Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

MRS. FRENCH'S CONCERT

THIS EVENING, the attention of the public will be asked to the concert of Mrs. French, to the charms of melody and song. The people of Alexandria need not be reminded of the claims which she has on their patronage, of the trial which she has encountered under the influence of a motive, as honorable as it is just, which should lead them to respect, while it softened them to encourage her. They cannot have forgot the pleasure they received from a former visit, when the difficulty of giving ear to the tales of antiquity was partially removed, and the strains of a Sappho, an Orpheus, and a Circe, received credit from the melody of her voice, and the pathos of her sounds. The most indifferent dwelt with rapture on her tongue, the most senseless were awake to the variety of her tones. To discriminate among those songs in which she excelled, would have been difficult, where all were so exquisitely sung. We would remark, however, that the "Echo," was her master-piece. That her voice at peculiar intervals was inimitable, and that the sounds when they had died upon the ear seemed sometime after still floating at a distance, and were still rendered by fancy distinct. But the illusion was at last dissolved.
"The voice that made those sounds so sweet.
Has hush'd, and all its charms were fled."
The public have again an opportunity of listening to Mrs. French, and few who have heard her before, will be backward in greeting her again. The fury of the Phrygian mode has given place in her to the softness of the Lydian and that soul must be of the nature of a rock that does not own her power and taste. The performance to which the encouragement of a liberal public is invited, will receive a melancholy interest from the reflection that it is Mrs. French's valedictory. This accomplished artist is now about to retreat from that admiration, which has so long, and so universally attended her exertions, to the scenes of domestic life, which her amiable virtues are so well fitted to adorn.