“That this custom or practice might lead to great abuse and that it is necessary to uproot it gradually, is our opinion. But this radical reform can be realized only in forthcoming works; those of the ancient school ought to be interpreted by following the conventions which the composer himself has respected.
“That the changements written by M. de La Madelaine for the air of the Freischütz are permissible, is proved by the fact that Weber himself has sanctioned and approved them, as, if need be, a great number of contemporaries can attest.” (Franck-Marie.)
Whoever has had the good fortune to hear Mme. Marcella Sembrich in the rôle of Amina, in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, will have heard an excellent example of remarkable technical skill or virtuosity, with irreproachable taste regulating its display. The ornaments and changes used by her in the rondo finale, “Ah, non giunge,” are models of their genre. What else could be expected of an artist so gifted as to be able to perform the lesson-scene in Rossini’s Il Barbiere (introducing therein the air with variations by Proch) in Italian; and in the course of the same scene sing, in German, “Ich liebe dich,” by Grieg, and play the Andante and Rondo Russe, for violin, by de Bériot, and a valse by Chopin on the piano?
The opera, La Sonnambula, requires much rearrangement both of the music and of the verbal text, to which it is badly fitted. The greater part of the music written for Elvino has to be transposed, mostly a third lower, in order to make it practicable under existing conditions.
No effect whatever could be made were a cantatrice to follow implicitly the written notes of this opera, such being merely a rough sketch, as it were, of the composer’s ideas, which the singer is supposed to complete. Several instances from the andante “Ah! non credea mirarti,” will suffice to prove this. The following is the printed version.
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This is but a suggestion of the composer’s idea. The artist will therefore not follow too closely the printed version; but following the evident indications for a pathetic and expressive cantabile will perform it thus:
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