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Scan 72
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1910
18 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 46. See the scan on archive.org.
1greatest successes awaited her. She was engaged to sing six nights at the Pantheon. Owing to the general election, she sang to small audiences, and her merits were not recognised until she sang at Westminster Abbey, in the Handel Commemoration, when she was heard with delight by nearly 3000 people. She sang in the repeated Commemoration in 1785, and in 1786 made her first appearance on the London stage in a serious pasticcio, 'Didone Abbandonata,' the success of which was due entirely to her singing. In March 1787 Handel's opera of 'Giulio Cesare' was revived for a benefit, and Mara played in it the part of Cleopatra, which Cuzzoni had sung in 1724. It was so successful that it was constantly repeated during the season. Mara again took a leading part in the Festival in Westminster Abbey in 1787, and she remained connected with the opera in London till 1791, after which, though she sang occasionally on the stage, and even in English ballad operas, she was more frequently heard in concerts and oratorios. For these she was better suited, as her figure was not good enough for the theatre, nor was she a good actress. It is, indeed, not impossible that her stage-presence was still to some extent spoiled by the disease which crippled her as a child; and there is a caricature in which she is shown, singing at a 'Wapping Concert' seated (Feb. 28, 1786), with the following apology below:—
3MADAM MARY… begs her Polite Audience will excuse her sitting during the Performance, as she contracted in her infancy a Disorder called Le Genou Inflexible, or (Stiff Knee) which prevents her standing, even in the most Sacred Pieces of Music—her Enemies call it Pride, but it must appear only malice, when she could not rise before their Majesties; or at the Sacred Name of Jehovah.
5There is, again, a letter of Mara's extant,1 in which she apologises for not being able even to sit on a platform throughout a concert, a thing she had never been able to do, owing to the heat and fatigue, which she could not bear. Her health was, in fact, never strong. She had, however, the advantage of knowing our language, which she had learnt in childhood, during her first visit to England; and she is said to have gained large sums here by her oratorio-singing.
7In 1788 she was singing in the Carnival at Turin, and the following year at Venice. She returned to London in 1790, and went to Venice again in 1791. Coming once more to London in the next season, she remained here for ten years. After this time, she found her voice losing strength, and she quitted England in 1802, after enjoying a splendid benefit of over £1000 at her farewell concert. She sang without effect at Paris, where she had the misfortune to come after Grassini; and then, after passing through Germany, Mara retired to Moscow, where she bought a house.
91 In the collection of the present writer.
11Her worthless husband, and her numerous lovers,—among whom the last was a flute player named Florio,—had helped her to spend the immense sums which she had earned, until she found herself without means, and compelled to support herself by teaching. By following this occupation, she acquired a small competence, which was again lost to her (1812) in the fire of Moscow, which destroyed the merchant's house in which she had placed it. Forced to begin once more to seek a means of subsistence, when almost sixty-four years old, Mara travelled in Livonia, where she was kindly received, and settled in Revel. She now supported herself again for about four years by teaching, and then formed the strange desire to revisit London, the scene of her former glory. Here she arrived in 1819 (according to Fétis), though Lord Mount-Edgecumbe puts her visit before the burning of Moscow. In any case, the poor old woman, announced in a mysterious manner by Messrs. Knyvett as 'a most celebrated singer whom they were not at liberty to name,' appeared at the King's Theatre, when it was discovered that not a shred of her voice remained,—and never appeared again. She returned to Livonia, and died at Revel, Jan. 20, 1833, at the advanced age of eighty-four, soon after receiving from Goethe a poem for her birthday, 'Sangreich war dein Ehrenweg' (Weimar, 1831).
13A life of Mara, by G. C. Grosheim, was published at Cassel in 1823, and a more interesting one by Rochlitz in his Für Freunde der Tonkunst, vol. i. The best portrait of her was engraved (oval) by J. Collyer, after P. Jean, 1794.
15J. M.
17MARAIS, MARIN (1656-1728), was born at Paris, March 31, 1656. At an early age he entered the choir of the Sainte-Chapelle, where he was a pupil of Chaperon. He learnt the bass viol from Hottemann (or Hautmann) and his pupil Sainte-Colombe. After studying six months with the latter his master dismissed him, saying that he could teach him nothing further. In 1685 he entered the Royal Band as a soloist; he was also a member of the orchestra of the Académie Royale de Musique, where he studied composition under Lully, sharing with Colasse the direction of the orchestra. In 1686 he published his first book of 'Pièces de Viole'; he was then living in the Rue du Jour, near St. Eustache. In the same year he produced at court, before the Dauphiness, an 'Idylle Dramatique.' In April 1693, he brought out at the Académie de Musique a setting of A. Houdart de la Motte's 'Alcide,' in which he collaborated with Louis de Lully. The work was revived in 1705, 1716, and 1744. With the same collaborator he wrote a 'Pantomime des Pages,' part of the score of which is preserved at Berlin. His other writings for the stage were 'Ariane et Bacchus' (words by Saint-Jean), produced in 1696;
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