Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1883 — Dearly Bought. [ARTICLE]

Dearly Bought.

One of the greatest of the world’s singers was Madame Malibran. She read music at sight, and could sing anything she read. “You cannot play anything,” she once said to Ole Bull, “be it ever so intricate, but I can sing it after once hearing it.” The violinist accepted the challenge and played a caprice, full of techeical difficulties. Malibran sang it correctly, though it was a labyrinth of musical phrases. “I cannot, even at this day,” said Ole Bull to a friend, forty-five years after, “understand how she did it.” •' ' ‘ This greatest of singers once challenged the greatest of violinists, Paganini, to a musical duel. It was at a soiree in Paris, and composers, musicians and singers were present Malibran sang one of her spirited and difficult arias, and then challenged Paganini to play it without seeing the music. “Madame,” answered the violinist, bowing, “how could I dare, with all the advantages you possess in beauty and your incomparable voice, take up the glove ?” But the company pressed him so strongly to “dare" that he sent for his violin. After a simple introduction, in which he now and then gave the theme of Malibran’s song, he played the whole melody with such brilliant variations that the amazed company applauded him as the victor. The most emphatic in proclaiming his mastership was Malibran. The vocalist died a victim to her own ambition. At a greht musical festival in Manchester, England, she sang a duet with a soprano who held a trill for a long time with great effect. The soprano’s success so stimulated Malibran that she determined to surpass herself. She forced a tone two notes higher, and held it with so much strength and for so long a time, that the audience, amazed at the vocal feat, broke out into tumultuous applause. The effort brought on hemorrhage, and in a few days the great singer was dead.