indeed, of all within the memory of his age. It was for this reason that
he attained such a supremacy also on the concert stage. The choicest
songs of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Gordigiano, and Meyerbeer were
interpreted by his art with an intelligence and poetry which gave them
a new and more vivid meaning. The refinements of his accent and
pronunciation created the finest possible effects, and were perhaps
partly due to the fact that before Mario became a public artist he was a
gentleman and a noble, permeated by the best asthetic and social culture
of his times.

Mario's power illustrated the value of tastes and pursuits collateral
to those of his profession. The painter's eye for color, the sculptor's
sense of form, as well as the lover's honeyed tenderness, entered into
the success of this charming tenor. His stage pictures looked as if
they had stepped out of the canvases of Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul
Veronese. In no way was the artistic completeness of his temperament
more happily shown than in the harmonious and beautiful figure he
presented in his various characters; for there was a touch of poetry and
proportion in them far beyond the possibilities of the stage costumer's
craft. Other singers had to sing for years, and overcome native defects
by assiduous labor, before reaching the goal of public favor, but
"Signor Mario was a Hyperian born, who had only to be seen and heard,
and the enchantment was complete." For a quarter of a century Mario
remained before the public of Paris, London, and St. Petersburg,
constantly associated with Mme. Grisi.


V.

To return once more to the consideration of Grisi's splendid career.