- Performer Name:
- [Rosa Taddei?]
- Performance Venue:
- Rome
- Performance Date:
- 23 January 1818
- Author:
- Matthews, Henry
- Date Written:
- 1818
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- The Diary of an Invalid
- Article Title:
- Page Numbers:
- 154-6
- Additional Info:
- Publisher:
- Murray
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Date Published:
- 1820
Text:
[154] We went in the evening to one of the Theatres to hear an Improvisatrice. She was a young and pretty girl of seventeen. The subjects had been [155] written by the audience on slips of paper, and put into an urn, to be drawn out as occasion required. She recited three poems. The subject of the first was, the Sacrifice of Iphigenia;—the next, the Cestus of Venus;—and the last, Sappho presents a wreath of flowers to Phaon, was rendered more difficult, by supplying her with the final words of each stanza, which she was to fill up with sense and rhymes. The final words, which were given by the audience, were all to end in ore;—I gave as the concluding word of the last stanza, sartore; and if one might judge from the laughter and applause of the audience, for I confess I could not follow her, she brought it in with a very ingenious turn.
In the intervals between the poems, she called upon the audience indiscriminately for a word, as the subject of a stanza, which she immediately recited, making every line rhyme with the word proposed.—She was seldom at a loss for a moment; and, when she did hesitate, she got out of her difficulties most triumphantly. Drudo was the word that seemed to puzzle her most; at least, she made an attempt to evade it; but it was pressed upon her by the audience.
Upon the whole it was a wonderful performance; for though I could not catch all she said, one might judge of the merit of such a performance, by the effect produced upon the audience. Besides, though [156] words may add a great deal, they are not absolutely necessary to the expression of sentiment; —the language of gestures and features, and tones is universal, and, by the aid of these, it was easy to follow the story of Iphigenia perfectly.
After the subject of a poem was proposed, she walked about the stage for about ten minutes, and then burst out, with all the seeming fervour of inspiration, chanting her stanzas in a recitative tone, accompanied by music.
Her enunciation and action were a little too vehement for an English taste, and conveyed an idea of vulgarity; but of this it is impossible to judge, without knowing more of the national standard of good-breeding.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- AE