n Donizetti's opera was sentimental, impassioned, and pathetic to a
degree which saved her from the reproach which was sometimes directed
against her other performances--lack of unction and abandon.

II.

The _personnel_ of Mme. Persiani could not be considered highly
attractive. She was small, thin, with a long, colorless face, and looked
older than her years. Her eyes were, however, soft and dreamy, her smile
piquant, her hair like gold-colored silk, and exquisitely long. Her
manner and carriage both on and off the stage were so refined and
charming, that of all the singers of the day she best expressed that
thorough-bred look which is independent of all beauty and physical
grace. "Never was there woman less vulgar, in physiognomy or in manner,
than she," says Mr. Chorley, describing Mme. Persiani; "but never was
there one whose appearance on the stage was less distinguished. She was
not precisely insignificant to see, so much as pale, plain, and anxious.
She gave the impression of one who had left sorrow or sickness at
home, and who therefore (unlike those wonderful deluders, the French
actresses, who, because they will not be ugly, rarely _look_ so) had
resigned every question of personal attraction as a hopeless one. She
was singularly tasteless in her dress. Her one good point was her hair,
which was splendidly profuse, and of an agreeable color."

As a vocalist, it was agreed that her singing had the volubility,
ease, and musical sweetness of a bird: her execution was remarkable
for velocity. Her voice was rather thin, but its tones were clear as a
silver bell, brilliant and sparkling as a diamond; it embraced a range
of two octaves and a half (or about eighteen notes, from B to F in alt),
the highest and lowest notes of which she touched with equal ease and
sweetness. She had thus an organ of the most extensive compass known in
the register of the true soprano. Her facility was extraordinary;
her voice was implicitly under her command, and capable not only of
executing the greatest difficulties, but also of obeying the most daring
caprices--scales, shakes, trills, divisions, fioriture the most dazzling
and inconceivable. She only acquired this command by indefatigable
labor. Study had enabled her to execute with fluency and correctness
the chromatic scales, ascending and descending, and it was by sheer hard
practice that she learned to swell and diminish her accents; to emit
tones full, large, and free from