pel to her memory at Lacken. Her statue, chiseled in white marble by
Geefs, represents her as _Norma_, and stands in the center, faintly lit
by a single sunbeam admitted from a dome, and surrounded by masses of
shadow. "It appears," says the Countess de Merlin, "like a fantastic
thought, the dream of a poet."

Maria Malibran was unquestionably one of the most gifted and remarkable
women who ever adorned the lyric stage. The charm of her singing
consisted in the peculiarity of the timbre and the remarkable range of
her voice, in her excitable temperament, which prompted her to execute
the most audacious improvisations, and in her strong musical feeling,
which kept her improvisations within the laws of good taste. Her voice,
a mezzo-soprano, with a high soprano range superadded by incessant work
and training, was in its middle register very defective, a fault which
she concealed by her profound musical knowledge and technical skill.
It was her mind that helped to enslave her hearers; for without mental
originality and a distinct sort of creative force her defective voice
would have failed to charm, where in fact it did provoke raptures. She
was, in the exact sense of a much-abused adjective, a phenomenal singer,
and it is the misfortune of the present generation that she died too
young for them to hear.

WILHELMINA SCHROeDER-DEVRIENT.

Mme. Schroeder-Devrient the Daughter of a Woman of Genius.--Her Early
Appearance on the Dramatic Stage in Connection with her Mother.--She
studies Music and devotes herself to the Lyric Stage.--Her Operatic
_Debut_ in Mozart's "Zauberflote."--Her Appearance and Voice.--Mlle.
Schroeder makes her _Debut_ in her most Celebrated Character,
_Fidelio_.--Her own Description of the First Performance.--A Wonderful
Dramatic Conception.--Henry Chorley's Judgment of her as a Singer and
Actress.--She marries Carl Devrient at Dresden.--Mme. Schroeder-Devrient
makes herself celebrated as a Representative of Weber's Romantic
Heroines.--Dissolution of her Marriage.--She makes Successful
Appearances in Paris and London in both Italian and German
Opera.--English Opinions of the German Artist.--Anecdotes of her London
Engagement.--An Italian Tour and Reengagements for the Paris and London
Stage.--Different Criticisms of her Artistic Style.--Retirement from the
Stage, and Second Marriage.--Her Death in 1860, and the Honors paid to
the Memory of her Genius.

I.

In the year 1832 German opera in its