CATALA'NI, ANGELICA, a highly celebrated Italian singer, b. at Sinigaglia, in cen tral Italy, some say in 1780, others in 1784, educated in the convent of St. Lucien, near Borne, where, in her seventh year, she displayed such wonderful vocal powers that -strangers flocked from all quarters to hear her. She made her first public appearance at Venice in her 16th year, and experienced a succession of triumphs in every country in Europe for more than 30 years, amassing immense sums of money. The Italian opera in Paris was twice under her direction; but her husband's interference and extravagance brought her into much trouble. Her large queenly person and fine countenance, the immense volume, range, and flexibility of her voice, her power of sustaining her notes, in constrast with the lightness and facility of her unerring execution, everywhere took her audience by storm. Her expression, although tine, and her whole style, surprised rather than touched the heart. In concert singing, her great triumphs were in Rhode's
air with variations, and God Sam the King—which she would call share,. and in ora torios, Luther's hymn, her delivery of which, especially when her marvelous voice alternated with the trumpet's sound, was so sublimely awful, that the audience were hushed and pale, and some were borne away fainting. The throat from which these wondrous sounds proceeded was physically of such dimensions, that a physician, when called to look into it, declared he could have passed down a penny-loaf I In 1830, Madame C. purchased a villa near Florence, formerly belonging to the Medici family, where she gave free instructions to girls who had a talent for singing, on condition of their taking the name of Catalani. In the spring of 1849, when political disturbances broke out in Tuscany, she repaired with her daughters to Paris, where she died of cholera on the 13th of June.