Page:Women of distinction.djvu/127

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.
81

The Globe, Toronto, May 12-15, 1852, said:

Any one who went to the concert of Miss Greenfield on Thursday last expecting to find that he had been deceived by the puff of the American newspapers must have found himself most agreeably disappointed.

A Brattleboro, Vt., paper, in January, 1852, said of her:

"The Black Swan," or Miss Greenfield, sang in Mr. Fisk's beautiful new hall on Wednesday evening last to a large audience. We had seen frequent notices in our exchanges and were already prepossessed in favor of the abilities and life purposes of our sable sister, but after all we must say that our expectations of her success are greater than before we had heard her sing and conversed with her in her own private room. She is not pretty, but plain. * * * Still she is gifted with a beauty of soul which makes her countenance agreeable in conversation; and in singing, especially when her social nature is called into activity, there is a grace and beauty in her manner which soon make those unaccustomed to her race forget all but the melody. * * * Nature has done more for Miss Greenfield than any musical prodigy we have ever met, and art has marred her execution less.

From triumph in America she sailed to Europe, where the London Morning Post said of her:

A large assemblage of fashionable and distinguished personages assembled by invitation at the Stafford House to hear and decide upon the merits of a phenomenon in the musical world. Miss Elizabeth Greenfield, better known in America as the "Black Swan," under which sobriquet she is about to be presented to the British public. This lady is said to possess a voice embracing the extraordinary compass of nearly three octaves, and her performances on this occasion elicited the unmistakable evidence of gratification.

The London Times also said of her:

Miss Greenfield sings "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth" with as much pathos, power and effect as does the "Swedish Nightingale," Jenny Lind.