Great Singers Volume II Part 8

At the close of 1851 Sophie went again to the Theatre Italien, and the following year she again returned to London to sing with Lablache and Gardoni. During this season she performed in "La Sonnambula," "Il Barbiere," and other operas of the florid Italian school, charming the public by her lyric comedy, as she had inspired them by her tragic impersonations. Cruvelli had always been remarkable for impulsive and eccentric ways, and no engagement ever operated as a check on these caprices. One of these whims seized the young lady in the very height of a brilliantly successful engagement, and one day she took French leave without a word of warning. The next that was heard of Sophie Cruvelli was that she was singing at Wiesbaden, and then that she had appeared as _Fides_ in "Le Prophete" at Aix-La-Chapelle. Cruel rumors were circulated at her expense; but she showed herself as independent of scandal as she had been of professional loyalty to a contract.

Sophie Cruvelli's engagement at the Grand Opera in Paris in January, 1854, filled Paris with the deepest excitement, for she was to make her appearance in the part of _Valentine_ in "Les Huguenots." The terms given were one hundred thousand francs for six months. Meyerbeer, who entertained a great admiration for Sophie's talents, set to work on "L'Africaine" with redoubled zeal, for he destined the _role_ of _Selika_ for her. A fortnight ahead orchestra stalls were sold for two hundred francs, and boxes could not be obtained. The house was crowded to the ceiling, and the Emperor and Empress arrived some time before the hour of beginning on the night of "Les Huguenots." Everywhere the lorgnette was turned could be seen the faces of notabilities like Meyerbeer, Auber, Benedict, Berlioz, Alboni, Mme. Viardot, Mario, Tamburini, Vivire, Theophile Gautier, Fiorentino, and others. The verdict was that Cruvelli was one of the greatest of _Valentines_, and Meyerbeer, who was morbidly sensitive over the performance of his own works, expressed his admiration of the great singer in the most enthusiastic words.

Soon after this, she appeared as _Julia_ in Spontini's "Vestale," and, as a long time had elapsed since its production, there was aroused the most alert curiosity to hear Cruvelli in a great part, in which but few singers had been able to make a distinguished impression. She acted the _role_ with a vehement pa.s.sion which aroused the deepest feeling in the Parisian mind, for it was a long time since they had heard an artist who was alike so great an actress and so brilliant a vocalist. One writer said, "She is the only cantatrice who acts as well as sings"; said one critic, "She would have made a grand tragedienne." Fickle Paris had forgotten Pasta, Malibran, and even Mme. Viardot, who was then in the very flush of her splendid powers.

IV.

From Paris Mlle. Cruvelli went to London, where she sang an engagement at the Royal Italian Opera, making her opening appearance as _Desdemona_, in the same cast with Tamburini and Ronconi. Her terms during the season were two hundred and fifty pounds a night. Her other parts were _Leonora_ ("Fidelio"), and _Donna Anna_ ("Don Giovanni"), and the performances were estimated by the most competent judges to be on a plan of artistic excellence not surpa.s.sed, and rarely equaled, in operatic annals. Mlle. Cruvelli revived the Parisian excitement of the previous season by her appearance at the Grand Opera, as _Alice_ in "Robert le Diable." The audience was a most brilliant one, and their reception of the artist was one of the most prolonged and enthusiastic applause. She continued to sing in Paris during the summer months and early autumn, and was the reigning G.o.ddess of the stage. All Paris was looking forward to the production of "Les Huguenots" in October with a great flutter of expectation, when Sophie suddenly disappeared from the public view and knowledge. The expected night of the production of "Les Huguenots" on a scale of almost unequaled magnificence arrived, and still the representative of _Valentine_ could not be found. Sophie had treated the public in a similar fashion more than once before, and it may be fancied that the Parisians were in a state of furious indignation. Great surprise was felt that she should have forfeited so profitable an engagement--four thousand pounds for the season, with the obligation of singing only two nights a week. She had abandoned everything, injured her manager, M. Fould, and insulted the public for the gratification of a whim. No adequate reason could be guessed at for such eccentricity, not even the excuse of an _affaire de coeur_, which would go further in the minds of Frenchmen than any other justification of capricious courses. Her furniture and the money at her banker's were seized as security for the forfeit of four thousand pounds stipulated by her contract in case of breach of engagement, and her private papers and letters were opened and read.

About a month after her sudden flight, M. Fould received a letter from the errant _diva_, in which she demanded permission to return and fill her contract. M. Fould consented, and accepted her plea of "a misunderstanding," but the public were not so easily placated, and when she appeared on the stage as _Valentine_ the audience hissed her violently. Sophie was not a whit daunted, but, confident in her power to charm, put all the fullness of her powers into her performance, and she soon had the satisfaction of learning by the enthusiasm of the plaudits that the Parisians had forgiven their favorite.

Sophie Cruvelli continued on the stage till 1855, and, although her faults of violence and exaggeration continued to call out severe criticism, she disarmed even the attacks of her enemies by the unquestionable vigor of her genius as well as by the magnificence of a voice which had never been surpa.s.sed in native excellence, though many had been far greater in the art of vocalization. Her last performance, and perhaps one of the grandest efforts of her life, was the character of _Helene_ in Verdi's "Les Vepres Siciliennes," the active princ.i.p.al parts having been taken by Bonnehee, Gueymard, and Obin. The production of the work was on a splendid scale, and the opera a great success. "The audience was electrified by the tones of her magnificent voice, which realized with equal effect those high inspirations that demand pa.s.sion, force, and impulse, and those tender pa.s.sages that require delicacy, taste, and a thorough knowledge of the art of singing. No one could reproach Mlle. Cruvelli with exaggeration, so well did she know how to restrain her ardent nature." "Cruvelli is the Rachel of the Grand Opera!" exclaimed a French critic. From these estimates it may be supposed that, just as she was on the eve of pa.s.sing out of the profession in which she had already achieved such a splendid place at the age of twenty-five, a great future, to which hardly any limits could be set, was opening the most fascinating inducements to her. The faults which had marred the full blaze of her genius had begun to be mellowed and softened by experience, and there was scarcely any pitch of artistic greatness to which she might not aspire.

Rumors of her approaching marriage had already begun to circulate, and it soon became known that Sophie Cruvelli was about to quit the stage.

On January 5, 1856, she married Baron Vigier, a wealthy young Parisian, the son of Count Vigier, whose father had endowed the city of Paris with the immense bathing establishments on the Seine which bear his name, and who, in the time of the Citizen King, was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and afterward a peer of France. Mme. Vigier resides with her husband in their splendid mansion at Nice, and, though she has sung on many occasions in the salons of the fashionable world and for charity, she has been steadfast in her retirement from professional life. She has composed many songs, and even some piano-forte works, though her compositions are as unique and defiant of rules as was her eccentric life.

Sophie Cruvelli was only eight years on the operatic stage, but during that period she impressed herself on the world as one of the great singers not only of her own age, but of any age; yet far greater in her possibilities than in her attainment. She had by no means reached the zenith of her professional ability when she suddenly retired into private life. There have been many singers who have filled a more active and varied place in the operatic world; never one who was more munificently endowed with the diverse gifts which enter into the highest power for lyric drama. She had queenly beauty of face and form, the most vehement dramatic pa.s.sion, a voice alike powerful, sweet, and flexible, and an energy of temperament which scorned difficulties. Had her operatic career extended itself to the time, surely foreshadowed in her last performances, when a finer art should have subdued her grand gifts into that symmetry and correlation so essential to the best attainment, it can hardly be questioned that her name would not have been surpa.s.sed, perhaps not equaled, in lyric annals. A star of the first magnitude was quenched when the pa.s.sion of love subdued her professional ambition.

Sophie Cruvelli, though her artistic life was far briefer than those of other great singers, has been deemed worthy of a place among these sketches, as an example of what may be called the supreme endowment of nature in the gifts of dramatic song.

THERESA t.i.tIENS.

Born at Hamburg of an Hungarian Family.--Her Early Musical Training.--First Appearance in Opera in "Lucrezia Borgia."--Romance of her Youth.--Rapid Extension of her Fame.--Receives a _Conge_ from Vienna to sing in England.--Description of Mlle. t.i.tiens, her Voice, and Artistic Style.--The Characters in which she was specially eminent.--Opinions of the Critics.--Her Relative Standing in the Operatic Profession.--Her Performances of _Semiramide_ and _Medea_--Latter Years of her Career.--Her Artistic Tour in America.--Her Death, and Estimate placed on her Genius.

I.

Theresa t.i.tiens was the offshoot of an ancient and n.o.ble Hungarian family, who emigrated to Hamburg, Germany, on account of political difficulties. Born in June, 1834, she displayed, like other distinguished singers, an unmistakable talent for music at an early period, and her parents lost no time in obtaining the best instruction for her by placing her under the charge of an eminent master, when she was only twelve years of age. At the age of fourteen, her voice had developed into an organ of great power and sweetness. It was a high soprano of extensive register, ranging from C below the line to D in alt, and of admirable quality, clear, resonant, and perfectly pure. The young girl possessed powers which only needed culture to lift her to a high artistic place, and every one who heard her predicted a commanding career. She was sent to Vienna to study under the best German masters, and she devoted herself to preparation for her life-work with an ardor and enthusiasm which were the best earnest of her future success.

On returning to Hamburg in 1849, she easily obtained an engagement, and with the daring confidence of genius she selected the splendid _role_ of _Lucrezia Borgia_ as the vehicle of her _debut_. Mme. Grisi had fixed the ideal of this personation by investing it with an Oriental pa.s.sion and luxury of style; but this did not stay the ambition of the _debutante_ of fifteen years. Theresa at this time was very girlish in aspect, though tall and commanding in figure, and it may be fancied did not suit the ripe and voluptuous beauty, the sinister fascination of the Borgia woman, whose name has become traditional for all that is physically lovely and morally depraved. If the immature t.i.tiens did not adequately reach the ideal of the character, she was so far from failing that she was warmly applauded by a critical audience. She appeared in the same part for a succession of nights, and her success became more strongly a.s.sured as she more and more mastered the difficulties of her work. To perform such a great lyric character at the age of fifteen, with even a fair share of ability, was a glowing augury.

This early introduction to her profession was stamped by circ.u.mstances of considerable romantic interest. A rich young gentleman, a scion of one of the best Hamburg families, became pa.s.sionately enamored of the young cantatrice. After a brief but energetic courtship, he offered her his hand, which Theresa, whose young heart had been touched by his devotion, was not unwilling to accept, but the stumbling-block in the way was that the family of the enamored youth were unwilling that his future wife should remain on the stage. At last it was arranged that Theresa should retire from the stage for a while, the understanding being that, if at the end of nine months her inclination for the stage should remain as strong, she should return to the profession. It was tacitly a choice between marriage and a continuance of her professional ambition. When the probation was over, the young cantatrice again appeared before the footlights, and the unfortunate lover disappeared.

The director of opera at Frankfort-on-the-Main, having heard Mlle.

t.i.tiens at Hamburg was so pleased that he made her an offer, and in pursuance of this she appeared in Frankfort early in 1850, where she made a most brilliant and decided success. Her reputation was now growing fast, and offers of engagement poured in on her from various European capitals. The director of the Imperial Opera at Vienna traveled to Frankfort especially to hear her, and as her old contract with the Frankfort _impressario_ was on the eve of expiration, and Mlle. t.i.tiens was free to accept a new offer, she gladly availed herself of the chance to accept the opportunity of singing before one of the most brilliant and critical publics of Europe. She made her _debut_ at Vienna in 1856, and was received with the most flattering and cordial approbation. She appeared in the _role_ of _Donna Anna_ ("Don Giovanni"), and at the close of the opera had numerous recalls. Her success was so great that she continued to sing in Vienna for three consecutive seasons, and became the leading favorite of the public. The operas in which she made the most vivid impression were "Norma," "Les Huguenots," "Lucrezia Borgia," "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Fidelio," and "Trovatore"; and her versatility was displayed in the fact that when she was called on, through the illness of another singer, to a.s.sume a comic part, she won golden opinions from the public for the sparkle and grace of her style.

II.

The English manager, Mr. Lumley, had heard of Mlle. t.i.tiens and the sensation she had made in Germany. So he hastened to Vienna, and made the most lavish propositions to the young singer that she should appear in his company before the London public. She was unable to accept his proposition, for her contract in Vienna had yet a year to run; but, after some negotiations, an arrangement was made which permitted Mlle. t.i.tiens to sing in London for three months, with the express understanding that she should not surpa.s.s that limit.

She made her first bow before an English audience on April 13, 1858, as _Valentine_ in Meyerbeer's _chef d'oeuvre_, Giuglini singing the part of _Raoul_ for the first time. She did not understand Italian, but, under the guidance of a competent master, she memorized the unknown words, p.r.o.nunciation and all, so perfectly that no one suspected but that she was perfectly conversant with the liquid accents of that "soft b.a.s.t.a.r.d Latin" of the South. Success alone justified so dangerous an experiment.

The audience was most fashionable and critical, and the reception of the new singer was of the most a.s.suring kind.

The voice of Mlle. t.i.tiens was a pure soprano, fresh, penetrating, even, powerful, unusually rich in quality, extensive in compa.s.s, and of great flexibility. It had a bell-like resonance, and was capable of expressing all the pa.s.sionate and tender accents of lyric tragedy. Theresa t.i.tiens was, in the truest, fullest sense of the word, a lyric artist, and she possessed every requisite needed by a cantatrice of the highest order--personal beauty, physical strength, originality of conception, a superb voice, and inexhaustible spirit and energy. Like most German singers, Mlle. t.i.tiens regarded ornamentation as merely an agreeable adjunct in vocalization; and in the music of _Valentine_ she sang only what the composer had set down--neither more nor less--but that was accomplished to perfection.

As an actress, her tall, stately, elegant figure was admirably calculated to personate the tragic heroines of opera. Her face at this time was beautiful, her large eyes flashed with intellect, and her cla.s.sical features were radiant with expression; her grandeur of conception, her tragic dignity, her glowing warmth and _abandon_ rendered her worthy of the finest days of lyric tragedy. She was thoroughly dramatic; her movements and gestures were singularly n.o.ble, and her att.i.tudes on the stage had cla.s.sical breadth and largeness, without the least constraint.

As _Leonora_, in "Trovatore," she was peculiarly successful, and her _Donna Anna_ literally took the audience by storm, through the magnificence of both the singing and acting. In June she made her appearance as _Lucrezia Borgia_. The qualities which this part demands are precisely those with which Mlle. t.i.tiens was endowed--tragic power, intensity, impulsiveness. Her commanding figure and graceful bearing gave weight to her acting, while in the more tender scenes she was exquisitely pathetic, and displayed great depth of feeling. "Com' e bello" was rendered with thrilling tenderness, and the allegro which followed it created a _furore_; it was one of the most brilliant _morceaux_ of florid decorative vocalism heard for years, the upper C in the cadenza being quite electrical. At the end of the first and second acts, the heartrending accents of a mother's agony, wrung from the depths of her soul, and the scornful courage tempered with malignant pa.s.sion, were contrasted with consummate power. It was conceded that Grisi herself never rose to a greater pitch of dramatic truth and power.

Mlle. t.i.tiens was unable to get an extension of her _conge_, and, much to the regret of her manager and the public, returned to Vienna early in the autumn. Instantly that she could free herself from professional obligation, she proceeded to Italy to acquire the Italian language, a feat which she accomplished in a few months. Here she met Mr. Smith, the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, and effected an arrangement with him, in consequence of which she inaugurated her second London season on May 3, 1859, with the performance of _Lucrezia Borgia_. Mlle. t.i.tiens sang successively in the characters which she had interpreted during her previous visit to London, adding to them the magnificent _role_ of _Norma_, whose breadth and grandeur of pa.s.sion made it peculiarly favorable for the display of her genius. Near the close of the season she appeared in Verdi's "Vepres Siciliennes," in which, we are told, "she sang magnificently and acted with extraordinary pa.s.sion and vigor.

At the close of the fourth act, when _Helen_ and _Procida_ are led to the scaffold, the conflicting emotions that agitate the bosom of the heroine were pictured with wonderful truth and intensity by Mlle.

t.i.tiens." From London the singer made a tour of the provinces, where she repeated the remarkable successes of the capital. At the various musical festivals, she created an almost unprecedented reputation in oratorio.

The largeness and dignity of her musical style, the perfection of a voice which responded to every intention of the singer, her splendor of declamation, stamped her as _par excellence_ the best interpreter of this cla.s.s of music whom England had heard in the more recent years of her generation. Her fame increased every year, with the development of her genius and artistic knowledge, and it may be a.s.serted that no singer, with the exception of Grisi, ever held such a place for a long period of years in the estimate of the English public.

III.

During the season of 1860 she added fresh laurels to those which she had already attained, and sang several new parts, among which maybe mentioned Flotow's pretty ballad opera of "Martha" and Rossini's "Semiramide." Her performance in the latter work created an almost indescribable sensation, so great was her singing, so strong and picturesque the dramatic effects which she produced. One of the sensations of the season was t.i.tiens's rendering of "Casta Diva," in "Norma." Though many great vocalists had thrilled the public by their rendering of this celebrated aria, no one had ever yet given it the power so to excite the enthusiasm of the public. Mlle. t.i.tiens performed also in the opera of "Oberon" for the first time, with great success. But the _piece de resistance_ of the season was Rossini's great tragic opera. "In t.i.tiens's _Semiramide_," said a critic of the time, "her intellectuality shines most, from its contrasting with the part she impersonates--a part which in no wise a.s.sists her; but, as in a picture, shadow renders a light more striking. In the splendid aria, 'Bel Raggio,' the _solfeggi_ and fioriture that she lavishes on the audience were executed with such marvelous tone and precision that she electrified the house. The grand duet with Alboni, 'Giorno d'orrore,'

was exquisitely and n.o.bly impressive from their dramatic interpretation of the scene."

In 1861 Mlle. t.i.tiens made an engagement with Mr. Mapleson, under whose control she remained till her career was cut short by death. a.s.sociated with her under this first season of the Mapleson _regime_ were Mme.

Alboni, the contralto, and Signor Giuglini, the tenor. Her performance in the "Trovatore" drew forth more applause than ever. "t.i.tiens is the most superb _Leonora_ without a single exception that the Anglo-Italian stage has ever witnessed," wrote an admiring critic. Among other brilliant successes of the season was her performance for the first time of _Amelia_ in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera," which was a masterpiece of vocalization and dramatic fire. The great German cantatrice was now accepted as the legitimate successor of Pasta, Malibran, and Grisi, and numerous comparisons were made between her and the last-named great singer. No artists could be more unlike in some respects. t.i.tiens lacked the adroitness, the fluent melting grace, the suavity, of the other.

"But," one critic justly remarks, "in pa.s.sionate feeling, energy, power of voice, and grandeur of style, a comparison may be established. In certain characters Grisi has left no one to fill her place. These will be found mostly in Rossini's operas, such as _Semiramide, Ninetta, Desdemona, Pamira_ ('L'a.s.sedio di Corinto'), _Elene_, etc., to which we may add _Elvira_ in 'I Puritani,' written expressly for her. In not one of these parts has anybody created an impression since she sang them.

They all belong to the repertoire of pure Italian song, of which Giulietta Grisi was undoubtedly the greatest mistress since Pasta. That Mlle. t.i.tiens could not contend with her on her own Ausonian soil no one will deny. Her means, her compa.s.s, her instincts, all forbade. There is, however, one exception--_Norma_, in which the German singer may challenge comparison with the Italian, and in which she occasionally surpa.s.ses her. In the French and German repertoire the younger artist has a decided advantage over the elder, in possessing a voice of such extent as to be enabled to execute the music of the composers without alteration of any kind. Everybody knows that Mlle. t.i.tiens has not only one of the most magnificent and powerful voices ever heard, but also one of the most extraordinary in compa.s.s. To sing the music of _Donna Anna, Fidelio, Valentine_, etc., without transposition or change, and to sing it with power and effect, is granted to few artists. Mlle. t.i.tiens is one of these great rarities, and, therefore, without any great stretch of compliment, we may a.s.sert that, putting aside the Rossinian repertoire, she is destined to wear the mantle of Grisi."

In no previous season was Mlle. t.i.tiens so popular or so much admired as during the season of 1862. Her most remarkable performance was the character of _Alice_, in Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable." "Mlle.

t.i.tiens's admirable personation of _Alice_," observes the critic of a leading daily paper, "must raise her to a still higher rank in public estimation than that she has. .h.i.therto so long sustained. Each of the three acts in which the German soprano was engaged won a separate triumph for her. We are tired of perpetually expatiating on the splendid brightness, purity, and clearness of her glorious voice, and on the absolute certainty of her intonation; but these mere physical requisites of a great singer are in themselves most uncommon. Irrespectively of the lady's clever vocalization, and of the strong dramatic impulse which she evinces, there is an actual sensual gratification in listening to her superb voice, singing with immovable certainty in perfect tune.

Her German education, combined with long practice in Italian opera, peculiarly fit Mlle. t.i.tiens for interpreting the music of Meyerbeer, who is equally a disciple of both schools."

IV.

Mlle. t.i.tiens was such a firmly established favorite of the English public that, in the line of great tragic characters, no one was held her equal. The most brilliant favorites who have arisen since her star ascended to the zenith have been utterly unable to dispute her preeminence in those parts where height of tragic inspiration is united with great demands of vocalization. Cherubini's opera of "Medea," a work which, had never been produced in England, because no soprano could be found equal to the colossal task of singing a score of almost unprecedented difficulty in conjunction with the needs of dramatic pa.s.sion no less _exigeant_, was brought out expressly to display her genius. Though this cla.s.sic masterpiece was not repeated often, and did not become a favorite with the English public on account of the old-fashioned austerity of its musical style, t.i.tiens achieved one of the princ.i.p.al triumphs of her life in embodying the character of the Colchian sorceress as expressed in song. Pasta's _Medea_, created by herself musically and dramatically out of the faded and correct commonplace of Simon Mayer's opera, was fitted with consummate skill to that eminent artist's idiosyncrasies, and will ever remain one of the grand traditions of the musical world. To perform such a work as that of Cherubini required Pasta's tragic genius united with the voice of a Catalani, made, as it were, of adamant and gold. To such an ideal equipment of powers, t.i.tiens approached more nearly than any other singer who had ever a.s.sayed the _role_ in more recent times. One of the n.o.blest operas ever written, it has been relegated to the musical lumber-room on account of the almost unparalleled difficulties which it presents.

It is not desirable to catalogue the continued achievements of Mlle.

t.i.tiens season by season in England, which country she had adopted as her permanent home. She had achieved her place and settled the character of her fame. Year after year she shone before the musical world of London, to which all the greatest singers of the world resort to obtain their final and greatest laurels, without finding her equal in the highest walks of the lyric stage. As her voice through incessant work lost something of its primal bloom, Mlle. t.i.tiens confined her repertory to a few operas such as "Trovatore," "Norma," "Don Giovanni,"

"Semiramide," etc., where dramatic greatness is even more essential than those dulcet tones so apt to vanish with the pa.s.sage of youth. As an oratorio singer, she held a place to the last unequaled in musical annals.

In 1875 Mlle. t.i.tiens visited America, on a concert and operatic tour which embraced the princ.i.p.al cities of the country. She was well received, but failed, through the very conditions and peculiarities of her genius, to make that marked impression on the public mind which had sometimes, perhaps, been achieved by artists of more shallow and meretricious graces. The voice of Mlle. t.i.tiens had begun to show the friction of years, and though her wonderful skill as a vocalist covered up such defects in large measure, it was very evident that the greatest of recent German singers had pa.s.sed the zenith of her fascination as a vocalist. But the grand style, the consummate breadth and skill in phrasing, that gradation of effects by which the intention of a composer is fully manifested, the truth and n.o.bility of declamation, that repose and dignity of action by which dramatic purpose reaches its goal without a taint of violence or extravagance--in a word, all those great qualities where the artist separates from the mere vocalist were so finely manifested as to gain the deepest admiration of the _cognoscenti_, and justify in the American mind the great reputation a.s.sociated with the name of Mlle. t.i.tiens. On her return to Europe, she continued to sing with unimpaired favor in opera, concert, and oratorio, until she was seized with the fatal illness which carried her off in 1879. Her death was the cause of deep regret among musical circles in England and on the Continent, for she left no successor in the line of her greatness. So far as any survey of the field could justify a judgment, liable at any time to be upset by the sudden apparition of genius. .h.i.therto hampered by unfavorable conditions, Mlle. t.i.tiens was the last of that race of grand dramatic singers made splendid by such beacon lights as Pasta, Malibran, Schroder-Devrient, Grisi, and Viardot-Garcia.

THE END.