School of Florence, and are happy to terminate it with the memoir of its finest composer, as well as one of the greatest that ever adorned the annals of art. We allude to Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobia Salvador Cherubini, who was born at Florence in 1760. At nine years old Cherubini begun to study composition under Bartholomeo Felice and his son, and at their death he was placed with Bizzari and Castrucci. It soon appeared to what good purpose the talents of the youth had been cultivated. Before he attained his 13th year he had composed an opera and a mass, which were succeeded during the next five years by several sacred and dramatic compositions, all received with great applause. Such wonderful precocity engaged the attention of Leopold II. who in 1778 granted him a pension to enable him to pursue his studies under Sarti, with whom Cherubini remained at Bologna for four years, and who valued his talents so highly as to employ him in composing the subordinate parts of his operas for him. In 1784 Cherubini visited London, where he stayed two years, and produced the operas of La finta principessa and Giulio Sabino. Cherubini, though he travelled much, has spent the greater part of his life at Paris, which may be considered as his adopted country. He was named one of the five inspectors of the Conservatory at its organization, and has taken a part in several of the "Methodes" published under its sanction. His opera of Lodoiska, produced at Paris in 1791, is generally considered as his chef d'œuvre. The style of Cherubini combines great richness and brilliancy of instrumental effect, with science, melody, and originality in his vocal music. How frequently do his superb overtures to Anacreon* and Les deux journées make a distinguished feature in our present concert bills! The following is a list of his operas:-1780, Quinto Fabio; 1782, Armida; Messenzio, at Florence; Adriano in Syria, at Leghorn; 1783, Lo Sposo di tre femine; 1784, L'Idalide, at Florence; Alessandro nell' Indie, at Mantua; 1785, La finta Principessa, at London; 1786, Giulio Sabino, at London; 1788, Iphigenia in Aulide, at Turin; Demophoon, at Paris; 1790, Additions to Cimarosa's Italiana in Londra; at Paris; 1791, Lodoiska, at Paris; 1794, Elisa; 1797, Medée; 1798, L'Hotellerie Portugaise; 1799, La Punition, La Prison

* See Vol. 3, page 415.

niere; 1800, Les deux Journees; 1803, Anacreon; 1804, Achille à Scyros (a ballet); 1806, Faniska, at Vienna; 1809, Pigmaglione, at the theatre of the Thuilleries: besides these operas, Cherubini has composed a great deal of church and chamber music, scarcely less admired.

MADAME CARADORI ALLAN.

*

THE modifications of manner in vocal art may justly be said to be no less numerous than the individuals who have illustrated the science and distinguished themselves by superior performance. We have already dwelt at some length upon this fact in our memoir of Miss Stephens, but it seems more extraordinary when considered in relation to Italian singers, whose feelings are equally warm, whose principles of instruction are uniform, whose modes of expression are alike, and whose talents are more generally and more constantly directed towards dramatic music than those of the singers of our own country. Italians concentrate the English dissipate their powers. The former rarely quit the music of their own composers or of their own theatres-the latter on the contrary aspire to be at once Italian and English singers in all styles, the church, the orchestra, the theatre, and the chamber. Hence we view with little surprize the diversity of style, or rather the absence of any decided characteristic style in our native vocalists— but in Italians, though easily accounted for by the difference of natural endowment, of industry, opportunity of instruction, or of hearing good performers which the individuals happen to possess, the variety is no less perceptible and no less a matter for our admiration, since it demonstrates the infinitely delicate divisions of which both nature and art are susceptible, even when narrowed by natural predilections and national customs, and displays

Vol. 3, page 60.

to still greater advantage the force of intellect over the acquisitions of a singer. The lady whose talents we are about to describe was not, it seems, originally educated with a view to the profession. She is the daughter of Baron De Münck, a native of Alsace, and a Colonel in the French army; but at his death she found herself compelled to turn her musical acquirements to the means of improving her own fortune and assisting that of her mother, to whose sole care and attention she is indebted for so much of her knowledge of the art as she enjoyed at her entrance into public life. Madame De Münck was her only instructress, and we the more earnestly insist upon this point because that lady still exercises her abilities as a teacher, and did not the fine science of her daughter sufficiently declare her capability, we could from the best and most disinterested authority support her claims to the character of a most excellent teacher of singing.

Madame Caradori first appeared (at the short notice of three days) in England, and indeed on the stage, as Cherubino, in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro—a character which unites innocency, archness, and that nameless passion in its earliest rudiments, which, "through certain strainers well refined," becomes the "gentle love," that according to our ethical poet, charms one of the sexes, and according to the experience of human life, constitutes the most enviable guide to the happiness of the other-so truly so indeed, that they who do not arrive at the sentiment, esteem it necessary to their success to affect all its semblances. We have ever esteemed this part to be amongst the most hazardous an actress can encounter, for while too cold a demeanour destroys all the effect, too forward a carriage is sure to entail imputations which the delicacy of a sensitive mind would most wish to avoid. Madame Caradori succeeded perfectly, and it will be seen as we proceed, how entirely the delicate susceptibility of her mind, as pourtrayed in her performance, accords with the most indispensable requisites of the part. From the period of her appearance to the present hour she has continued to sustain an equal reputation, and which, if it has not actually risen to the station of the prima donna, has yet stood so near it, as to render the distinction all but imperceptible. Madame Caradori's voice is not of that extensive volume that fills the ear with its tone, and commands as it were admiration by its force. Neither can it be called thin,

but it has a sort of middle power, while its quality is sweet, pure, and delicate. It is probably owing to this, that she pleases even more in the orchestra than upon the Italian stage, for it is in the nearer approximation of the chamber that her perfections are all to be apprehended-delicacy, extreme delicacy, both in conception and execution, being the peculiar and capital property of Madame Caradori's singing. Her intonation is far more correct than usually appertains to the performers of the King's Theatre. The same precision which applies to her manner generally, belongs to this, one of the first if not the very first attribute of fine performance.

In point of conception, Madame Caradori tempers the warmth of Italian sensibility with a chastity that is all but English, and while her own countrymen esteem her more cold than comports with their fiery temperament, the English are delighted with the sweet and elegant, but obviously restricted manner to which she at all times adheres. It is this quality perhaps that renders her English singing more like that of a native than the execution of most foreigners. She has married Mr. Allan, the secretary of the King's theatre, and thus her acquaintance with our language has probably been facilitated; but be this as it may, even the most austere judges of our native school are loud in their commendations of her English style.

Madame Caradori's execution is facile, neat, and polished in a very high degree; indeed this must be reckoned amongst the first of her vocal accomplishments. The same chaste elegance that pervades the rest of her performance is found to govern her display of ornament. If she never astonishes, she is always gracefully pleasing. The embellishments she appends never seem extravagant-if they seldom surprise, they are never without their effect, because they are never common; they are in fact the offspring of the delicate fancy and calm judgment which throw so polished an air over all the demeanour of this truly elegant woman.

As a musician, Madame C. ranks high. She reads music with the utmost ease and accuracy-a circumstance that adds very much to her usefulness as well as to her reputation as a professor.

From this relation it will be understood that the subject of our memoir is alwayssimple, unaffected and graceful, falling short of the very highest class only in that powerful and deep expression, that VOL. VII. NO. XXVII.-SEPT. 1825.

Y

gran gusto, which depends upon energy of character and volume of voice. To be lost in the passion of the song and to think of nothing else to deliver up all the feelings and all the facultiesto be absorbed and as it were transmuted into the very being, requires a temperament as fearless as commanding—a mind, which if it be not absolutely conscious of its own force, is yet so free from all selfish considerations, so wholly possessed and inflamed with the love of art, as belongs only to the enthusiasm of high phantasy. Such a creature Madame Caradori Allan assuredly is not. She is rather of that nature which charms by simplicity, by gentleness, and by the elegance which seldom fails to accompany a disposition truly feminine. Madame Caradori Allan is indeed one of those pure and bright characters who have of late risen to dignify a profession, stigmatised rather by the deplorable exceptions to virtuous conduct, than by any thing necessarily appertaining to its exercise. Her manners are most amiable in private life, and she has her reward in the estimation which awaits her wherever she appears, and in the friendship of persons of the first condition. What the vast progression which is now advancing intellect may arrive at in another age we shall not presume to anticipate; but we of this have already witnessed the benefits of talent combined with conduct, which may be said to constitute their possessors a part and no inconsiderable part of the "natural aristocracy" of this free country, where, although the

"Genus et proavos et quæ non fecimusi psi" preserve to the descendants of illustrious men the privileges their great ancestors have earned, there is yet a perfect recollection that merit is the fountain of honour, and living talent commands no less homage than those distinctions which are but representative of that which has been. And it is alike honourable to both countries, that the Italian stage should, in the person of Madame Caradori Allan, boast so fair an example of the most unsullied morals and the sweetest manners, whilst the English theatre has at its head a female like Miss Stephens, who in the midst of the incense of a nation's praises, retains a purity of manners that would adorn any condition.