The career of Henrietta Sontag, born at Cob-lenz on the Rhine in 1805,
the child of actors, was so picturesque in its chances and changes that
had she not been a beautiful and fascinating woman and the greatest
German singer of the century, the vicissitudes of her life would have
furnished rich material for a romance. Nature gave her a pure soprano
voice of rare and delicate quality united with incomparable sweetness.
Essentially a singer and not a declamatory artist, the sentiment of
grace was carried to such a height in her art, that it became equivalent
to the more robust passion and force which distinguished some of her
great contemporaries. As years perfected her excellence into its mellow
prime, emotion and warmth animated her art work. But at the outset Mile.
Sontag did little more than look lovely and pour forth such a flood
of silvery and delicious notes, that the Italians called her the
"nightingale of the North." The fanatical enthusiasm of the German youth
ran into wild excesses, and we hear of a party of university students
drinking her health at a joyous supper in champagne out of one of her
satin shoes stolen for the purpose.
When Mile. Sontag commenced her brilliant career the taste of operatic
amateurs was excessively fastidious. Nearly all outside of Germany
shared Frederick the Great's prejudice against German singers. Yet when
she appeared in Paris, in spite of hostile anticipation, in spite of her
reserve, timidity, and coldness on the histrionic side of her art, she
soon made good her place by the side of such remarkable artists as
Mme. Pasta and Maria Malibran. She never transformed herself into
an impassioned tragedienne, but through the spell of great personal
attraction, of an exquisite voice, and of exceptional sensibility,
taste, and propriety in her art methods, she advanced herself to a high
place in public favor.
Her parents designed Henrietta for their own profession, and in her
eighth year her voice had acquired such steadiness that she sang minor
parts at the theatre. A distinguished traveler relates having heard her
sing the grand aria of the _Queen of the Night_ in the "Zauberflote" at
this age, "her arms hanging beside her and her eye following the flight
of a butterfly, while her voice, pure, penetrating, and of angelic tone,
flowed as unconsciously as a limpid rill from the mountain-side." The
year after this Henrietta lost her father, and she went to Prague with
her mother, where she played children's parts under Weber, then _chef
d'orchestre_. When she had attained the proper age she was admitted to
the Prague Conservatory, and spent four years studying vocalization, the
piano, and the elements of harmony. An accident gave the young singer
the chance for a _début_ in the sudden illness of the prima donna, who
was cast to sing the part of the _Princesse de Navarre_ in Boïeldieu's
"Jean de Paris." The little vocalist of fifteen had to wear heels four
inches high, but she sang none the less well, and the audience seemed
to feel that they had heard a prodigy. She also took the part of the
heroine in Paer's opera of "Sargino," and her brilliant success decided
her career, as she was invited to take a position in the Viennese Opera.
Here she met the brilliant Mme. Fodor, then singing an engagement in the
Austrian capital. So great was this distinguished singer's admiration of
the young girl's talents that she said, "Had I her voice I should hold
the whole world at my feet."
Mlle. Sontag had the advantage at this period of singing with great
artists who took much interest in her career and gave her valuable hints
and help. Singing alternately in German and English opera, and always an
ardent student of music, she learned to unite all the brilliancy of
the Italian style and method to the solidity of the German school. The
beautiful young cantatrice was beset with ardent admirers, not the least
important being the English Ambassador Earl Clan William. He followed
her to theatre, to convents, church, and seemed like her shadow. Sontag
in German means Sunday; so the Viennese wits, then as now as wicked
and satirical as those of Paris, nicknamed the nobleman Earl Montag, as
Monday always follows Sunday. It was during this Vienna engagement that
Weber wrote the opera of "Euryanthe," and designed the principal
part for Sontag. But the public failed to fancy it, and called it
"L'Ennuyante." The serious part of her art life commenced at Leipsic in
1824, where she interpreted the "Freischutz" and "Euryanthe," then in
the flush of newness, and made a reputation that passed the bounds
of Germany, though foreign critics discredited the reports of her
excellence till they heard her.
"Henrietta's voice was a pure soprano, reaching perhaps from A or B to D
in alt, and, though uniform in its quality, it was a little reedy in the
lower notes, but its flexibility was marvelous: in the high octave, from
F to C in alt, her notes rang out like the tones of a silver bell. The
clearness of her notes, the precision of her intonation, the fertility
of her invention, and the facility of her execution, were displayed in
brilliant flights and lavish fioriture; her rare flexibility being a
natural gift, cultivated by taste and incessant study. It was to the
example of Mme. Fodor that Mile. Sontag was indebted for the blooming
of those dormant qualities which had till then remained undeveloped. The
ease with which she sang was perfectly captivating; and the neatness and
elegance of her enunciation combined with the sweetness and brilliancy
of her voice and her perfect intonation to render her execution
faultless, and its effect ravishing. She appeared to sing with the
volubility of a bird, and to experience the pleasure she imparted." To
use the language of a critic of that day: "All passages are alike to
her, but she has appropriated some that were hitherto believed to
belong to instruments--to the piano-forte and the violin, for instance.
Arpeggios and chromatic scales, passages ascending and descending,
she executed in the same manner that the ablest performers on these
instruments execute them. There were the firmness and the neatness
that appertain to the piano-forte, while she would go through a scale
_staccato_ with the precision of the bow. Her great art, however, lay
in rendering whatever she did pleasing. The ear was never disturbed by
a harsh note. The velocity of her passages was sometimes uncontrollable,
for it has been observed that in a division, say, of four groups of
quadruplets, she would execute the first in exact time, the second and
third would increase in rapidity so much that in the fourth she was
compelled to decrease the speed perceptibly, in order to give the band
the means of recovering the time she had gained."
Mile. Sontag was of middle height, beautifully formed, and had a face
beaming with sensibility, delicacy, and modesty. Beautiful light-brown
hair, large blue eyes, finely molded mouth, and perfect teeth completed
an _ensemble_ little short of bewitching. Her elegant figure and
the delicacy of her features were matched by hands and feet of such
exquisite proportions that sculptors besought the privilege of modeling
them, and poets raved about them in their verses. Artlessness and
_naivete_ were joined with such fine breeding of manner that it seemed
as if the blue blood of centuries must have coursed in her veins instead
of the blood of obscure actors, whose only honor was to have given
to the world one of the paragons of song. Sontag never aspired to the
higher walks of lyric tragedy, as she knew her own limitation, but in
light and elegant comedy, the _Mosinas_ and _Susannas_, she has never
been excelled, whether as actress or singer. It was said of her that she
could render with equal skill the works of Rossini, Mozart, Weber,
and Spohr, uniting the originality of her own people with the artistic
method and facility of the French and Italian schools. From Leipsic
Mile. Sontag went to Berlin, where the demonstrations of delight which
greeted her singing rose to fever-heat as the performances continued.
Expressions of rapture greeted heron the streets; even the rigid
etiquette of the Prussian court gave way to receive the low-born singer
as a royal guest, an honor which all the aristocratic houses were prompt
to emulate. It was at Berlin that Sontag made the acquaintance of Count
Rossi, a Piedmontese nobleman attached to the Sardinian Legation. An
ardent attachment sprang up between them, and they became affianced.
Not content with her supremacy at home, she sighed for other worlds to
conquer, and after two years at Berlin she obtained leave of absence
with great difficulty, and went to Paris. French connoisseurs laughed
at the idea of this German barbarian--for some of the critics were rude
enough to use this harsh term--becoming the rival of Pasta, Cinti,
and Fodor, and the idea of her singing Rossini's music seemed purely
preposterous. On the 15th of June, 1826, she made her bow to the French
public. The victory was partly won by the shy, blushing beauty of the
young German, who seemed the very incarnation of maidenly modesty and
innocence, and when she had finished her first song thunders of applause
shook the house. Her execution of Rode's variations surpassed even
that of Catalani, and "La Petite Allemande" became an instant favorite.
Twenty-three succeeding concerts made Henrietta Sontag an idol of the
Paris public, which she continued to be during her art career. She also
appeared with brilliant distinction in opera, the principal ones being
"Il Barbiere," "La Donna del Lago," and "L'Italiani in Alghieri." Her
benefit-night was marked by a demonstration on the part of her admirers,
and she was crowned on the stage.