LETTER XXXVI.

Palermo, July 28th.

I HAD almost forgot to say any thing of the opera: It would have been very ungrateful, for we have been much delighted with it. The first and fecond man, are both admirable fingers, and I make no doubt you will have them in London in a few years; neither of them are as yet known, and I dare fay at present they might be engaged for a very moderate price; but in Italy they will foon be taught to estimate their value. The name of the first is Pacherotti; he is very young, and an entire stranger in the musical world; yet I am perfuaded, that after he has been heard on the different theatres in Italy, he will be efteemed one of their capital performers. His excellence is the pathetic, at prefent too much neglected on moft theatres; and indeed, I think, he gives more expreffion to his cantabile airs, and makes his hearers feel more, because he feels more himself, than any that I have seen in Italy. He indeed addreffes himfelf to the heart, while most of the modern performers fing only to the fancy.

The first woman is Gabrieli; who is certainly the greatest finger in the world: and those

that fing on the fame theatre with her, must be capital, otherwise they can never be attended to. This indeed has been the fate of all the other performers, except Pacherotti; and he too gave himfelf up for loft, on hearing her first performance. It happened to be an air of execution, exactly adapted to her voice, which the exerted in fo aftonishing a manner, that before it was half done, poor Pacherotti burst out a crying, and ran in behind the scenes; lamenting that he had dared to appear on the fame ftage with fo wonderful a finger; where his small talents must not only be loft, but where he must ever be accused of a prefumption, which he hoped was foreign to his character.

It was with fome difficulty they could prevail on him to appear again, but from an applause well merited, both from his talents and his modefty, he foon began to pluck up a little courage; and in the finging of a tender air, addreffed to Gabrieli in the character of a lover, even fhe herself, as well as the audience, is faid to have been moved.

Indeed, in thefe very pathetic pieces, I am furprised that the power of the mufic does not fometimes altogether overcome the delufion of character; for when you are master of the language, and ailow the united power of the poetry, the action, and the mufic, to have its full

force on the mind, the effect is wonderfully great. However I have never heard that this happened completely but once, and it was no less a finger than Farinelli that produced it. He appeared in the character of a young captive hero, and in a tender air was foliciting mercy for his mistress and himself, of a stern and cruel tyrant who had made them his prisoners. The perfon that acted the tyrant was so perfectly overcome by the melting ftrains of Farinelli, that inftead of refufing his requeft as he ought to have done, he entirely forgot his character, burst into tears, and caught him in his arms.

The performance of Gabrieli is fo generally known and admired, that it is needless to say any thing to you on that fubject. Her wonderful execution and volubility of voice have long been the admiration of Italy, and has even obliged them to invent a new term to exprefs it; and would she exert herself as much to please as to astonish, fhe might almost perform the wonders that have been ascribed to Orpheus and Timotheus; but it happens, luckily perhaps for the repofe of mankind, that her caprice is, if poffible, even greater than her talents, and has made her still more contemptible than thefe have made her celebrated. By this means, her character has often proved a fufficient antidote, both to the charms of her voice and those of her perfon, which are indeed almost equally powerful; but if these had been united to the qualities of a modeft and an amiable mind,

231 fhe must have made dreadful havock in the world. However, with all her faults, the is certainly the most dangerous fyren of modern times, and has made more conquefts, I fuppofe, than any one woman breathing.

It is but juftice to add, that contrary to the generality of her profeffion, the is by no means felfish or mercenary; hut, on the contrary, has given many fingular proofs of generofity and difinterestedness. She is very rich; from the bounty, as is fuppofed, of the last emperor, who was fond of having her at Vienna; but she was at last banished that city, as she has likewise been most of those in Italy, from the broils and squabbles that her intriguing fpirit, than her beauty, had excited.

perhaps still more

There are a great many anecdotes concerning her, that would not make an unentertaining volume; and, I am told, either are, or will foon be published.

Although she is confiderably upwards of thirty, on the stage she scarcely appears to be eighteen, and this art of appearing young, is none of the most contemptible that the poffeffes. When she is in good humour, and really chufes to exert herself, there is nothing in mutic that I have ever heard, to be compared to her performance; for fhe fings to the heart as well as the fancy, when she pleases; and she then commands every passion with unbounded fway. But she is feldom capable of exercising these wonderful powers; and her

caprice and her talents exerting themselves by turns, have given her, all her life, the fingular fate of becoming alternately an object of admiration and of contempt.

Her powers in acting and reciting, are scarcely inferior to thofe of her finging; fometimes, a few words in the recitative, with a fimple accompaniment only, produces an effect, that I have never been sensible of from any other performer; and inclines me to believe what Rousseau advances on this branch of mufic, which with us is fo much despised. She owes much of her merit to the inftructions fhe received from Metastasio, particularly in acting and reciting; and he allows that she does more justice to his operas than any other actress that ever attempted them.

Her caprice is fo fixed and so stubborn, that neither intereft, nor flattery, nor threats, nor punishments, have the leaft power over it; and it appears, that treating her with respect or contempt, have an equal tendency to increase it.

It is feldom that the condefcends to exert these wonderful talents; but most particularly if she imagines that such an exertion is expected. And inftead of finging her air as other actreffes do, for the most part the only hums them over, a mezza voce. And no art whatever is capable