t Madame Mathilde
Marchesi, author of a noted vocal method, 24 books of Vocalises, a
volume of reminiscences, and other works, and once famed as a singer,
is only five years younger than Madame Viardot-Garcia, but at
seventy-six is still teaching--still shining as an authority on the art
of song. Singers seem often to have been long-lived. In truth, there is
that in music which is life-giving.

A songstress whose name will always be mentioned in the same breath with
that of the tenor Mario, who became her husband, and with whom she
toured the United States in 1854, was Giulia Grisi. She was born in
Milan in 1812, made her debut at sixteen, and had an undisputed reign of
over a quarter of a century. Her voice, a pure soprano of finest
quality, brilliant and vibrating, spanned two octaves, from C to C. She
possessed the gift of beauty, and was said to unite the tragic
inspiration of Pasta with the fire and energy of Malibran. A favorite
role with her was that of the Druid priestess in "Norma." Her delivery
of "Casta Diva" was said to be a transcendant effort of vocalization.

Living to-day in London at the advanced age of ninety-seven is the elder
brother of Malibran and Viardot-Garcia, Manuel Garcia, the inventor of
the laryngoscope, author of the renowned "Art of Song," and teacher of
Jenny Lind. It was in 1841 that the ever-beloved Swedish Nightingale,
then twenty-one years old, sought him in Paris, with a voice worn from
over-exertion and lack of proper management. In ten months she had
gained all that master could teach her in tone production, blending of
the registers and breath-control. Her own genius, her splendid
individuality, her indefatigable perseverance, did the rest in investing
her dramatic soprano with that sympathetic timbre, that power of
expressing every phase of her artistic conception, that bird-like
quality of the upper notes, that marvelous beauty and equality of the
entire range of two octaves and three quarters (from B below the stave
to G on the fourth line), that exquisite sonority, that penetrating
pianissimo, that unrivalled messa di voce, that mastery over technique
of which so much has been written and said.

Jenny Lind was to Sweden what Ole Bull was to Norway, the inspirer of
noble achievement. The faithful interpreter of the acknowledged
masterpieces of genius in opera, oratorio and song, she also freely
poured forth in gracious waves the poetic, the rugged, and the
exquisitely polish