Sophie Augustine Leo in Paris - between 1817 and 1818

from Musical Life in Paris (1817-1848): A Chapter from the Memoirs of Sophie Augustine Leo--Part I, page 268:

Among the company that she had assembled Mme. Catalani alone could be called a singer; she made a practice, however, of singing below a mezza voce during an entire evening, acting wretchedly into the bargain, until, near the close of the performance, she enchanted everyone with a bravura aria, generally one written especially for her. Yet two or three of these show pieces were thought sufficient for a whole season, and no one of them filled more than ten minutes of the three dull hours through which these miserable operas dragged. And as a rule these arias or bravura pieces were quite ordinary…   more >>
cite as

W. Oliver Strunk and Sophie Augustine Leo, Musical Life in Paris (1817-1848): A Chapter from the Memoirs of Sophie Augustine Leo--Part I. In The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Apr., 1931), volume Vol. 17, No. 2 (April, 1931), p. 268. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1425119021715 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: Paris

Listeners

Sophie Augustine Leo
Writer
1795-

Listening to

hide composers
Opera
written by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode
performed by Mme Catalani

Experience Information

Date/Time between 1817 and 1818
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by mallen on Sat, 28 Feb 2015 10:23:41 +0000