Concert

“A concert will be given by Mr. E. Gilbert in the Lyric Hall tomorrow evening.”

“CHRONIQUE HEBDOMADAIRE. -- . . . . Last Tuesday, the concert announced by M. Gilbert took place at Trenor’s Hall. Besides the beneficiary who was strongly applauded, we noticed a young person, Miss L. Roussel, who was making, they say, her first public appearance and who sang with success the great air from le Pré-aux-Clercs and verses from Galatea. Mlle L. Roussel has a magnificent instrument at her service; her voice is full, vibrant, extended and of a beautiful timbre. She needs . . .[to augment these natural qualities] with persistent study and to acquire some flexibility as well as the art of diction, although I think, according to the character of her voice, that Mlle L. Roussel will attempt the grand lyric genre [of opera] rather than opera-comique.

“M. E. Mollenhauer played Paganini’s piece that all those who love to dazzle in the art of conquering mechanical difficulties try [to play], the duetto for two violins executed by one single man, on one single violin, with one single bow. They applauded him frantically, and, involuntarily, I was carried back, before this tumultuous ovation, to a memory of my extreme youth. I recalled Teresa Milanollo acclaimed, called back, encored after having played the very simple theme of the very naïve romance Ma Céline! They cried while listening to it. . . without doubt, they’d laugh today. Ah! We’ve surely lost the taste for simple [things], that is to say for the beautiful, the truly beautiful! Who’ll give it back to us?

Ch. V.”