The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-15 00:00:00

Musical Obituary.

THE LATE MADAME PASTA.—One of the greatest
artistes the lyric drama has ever produced,
is no more; Pasta has left this world's stage. This
grand vocalist, this sublime actress, is no longer of the
living. Pasta dead ! what a flood of reminiscences must
must present themselves to the middle-aged habitué
of the Kings' Theatre, when Fop's-alley was in its
glory. Of Mme. Camporese, Signor Marioni (the lame
Tancredi), of Mme. Colbran Rossini, of Mlle. Caradori, of
Mme. de Begnis, Mlle. Garcia (Malibran) at 16, of Mme.
Vestris, also at 16, of Ambrogetti, Angrisani, Zuchelli,
Porto, Garcia, Curioni, De Begnis, Pellegrini, Remorini,
Velut, &c., the memory may only serve to recall
special attributes of some of these celebrities of past days,
but of Pasta there is no weakened recollection. There she
stands—that Medea, that Tancredi; that Semiramide, that
Romeo, that Nina, that Norma—she is before the eye pal-
pably, and before we hear the voice we mark the short
robust figure, the prominent but coarse features, the awk-
ward and almost clumsy gait. And when the first notes
were listened to, what did Pasta to justify the position she
occupied ? Her voice was not a sympathetic mezzo-soprano
—it had no distinctive resonance above or below ; the in-
tonation, especially in herlast days,was flat and precarious.
She was, in fact, an artiste without a voice, an actress
without a stage-presence; but yet we shall near look on her
like again. She was a woman of genius, in short; she
had, that wondrous gift of at once fixing the attention
of an auditory, of enlisting their sympathies, of rousing
their enthusiasm. Once seen and heard, it was impos-
sible to forget her ; but it is not so much Pasta you
remember as it is the character with which, for the time
being, she identifies herself. The modern theatre-gosr
who followed Ristori's performances, of course cannot
easily forget her Medea; but the realisation of Pasta was
still more terribly in earnest. Never was a wronged
woman's thirst for vengeance, .never was the mother's de-
spair depicted more awfully than by Pasta. Her progress
on the lyric stage was but slow. Born at Como—where
she died—in 1798, she studied at the Milan Conservatoire,
and for a short time was one of "the quatre poupees" pro-
nounced by the insolent M. Valabreque (husband of Cata-
lani) to suffice for an Italian opera-house troupe to work
under the prima donnaship of his wife. When Giuditta
Pasta, after her debilt in Paris in 1816, first came to Lon-
don, in 1817, with Mme. Fodor and Mme. Camporese, she
was as virtually a fiasco as Mlle. Garcia, afterwards Mali-
bran, was when she made her debut at the King's Theatre
as Rosina to her father's Count Almaviva ; as her sister
Pauline Garcia Viardot was when she first appeared in
Paris, at the Od6on, as Desdemona, and at the Royal
Italian Opera as Amina. This is a curious fact—Pasta„
Malibran, Viardot, all failing at the outset of their career.
Critics need indeed be cautious in casting their thun-
derbolts on first nights. Pasta's repulse in 1817 was revenged
in 1824. Mr. Ayrton, the manager of the King's Theatre in
the days of Ebers, engaged her for the season 1824, and the
fiat of Paris was then admitted to be right. Her Desde-
mona at once took the fashionable amateurs by storm,
in conjunction with Garcia (father of Malibran and
Viardot), who was the Otello. Her next essays in Tancredi
and Zingarelli's Romeo confirmed the impressions in her
favour, and her Semiramide the same season caused the
conviction that she was the Italian Siddons of the day.
The majesty of this oriental queen was indeed irresistible.
Despite the deficiency of her organ, her science and decla-
matory powers rendered every passage striking and signi-
ficant, even when nature refused to respond to the calls for
the articulation of special notes. Tho management of the
scale was quite a marvel—as a timist she was perhaps un-
rivalled, so that great quality combined with her intensity
exercised a potent spell over an audience. As to her volu-
bility it seemed inconceivable how she contrived to rival
Rubini in the decorative runs, of the "Il soave e bel con-
tento," from Pacini's " Niobe," an air that no modem tenor
could now sing, and which would tax the exercising skill
of even a dexterous soprano of the day. She reappeared in
1825, adding Paesiello's Nina to her repertoire; her acting
and singing redeeming the weakness of the work. In 1826
she sang in Mayer's " Meudea,', and in Rossini's "Zelmira"
(composed for Mme. Rossini No. 1,) in 1827 she sang the
"Maria Stuarda, Regina de Scozia," of Signor Coccia, a very
slow opera indeed. Mlle. Toso, now Mme. Puzzi, was the
Queen Elizabeth. In 1831 Pasta added Donizetti's Anna
Bolena to her list of creations, Rubini being the Percy
(alas ! for " Vivi to") and Lablache HenryVlll. Jupiter is no
more. Abandoning the royal robes Pasta put on the peasant's
dress for Amina in the " Sonnambula," which she likewise
created. This same year introduced David, the tenor, when in
his decay, and Miss Paton (Mrs. Wood) to the Italian
boards here. In 1833 we had Pasta's Norma, the closing
character of her creative career in the metropolis. Another
memorandum for the critics will not be out of place—they
were all abroad about Bellini's " Sonnambula" and
"Norma," although they raved about the weak "Pirate,'
the vitality of which was due to Rubini. Can the opera
goers forget the "Son io," of Pasta in "Norma ;" her
" Ombra Adorata" in "Romeo ;" her scene in "Medea,"
where she resolves to kill:her children. Grisi, who at the
Scala in Milan was the original Adalgisa to Pasta's Norma,
never would essay- the Medea. When she declined to try
Mayer's version, she was asked to venture upon Cherubini's
setting, so as to avoid the comparison with Pasta as re-
gards the music, but Grisi was determined to rest on the
glory of her Norma—great glory, indeed, for the part has
died with her retirement. Tietjens is to try her hand with
Cherubini's grandeur in "Medea."

There came a fatal moment for Pasta, when in 1850,
yielding to the pressing requests of injudicious friends, she
reappeared for a night in "Anna Bolena"—it was Rome in
ruins, and Rachel was there with execrable taste to ridicule
Pasta, the hem of whose robes she would have been glad to
kiss in her grand days. This was a distressing exhibition
to those who remembered Pasta in her prime, as heart-
breaking as it was to hear that gifted Mlle. Falcon attempt
to sing again at the Grand Opera in Paris after she had lost
her voice. Pasta also tried to sing at a concert at the Royal
Italian Opera for her compatriots, and she even descended
to the Princess's Theatre. It was melancholy ; but the
quick intelligence of Viardot, even in the Anna Bolena of
1850, recognised the genius of Pasta. With tears in her
eyes she turned to an ardent admirer of Pasta (Mr. Chor-
ley), and remarked, " You are right It is like the Cena-
cob of Da Vinci at Milan—a wreck of a picture, but the
picture is the greatest picture in the world." At the inter-
ment in the Cathedral of Como there was great pomp. In
the last years of her life, tranquilly passed on the banks of
Como, Pasta always gave a warm welcome to her English
friends. Medea and Norma might have been seen on the
Lake, with a large straw hat on her head, rowing in a
small boat, as content as when she wore the regal robes
and diadem.

THE LATE EDWARD LODER.—This composer
died on the sth, after an illness of some years. He
was the son of John Loder, of Bath, the violinist, and one
of the leaders of the Philharmonic Concerts. Edward
Loder was educated in Germany, and was a pupil of Ries.
The late Mr. Arnold first introduced Loder at the new
Lyceum, by the production of "Nourjahad." His finest
work was " The Night 'Dancers," based on the ballet of
" Giselle." Mr. E. Loder was also known as a composer
of classical chamber music, of cantatas, sacred and secular.
He was a first-rate musician, and did honour to the Eng-
lish school, like his contemporaries John Barnett, Mac-
farren, Henry Smart, Balfe, Wallace, &c.

THE " T. P. COOKE BEQUEST AND BANQUET."—
In accordance with the instructions conveyed in the
will of the late Mr. T. P. Cooke, a dinner will take place at
the Royal Dramatic College, Maybury, next Saturday, the
22d inst., the festival of St. George falling this year on a
Sunday. The following extract from the will explains the
purpose of the dinner, but not the means by which it is
provided. On May 29, 1864, we exclusively published the
full particulars of the bequest, wherein it will be found
that Mr. T. P. Cooke left £l,OOO in Three per Cent. Con-
sols, the interest of which (£3O) is yearly to defray the ex-
penses of this interesting meeting. He also left another
£l,OOO, the interest of which is to be given to the
author who writes the best nautical drama, and, if
s successful one, the profit it produces will be added
to the funds of the Dramatic College. We append the
extract above alluded to :—" And for the more effectually
carrying into operation my intentions, on the 23d day of
April in each year, which is the birthday of our Immortal
Dramatic Poet, Shakspere, and which is my own natal day,
also a public holiday or treat should be given to the pen-
sioners of the College for the celebration of this day. And
that on this occasion an annual dinner shall be provided
in the hall of the College at which the master, wardens,
and members of the council should preside, and to which
the whole of the pensioners, and any supporters and patrons
of the drama, and well-wisher to the College, and such
members of my family as shall be living, and the trustees
for, the time being of my will (if any), shall be invited."—
Era.

THE MAMMOTH TREES OF CALIFORNIA SUR-
PASSED !—The Brazilian journals would seem to outvie
Baron Munchausen in the discoveries of natural wonders.
They tell of a tree on the banks of the Branco, a tributary
of the river Amazon, under the canopy of which 10,000
human beings may find shelter, and the height of which is
such, that a gigantic bird, the Tononydon, another wonder
of the basin of the Amazon, porches itself so high up the
branches, as to be quite out of rifle shot. The tree belongs
to the Malvaceous order, and is called by the Brazilians
Souina.

SHARsPERTAN SCHOLARS !—The " Lounger" of

the Illustrated Times has a good story about two
dunces who, after pondering over the play bill in front of
Drury-lane Theatre, announcing the performance of
"Julius Ca3sar," delivered an opinion to the effect that it
must be "an adaptation from the French of the Emperor's
new book."

FOUR POINTS OF A CASE !—An eastern editor
says that a man in New York got himself into
trouble by marrying two wives. A western editor replies
by assuring his contemporary that a good many men in
that section had done the same thing by marrying one. A
northern editor retorts that quite a number of his acquaint-
ances found trouble enough by barely promising to marry,
without going any farther. A southern editor says that a
friend of his was bothered enough when simply found in
company with another man's wife.

oti ton C
tragar
(r -

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, April 14.
The Queen, their Royal. Highnesses Prince Alfred,
Princess Helena, and Princess Louise, and the Ladies
and Gentlemen in Waiting, attended Divine service
this morning in the private chapel.
The Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor
administered the Sacrament of the Holy Communion.
The Rev. J. St. John Blunt, Chaplain in Ordi-
nary to the Queen, preached the sermon.

To-day is the birthday of her Royal Highness
Princess Beatrice.

Her Majesty, accompanied by her Royal High-
ness Princess Helena, drove in the Great Park
yesterday afternoon, attended by the Hon. Mrs.
Bruce.

Their Royal Highnesses Prince Alfred and
Princess Louise went out riding, attended by Lady
Churchill, Lieut.-General the Hon. C. Grey, and
Lieut. Haig.

The Hon. Lucy Herr and the Hon. Eleanor
Stanley have succeeded the Hon. Caroline Cavendish
and the Hon. Florence Seymour as Maids of Honour
in Waiting.