The Express.
London, England, 1860-09-25 00:00:00

CZYSTAL PALACE. -CLARA NOVELLA.

At the two pest performance* announced to
take plain at the Orydal Palace—of the errs:ion to-morrow
and of the Messiah on Saturday next--Clara Novsllo will
make her farewell appearances before the London public.
Her reemment is the setting of one of the brightest dare
of our musical firmeneseit, the close of • career of unimr.
mired brilbsacy, which will long be memorable in the an.
Wm of muse. It bee been loos as well se brilliant ; for,
though she retina in the full strength and rigour of woman.
hood, she bas been known to the public for thirty years,
dining nearly the whole of which period she has stood in
the highest rank mecca the Binger', not of Ragland only,
bat of Europe
Clara Novell° is of a musical race. She is, as is well
known, the daughter of the late Vincent Novello, a
man of distinguished talents and sttainmenta, and she
is pot the only member of his family who has inherited
his gilt. the was bore in 1818. In her infancy her father
judiciously placed her at Chorea's celebrated school of
' vocal music at Paris, where she was thoroughly instructed
in the principles of her art. Driven from Paris by the
trouble@ attending the revolution of 1830, she returned
bane, and began—at twelve years old—her professional
career. Her success wee immediate. At the "Ancient
Concerts," the great provincial festivals, and the principal
performances in London, she appeared with distinction ;
and at the age of sixteen she achieved • triumph at •
concert of the Philharmonic Society—the severest ordeal
which a young performer can undergo. Her reputation
soon extended beyond her own country. She was invited
to sing at the (moue Gewandhaus concerts of Leipsic,
thee under the direction of Mendelsohn ; and she after-
wards appeared at Berlin, Vienna, and fit. Petersburg, every-
where pining " golden opinion.." She then went to Italy, to
study in the lenCei which is still, in many respects, the best.
There she gained the friendship of Rossini, under whose
advice she abstained from all public engagements, and
devoted herself for • year to study for the musical stage.
After this preparation sho appeared with great (clot at the
principal Italian theatres. On her return to Englan I she
continued to follow the same coarse, till her career was in-
terrupted by her marriage, in 1540, with Count Giglinoci,
and her consequent retirement from public life. The poll
tied trouble. of 1848, however, induced her to return to
her profession, which, under her maiden name, she has
followed down to the present time. It was found that
during her temporary retirement she had not neglected her
art, but that, on the contrary, her powers were increased,
and her knowledge matured and enlarged. During
this last period her career has been more splendid
than ever. A large portion of it has been passed
in England, where she has devoted herself chiefly
to sacred music, the highest branch of the art. Not that
she has confined herself to it ; for, at all our principal con-
certs she has charmed the public by her performances of
music of every class, age, and country. But, am
an oratorio singer, as an interpreter of the sublime concep-
tions of Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Spohr, and Mandela-
sohn, she is unrivalled and pre-eminent, not only above all
the female singers of her own, bat (as far as we can judge
from the records of the art) of say former day. If she has
ever had • rival, that rival was Jenny Lind, whom she
resembles in the universality as well as the greatness of her
genius.

The retirement of this peat artist is a heavy lose to the
art— a deprivation which will big continue to be felt. But
while we grieve for it cm our own account, we rejoice at It
on hers. Her character ran amiable and estimable lady
has made her the object of general esteem, and the public
will learn with matidactiou that'she has resumed her proper
rank and station in society ; the more especially as this
resumption is connected with the brighter day that is now
dawning on bar adopled country.