lavishly in the admonition: "With the degree of elevation to which you
have attained, you should impose your opinion on the public, not submit
to theirs," she answered, with a laugh and a shrug of her charming
shoulders: "_Mon cher grognon_, there may perhaps be two or three
connoisseurs in the theatre, but it is not they who give success. When I
sing for you, I will sing very differently." Mme. Malibran, buoyed up
on the passionate enthusiasm of the French public, essayed the most
wonderful and daring flights in her song. She appeared as _Desdemona,
Rosina_, and as _Romeo_ in Zingarelli's opera--characters, of the most
opposing kind and two of them, indeed, among Pasta's masterpieces. It
was said that, "if Malibran must yield the palm to Pasta in point of
acting, yet she possessed a decided superiority in respect of song";
and, even in acting, Malibran's grace, originality, vivacity, piquancy,
spontaneity, feeling, and tenderness, won the heart of all spectators.
Such was her versatility, that the _Semi-ramide_ of one evening was the
_Cinderella_ of the next, the _Zerlina_ of another, and the _Desdemona_
of its successor; and in each the individuality of conception was
admirably preserved. On being asked by a friend which was her favorite
rôle, she answered, "The character I happen to be acting, whichever it
may be."

In spite, however, of the general testimony to her great dramatic
ability, so clever and capable a judge as Henry Chorley rated her
musical genius as far higher than that of dramatic conception. He
says: "Though creative as an executant, Malibran was not creative as
a dramatic artist. Though the fertility and audacity of her musical
invention had no limits, though she had the power and science of a
composer, she did not establish one new opera or character on the stage,
hardly even one first-class song in a concert-room." This criticism,
when closely examined, may perhaps indicate a high order of praise. Mme.