THE MUSICIAN ABOUT TOWN. 313 



struments, in the accompanied recitatives and solos, where effect and 

 vehemence are not looked for. The critical ear is, therefore, conti- 

 nually annoyed with an anticlimax of fierce appeals without ade- 

 quate motive, and mere noise unattended by dramatic passion. The 

 case appears to be that these full orchestral effects are solely intend- 

 ed to produce so many reliefs to some pretty, unassuming cavatina. 

 Donizetti evidently writes purely for money, and, by report, will 

 finish an opera " to order," upon any subject, in six weeks. He is 

 still under fifty years of age, and has written more than that num- 

 ber of operas. This is not surprising. Mr. Bulwer, or any other 

 novelist, could produce romances quite as rapidly, if the public 

 would be contented with a fiftieth repetition of the same thoughts 

 recorded upon the arithmetical principle of permutation. All the 

 phrases in the finale to the ' Lucia' have been heretofore so frequently 

 repeated bv the author that it becomes a task to retain one's attention 

 to them. Nor, indeed, do the audience pretend to do so ; they are 

 hanging upon Rubini's tones. The " Parisina," by the same com- 

 poser, is still less attractive, both in dramatic and musical preten- 

 sion, than the former production. To the lover of the pure school 

 of operatic writing, the compulsion to sit through a performance 

 like that of the " Parisina," is exasperating work. 



Mad. Persiani, the only addition to the company of this season 

 deserving of record, made her first appearance in this country in the 

 " Sonnambula," upon the re-opening of the theatre, March 23rd. — 

 Her voice, which is a high soprano of considerable compass, brilli- 

 ance, and flexibility, is rather defective in mellowness and weight ; 

 and we are inclined to think that this has arisen from an over-exer- 

 cise of the organ, in order to attain the mastery of those surprising 

 instrumental passages which she executes. Hence she has attained 

 the complete command of the most distant as well as difficult inter- 

 vals; and these she delivers with great freedom, and an absolute 

 correctness of intonation. Moreover, Mad. Persiani sings like a 

 musician, as well as with tasteful and mechanical refinement ; for, 

 upon the occasion of repeating a solo, she usually varies her embel- 

 lishments and cadenzas, and always to the satisfaction of the most 

 fastidious judges. She is wife to the composer of " Ines de Castro,'' 

 the principal part in which opera was written for Malibran. She 

 is likewise daughter of the celebrated tenor, Tactrinardi ; and, to 

 conclude our account of her, we have much pleasure in witnessing 

 the steady increase of her popularity in this country ; for we believe 

 there is no doubt that much unworthy partizanship has been excited 

 against this highly accomplished and estimable artist. 



VOL. VIII., NO. XXIV. 40 



