- Performer Name:
- Mazzei; Sestini
- Performance Venue:
- Florence
- Performance Date:
- 1816
- Author:
- [Lady Murray / Lady Clanwilliam]
- Date Written:
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- A Journal of a Tour in Italy
- Article Title:
- Page Numbers:
- 4:270-3
- Additional Info:
- Publisher:
- [privately printed]
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Date Published:
- 1836
Text:
[270] The Italian language is particularly adapted for extempore verse, and improvvisatores are frequently met with in all classes. I was very much delighted with the talent Signora Lucretia Mazzei displayed one evening at Madame Orlandini's. The theme given was the fable of Apollo and Daphne, and Signora Mazzei strictly followed Ovid though all the mazes of Apollo's pursuit and Daphne's flight; but she interwove some beautiful imagery, and extemporised most harmonious verses as quickly as prose is spoken by the generality of persons. The sound of her voice was more strong than melodious, but her articulation was perfectly distinct; and the ease with which she spoke, and the animation, which kept increasing as she pursued her subject, gave her an air of inspiration totally independent of her exterior, than which nothing could be less attractive. She appeared about forty; her face plain and pale, blue eyes, and rather a flat nose. She wore a black hat and feathers, with a mob-cap tied under her chin, a high black velvet spencer, and a grey silk petticoat: her waist was remarkably thick.
After a pause, Signor Lestini, a little thin man with black hair, went to the piano-forte, and giving the key-note to the man who was to accompany him, came forward: he rubbed his forehead, and then asked for a theme, which was given by Count Cicognara: it was Helen going to the elders of Troy, and accusing herself of being the cause of all their woes. Sestini sung all [271] the lines, which gave more the idea of an opera than of a spontaneous flow of eloquence; and although he spoke slower than Signora Mazzei, I could not follow him so well; neither did his poetry appear so fine as hers.
A dialogue between Dido and Aeneas followed, spoken by Signora Mazzei, and sung by Sestini. They were supposed to meet in Elysium, and Aeneas artfully excused his desertion of the Carthaginian Queen; but Dido would not be appeased, and upbraided him with the utmost dignity. She was most ready in reply, and Sestini seemed to be inspired with more eloquence than he had shewn before. His next theme was Francesca di Rimini. The invocation at the beginning reminded me of Tasso's opening to the Gerusalemme. There were some beautiful lines comparing a woodman cutting down at the same stroke an elm with a vine twined round it to this frail fair one and her paramour. The greatest attention was paid by the audience, and the fall of a pin might have been heard. Great applause was manifested at the end of each episode, and many came up to the poets to express their admiration of their talents. The piano-forte was in the middle of the room, and a circle of ladies all round it. The men stood behind them.
Signora Mazzei invited some people to her own house one morning, and gave fresh proof of her talent at extempore composition. She appeared quite inspired, and the rapidity with which different subjects succeeded each other in no way embarrassed her, but her ideas seemed to flow more rapidly than her words [272] could express them. The themes were the meeting of Hecuba and Helen; whether love is aristocratic or democratic? (she pronounced in favour of the latter); whether the eyes or the mouth are the most powerful in love? (the answer to this question was given in twelve lines, expressing some beautiful ideas). Signora Mazzei said the eyes struck the first blow, but the mouth followed, and added to the charm, and its accents often tempered the rigour which the eyes expressed: in short, they seem equally gifted with the power of charming. A hurricane which blew the preceding night was also a theme, and afforded a minute and highly poetic description of Aeolus, Boreas, &c. The rhymes of a sonnet on the death of Piero Strozzi were given, and filled up with great readiness. The conclusion of this entertainment was an act of a tragedy, and the subject was Agrippina bringing the ashes of Germanicus to Tiberius: the improvvisatrice admirably marked the distinctions between the characters. What proves her excellence is, the moment she is listened to her plainness is forgotten, or rather not perceived. She has no action, except occasionally striking her knee with her hand.
A Piemontese improvvisatore appeared to me to have more conceit than enthusiasm. After a subject was given, he paced up and down the room for some time, as if musing, and when he took his post, he would not allow any one to stand behind him. He was remarkably fluent, went on without interruption, and filled up several bouts rimés. One of his [273] subjects was La Campanna Nativa, which he treated with great simplicity and with pretty touches of feeling. He sung the tomb of Galileo, which he divided into three sonnets, filling up the rhymes given to him, and he concluded by a hymn to Florence, which gave scope for many compliments, which he neatly introduced.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- AE