Star.
London, England, 1831-06-09 00:00:00

MADAME PASTA.

Averse as we are to exaggerated compliment,
there are occasions, nevertheless, when metaphor
and hyperbole are justifiable; and certainly, if
praise be awarded in proportion to desert, the merits
of Pasta will palliate much exuberance of fancy.
She is, undoubtedly, the first tragic actress now
alive, independently of her claims to be called one
of the most accomplished and experienced singers.
The combination of various talents—talents, too,
which we perceive but very rarely united in one
person—have given to Pasta that superiority over
her contemporaries, which justifies her claims to
the sceptre of the stage. Pasta owes little to na-
ture, so far as regards her voice, which is whet
obscure, husky, and limited in compass; but thee
she is deeply indebted fer something eminently 'o-
pener to a fine voice, a soul capable of strong fed•
ing, and a mind competent to grapple with the
most trying difficulties. Abandoning the shackles
of art, and despising stage trickery, of which even
clever performers avail themselves to produce effect,
Pasta trusts solely to truth for success, and her
hopes are never disappointed. Instead of address-
g herself to the imagination of her audience, and
striving to dazzle and deceive them into an acqui
escence in her excellence, she calmly, yet con-
fidently, makes an appeal to their sensibilities and
their judgments, and the triumph which she achieves
is the more genuine and enduring, as it is founded
on what h eternal--truth and nature. But it re-
quires a great degree of courage, and capabilities of
a very high order, in a performer, to depend en-
tirely on such legitimate means of accomplishing
success ; besides, the temptation of ornament is so
great to every thing human, that you might as well
expect a handsome female to forswear her finery,
as a public singer to resist the seductions of an in-
terminable appogiattura.
Hence we find a Sontag, and even a Malibran,
paying such devoted attention to what is merely
ornamental in music, that sometimes (great as they
are) they totally lose sight of the melody, and it
would puzzle the composer himself to discover his
own production under the redundancy of dress with
which it is encumbered. We shall always speak
resolutely and decidedly against a practice which
we consider highly injurious to the developement of
mound taste in music ; and, strange as the assertion
sexy appear, we boldly maintain that some of the
very first rate artistes have often done as much
harm to the science of melody, by injudicious orals-
ment, as have the mere pretenders or second-Jute
performers. We shall declare ourselves fearlesly
on the subject, without paying the least reward
either to the degree of public &roar which meek
and such singer may enjoy, or the length of time
which an abuse may have been suffered to exist,
not only without correction, but even with encou-
ragement.
Much as it has been the fashion to extol Mrs.
Wood, we really doubt whether she has seer
strongly touched the chords of the human heart.
Her style of singing is essentially artificial, sad
it is absolutely painful to watch her countenance
when she is executing a passage requiring the j
least degree of force and expression. The dis-
tortion, not only of her mouth, but of her whole
physiognomy, is distressing to behold ; and is
mere self-defence, one is compelled to seal the
sight. Now turn we to Pasta :—examine her
every movement—note carefully the varying ex-

_
pression of her eye—observe all her features--and
you will find that in the most agonizing scenes of
tragedy, while she strongly excites your feelings
of pity, tenderness, or terror, she never produces
an inclination to withdraw yrShr glance ; but, on
the contrary, to strain it until " the sense aches."
Another delinquent is Rubini, certainly a tenor
of no mean order—a singer who ranks in the first
line among Italian performers ; be has received
much applause in London, and bids fair to become
an established favourite ; and this being the case,
the greater cause do we find to censure the mere-
tricious ornament for which his style is so conspi-
cuous. His roulades and flourishes are intermina-
ble ; there is no possibility of escaping the infliction
of his scales, which haunt you with a kind of va-
ried monotony, if we may be allowed the para-
doxical expression. He never misses an opportu-
nity of inflicting a redundancy of unmeaning notes,
and some good-natured people end by persuading
themselves that he does well because he does much.
Such an idea we cannot allow to pass, and if we
are zealously and sincerely to advocate the cause
of good taste in musk, we see no more effec-
tual means of gaining our object than by scouting
excessive art, especially when it is in a manner sanc-
tioned by the authority of a first-rate vocalist. No
one will say, that a style overloaded with fine-
sounding words, and bedaubed with metaphors, is
the one which a writer ought to adopt, in order to
establish his claims to the title of a classic author.
The rule holds the same in music ; and as in the
first instance, such a writer can only find admirers
among the shallow and the ignorant, so in the
latter, those who are competent to give an opi-
nion on the subject, will always discountenance a
singer who would be accounted great, by the mere
dint of decoration.

Pasta, with great judgment, made her appear-
! ance in the character of Medea, in which she so
decidedly triumphs. This triumph is the more
emprising and highly to be extolled, as the opera
' itself has no share in it, being altogether a very sad
affair. Some critics, in speaking of Mayer's com-
position, have designated it by the epithets of
" beautiful and fine ;" but we confess our inability
to discover this excellence, and we think it would
puzzle the ingenuity of the moat enthusiastic dille-
tanti, to point out the graces of this opera. The
melody is deplorably deficient, and we would defy
the most susceptible and educated ear to catch a
cantabile in the whole progress of the perform-
ance; and be it underlined, That -those pieces
which are especially relished and applauded by