The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-01-07

And Boieau. whose rash envy could allow
No strain which shaned his country d ureaknk Tyre,
That vrhatstone of the fpefl--fiiraotnfr

l 4
:" And Boileau. whose rash envy could allow
No strain which slammed his colntfg Il Tyre.
That whetstone OF the teetl--rnSnoiony IN wire =!
After French verses the most fnoaotonous Ching
we know Of is French feuetonist A few year
ago there appeared at Paris certain Jules Janin
who wrote critical notices for leading paper o
the town; and straightway all the critics, muscg
and theatrical, became Jules Janin-esque in theli
style and manner. Every body acknowledged The
authority of Jules Janin, and il was heresy to h9ve
an opinion or taste different from that of Jules
Jann. The imitators of this gentleman were not
! confined to Paris Some Of them emgrated to New
York and tried to establish themselves as the Jules
Janins--to what celebrity will not men aspire !-of
/ the American commercial metropolis Ofcourse the
4 Janin tribe in New York declared that every thing
French was good and every thing not French was
bad They devoted their particular attention to the
opera, and assumed to be the only Simon Pure
musical critics The New Workers, good easy
souls, thought full surely their greatness was
a-ripening when they saw foreigners take so lively
an interest in their amusemenls and imagined there
was no appeal from the decisions Of the Jules Jann
imitators. So when the Janins condemned, the New
Workers yawned or Kissed and when the Janins
praised, the New Workers clapped their hands and
were in an ecstacy Of delight
Some time ago there appeared in New York
novelty, an American woman singing Italian music.
The New Workers were disposed to applaud when
they heard her singing but the Janins cried nay''
and the New Workers were submissive. But the
ea1etatrice was not to be put down by set of CON
ceied critics whose had never been attuned to
any but the mediocre music of Gallo composers.
She sung to audiences which were not under the
dominion Of French taste, and was eminently sue
cessrul The critics were chagrined because every
body would MT think as they thought; and sneered
at backwoods taste and backwoods applause. But
people of natural feelings and deep emotions would
be pleased when Biscacciant sung and the dis
gusted critics obliged to give up the desperate
undertaking of curbing American thoughts and
opinions.
Atlength Biscaccianti came to New Orleans; and
New Orleans has almost as large a supply of aspi-
rants to Jann-ity as New York One of these critics
said the lady sang in the Italian styleas much as to
say that 1t was not after that most approved method
the French style. Both the positive assertion that
her style is Italian, and the negative intimation
that 1t is not French, are, though the critic ap-
pears to have been ignorant of it, the highest praise
that could be bestowed If the writer intended his
remarks for depreciation, he is clumsy hand at
slashing if for praise, he has better taste than
Frenchmen generally
The critic of the Courier, however, goes step
beyond his brotherof the Bee. Nine Biscaccianti
est avant tout une chanteuse de chic % so elegant
expression that it defes translation from the ele
giant French into any other less elegant dialect
spoken by the children of men, No wonder, how
ever, that Biscacciant is called une chanteuse de
clttcp when the same critic talks about the "puis-
sante voix de soprano' of Madame Devries. If
Devries has soprano, it will be necessary to coin
barbarous word and call Biscaccianti's voice a
sopronisSinlo. Put Devries and Biscaccianti to-
gether in Norma and see which would control the
stage and rivet the attention of the audience. The
" chanteuse de chic" might probably overwhelm
the "puissante voix de soprano" Let the French
stick to Haleyy and leave Bellini and the great
masters for people with profounder emotions and
more soaring imaginations
French music is sometimes very pretty thing
and may be made wondrously agreeable; but it
never !. stirs the souls secret springs" We hope
the day is not distant when the New Orleans pub
lie will pay attention to the Italian sublimities
than to the Partisan prettinesses