GREAT SINGERS
MALIBRAN TO TITIENS
SECOND SERIES
BY GEORGE T. FERRIS
1891
Copyright, 1881, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
NOTE.
In the preparation of this companion volume of "Great Singers," thesame limitations of purpose have guided the author as in the case ofthe earlier book, which sketched the lives of the greatest lyric artistsfrom Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag. It has been impossible toinclude any but those who stand incontestably in the front rank of theoperatic profession, except so far as some account of the lesser lightsis essential to the study of those artistic lives whose names make thecaptions of these sketches. So, too, it has been attempted to embody, inseveral of the articles, intelligent, if not fully adequate, notice ofa few of the greatest men singers, who, if they have not aroused asdeep an enthusiasm as have those of the other sex, are perhaps justlyentitled to as much consideration on art grounds. It will be observedthat the great living vocalists have been excluded from this book,except those who, having definitely retired from the stage, may beconsidered as dead to their art. This plan has been pursued, not fromany undervaluation of the Pattis, the Nilssons, and the Luccas of thepresent musical stage, but because, in obeying that necessity imposed bylimitation of space, it has seemed more desirable to exclude those whoseplace in art is not yet finally settled, rather than those whose namesbelong to history, and who may be seen in full perspective.
The material from which this little book is compiled has been drawn froma variety of sources, among which may be mentioned the three works ofHenry F. Chorley, "Music and Manners in France and Germany," "ModernGerman Music," and "Thirty Years' Musical Kecollections"; SutherlandEdwards's "History of the Opera"; Fetis's "Biographie des Musiciens";Ebers's "Seven Years of the King's Theatre"; Lumley's "Reminiscences";Charles Hervey's "Theatres of Paris"; Arsène Houssaye's "Galeriede Portraits"; Countess de Merlin's "Mémoires de Madame Malibran";Ox-berry's "Dramatic Biography and Histrionic Anecdotes"; Crowest's"Musical Anecdotes" and Mrs. Clayton's "Queens of Song."