Of the person and performance of Gabrielli, the History of Music
contains a full and luminous description. She was the most universally
renowned singer of her time; for Agujari died before her high and
unexampled talents had expanded their truly wonderful supremacy.
Yet here, also, no private detail can be written of the private
performance, or manners, of La Gabrielli, as she never visited at
the house of Dr. Burney; though she most courteously invited him to
her own; in which she received him with flattering distinction. And,
as she had the judgment to set aside, upon his visits, the airs,
caprices, coquetries, and gay insolences, of which the boundless
report had preceded her arrival in England, he found her a high-bred,
accomplished, and engaging woman of the world; or rather, he said,
woman of fashion; for there was a winning ease, nay, captivation, in
her look and air, that could scarcely, in any circle, be surpassed. Her
great celebrity, however, for beauty and eccentricity, as well as for
professional excellence, had raised such inordinate expectations before
she came out, that the following juvenile letters upon the appearance
of so extraordinary a musical personage, will be curious,—or, at
least, diverting, to lovers of musical anecdote.