From The prima donna : her history and surroundings from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century by Edwards, H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland), 1828-1906:
Madame Christine, or rather Christina, Nilsson, the second of the " nightingales " given to us by Sweden, with Jenny Lind as first, and Miss Sigr'id Arnoldson, it may be, as third, was born a child of wonder. Seventh child of a seventh child, she was, according to Swedish belief, which in the case of Christine Nilsson can scarcely be treated as a superstition, predestined for great things. That she was the seventh born of a seventh born I have heard from her own lips, though M. Guy de Charnace, in his " Etoiles du Chant," places her eighth and last in the long list of her brothers and sisters. He also connects her with an interesting national tradition, and assures us that her father in his dreams used to see her surrounded by all kinds of earthly and heavenly glories. In her own native village a story was current of a peasant girl who had become a queen; and her own native province, that of Warend, was the legendary scene of an exploit by which the fair-haired Blaenda raised herself from the humblest to the loftiest position.
Christine Nilsson was born Aug. 3, 1843, the same year (it has already been said) as Patti and Lucca. One of her brothers, Carl by name, had become a violinist ; in which character he used to visit the fairs of the neighbourhood, even at some considerable distance from the parental home. One day, when little Christine was still a child, the brother found that she was in the habit, during his absence, of making experiments with his violin ; and that she had already learnt to play upon the instrument with considerable skill. Gradually it struck the brother that with the aid of his sister he might turn his solos into duets ; and soon the little girl made her first appearance at any fair.
A magistrate, in whom the habit of trying petty offences had not obliterated all sense of artr was present at one of Christine Nilsson's performances ; and so struck was he by her brilliant talent that he offered to secure for her a thorough musical education. Then it seems to have been that the father was visited by the dream already mentioned. Bat somehow it did not convince him that he would do well to accept the propositions made to him by the worthy justice. The propositions were, however, repeated in a pressing manner ; and in the end father Nilsson, fortunately for all lovers of music, gave way, and little Christine became a member of the magistrate's family. One day a singer of distinction, Mdlle. Valerius, afterwards Baroness of Leuhusen, visited the house, and in the midst of an improvised concert expressed her desire to hear the little peasant girl of whose charming voice some-one had spoken to her. Christine sang ; and then nothing would satisfy Mdlle. Valerius but to take her away to her own house and there give her regular music lessons. The little girl made much progress under the instruction of Mdlle. Valerius. But it was necessary to teach her other things besides music and singing ; and she was now old enough to be sent to school. The next two years she spent at Gottenberg, where she received the rudiments of a good general education. Then the worthy magistrate again took charge of her ; and she went with him to Stockholm, where he placed her under the care of an eminent professor and composer, Mr. Franz Berwald. She soon regained all she had lost during her two years of general study; and she now made great progress, not only as a singer, but also as a pianist. The reputation left at Stockholm by Jenuy Lind is said to have stimulated her to great exertions. She, in any case, studied with surprising success ; and already projects of a "first appearance in public" were entertained. Just then a sister of Mdlle. Valerius, who possessed much talent as a portrait painter, was about to visit Paris. She suggested that Christine should accompany her; and it was soon arranged that the youngs painter and the still younger singer should go to Paris together. Christine took with her a letter of introduction to an English lady, Madame Collinet, and in Madame Collinet's family she remained some time.
Christine's chief object in going to Paris was to place herself under a good professor ; and at Madame Collinet's she made the acquaintance of one of the most successful singing masters of his time, M. Wartel, teacher of Madame Trebelli.
M. Wartel saw at once that Christine's talent fitted her above all for the operatic stage ; but his young pupil was timid and bad no particular inclination for a theatrical life. One evening, however, she beard Madame Miolan-Carvalho at the Theatre Lyrique in La Heine Topase ; and there was something in the performance of that charming vocalist which told Mdlle. Nilsson that she also was a singer. She informed M. Wartel of the change her ideas had undergone ; and now, far from hesitating, she was only anxious that the director of the Theatre Lyrique, M. Carvalho, should give her a hearing. This was soon arranged by M. Wartel ; and a three years' engagement was offered to the young artist, by which she was to receive 2,000 francs a month for the first year, 2,500 for the second, and 3,000 for the third. On the 27th October, 1864, Mdlle. Nilsson, then 21 years of age, made her first appearance.
Historians differ — even operatic historians ; and though M. Guy de Charnace leads us to believe that M. Carvalho was the first director with whom Mdlle.
Nilsson ever treated, Mr. Maurice Strakosch, in his " Memoires d'un Impresario/' assures us that before singing at M. Carvalho's theatre Mdlle. Nilsson accepted an engagement from Eugenio Merelli, son of the manager who was at that time directing the Scala of Milan and the Imperial Theatre of Vienna. Merelli, according to Strakosch, engaged Nilsson for five years; but though he had the greatest confidence in her talent, could find nothing for her to do. Merelli, moreover (always according to Strakosch), considered that in spite of Mdlle. Nilsson's talent and charm as a vocalist, he had committed rather an imprudent action in engaging her for opera, seeing that she had never appeared on the stage.
Some days afterwards Merelli met Strakosch again and told him that his engagement with Mdlle. Nilsson was at an end. He was glad, he said, to be obliged no longer to pay her 1,000 francs a month for doing nothing ; and Mdlle. Nilsson must also have been glad, since by her engagement with M. Carvalho she was to receive 2,000 francs a month.
Mdlle. Nilsson came out at the Theatre Lyrique as "Violetta" in a French translation of Verdi's Traviata ; and she did so without much success. This opera had in like manner failed on its first production at Naples.
At Naples the fiasco was caused by a striking want of harmony between the representative of "Violetta" and the " Violetta" who should have been represented. The latter is dying of consumption. The former was excessively robust, so that when the doctor of the piece said, in sorrowful tones, " She is fading away ! ' the audience, seeing that their "Violetta" was still enormous, could not restrain their laughter.
At the Theatre Lyrique La Traviata, or Violetta, as the work was now called, did not meet with the success that might have been expected from the rapturous manner in which the vivacious and charming Piccolomini had been received in the part of the unfortunate heroine at the Theatre des Italiens. For the French version recalled too strongly to the pnblic the novel and the play from which the subject is taken. For analogous reasons a Shakespearian opera has but little chance of succeeding with the English public. La Dame aux Camelias, in its dramatic shape, is called by its author a " comedy ; " and the novel from which the comedy is derived is like the comedy, a picture of contemporary manners. The novel and the play contain, all the same, some highly dramatic scenes, ending with a really pathetic catastrophe.
The dramatic scenes and the catastrophe were alone required by Yerdi and his librettist. The
character-painting, the satire of Dumas' novel and of Dumas' comedy were naturally absent from the opera, constructed on the same dramatic theme; and this was not what the public had expected. The work produced no favourable impression ; and it was not until Mdlle. Nilsson appeared in her second part, that of " Astrafiammante," the Queen of Night, in Mozart's Magic Flute that she made a really brilliant success. Mdlle. Nilsson's impersonation of " Astrafiammante " took the Parisians by storm, or, to use a more appropriate word, enchanted them. " Like a true daughter of the North ; like a sister of Jenny Lind," wrote M. Blaze de Bury, " Christine Nilsson has entered into the master's idea. If her clear and resonant voice scales the heavens it is to curse from on high like a daughter of the Titans. The notes spring from her mouth like fiery serpents. She has the laugh-rattle of a Hecate."
The Magic Flute, which one would scarcely have looked upon beforehand as a work likely to please the French, delighted them. It obtained such a " run '' as scarcely any opera in France had met with before. Mdlle. Nilsson's next impersonation was to be even more successful ; and here those who believe that the French can appreciate and enjoy nothing but what is light and superficial will say that her success was quite natural. The part she now undertook was that of " Martha " in Flotow's ever popular
work. Flotow — " Flotow Magico," as some unscrupulous friend is said to have called him — had already put his favourite subject through no less than three transformations, when in 1865 he presented Martha to the manager of the Theatre Lyrique in yet a fourth.
Count Frederick von Flotow, to judge by the various forms and the different languages in which he caused Martha to be produced, must have possessed a truly international mind. It was, perhaps, for that reason that his Mecklenburghian father wished him to enter the Austrian diplomatic service. Called upon, at last, to choose between diplomacy and arms, " he returned,'' says one of his biographers, " an evasive answer, and became a composer." He studied at Paris under Reicha, and, born in 1812, was scarcely of age when he brought out his first opera, Peter and Catherine, which was performed by a company of amateurs at the Hotel Castellan.
" After trying his hand once or twice more upon amateurs," says the biographer already cited, " he felt almost ready to meet the public at an open theatre. By way of transition he had recourse to the Poles, whose misfortunes have been made the pretext of so many performances ; and in 1840 he produced an opera called La Duchesse de Guisey which was played at the Salle Ventadour for the benefit of the Polish exiles." After three or four
not very successful works performed at the Renaissance and at the OpeYa Comique, he made his first great hit at Hamburg with Stradella, a verymelodious work, based upon the famous though mythical scene between Stradella and the assassins who, paid to put him to death, chanced to hear him sing and were unable to slay him by reason of his beautiful voice. Stradella was succeeded by L'Ame en Peine, composed for the Grand Opera of Paris, and there performed with moderate success. Flotow's German opera, Stradella, and his French opera, L'Ame en Peine, have both been translated into English ; and Stradella has also passed into Italian. But Flotow's fate in life was apparently to produce one thoroughly successful international work ; and this with Martha he really accomplished.
Already, in 1843, Flotow had joined two French composers, MM. Burgmiiller and Delvedez, in writing the music of a ballet called Lady Henriette on le Mar cite de Richmond, which, after being successfully produced at the Grand Opera of Paris, was played in London under the title of Lady Henrietta; or, the Statute Fair. On the subject of the ballet, Flotow caused a German libretto to be written; and this, after setting it to music, he called Martha. He had adorned his work by introducing in the principal situation the beautiful " Last Rose of Summer;" and with this
rose in his button-hole Flotow will doubtless go — at least a little way — down to posterity.
In arranging Martha for the Italian stage, the composer added two new airs, one for the contralto, the other for the baritone ; and he made some further changes in arranging it for the Theatre Lyrique, where, thanks in a great measure to Mdlle. Nilsson's charming impersonation of the heroine, it was represented for upwards of 300 nights. In the German piece the action takes place in the reign of Queen Anne. The author of the Italian version has, for some inscrutable reason, gone back to the fifteenth century. The characters, therefore, in the Italian Martha ought, one and all, to wear mediaeval costumes ; though the heroine invariably attires herself according to the latest fashion. In the French version the librettist has made the incidents of the drama occur almost in the present day.
The ever-to-be-lamented Bosio had already sung the part of " Martha " in the most charming manner at the Royal Italian Opera ; and Adelina Patti had achieved as " Martha," at the same theatre, one of her most brilliant successes when Mdlle. Nilsson undertook the character in the new French version at the Theatre Lyrique.
At the end of her three years' engagement with M. Carvalho, Mdlle. Nilsson went to the Grand Opera ; where, besides appearing as "Marguerite" in
Gounod's Faust, she " created" the part of " Ophelia " in M. Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet.
Hamlet, except in the pretty ballet music and the really poetical scene of Ophelia's death, is the work of a man who is perpetually urging himself to be solemn and sad when nature created him light and cheerful. Our opera-going public, for the most part, knows nothing of Shakespeare, and consequently is not shocked by the terrible absurdities of which the operatic Hamlet is full. But in itself, apart from what it suggests, M. Thomas's music is very depressing. The Romeo and Juliet of M. Gounod, who first taught M. Thomas the art of marrying feeble music to immortal verse, is far preferable to Hamlet, inasmuch as M. Gounod does not think it necessary to make unnatural exertions with the view of raising himself to the level of his poet. All he feels called upon to do is to write as his nature prompts him ; and the result is that, though M. Gounod's music is no more Shakespearian than that of M. Thomas, it is at least spontaneous, and possesses some naivete — a quality in which M. Thomas's high pressure strains are wholly wanting.
The time had now come for Mdlle. Nilssonto sing in London ; and in 1867, being on a visit at the house of Mr. Vivian, she appeared under Mr. Mapleson's management at Her Majesty's Theatre, where she played successively all the parts in which she
had distinguished herself at the Theatre Lyrique and the Grand Opera, with the exception only of " Ophelia ; *' for the opera of Hamlet had been secured by Mr. Gye for Oovent Garden Theatre, where the principal part was played with but moderate success by the fair-haired Mdlle. Sessi. The comparative failure of the work was owing to no fault of Mdlle. Sessi's, but to the pretentiousness and dulness of the opera.
It is now more than twenty years since Mdlle. Nilsson sang for the first time on the Anglo-Italian boards. On the 8th of June, 1867, before a public which had not yet forgotten the " Violetta ,: of Mdlle. Piccolomini, a new " Violetta" came forward and at once took the hearts of all who heard* her. Indeed, the very appearance of Mdlle. Nilsson when she advanced to sing her "brindisi," with its accompaniment of champagne, caused a murmur of applause which must have at once set the fair debutante at rest as to the impression she had already made on the English public. It soon became manifest that the charm of her voice and singing was as great as that of her person and demeanour. Before she had finished the first verse of " Libiamo " she was already accepted as a public favourite; and at the conclusion of the opera she was applauded, called and recalled with a fervour such as is never awakened but by a really great singer.
Mdlle. Piccolomini, it is true, had been applauded with rapture at the same theatre ; but the very charm of Mdlle. Nilsson s performance lay in the contrast it presented to the passionate realism of her impulsive predecessor. She refined to the utmost a character sadly in want of refinement, and sang in absolute perfection the expressive music of the part. Her " Violetta" never went into hysterics; and she seemed to die, not of phthisis aided and developed by dissipation, but of a broken heart, like Clarissa Hariowe or like that Shakespearian maiden who " never told her love." Mdlle. Piccolomini's "Violetta" was a foolish virgin; Mdlle. Nilsson's a fallen angel.
So profound was the first impression made by Mdlle. Nilsson in La Traviata that when some years later, after her return from America, she essayed a more dramatic, more realistic rendering of the part, •everyone objected to the new " Yioletta " that this was not the " Violetta" to which Mdlle. Nilsson had originally introduced us.
Mdlle. Nilsson's next impersonation at Her Majesty's Theatre was " Margherita " in Faust, a character thoroughly in harmony with her poetic temperament. It was observed that in the first scenes the new " Margherita's" costume was closely copied from the well-known figure of " Gretchen " by Ary Scheffer; and if Scheffer had been alive and had wished to illustrate the drama throughout, he might
in every scene have taken Mdlle. Nilsson for the , model of his heroine. Of all the Margheritas — lively and coquettish Margheritas, sombre and impassioned Margheritas, Margheritas of every description — none more naive, more innocent could be seen than the " Margherita " presented by Mdlle. Nilsson.
In some respects Mdlle. Mlsson's u Margherita " resembled the " Margherita " of Madame MiolanCarvalho, for whom the part was written. But Mdlle. Nilsson's "Margherita" was the more natural of the two. Madame Miolan-Carvalho's "Margherita" moved about the stage with fixed attitudes and looks, as though in a prolonged fit of somnambulism.
As to the singing, Mdlle. Mlsson's voice seemed now, more than ever, remarkable for its purity of tone ; while such was the perfection of her execution that the sentimental spinning song, the brilliant air of the jewels, and the melody in which "Margherita " gives so touching an account of her little sisters illness and death, were all sung with equal* and that the very greatest, effect.
The third character assumed by Mdlle. Nilsson in England was that of "Martha," in which she had appeared some three hundred times at the Theatre Lyrique. It was easy to understand why Mdlle. Nilsson had played the part so often in Paris. Her "Martha" was indeed a charming impersonation;
while the " Last Rose of Summer," as given by her, was a happy example of a thoroughly beautiful melody sung with perfect expression by a thoroughly beautiful voice. About this time Mdlle. Nilsson made her first appearance at the Philharmonic Concerts, when she sang the second of "AstrafiammanteV solos in the Zauberflote. Never before (except, perhaps, by the original representative of the Queen of Night) had " Gli angui d'inferno ' been sung with such genuine expression, such brilliant effect. The concert audience found, as was afterwards discovered by oratorio audiences, that the opera public had, as usual, been right in its judgment. In fact, so varied are the demands made upon a singer in opera, that a thoroughly successful opera singer is sure to succeed in every style.
After appearing with the most distinguished success as " Violetta," " Margherita," and " Martha," Mdlle. Nilsson now undertook the usually neglected part of "Donna Elvira" in Don Giovanni; which, as previously at the Theatre Lyrique, she at once brought into prominence. The lamentations of this ill-used lady are not, as a rule, thought to form the most interesting part of Mozart's opera. But with Mdlle. Nilsson in the character, "Elvira," instead of being wearisome with her perpetual plaints, became highly interesting. The audience heard with sympathy her tales of woe, and felt that to deceive,
and worse still, abandon so charming a woman was to combine crime with folly. Never did the public entertain so bad an opinion of " Don Juan" as when the part of " Elvira," to whose engaging appeals he listens unmoved, was played by Mdlle. Nilsson.
Mdlle. Nilsson's success in the four parts just named was so great that if success in the plainest sense of the word had been her only object, she might well have abstained from assuming any others. But not to confine herself to repetitions, and as if to show the wideness of her dramatic range, she appeared in successive seasons as the sad, sentimental " Lucia," and as the arch and amorous cc Cherubino." Mdlle. Nilsson is one of the two or three living artists who enjoy not only a European but a world-wide reputation ; and by London audiences she has always been held in the very highest esteem. Moscow and St. Petersburg know her as well as New York ; London knows her better even than Paris, where she made her first studies and her first appearance on the stage, but where she has never to this moment been heard in Italian Opera. Now not to have heard Mdlle. Nilsson in Italian Opera is to have missed one important side of her very complete talent. In London she has appeared in all the characters which she had made her own years before at the Theatre Lyrique; and she has also sung a remarkably large number of Italian parts.
She made her debut, as already mentioned, in the character of " Violetta," and had a prominent place at once assigned to her in that interesting class of vocalists known as " light soprani." There are some singers, no doubt, to whom this designation may be fitly applied — singers with high, thin, flexible voices capable of executing florid music in brilliant style, but not equally capable of giving due expression to music of a grave and emotional character. Formerly no such distinction as that now recognized between the " light soprano" and the " dramatic soprano " was known.
Meyerbeer, as previously pointed out, was the first composer who wrote systematically for the two kinds of soprano voice ; as, for example, in Les Huguenots, which contains one soprano part of a highly dramatic cast and one of a purely ornamental kind. In the days of Pasta, Malibran, and Sontag every soprano sang every kind of music written for the soprano voice. But the airs and passages given to " Valentine" are so different from those assigned to " Marguerite de Valois " that one can scarcely think of any singer who could render full justice to both characters. Neither, however, is beyond the means of Mdlle. Nilsson, who is equally perfect as " Astrafiammante " in the Magic Flute, and as " Leonora " in II Trovatore, and who certainly oould sing the music of both the soprano parts in
Les Huguenots. It is only in one of them, however,, that she has been heard — and in the very one which some years since would have been considered quite unsuited to her talent. Yet her " Valentine" is as admirable an impersonation as her " Desdemona," her " Violetta," or her " Mignon."
In 1869, when Mr. Mapleson and Mr. G-ye combined their forces at the Royal Italian Opera, Mdlle. Nilsson appeared in her famous part of " Ophelia.' * She acted and sang it with infinite grace ; but the work was so dull, so dead, that not even Mdlle. Nilsson, with all her inspiration, could breathe into it the breath of life.
The only part which Mdlle. Nilsson has had the opportunity of "creating" — though to many she has given a new character — is that of " Edith " in Balfe's Talisman, or Talismano ; for, composed to an English libretto by the late Arthur Matheson, it was produced in an Italian, or rather an Italianized, version with the spoken dialogue of the original put into recitative. Balfe, thanks to himself and to his own tuneful, singable music, has more than once been fortunate in his singers. In one of his earliest operas, the Maid of Artois, the principal part was undertaken by Malibran. In his latest work, produced after his death, the heroine was impersonated by Nilsson. The final rondo of the Maid of Artois has been sung by many a famous prima donna. It became known as "Balfe's air," or "L'air de Balfe" — as though he had not written a hundred others, many of them more melodious and more original than this " L'air de Balfe." When Balfe went for the first time to St. Petersburg, the Empress Marie Feodorovna, wife of the Emperor Nicholas, thought all at once, on his being presented to her, of " L'air de Balfe," and said to him, " Vous etes Monsieur Balfe de lair?"
The tenor part in the Italian version of the Bohemian Girl has been sung at Her Majesty's Theatre by Giuglini, and the principal air in that part (much more worthy of being known as "L'air de Balfe" than the final rondo of the Maid of Ariois) by Mario. Balfe's Falstaff, moreover, had, some fifty years ago, the supreme advantage of being sung by all the best singers then engaged at Her Majesty's Theatre, with Grisi and Lablache among them.
In undertaking the part of the heroine in II Talismano Mdlle. Nilsson fulfilled a promise she had made to the composer some years before his death. Presented in its original English form the work would probably have met with more success than it obtained in the Italianized version. Balfe's grand operas, or operas with full recitative, have never made much impression on the English public. This was shown in the case of one of his most carefully
written works, The Bondman, which is said to have been received with favour in Germany, but which in England, owing in a great measure to its being composed throughout in music, fell flat.
When Mdlle. Mlsson appeared as " Edith Plantagenet" in Balfe's posthumous opera of II Talismano, never did a public favourite, coming back to the scene of many triumphs, meet with a warmer reception. More significant, however, than either the applause at the beginning of the performance, or the applause strengthened and adorned by bouquets at the end, was the fact that the newly-arrived artist had returned in admirable voice. In the melodious andante of " Edith's " opening air, " Plocida notte," Mdlle. Nilsson was heard at her best. She sang the tormented allegro which concludes the air, and which forms so striking a contrast to the preceding movement, as it was doubtless intended to be sung ; and the spirit with which she declaimed the final passages of the second movement called forth more applause than even her expressive singing in the first. At the end of the opening air, and subsequently on every possible occasion, Mdlle. Nilsson was applauded, recalled, and, on coming back, received with salvoes of bouquets. In the grand duet with the tenor she sang with much dramatic feeling; and nothing could have been neater or more brilliant than her perfect execution of the joy-
ous solo in galop time, which, with its elaborate variations, adorns the last act. How, on the termination of the opera, Mdlle. Nilsson was once more called before the curtain to receive the plaudits of an enthusiastic audience need scarcely be told.
The part of the tenor fell to the lot of Signor Campanini, who is, at least, the possessor of a fine voice. It would be difficult just now to name another tenor who can sing passages of sustained notes as firmly and as expressively as Signor Campanini. His only fault is that he is a little too much like the "ignoble fisherman," whose son he imagines himself to be, when he assumes the part of " Gennaro" in Lucrezia Borgia. His singing of the pretty air "Candido fiore'' left nothing to be desired; and if in " Sir Kenneth's" more pretentious, and more lugubrious solo (second act) he produced a less favourable impression, that was the fault, not of the singer, but of the song. In the duet with " Edith," and generally throughout the opera, Signor Campanini was excellent.
A new baritone, Signor Galassi, but for the English malady of hoarseness from which so many of our foreign visitors suffer, would have been as successful in the part of " Richard " as he had previously been in those of " Rigoletto " and " Figaro " (Le Nozze). He at least sang with those "good intentions" which, however little they may be worth in morals, are of indisputable value in art; and but for a voice made rebellious by the London weather, would have obtained excellent results. As it was, he delivered " Richard's " prayer very finely ; and in the martial and more or less Yerdi-like allegro, which follows the prayer as action should follow meditation, he roused the audience to the warmest expressions of admiration. This sonorous air and chorus ought to have brought the second act to a conclusion. After such an outburst of bravery and brass instruments no further effect can be produced, and the curtain should come down.
As " Queen Berengaria " Madame Marie Eoze sang in perfection the slightly quaint, very pretty, and, above all, very original romance assigned to that lady.
No work of Balfe's had ever before enjoyed such advantages as were given to II Talismano at Her Majesty's Opera. The same composers Maid of Artois did, it is true, contain a part written expressly for Malibran, as that of " Edith Plantagenet " was written expressly for Mdlle. Nilsson. It has been said, too, that Balfe's Falstaff was composed for the Italian company of Her Majesty's Theatre, or King's Theatre, as it was at that time called. Falstaff did not, in any case, meet with so much success as II Talismano, which seemed to appeal equally to the lovers of Italian and of English Opera. The work was well executed by subordinates as well as by principals, though an exception might be made here and there as regards the chorus, which was at times uncertain. The orchestra was perfect, and this is an important point in connection with 11 Talismano, which has been more carefully instrumented than most of Balfe's operas. In one place the mass of strings is heard in unison, as in L'Africaine. In another the tenor sings to the accompaniment of a single viola (which, singing at the very back of the stage, he must find it difficult to hear) as in Les Huguenots. But every composer borrows from every other composer ; and if in Balfe's last opera there is here something of Meyerbeer, there something of Verdi, there is also a great deal everywhere of Balfe himself.
No account of Mdlle. Nilsson's performances would be complete without some mention of her very poetical, very dramatic impersonation of " Blsa " in Lohengrin. Mdlle. Nilsson, however, has taken no part in popularizing the music of Wagner beyond her admirable performance in his best known work.
This sketch of Mdlle. Nilsson's distinguished career having been begun with a brief account of her family in Sweden, must not be ended without a record of the fact that the first money she saved was expended in purchasing farms for her parents and for one of her brothers. When in due time she paid a visit to her
native land, it may be imagined with what enthusiastic* she was received. Nothing like it had been seen since the time of Jenny Lind.
Her first appearance among the friends of her youth was marked by an interesting incident. A village ball was going on, and all the young men were eager to dance with the visitor from another and greater world, who yet, by former associations, as by still existing sympathies, belonged to them.
" I cannot dance with you all, but I can play to you all," said the prima donna, who, in early days, had been a violinist ; and, taking up the violin, she played Swedish national dances with all the expression and all the fire with which she sings Swedish national songs.
A visit to America is now an event in the life of every famous prima donna ; and Mdlle. Wilsson has made more than one American tour, and always with the greatest possible success. Once, moreover, in her life the prima donna, as a rule, gets married; and Mdlle. Nilsson, like Madame Patti and Madame Lucca (but in a more regular manner), has been married twice. Her first husband was M. Auguste Rouzaud (nephew of Admiral Eouzaud), a capital shot and an amiable, gentlemanly man. Stockbroker by occupation, and sportsman by taste, he succeeded more in the latter than in the formercharacter. He killed large game in America, and served with distinction in the army of Paris during the siege ; but he came to grief on the Paris Bourse. It must be mentioned in connection with Mdlle. Nilsson's first marriage that it was celebrated at Westminster Abbey (1872) ; Dean Stanley, who was a friend of the bride, performing the service.
Some years after the death of M. Rouzaud, whose end was hastened by mental distress consequent on his heavy losses, Madame Nilsson married early in 1887 a Spanish nobleman, Count de Miranda; and she has not since her second marriage appeared either in the concert room or on the stage.
tangentwithtanner
origamiaround
stormborns
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
pixelskylines
