Her appearance as Norma in December, 1834, stamped this henceforth as her greatest performance.  “In this character, Grisi,” says a writer in the “Musical World,” “is not to be approached, for all those attributes which have given her her best distinction are displayed therein in their fullest splendor.  Her singing may be rivaled, but hardly her embodiment of ungovernable and vindictive emotion.  There are certain parts in the lyric drama of Italy this fine artiste has made her own:  this is one of the most striking, and we have a faith in its unreachable superiority—­in its completeness as a whole—­that is not to be disturbed.  Her delivery of ‘Casta Diva’ is a transcendent effort of vocalization.  In the scene where she discovers the treachery of Pollio, and discharges upon his guilty head a torrent of withering and indignant reproof, she exhibits a power, bordering on the sublime, which belongs exclusively to her, giving to the character of the insulted priestess a dramatic importance which would be remarkable even if entirely separated from the vocal preeminence with which it is allied.  But, in all its aspects, the performance is as near perfection as rare and exalted genius can make it, and the singing of the actress and the acting of the singer are alike conspicuous for excellence and power.  Whether in depicting the quiet repose of love, the agony of abused confidence, the infuriate resentment of jealousy, or the influence of feminine piety, there is always the best reason for admiration, accompanied in the more tragic moments with that sentiment of awe which greatness of conception and vigor of execution could alone suggest.”

Mr. Chorley writes, in his “Musical Reminiscences”:  “Though naturally enough in some respects inexperienced on her first appearance in England, Giulia Grisi was not incomplete.  And what a soprano voice was hers! rich, sweet; equal throughout its compass of two octaves (from C to C), without a break or a note which had to be managed.  Her voice subdued the audience ere ‘Dipiacer’ was done....  In 1834 she commanded an exactness of execution not always kept up by her during the after-years of her reign.  Her shake was clear and rapid; her scales were certain; every interval was taken without hesitation by her.  Nor has any woman ever more thoroughly commanded every gradation of force than she—­in those early days especially; not using the contrast of loud and soft too violently, but capable of any required violence, of any advisable delicacy.  In the singing of certain slow movements pianissimo, such as the girl’s prayer on the road to execution, in ‘La Gazza,’ or as the cantabile in the last scene of ‘Anna Bolena’ (which we know as ’Home, Sweet Home’), the clear, penetrating beauty of her reduced tones (different in quality from the whispering semi-ventriloquism which was one of Mlle. Lind’s most favorite effects) was so unique as to reconcile the ear to a certain shallowness of expression in her rendering of the words and the situation.