and prudence. As
singers the rivals were nearly equal; for Faustina, while surpassing the
Cuzzoni in power of execution, had not the command of expression which
made the latter's art so pathetic and touching. Dr. Barney, the musical
historian, and father of Madame d'Arblay, describes Cuzzoni in these
words: "A native warble enabled her to execute divisions with such
facility as to conceal every appearance of difficulty; and so soft and
touching was the natural tone of her voice, that she rendered pathetic
whatever she sang, in which she had leisure to unfold its whole volume.
The art of conducting, sustaining, increasing, and diminishing her
tones by minute degrees, acquired for her among professors the title of
complete mistress of her art. In a canta-bile air, though the notes she
added were few, she never lost a favorable opportunity of enriching the
cantilena with all the refinements and embellishments of the time.
Her shake was perfect; she had a creative fancy, and the power of
occasionally accelerating and retarding the measure in the most
artificial manner by what the Italians call _tempo rubato_. Her high
notes were unrivaled in clearness and sweetness, and her intonations
were so just and fixed that it seemed as if it were not in her power
to sing out of tune." The celebrated flute-player Quantz, instructor of
Frederick II., also gave Dr. Burney the following account of Faustina's
artistic qualities: "Faustina had a mezzo-soprano voice, that was less
clear than penetrating. Her compass now was only from B flat to G in
alt; but after this time she extended its limits downward. She possessed
what the Italians call _un cantar granito_; her execution was articulate
and brilliant. She had a fluent tongue for pronouncing words rapidly
and distinctly, and a flexible throat for divisions, with so beautiful a
shake that she put it in motion upon short notice, just when she would.
The passages might be smooth, or by leaps, or consisting of iterations
of the same note; their execution was equally easy to her as to any
instrument whatever. She was, doubtless, the first who introduced with
success a swift repetition of the same note. She sang adagios with great
passion and expression, but was not equally successful if such deep
sorrow were to be impressed on the hearer as might require dragging,
sliding, or notes of syncopation and _tempo rubato_. She had a very
happy memory in arbitrary changes and embellishments, and a cle