New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-11-27
NrVYoRK DA1lY TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 81. 1880

Mahbran, perhaps, was more excellent expo
men. Of the Italian development OF NE ahl cnaf-
acte, than Jenny Lind. Bat II was because
Ns};lren. Ike Jenny, was one OF the greatly
-,oaa \, was not alone dne voice that
-. her dramatica lyrst - which IS a
fact nerfectly evident in most of the Ital-
ian singers, rs Alboni, Persiani, and, to our
fancy Grisi, but that decided and successful
adaptation Of all powers to one end-which we
call genius Therefore we do not claim that our
artist is tie ideal Italian singer but we simply
insist that with her quality Of nature and genius
with her profound perception and power, and,
more than ALL with the throbbing experience that
we have Just had, meager and miserable as it ne
cessary was in the concert-room she must by ell
the laws of Nature, be finer Interpreter OF that
sentiment than those we are accustomed to bear.
And if the audience was disappointed it was a
mistake of ignorance upon their part and not
real perception Of artistic inability If we care
fully consider what the FIRST impression OF an au-
dience educated as ours has been is worth we
cannot regard as damnatory, in any particular ts
original judgment of Jenny Lind.
Nor do We say, answering the third error that
song. only we cannot draw lines in pure Art as we
do in tangible Nature. You cannot wall on the
North from the South as you do your neighbor's
garden from your own. The proiouhdeSt meaning
ofa art is universal and not particular, ana there
fore the artist who most truly presents to you one
nhase will priorl be able to present the other
with equal power The world does not know yet
if Shakspere was the greater Tragic or Comic
Poet, nor is the world apt to allow great genius
that is not both at once. The Poet must be
Tropical as well as Temperate, bat again no less
Polar than Tropical. And often while the gene
raj character of great power is sunny or sad
the implied possibilities Of the opposite mood are
pcrpetually present and are powerful in the pre-,
else degree that the actual development is power
full Thus if a man is brilliantly witty for a whole
night, we fancy the morow's mor' ID dcspond-
ency W call it 1ippantly, reaction. But it is a
law life
60 in this regard all that we say is, that when
an artist does thing not only well, but well to a
certain degree and with certain character, that
then it may be truly inferred that he would do
everything well which was properly a subject for
his art. Jenny Lind's Somnonn6ula we know-and
we have no doubt that her Norma and her Lacre
4io would be very grand and much beyond any
thing that the stage now ohers-not because she
is especially adapted for the parts of LncIe@ta or
Norma by sympathy of nature but because her ge-
MUS and artistic perception greater than those
of any other similar artist whom we know. 1t is
simply saving that Raphael could do mightier
work than Bernin We do not say that he could
rival Michael Angelo. But now there is no Michel
and why declare that ernini is necessarily grand
err than Raphael because he affects and initiates
Aiichels manner?
The lovers and approcators OF Jenny Llnds
fair Northern fascination need not therefore
be impatient of our Southern claim for her,
1t is conditional and comparative, not abso-
Lutte And while the memory OF her song
vet tones our life, in the concert room 1t
seemed to sunuse the mighty mass of orchestral
sound with beautiful bloom, may we be permitted
TO quote what we said upon first hearing her in
| Onera in Berlin Artists like Malbran were
natures strung upon another key, and In Tragedy
were more at home not more successful or OF a
clearer tragic conception. For it is the depth
not the general direction or atmosphere OF a ma
ture which determines its power in any point
to which the circu tances of life direct it. A sen
timental person will usually sing mournful songs,
but when once sunny soul which habitually
overhows in Joy, is stung there will be no singing
SO sad. The calm, broad browed, fair haired North
is still tender, bat unswerying oll-daring and all
enduring in love, and the dark, splendid South
is no more So Therefore the Angels are painted
serene and goldenhai but in every true an
gel heart must be latent an equal devil or the
balance of the world is not preserved.
We hope trusting the tolerance Of the present
musical feeling, to say something soon of our
Opera prospects and the secret of a successful
Opera in New York. CIVIC.