the same song a vehicle for the display of her intimate knowledge of harmony in a series of elaborate cadences : it was just as the impulse of the moment prompted. And where was ever heard the artist who could achieve all this ? Who ever possessed like her the fancy to prompt, the genius to invent, the knowledge to ',vide and the voice to execute ? We end as we began—she was the very impersonation of the vocal art. Her life, though a scene of triumph, was, till recently, one of bitter and unceasing trial. Few women have tasted more deeply of sorrow : she knew neither parental nor conjugal affection till her marriage with DE BERIOT. For him her love was unbounded —his reputation was dearer to her than her own—the greatest pleasure you could give her was to pmist.hini. Her heart was the abode of some of the noblest feelings That can adorn human nature: for her errors let those answer who laboured to implant and nurture them.
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