The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-27 00:00:00

.MADAJLE CLAIM .NOVELLO'S FAREIrELL.

The Festival performance of the Creation at the
Crystal Palace yesterday was a great and decided
success, and, according to the promise made to our
readers in The Sun of Sept. 12, we give this evening
an outline of past experience on Madame Novello's

performance of the Messiah, which will be heard
for the last time on Saturday, September 29, at the

Crystal Palace. If there be one style of music to
which, more than another, the lovely voice and
grand classic manner of Madame Clara Novell() are
adapted, it is the sacred style ; and to her achieve-
ments in this lofty department of art her great
celebrity (in this country at least) is mainly to be
attributed. As prima donna assotata of the ora-
torios of Handel, Haydn, Mendelsshon, and Spohr,
Madame Clara Novello has long reigned supreme in

.he English concert-room; but 'great provincia

towns no less than the metropolis have paid homage
to her genius, and confirmed year after year the
favourable verdict so unanimously pronounced upon
the earliest exhibition of her powers ; and although
formidable rivals, both foreign and English, have of
late appeared to dispute her hitherto exclusive sway,
Madame Clara Novello has contrived to hold her own,

75
60
75
75

and is still justly regarded as the first of the first in
that particular department of executive art to which
our present article bears special reference. In no
oratorio, perhaps, are the extraordinary powers of
this eminent singer more strikingly displayed than
in Handel's " Messiah," from the opening recitative,
" There were Shepherds," to the final air in C
minor, " If God be for us" (too often omitted in our
public performances). Not only does every note of
the 6oprano part lie completely within the compass
of Madame Novello's voice, but in every piece oppor-
tunities are afforded for the employment of certain
exquisitely beautiful tones belonging exclusively to
our own gifted countrywoman, and which might be
vainly looked for in the greatest of her contem-
pories, foreign or English. Do our readers remem-
ber the softly intense and chastely impassioned tones,
so full of affectionate consolation and gracious ten-
derness, which characterises Madame Novello's
rendering of " Come unto Him all ye that labour ?"
Those notes, so sweet and gentle, yet so full and rich
—those incomparable high Fs and Gs (if we must
be technical) which are quite Madame Novello's
own property ? The Fto which we allude occurs
no less than 17 times in a short solo. But heard
from such a voice we never tire of it ; the mere ab-
stract beauty of the sound, apart from all wsthetical
meaning, would be delightful. Another effort of
the same description, to which also the very highest
praise may be awarded, is Madame Novello's
" How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the Gospel of peace," one of the divinest inspira-
tions in the oratorio. Here again the best, notes
of her voice are called into requisition, and that
peculiar tranquil beauty and calm happiness,
which Madame Novello seems fitted by nature to
express more truthfully and charmingly than
any other singer in the world, are the poetical
characteristics of the song. In these two pieces
the great English soprano is quite beyond ri-
valry, but still greater (because the air is more
trying and important) is her delivery of " I
know that my Redeemer liveth," a performance
which, in our opinion, includes within itself all the
grandest and most beautiful qualities of the singer,
and by which she will in distant years be chiefly
remembered. Anything more lovely than this,
whether in conception or execution, it were, indeed,
impossible to imagine. If the Christian virtues
could be .symbolised by sound alone, fused together,
and translated into music, we should say that such a
process had given birth to this marvellously beau-
tiful effect of vocal art, which has all the dignified
firmness of faith, the vague joy of hope, and the
charity which loies, and whose mission it is to dis-
pense happiness, or at least to chase away despair.
It is not that Madame Novello's delivery of the words
lacks expression, but there is so much more in the
execution of the notes, into which the:very spirit and
essence of the words have entered, as their animat-
ing, all-pervading soul. We regard this angelic
composition as a transfiguration of sense into
sound, and the tones fitly expressed, as
Madame Novello expresses them, bear within
themselves all the meaning that the most eloquent
language can convey. When Madame Novello
rises here, as she is occasionally required to do, to
the high F sharp and G sharp, which in her voice
are perfect marvels of sweetness, she perhaps pro-
duces her greatest effects.
It must not, however, be inferred from this praise
of such particular tones as no other singer in the
world possesses, that Madame Novello's voice is
deficient in any respect, for her medium notes,
if less bright and rich than those of a higher
register, aro still beautiful, and quite worthy
of the rest. As an exemplification of that fact, we
need only refer our readers to her execution of many
portions of the airs above mentioned, which we have
specially signalised, because they serve to dis-
play Madame Novello's powers to the very best
advantage, and are efforts which in every respect
remain as yet unequalled. Our great English so-
prano's, "Rejoice greatly," possesses merits of a dif-
ferent kind ; and the fine air, " If God be for us,"
is so rarely heard, that a dissertation on Madame
Novello's magnificent execution of it would scarcely
interest our readers. The artistic world will, doubt-
less, fully understand and appreciate the irrepara-
ble loss it is about to sustain, and take every means
to hear once more the incomparable voice, which,
so far as the public is concerned, will soon be
hushed for ever. At the performance on Saturday
the band will number 200 performers, and include
the names of all our great instrumental performers,
such as Sainton, Blagrove, Dando, Hill, Wede-
meyer, Pettemes, Collins V., Wilkins, Watson,
Newsham, Webb, Teust, Glanville, Thompson,
Hann, Calkin, Ward, Alsept, Collins G., Paque,
Guest, Reed W., Withers, Quinton, Danbert,
Schrveder, Howell, Mount, Severn, Russell, Rey-
nolds, Pickheart, Kleigh, Pratten R. S., Remusat,
Wells, Barret, Crozier, Nicholson, Horton, Laza-
rus,lteeyh,,
n
Pollard, Pape, Haussen, Hutchings, Ward,
Harper C., Mann, Standen, Csaetehp
jun., Antoine, Webster, Chipp, °le
Ali Healey,
and solo-trumpet—the incomparable Thos. Harper.

--_,-------
ELECTION INTELLIGENCE. --HONITON. —Mr.
Moffatt has canvassed the borough,
met and
wi onth Tuesday
gratifying
success, and that he left the town for a while to attend the
funeral o eared friend, Mr. Locke. Another candidate has
since app in the person of Mr. John Trevellian Jen-
kin, of Swansea, South Wales. This gentleman comes
forward on Liberal Conservative principles, and states that
if elected he would advocate a liberal and enlightened po-
key, and support temperate and well-considered measures
of progress and reform. A handbill has been also issued
requesting the electors to withhold their promises, as an-
other candidate is likely to be brought forward. Mr. Mof-
fatt's chance is said to be exceedingly good.
SHOCKING OCCURRENCE AT A BREWERY.—Ou
Tuesday evening an inquest was held at Lynne on the body
of Mr. Thomas 011ett, brewer to Messrs. Edv rard and Sons,
evidence it ap.
seen aboillut
dwohmoohdaodoplipeeenrsfoofunthde tblretwmeroyr.ninigrodrorewt.liaee
Td:tuvueasgsdhatlyears,t
about morning,
te n one
a qoufarttheer
ando,el 0 tohka, t not
peered that the deceased
11.).:luoir-neineiggthotb;llofeakst,ohnis
in search of him. Near the copper his went
after stria search his body was discovered hat was found, and
which was a large one, nearly ten in the copper,
eight feet of water inside. '
rhe feet deep, with seven or
body was taken out and
medical aid secured, I)ut life
gauge was found
was extinct. It is thought
that, as a
gone to th copper, which in
the water, deceased had
used after having nu 1 was about to be again
the purpose of ascertainingc erg°n° certain repairs,
for
overbalanced the quantity of water in it, and
that be overbalanced
himself and fell in head foremost.
The jury gave as their
verdict "Found drowned, tho jury
believin.- it to be accidental." The deceased had been
brewer to the establishment
wife and family.—B?tr for some years, and has left a
y Post.
OLD TOURIST.
to while "Pray, waiter, is there anything
away the time until the dinner hour ?"Waiter.—
" Yessir ; which would you please to take, sir r.. 'Y or
spirits, six r " '
,---.Punch,