Word: prima
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...have, however, heard this aria sung with more feeling, and voices of better timbre, on the stage in Germany. Miss Wilde is said to be a fine actress, and to have been more popular once than even Materna. She must have had a fine voice when she was Prima Donna soprano at the Imperial Opera House of Vienna, but fine voices seldom last long. Her greatest merit now seems to be a distinct articulation, as we could easily follow her words, especially when she sang Liszt's version of Lorelei; and here, too, she showed her voice to better advantage...
...Aurea prima sata est aetas qua vindice nullo...
Oratorios.Elijah and Judas Maccabaeus have lately been given by the Handel and Haydn Society, assisted by Mme. Rudersdorff and others. They were enjoyable to those who have patience to listen to heavy music for two or three hours, and to painful efforts of a passee prima donna. These Oratorios may be very fine, but in our private estimation there is too much heavy music and tiresome recitatives, and, unless these are rendered in an artistic manner, combined with voices adequate to the demands of the music, the effect is anything but pleasant to the hearers...
...many years. Patti, Parepa, and Nilsson are forgotten under the influence of Lucca's divine voice. And her acting was such that we knew not which to admire most, that, or her singing. The operas presented have been the standard ones, and although in each of them the beautiful prima donna had nothing to fear from comparison with her gifted predecessors, her roles in Fra Diavolo and Faust were most pleasing. Her support by the Company, although weak in the tenor parts, was, on the whole, good...