Malibran. She soon returned to Paris and the stage, and later having
obtained a divorce, married the famous violinist De Beriot, with whom
she had a brief but happy union.
Madame Malibran was said to be equally at home in any known school of
her time. Mozart and Cimarosa, Boieldieu and Rossini, Cherubini and
Bellini were all grasped with the same sympathetic comprehension. Sontag
was her rival, Pasta was yet in the height of her fame, but no contrasts
whatever dimmed the glory of Malibran. A rare personal charm added to
her artistic graces. Mr. Chorley describing her, in his recollections,
said that she was better than beautiful, insomuch as a "speaking Spanish
human countenance by Murillo is ten times more fascinating than many a
faultless face such as Guido could paint." When her death was announced,
in 1836, Ole Bull, who had known her well, exclaimed: "I cannot realize
it. A woman with a soul of fire, so highly endowed, so intense. How I
wept on seeing her as Desdemona! It is not possible she is dead.
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