own
implanting; and such assuredly is the model from which characters like
_Ninetta_ and _Zerlina_ ought to be copied." But there were others who
saw in the vigor, breadth, and verisimilitude of Mme. Malibran's stage
portraits of the peasant wench the truest and finest dramatic justice.
A great singer of our own age, Mme. Pauline Lucca, seems to have modeled
her performances of the operatic rustic after the same method. In such
characters as __Susanna in the "Nozze di Figaro," and _Fidalma_
in Cimarosa's "Il Matrimonio Segreto," her talent for lyric comedy
impressed the _cognoscenti_ of London with irresistible power. She was
fascinated by the ludicrous, and was wont to say that she was anxious
to play the _Duenna_ in "Il Barbiere" for the sake of the grotesque
costume. In playing _Fidalma_ the drollery of her tone and manner, the
richness and originality of her comic humor, were incomparable. Her
daring, however, prompted her to do strange things, which would have
been condemned in any other singer. For example, while _Fidalma_ is in
the midst of the most ludicrous drollery of the part, Malibran suddenly
took up one word and gave an extended series of the most brilliant and
difficult roulades of her own improvisation, through the whole range
of her voice. Her hearers were transported at this musical feat, but it
entirely interrupted the continuity of the humor.

On Mme. Malibran's return to Paris, she found her father, who had
unexpectedly returned from his Mexican tour, thoroughly bankrupted in
purse, and more embittered than ever by his train of misfortunes. He
announced his intention of giving some representations at the Theatre
Italien. This resolution caused much vexation to his daughter, but she
did not oppose it. Garcia had lost a part of his voice; his tenor had
become a barytone, and he could no longer reach the notes which had in
former times been written for him. She knew how much her father's voice
had become injured, and knowing equally well his intrepid courage,
feared, not without reason, that he would tarnish his brilliant
reputation. Garcia displayed even more than ever the great artist. A
hoarseness seized him at the moment of appearing on the stage. "This
is nothing," said he: "I shall do very well"; and, by sheer strength of
talent and of will, he arranged the music of his part (_Almaviva_) to
suit the condition of his voice, changing the passages, transposing them
an octave lower, and taking up no