‘Titled Opera Singers. It might be inferred that Louis XIV., in founding the French opera, was gifted with second sight, or had anticipated an era when Count de Rossys, Count Giustinianis, and other high mightinesses, would bestow their titles upon the play bills. By the letters patent of the foundation in 1672, it was enacted, that “all gentlemen, and other distinguished persons, might sing at the said opera, without forfeiting their titles of nobility, places, rights, or immunities.” Louis XIV., and his successor, Louis XV., were frequently performers in the court masques and ballets.’
Here are other blunders, by implication! Paul ought to have known, because he knows every thing, that no Count Rossi (not Rossy), no Count Justiniani, ever appeared on any stage. Madame Camporese, the actual wife of the latter, and Madlle. Sontag, who became the wife of the former, were performers, no doubt; but the one suppressed her title, and the other had none to suppress.
July 1st. Legitimate music, it is to be feared, is in danger of suffering the fate of the legitimate drama; both are becoming the victims of freshly-imported foreigners, who, whatever their other knowledge may be, are well acquainted with the weak side of our West-Endians. On Saturday last, at a concert for the benefit of Madlle. Pixis, two instances of egregious folly were displayed: the one a performance of the overture to the Zauberflöte, on three piano-fortes, by twelve hands; the other, a Quatuor Concertante, for four piano-fortes! The ‘confusion worse confounded,’ thus produced, may be imagined, not described. Some such piece of foolery was exhibited at Vienna last year, and justly reprobated by the good, uninfluenced German critics; but as it would not do a second time, even in the Austrian capital, the exploit was repeated in a country which, having paid upwards of 20,000l. to hear an Italian play on one fiddle-string, it was reasonably supposed would encourage any other kind of musical nonsense.
July 3d. Sunday the 30th of June was a high festival day at Tadcaster, says a Yorkshire paper, on ‘account of the opening of a large organ, built by Elliott and Hill, of London, who erected the stupendous instrument in York Cathedral. The fact having been publicly announced, occasioned a great influx of visiters from York and the surrounding country, and Tadcaster has not presented so lively a scene for some time. Dr. Camidge performed on the instrument with the greatest ability, and the numerous congregation, which crowded every part of the church, were highly gratified by hearing the full harmony of the organ, which possesses vast richness of tone, peal forth in that grand melody, the Old Hundredth Psalm, with which the morning service commenced.’
There is now hardly a church of any importance which does not boast an organ, and generally one of large dimensions. This alone is a proof of the advance of music in Great Britain; for of all instruments the organ is the noblest, the most capable of producing great effects, in the hands of a good harmonist, of a performer of sense, who feels that he himself is appearing to advantage only when in solemn or in sober music he is displaying the best qualities, exhibiting the real character, of an instrument that is absolutely desecrated by any attempt at what is called brilliancy of execution.
4th. This morning a concert was given at Willis’s Rooms, by Mr. Osborne, a native of Ireland, I believe, but who has passed much of his life on the Continent, in which he, for the first time, exhibited his talents as a piano-forte player, before a London audience, and was very favourably received. His sister, also, Miss Saunders Osborne, made her débût, and appears to have studied in a good vocal school.