“But that which we admire above all in the artist,” observes Fiorentino, “is the pervading soul, the sentiment, the perfect taste, the inimitable method.  Then, what body in the voice!  What largeness!  What simplicity of style!  What facility of vocalization!  What genius in the contrasts!  What color in the phrases!  What charm!  What expression!  Mlle. Alboni sings as she smiles—­without effort, without fatigue, without audible and broken respiration.  Here is art in its fidelity! here is the model and example which every one who would become an artist should copy.”

“It is such a pleasure to hear real singing,” wrote Hector Berlioz.  “It is so rare; and voices at once beautiful, natural, expressive, flexible, and in time, are so very uncommon!  The voice of Mlle. Alboni possesses these excellent qualities in the highest degree of perfection.  It is a magnificent contralto of immense range (two octaves and six notes, nearly three octaves, from low E to C in alt), the quality perfect throughout, even in the lowest notes of the lowest register, which are generally so disastrous to the majority of singers, who fancy they possess a contralto, and the emission of which resembles nearly always a rattle, hideous in such cases and revolting to the ear.  Mlle. Alboni’s vocalization is wonderfully easy, and few sopranos possess such facility.  The registers of her voice are so perfectly united, that in her scales you do not feel sensible of the passage from one to another; the tone is unctuous, caressing, velvety, melancholy, like that of all pure sopranos, though less somber than that of Pisaroni, and incomparably more pure and limpid.  As the notes are produced without effort, the voice yields itself to every shade of intensity, and thus Mlle. Alboni can sing from the most mysterious piano to the most brilliant forte.  And this alone is what I call singing humanly, that is to say, in a fashion which declares the presence of a human heart, a human soul, a human intelligence.  Singers not possessed of these indispensable qualities should in my judgment be ranked in the category of mechanical instruments.  Mlle. Alboni is an artist entirely devoted to her art, and has not up to this moment been tempted to make a trade of it; she has never heretofore given a thought to what her delicious notes—­precious pearls, which she lavishes with such happy bounty—­might bring her in per annum.  Different from the majority of contemporary singers, money questions are the last with which she occupies herself; her demands have hitherto been extremely modest.  Added to this, the sincerity and trustworthiness of her character, which amounts almost to singularity, are acknowledged by all who have any dealings with her.”