Mademoiselle Josephine is at this moment
the glory of the French stage; without any question the most admirable
tragic actress since Clairon, and inferior not even to her. The spirit
of French tragedy has risen from the imperial couch on which it had
long slumbered since her appearance, at the same time classical and
impassioned, at once charmed and commanded the most refined audience
in Europe. Adele, under the name of Madame Baroni, is the acknowledged
Queen of Song in London, Paris, Berlin, and St. Petersburg; while her
younger sister, Carlotta Baroni, shares the triumphs, and equals the
renown, of a Taglioni and a Cerito. At this moment, Madame Baroni
performs to enthusiastic audiences in the first opera of her brother
Michel, who promises to be the rival of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn; all
delightful intelligence to meet the ear of the soft-hearted Alfred, who
is painting the new chambers of the Papal palace, a Cavaliere, decorated
with many orders, and the restorer of the once famous Roman school.
'Thus,' continued Baroni to Tancred, 'we have all succeeded in
life because we fell across a great philosopher, who studied our
predisposition. As for myself, I told M. de Sidonia that I wished to
travel and to be unknown, and so he made of me a secret agent.
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