Describes hearing Marietta Alboni sing at Metropolitan Hall. Transcription: Hall, there to hear [Marietta] Alboni, [Thomas] Powell having given me a ticket. The great hall was very full; ? the pieces selected chiefly from modern composers, [Gaetano] Donizetti, [Giaocchino] Rossini, [Daniel] Auber &c. Two male singers, [Agostino] Rovere & Sangiovanni, & Alboni formed the attractions of the night; ? an opera chorus accompanying. Alboni is a fat comely woman with a handsome Italian face. But how shall I speak of her most delectable, rich, sweet voice; ? the most exquisite one I have ever chan


Describes hearing Marietta Alboni sing at Metropolitan Hall. Transcription: Hall, there to hear [Marietta] Alboni, [Thomas] Powell having given me a ticket. The great hall was very full; ? the pieces selected chiefly from modern composers, [Gaetano] Donizetti, [Giaocchino] Rossini, [Daniel] Auber &c. Two male singers, [Agostino] Rovere & Sangiovanni, & Alboni formed the attractions of the night; ? an opera chorus accompanying. Alboni is a fat comely woman with a handsome Italian face. But how shall I speak of her most delectable, rich, sweet voice; ? the most exquisite one I have ever chanced to hear. The fulness, the luscious melody of her lower notes are indescribable. Old [Richard] Crashaw who described the contest twixt musician & nightingale might have done it. Let him help me The panting murmurs still ?d out of her breast, ?ǣlubric throat That ever-bubbling spring, the sugar ?d nest Of her delicious soul, that there does lie Bathing in streams of liquid melody. ? That ?ǣAh non guinge ? from Somnambula, ? wouldn ?t the Composer [Vincenzo Bellini] have fallen in love with Alboni could he have heard her sing it. The heaven-on-earth rapture of the village girl ? so happy in her love & lover, so deliciously given! / Either the crowd who rave of Jenny Lind just go as sheep do, sans reflection, or I ?ve some defect in my musical organization, ? for to my mind I prefer Alboni. I ?m somewhat loth to think it, but I Title: Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries: Volume 5, page 41, September 14, 1852 . 14 September 1852. Gunn, Thomas Butler, 1826-1903


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