HARNED/WHITMAN
Box 1 Folder 25
Manuscripts
Prose
"Spectacle Inside the Opera House" [Before 1862?] (L. C. 47)*47 [Portion of the rough draft of] SPECTABLE INSIDE THE OPERA HOUSE
[Before 1862?] [3] p. on 3 l. 20 x 26 cm. Holograph, in ink with title and
revisions in pencil.

[w]oman, with perfect-shaped feet,
arms, and hands. - Her face is regular
and pleasant, not beautiful - her
forehead low, plentiful black hair,
cut short, like a boy's - a slow,
graceful [??] style of walk, attitude,
inimitable beauty, and large
black eyes. We have seen her,
pathetic scenes, (as in Norma
[plotting] [??????] considering the death of her children)
[??] real tears like rain coursing each other
[o]ver her cheeks. - She too is now
[in] Paris, singing at the Grand
[op]era there.-
La Grange, one of the [present] latest sopranos here,
a most brilliant vocalist, rather
h than Italian.- Her voice
[ca]pable of producing some effects,
[?], beyond the power of any
[vo]calism in the world; it ishere are vast steppes - plateaus - but mountains spread over the surface, salt lakes barren with [??] white - like crowded flakes of [??] in the13
Spectacle inside the Opera House.
The appearance of the Opera house
inside, when lit up, and the performance
going on, is but of the most splendid
that can be imagined. - Hundreds upon
hundreds of gas-lights, softened with
globes of ground glass, shed a brilliance
down upon the scene. Seated in the
red-velvet arm-chairs of the parquette,
and on the rich cushioned sofas of the
[first] dress-circle, are [swarms] groups of
the most superbly dressed women
with [an] the air of politeness and self
possession [only] obtained by mixing
[much] with the "best society." - 
Line after line, party after party,
come streaming down the passages,
the seats they have engaged -
under the convoy of the ushers.
[*127*]

7
Steffanone, the true girl of
Italy, plump, indolent, dark-skinned,
black-haired, rich-voiced, is [always]
one of the welcomest vocalists
[before] to a New York audience. -
Her voice is mezzo-soprano,
and her style is easy, rounded,
finished, and rather slow, as becomes
her. - [For] When warmed up in
some scene in Robert Devereux,
Lucrezia Borgia, or [La Gazza] The Troubadour,
[Ladra, Steffano] Steffanone knows
well enough how to be sublime
and unsurpassable. - She is now in Paris and very popular there. - 
Madame Bertucca-Maretzek
has a soprano voice, of considerable
power. - She is small, stout, light-haired,
blue-eyed, and has a vigorous
wa[?] through with her part,
an impression.-
[*126*][A] The New Inland America

Progress Southwestward - new
accessions - new adjustment

Is not the America West side of the
Mississippi destined to preponderate
over the East side?