Musical Reminiscences: Containing an Account of Italian Opera in England, From 1773. The Fourth Edition, Continued to the Present Time, and Including The Festival in Westminster Abbey.

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

91-2

text excerpt

This very handsome woman [Grassini] was in every thing the direct contrary of her rival [Mrs. Billington]. With a beautiful form, and a grace peculiarly her own, she was an excellent actress, and her style of singing was exclusively the cantabile, which became heavy a la longue, and bordered a little on the monotonous: for her voice, which it was said had been a high soprano, was by some accident reduced to a low and confined contralto. She had entirely lost all its upper tones, and possessed little more than one octave of good natural notes; if she attempted to go higher, she produced only a shriek, quite unnatural, and almost painful to the ear. Her first appearance was in La Vergine del Sole, an opera of Mayer’s, well suited to her peculiar talents; but her success was not very decisive as a singer […]

excerpt from 'Musical Reminiscences: Containing an Account of Italian Opera in England, From 1773. The Fourth Edition, Continued to the Present Time, and Including The Festival in Westminster Abbey.' pp. 91-2 (147 words)

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1446742788391