Charles Burney in London - December, 1778
...Now for a little opera music. Come along as fast as you can. Lock up your doors: take the clapper out of your Church Bells: give your flock a hearty benediction & come along! - Why such a Singer as Pacchierotti has never been heard by such young fellows as you or me. - The old codgers who can remember your Niccollinis Senesinos & Farinellis may pretend perhaps that they have heard a better, but I who have a distinct idea of the powers of every first Singer from Monticelli to the present time do say that for taste, refinement, originality of expression & invention of passages and above all …
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...Now for a little opera music. Come along as fast as you can. Lock up your doors: take the clapper out of your Church Bells: give your flock a hearty benediction & come along! - Why such a Singer as Pacchierotti has never been heard by such young fellows as you or me. - The old codgers who can remember your Niccollinis Senesinos & Farinellis may pretend perhaps that they have heard a better, but I who have a distinct idea of the powers of every first Singer from Monticelli to the present time do say that for taste, refinement, originality of expression & invention of passages and above all for feeling, & the power of getting at one's Entrailles I have never known his equal. In short Piozzi whom we so much & so justly admire is but a faint Copy in his best slow songs of Pacchierotti. I used to think Mrs Sheridan's voice as sweet as sugar - - but his has the elegant sweetness of a pine-apple. - If he were to sing the same air 100 times he would disdain repeating it in the same way. His variety is incredibble [sic] without being heard. Then, - I say, - come away! - The first woman la Bernasconi has no great voice, but she has a very elegant style of singing, & many embellishments & refinements that are wholly new here - & yet such a giant as Pacchierotti makes her a pigmy. With Roncaglia she would have captivated every hearer, but the comparison is now against her. - The music, chiefly of Bertoni, who is come over with Pacchierotti, is really good. Misero Pargoletto is by Monza, & an exquisite composition: the duet very pleasing of Anfossi, and a prodigious fine tune for the Tenor by Paesiello &c &c so come along I entreat you, - Mrs Twi & all.
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Letter from Charles Burney to Thomas Twining, 1 December 1778. In Charles Burney, and Alvaro Ribeiro (ed.), The letters of Dr Charles Burney, volume 1 (Oxford, 1991), p. 265-6. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1412176014972 accessed: 13 October, 2024
location of experience: London
Originally submitted by Charlotte on Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:06:55 +0100