ACCOUNT OF MADEMOISELLE THERESA PARADIS, OF VIENNA, THE CELEBRATED BLIND PERFORMER ON THE PIANO-FORTE.
The following account of this wonderful woman appeared in one of the periodical papers for March, 1785.
“This young person, equally distinguished by her talents and misfortunes, is the daughter of M. Paradis, secretary to his Imperial Majesty, in the Bohemian department, and god-daughter to the Empress Queen.
“At the age of two years and eight months, she was suddenly deprived of sight, by a paralytic stroke, or palsy in the optic nerves.
“At seven years old, she began to listen with great attention to the music she had heard in the church, which suggested to her parents, the idea of having her taught to play on the piano-forte, and soon after to sing. In three or four years time, she was able to accompany herself on the organ, in the Stabat Mater of Pergolesi, of which she sung the first soprano, or upper part, in the church of St. Augustin, at Vienna, in the presence of the Empress Queen; who was so touched with her performance and misfortune, that she settled a pension on her for life.
“After learning of several masters at Vienna, she pursued her musical studies under the care of Kozeluch, who has composed many admirable lessons and concertos, on purpose for her use, which she plays with the utmost neatness and expression.
“At the age of thirteen, she was placed under the care of the celebrated empyric, Dr. Mesmer, who undertook to cure every species of disease by Animal Magnetism. He called her disorder a perfect gutta serena, and pretended, after she had been placed in his house, as a boarder, for several months, that she was perfectly cured; yet, refusing to let her parents take her away, or even visit her, after some time; till, by the advice of the Barons Stoerk and Wenzel, Dr. Ingenhous, Professor Barth, the celebrated anatomist, and by the express order of her late Imperial Majesty, she was taken out of his hands by force; when it was found, that she could see no more than when she was first admitted as Mesmer’s patient. However, he had the diabolical malignity to assert, that she could see very well, and only pretended blindness, to preserve the pension granted to her by the Empress Queen; and, since the decease of this princess, the pension of Madame Paradis has been withdrawn, indiscriminately with all other pensions granted by her Imperial Majesty.
“Last year Madame Paradis quitted Vienna, in order to travel, accompanied by her mother, who treats her with extreme tenderness, and is a very amiable and interesting character. After visiting the principal courts and cities of Germany, where her talents and misfortunes procured her great attention and patronage, she arrived at Paris early last summer, and remained there five or six months; and likewise received every possible mark of approbation and regard in that capital, both for her musical abilities and innocent and engaging disposition.
“When she arrived in England, the beginning of this winter, she brought letters from persons of the first rank to her Majesty, the Prince of Wales, the Imperial Minister, Count Kaganeck, Lord Stormont, and other powerful patrons, as well as to the principal musical professors in London. Messrs. Cramer, Abel, Solomon, and other eminent German musicians, have interested themselves very much in her welfare; not only as their country-woman bereaved of sight, but as an admirable performer.”
She has been at Windsor, to present her letters to the Queen, and has had the honour of playing there to their Majesties, who were extremely satisfied with her performance; and treated her with that condescension and kindness, which all those who are so happy as to be admitted into the presence of our gracious sovereigns, in moments of domestic privacy experience, even when less entitled to it, by merit and misfortunes, than Madame Paradis. Her Majesty was not only graciously pleased to promise to patronize and hear her frequently again, in the course of the winter, but to afford her all the protection in her power: as did his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to whom she has since performed, at a grand concert at Carlton-house, to the entire satisfaction and wonder of all who heard her.
Besides her musical talents, which are indisputable, for neatness, precision, and expression, particularly in the great variety of admirable pieces she executes of her master’s, Kozeluch, Mademoiselle Paradis has been extremely well educated, and is very ingenious and accomplished: as she is able, almost as quick as if she could write, to express her thoughts on paper, with printing types. She understands geography by means of maps, prepared for her use, in which she can find and point out any province or remarkable city in the world; and is likewise able, by means of tables, formed in the manner of draught boards, to calculate with ease and rapidity any sums, or numbers, in the first five rules of arithmetic. She is likewise said to distinguish many colours and coins by the touch: plays at cards, when prepared for her, by private marks, unknown to the company; and, in her musical studies, her memory and quickness are wonderful; as she learns, in general, the most difficult pieces for keyed instruments, however full and complicated the parts, by hearing them played only on a violin: and, since her arrival in this kingdom, she has been enabled, in this manner, to learn to perform some of Handel’s most elaborate and difficult organ fugues and movements, in his first book of lessons, as well as his Coronation Anthem, and more popular compositions.