increased at each performance. She was always, however, a greater favourite with artists and connoisseurs than with the public at large. This was partly due to the poverty of her stage-presence. She was exceedingly refined in appearance, but small and thin, with a long colourless face, not unsightly, like her father, but, as Chorley puts it, 'pale, plain, and anxious,' with no beauty but her profusion of fine fair hair, while in her dress she was singularly tasteless. Her voice, too, was against her rather than in her favour; it was a thin, acute soprano, of great range upwards, clear and penetrating, but not full or mellow, blending ill with other voices, and always liable to rise in pitch. But the finish of her singing has been rarely equalled, probably never surpassed. 'Every conceivable passage was finished by her to perfection, the shake, perhaps, excepted, which might be thought indistinct and thin.' Her execution was remarkable for velocity, 'poignant, clear, audacious.' Her resources were vast and varied, and when encored she rarely sang a piece again without adorning it with fresh fioriture, more dazzling than the first. 'She had the finest possible sense of accent … From her every phrase had its fullest measure. Every group of notes was divided and expressed by her with as much precision as the best of violinists brings into his bowing. And this was done with that secure musical ease which made her anxious, mournful face, and her acute, acid voice, forgotten.' Whether in rapid, florid passages, or in large and expressive movements, 'Madame Persiani's attack was not more unfailing than the delicate sensibility with which she gave every note its fullest value, never herself becoming breathless, rarely heavy' (Chorley). As an actress she preserved sensibility, grace, and refinement, but lacked passion and animation.
From 1838 she sang alternately in London and Paris for many years. Fétis says that a sudden hoarseness, which attacked her in London in 1843, proved the beginning of a throat-complaint that forced her to quit the stage for ever. But she sang in London, in opera, in 1847, 48, and 49, and at the 'Italiens' in Paris in October, 1848. In 1850 she went to Holland, and subsequently to Russia. After performing in almost all the principal countries of Europe, she, in 1858, accepted an engagement from Mr. E. T. Smith and appeared at Drury Lane in several of her old parts,—Linda, Elvira in 'I Puritani,' Zerlina in 'Don Giovanni,' etc. Never were her rare accomplishments as a singer more perceptible; compared with her, 'her younger successors sounded like so many immature scholars of the second class.' (Chorley.) In December of that year, Madame Persiani took up her residence in Paris, but afterwards removed to Italy, and died at Passy May 3, 1867. Her portrait, by Chalon, in water-colours, is in the possession of Julian Marshall, Esq.
[ F. A. M. ]
PERSUIS, Louis Luc Loiseau de, born at Metz May 21, 1769, studied under his father, one of the musical staff of the Cathedral, and soon became a good violinist. Having entered the orchestra of the theatre, he fell in love with an actress, and followed her to Avignon. Here he had opportunities of completing his studies, and he also read a great deal of sacred music. Being of an ardent and impetuous character, he began to compose before he was 20, and his first work, an oratorio 'Le Passage de la Mer Rouge,' was produced at the Concerts Spirituels in 1787, but was not published. By this time he had settled in Paris, where his violin-playing was appreciated, especially in the orchestras of the Opéra and the Theatre National. Active, ambitious, and self-confident, he managed to produce his dramatic compositions, and on the foundation of the Conservatoire in 1795, succeeded in obtaining the professorship of the violin. This post he lost in 1802 on the dismissal of his friend Lesueur; but in 1804 he became chef du chant at the Opéra, and afterwards, through Lesueur's interest, was appointed conductor of the Emperor's court concerts, and (1810–15) conductor of the orchestra of the Académie. In this capacity he showed a high order of ability. He was indeed born to command, and the first lyric stage of Paris was never better administered than during the short time (1817–19) of his management. Prematurely exhausted by his feverish mode of life, he died in Paris on Dec. 20, 1819, of pulmonary consumption. A fortnight before his death he received the Order of St. Michel from Louis XVIII, as he had before received the Legion of Honour from Napoleon.
Persuis's claim to perpetuation is that of an excellent conductor and an able administrator. His music is forgotten, though he wrote much for the stage, and often with deserved success. The following is a complete list of his dramatic works:—'La Nuit Espagnole,' 2 acts (1791); 'Estelle,' 3 acts (1794); 'Phanor et Angela,' 3 acts; 'Fanny Morna,' opéra comique in 3 acts, engraved, and 'Léonidas,' 3 acts, with Gresnick (1799); 'Le Fruit défendu,' 1 act (1800); 'Marcel,' 1 act (1801); 'L'Inauguration du Temple de la Victoire,' intermède, and 'Le Triomphe de Trajan,' 3 acts, both with Lesueur (1807); and 'Jerusalem délivrée,' 3 acts (1812), of which the score was engraved. Besides these operas he wrote pretty music, sometimes in collaboration with R. Kreutzer, to the following ballets:—'Le Retour d'Ulysse,' 3 acts (1807); 'Nina,' 2 acts (1813); 'L'Epreuve Villageoise,' 2 acts, and 'L'heureux Retour,' 1 act (1815); and 'Le Carnaval de Venise,' 2 acts (1816). Glad to seize any opportunity of making himself heard, Persuis also composed several cantates de circonstance, such as the 'Chant de Victoire' (1806), and 'Chant Français' (1814), and some unpublished church works now in MS. in the library of the Paris Conservatoire.
[ G. C. ]
PERTI, Jacopo Antonio, one of the most distinguished church-composers of the 17th century, born at Bologna June 6, 1661; at ten began to learn music from his uncle, Lorenzo Perti, a priest of San Petronio. Having finished his education at the Jesuit College and the Univer-
