Magdalene Marie Desgarcins, Louise Francoise Contat, Marie Felicite Malibran, Louise Angelique Berlin, Sophie Cruvelli, Emma Calvé, Lucienne Breval, Felia Litvinne and Desiré Artot have been stars of the first order.
Italy gave birth to the famous actresses and singers Guilia Grisi, Marietta Alboni, Angelica Catalani, Adelaide Ristori, Eleonora Duse, L. Scalchi, Louisa Tetrazzina, and Amelia Galli-Curci.
Poland had her superb Helena Modjeska and Marcella Sembrich; Bohemia the marvelous Emmy Destinn.
Sweden treasures the memory of Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson as superlative artists. Jenny Lind was called "the Swedish Nightingale," and was famous for her great charm as well as for her musical gifts. Her splendid tour in America under the management of P. T. Barnum in 1849 was one of the greatest artistic and financial triumphs ever achieved by one single artist.
A somewhat international position has been held by the famous Adelina Patti, born in 1843 at Madrid, as the daughter of a Sicilian tenor and the Spanish Signora Barilli. Taught singing by the Moravian Maurice Strakosch, she commanded an unusually high soprano of rich bell-like tone and remarkable evenness, and was equally at home in the tenderness of deep passion and the sprightly vivacity of comedy, and in oratorio. For these reasons she has been regarded as one of the greatest singers of all times. That her reputation was founded on her rare qualities, is best shown by the testimony of two of her fellow-artists, Marcella Sembrich and Lilli Lehmann. The former expressed her admiration in the words: "When one speaks of Patti one speaks of something that occurred only once in the history of the world." The latter, famous in a totally different school of her art, wrote the following lines: "In Adelaine Patti everything was united—the splendid voice, paired with great talent for singing. All was absolutely good, correct and flawless, the voice like a bell that you seemed to hear long after the singing had ceased."
231
