A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Mario, Cavaliere di Candia
MARIO, Conte di [App. p.711 "Cavaliere"] CANDIA, the greatest operatic tenor that the present generation has heard, was born in 1812 at Genoa [App. p.711 "Cagliari"], of an old and noble family. His father had been a general in the Piedmontese army; and he himself was an officer in the Piedmontese Guard, when he first came to Paris in 1836, and immediately became a great favourite in society. Never was youth more richly gifted for the operatic stage; beauty of voice, face, and figure, with the most winning grace of Italian manner, were all his. But he was then only an amateur, and as yet all unfitted for public singing, which his friends constantly suggested to him, even if he could reconcile his pride with the taking of such a step. Tempted as he was by the offers made to him by Duponchel, the director of the Opera,—which are said to have reached the sum of frs. 1500 a month, a large sum for a beginning,—and pressed by the embarrassments created by expensive tastes, he still hesitated to sign his father's name to such a contract; but was finally persuaded to do so at the house of the Comtesse de Merlin, where he was dining one evening with Prince Belgiojoso and other wellknown amateurs; and he compromised the matter with his family pride by signing only the Christian name, under which he became afterwards so famous,—Mario.
He is said to have spent some time in study, directed by the advice of Michelet, Ponchard, and the great singing-master, Bordogni; but it cannot have been very long nor the study very deep, for there is no doubt that he was a very incomplete singer when he made his first appearance. This was on Nov. 30, 1838, in the rôle of 'Robert le Diable.' Notwithstanding his lack of preparation and want of habit of the stage, his success was assured from the first moment when his delicious voice and graceful figure were first presented to the French public. Mario remained at the Académie during that year, but in 1840 he passed to the Italian Opera, for which his native tongue and manner better fitted him.
In the meantime, he had made his first appearance in London, where he continued to sing through many years of a long and brilliant career. His début here was in Lucrezia Borgia, June 6, 1839; but, as a critic of the time observed, 'the vocal command which he afterwards gained was unthought of; his acting did not then get beyond that of a southern man with a strong feeling for the stage. But physical beauty and geniality, such as have been bestowed on few, a certain artistic taste, a certain distinction,—not exclusively belonging to gentle birth, but sometimes associated with it,—made it clear, from Signor Mario's first hour of stage-life, that a course of no common order of fascination was begun.'
Mario sung, after this, in each season at Paris and in London, improving steadily both in acting and singing, though it fell to his lot to 'create' but few new characters,—scarcely another beside that of the 'walking lover' in 'Don Pasquale,' a part which consisted of little more than the singing of the serenade 'Com' è gentil.' In other parts he only followed his predecessors, though with a grace and charm which were peculiar to him, and which may possibly remain for ever unequalled. 'It was not,' says the same critic quoted above (Mr. Chorley), 'till the season of 1846 that he took the place of which no wear and tear of time had been able to deprive him.' He had then played 'Almaviva,' 'Gennaro,' 'Raoul,' and had shown himself undoubtedly the most perfect stage lover ever seen, whatever may have been his other qualities or defects. His singing in the duet of the 4th Act of the 'Ugonotti,' raised him again above this; and in 'La Favorita ' he achieved, perhaps, his highest point of attainment as a dramatic singer.
Like Garcia and Nourrit, Mario attempted 'Don Giovanni,' and with similarly small success. The violence done to Mozart's music partly accounts for the failure of tenors to appropriate this great character; Mario was unfitted for it by nature. The reckless profligate found no counterpart in the easy grace of his lovemaking; he was too amiable in the eyes of the public to realise for them the idea of the 'Dissoluto Punito.'
As a singer of 'romances' Mario has never been surpassed. The native elegance of his demeanour contributed not a little to his vocal success in the drawing-room; for refinements of accent and pronunciation create effects there which would be inappreciable in the larger space of a Theatre. Mario was not often heard in oratorio, but he sang 'Then shall the righteous,' in Elijah, at the Birmingham Festival of 1849, and 'If with all your hearts,' in the same oratorio, at Hereford, in 1855. For the stage he was born, and to the stage he remained faithful during his artistic life. To the brilliance of his success in opera he brought one great helping quality, the eye for colour and all the important details of costume. His figure on the stage looked as if it had stepped out of the canvas of Titian, Veronese, or Tintoretto. Never was an actor more harmoniously and beautifully dressed for the characters he impersonated,—no mean advantage, and no slight indication of the complete artistic temperament.
For five and twenty years Mario remained before the public of Paris, London, and St. Petersburg, constantly associated with Mme. Grisi. In the earlier years (1843–6) of that brilliant quarter of a century, he took the place of Rubini in the famous quartet, with Tamburini and Lablache; this, however, did not last long; and he soon remained alone with the sole remaining star of the original constellation, Mme. Grisi. To this gifted prima donna Mario was united, after the dissolution of her former marriage; and by her he had three daughters. He left the stage in 1867, and retired to Paris, and then to Rome, where he is still living. Two years ago it became known that he was in reduced circumstances, and his friends got up a concert in London for his benefit. [App. p.711 "Add date of death, Dec. 11, 1883."]