Let us return from the consideration of Faustina's most brilliant
contemporary to Hasse and his wife. We have already seen that this great
prima donna retired from the stage in 1753, at the age of fifty-two. The
life of the distinguished couple during this period is described with
much pictorial vividness in a musical novel, published several years
since, under the name of "Alcestis," which also gives an excellent idea
of German art and music generally. In 1760 Hasse suffered greatly from
the bombardment of Dresden by the Prussians, losing among other property
all his manuscripts in the destruction of the opera-house--a fact
which may partly account for the oblivion into which this once admired
composer has passed. The loss was peculiarly unfortunate, for the
publication of Hasse's works was then about to commence at the expense
of the King. He and his wife removed to Vienna, where they remained
till 1775, when they retired to Venice, Faustina's birthplace. Two
years before this Dr. Burney visited them at their handsome house in the
Landstrasse in Berlin, and found them a humdrum couple--Hasse groaning
with the gout, and the once lovely Faustina transformed into a jolly old
woman of seventy-two, with two charming daughters. As he approached the
house with the Abate Taruffi, Faustina, seeing them, came down to meet
them. Says the Doctor: "I was presented to her by my conductor, and
found her a short, brown, sensible, lively old lady, who expressed
herself much pleased to meet a _cavalière Inglesi_, as she had been
honored with great marks of favor in England. Signor Hasse soon entered
the room. He is tall and rather large in size, but it is easy to imagine
that in his younger days he must have been a robust and fine figure;
great gentleness and goodness appear in his countenance and manners."
Going to see them a second time, the Doctor was received by the whole
family with much cordiality. He says Faustina was very intelligent,
animated, and curious concerning what was going on in the world. She had
a wonderful store of musical reminiscences, and showed remains of the
splendid beauty for which her youth was celebrated. But her voice was
all gone. Dr. Burney asked her to sing. "Ah! Non posso; ho perduto
tutte le mie facoltà." ("Alas! I am no longer able; I have lost all
my faculty.") "I was extremely fascinated," said the Doctor, "with the
conversation of Signor Hasse. He was easy, communicative, and rational,
equally free from pedantry, pride, and prejudice. He spoke ill of
no one, but on the contrary did justice to the talents of several
composers, among them Porpora, who, though he was his first master, was
afterward his greatest rival." Though his fingers were gouty, he played
on the piano for his visitor, and his beautiful daughters sang. One was
a "sweet soprano," the other a "rich and powerful contralto, fit for
any church or theatre in Europe "; both girls "having good shakes," and
"such an expression, taste, and steadiness as it is natural to expect in
the daughters and scholars of Signor Hasse and Signora Faustina."
There are two pictures of Faustina Bordoni in existence. One is in
Hawkins's "History," showing her in youth. Brilliant large black
eyes, splendid hair, regular features, and a fascinating sweetness of
expression, attest how lovely she must have been in the heyday of
her charms. The other represents her as an elderly person, handsomely
dressed, with an animated, intelligent countenance. Faustina died in
1793, at the age of ninety-two, and Hasse not long after, at the age of
ninety-four.