"Mezzo" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... 'mezzo-tint' study yonder, the mediaeval picture over there, rocking her infant, ...
— Vesty of the Basins • Sarah P. McLean Greene
... an opal on the dull-green wall of the studio. "I so seldom see good pictures that a gem like this is a delight. By a Frenchman! Ah! Yes, I see the subtlety of coloring. Marvellous people, these Frenchmen. And this little jewel you have here? This bit of mezzo in color. With this I am more familiar, for we have a good many collections of old prints at home. It is, I think—yes—I thought I could not be mistaken—it is a Morland," and he examined it closely, his ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith
... Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni Hasse, whose famous rivalry in 1726 and 1727 is here referred to, were singers of remarkable powers. Cuzzoni's voice was a soprano, her rival's a mezzo-soprana, and while the latter excelled in brilliant execution, the former was supreme in pathetic expression. Dr. Burney("History of Music," iv. 319) quotes from M. Quanta the statement that so keen was their supporter's party spirit, that when one party began to applaude ...
— The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield • Edward Robins
... said, but at my request went to the piano in the next room and gave vent to a strong, clear mezzo. It was a good voice—undoubtedly so. There are many such to be heard all over Australia—girls singing at country concerts without instruction, or the ignorant instruction more injurious than helpful. These voices are marred to the practised ear by the style of ...
— Some Everyday Folk and Dawn • Miles Franklin
... walking-stick on an oak bench, and followed his churchyard companion up a slightly inclined corridor and a staircase into a high room, covered far up the yellowish walls with old books on shelves and in cases, between which hung in little black frames, mezzo tints, etchings, and antiquated maps. A large table stood a few paces from the deep alcove of the window, which was surrounded by a low, faded, green seat, and was screened from the sunshine by wooden shutters. And here the ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare
... of the soft voices singing the words, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," while the strings gently pulse; and the fortissimo C major chord on the word "light," coming abruptly after the piano and mezzo-forte minor chords, is as dazzling in its brilliancy to-day as when it was first sung. The number of unisons, throwing into relief the two minor chords on C and F, should be especially noted. The chorus in the ...
— Old Scores and New Readings • John F. Runciman
... and Miss Ludington stepped forth from the cabinet she fixed upon them a pair of questioning eyes. There was not a particle of recognition in their expression. Presently she spoke. Her voice was a mezzo-soprano, low and sweet, but just now sharpened by an ...
— Miss Ludington's Sister • Edward Bellamy
... e in Inferno, detto Malebolge, Tutto di pietra e di color ferrigno, Come la cerchia che d'intorno il volge. Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno Vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo, Di cui suo luogo contera l' ordigno. Quel cinghio che rimane adunque e tondo Tra 'l pozzo e 'l pie dell' alta ripa dura, E ha distinto in dieci valli al fondo." ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various
... countryvomen sing dem. I haf a choral company, too, and it is for dat I vant you. I go to de first houses in de land, de lords, de ministers, de princes. You shall come vith me. Your voice is soprano—no, mezzo-soprano—and it vill grow. I vill pitch it, and vhen it is ready I vill bring you out. But now get away from dis place and naivare come back, or I vill be more angry ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... a pretty picture of the Immaculee Conception over the sofa, one of those lithographs that you see in every bookstore, that Bertha fancied because it was 'sweet.' The Virgin, a woman with a child-angel's face, and the mezzo-luna beneath her feet. That artist knew what he was about, sir. I'd give more for a picture with a good, deep idea, boldly launched forth, than for a thousand of your smiling, proper, natural 'studies,' and Bridal Scenes, and Dramatic or Historical Snatches. If artists, now, were all ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... rich, fibrous mezzo-soprano; and the music she sang, half chant, half melody, was evidently an improvisation. The words were the exquisite song which ...
— The Pagans • Arlo Bates
... categorically rejected. It was not until another month of conversation that Austria-Hungary was induced to increase the zone of territory she was prepared to cede in the Trentino and then only as far as Mezzo Lombardo, thereby excluding the territory inhabited by people of the Italian race, such as the Valle del Noce, Val di Fasso, and Val di Ampezzo. Such a proposal would have given to Italy a boundary of no strategical value. In addition the Austro-Hungarian ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... commonplaces of modern luxury. Rich papers with gold borders, bronze chandeliers, mahogany furniture of a new pattern, astral lamps, round tables with marble tops, white china with gilt lines for dessert, red morocco chairs and mezzo-tint engravings in the dining-room, and blue cashmere furniture in the salon,—all details of a chilling and perfectly unmeaning character, but which to the eyes of Ville-aux-Fayes seemed the last ...
— Sons of the Soil • Honore de Balzac
... clad in cotton-wool to represent the Saviour, and sheep made of the same materials, are also sold by the basketful. Children and contadine are busy buying them, and there is a deafening roar all up and down the steps of "Mezzo baiocco, bello colorito, mezzo baiocco, la Santissima Concezione Incoronata,"—"Diario Romano, Lunario Romano Nuovo,"—"Ritratto colorito, medaglia e quadruccio, un baiocco tutti, un baiocco tutti,"—"Bambinelli di cera, un baiocco."[C] None of the prices are higher than one baiocco, except to strangers,—and generally ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27, January, 1860 • Various
... secured from discord in its own bosom and enemies from without, and recover its ancient empire over the whole world." "Amantissimo delle antiche glorie Italiane, e della grandezza del nome romano, ei considerava, che soltanto pel mezzo d'una general forza ed autorita poteva l'Italia dalle interne contese e dalle straniere invasioni restarsi sicura, e recuperare l'antico imperio sopra tutte le genti."—Ut ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 • Leigh Hunt
... high-heel'd shoes, particularly affected by these proude dames, or, as some say, invented to keepe them at home, it being very difficult to walke with them; whence one being asked how he liked the Venetian dames, replied, they were mezzo carne, mezzo ligno, half flesh, half wood, and he would have none of them. The truth is, their garb is very odd, as seeming always in masquerade; their other habits also totaly ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn
... said with the calm self-confidence of a connoisseur. "Tell me, have you composed anything for a woman's voice, for a mezzo-soprano?" ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev
... Claypole the sculptor. Did you ever know him? He used to come to the Haunt. He looks like the Saracen's head with his beard now. There is a French table still more hairy than ours, a German table, an American table. After dinner we go and have coffee and mezzo-caldo at the Cafe Greco over the way. Mezzo-caldo is not a bad drink—a little rum—a slice of fresh citron—lots of pounded sugar, and boiling water for the rest. Here in various parts of the cavern (it is a vaulted low place) the various nations have their assigned quarters, and ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray
... I suppose, that was available. At least she was in great spirits, and talked with the officers. As we entered the harbour we heard the sound of music pouring from the saloon, which had never yet been used by the party, and on that the rich notes of a fine mezzo-soprano. The little exhibition arrested the men at their work, and, after that long passage of silence, seemed to wake us up and put us in a better mood. As it was disagreeable on board during the coaling operations, ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson
... Fitzgibbons wormed back to the counter. His voice was sunk to the golden mezzo of ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst
... in any part of the world. On one side, at the end of a handsome and regular street, called the Rue Royale, rises in majestic height the Madeleine, with its noble columns crowned by its sculptured entablature in mezzo relievo, and adorned by its numerous statues, yet preserving a chaste simplicity throughout the whole. On the opposite side facing it, in a direct line at the end of a bridge, is the Chamber of Deputies, resembling a Roman temple; ...
— How to Enjoy Paris in 1842 • F. Herve
... Italy he wrote to me from his prison, to request that I would intercede for him; but, under the circumstances in which he was taken, I could do nothing for him. He is active, intelligent, intriguing, and indefatigable; but I believe that he is 'mezzo pazo'. ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... with a powerful mezzo soprano that pulled her mouth to a rhomboid sang Santuzza's famous aria from "Cavalleria Rusticana," stopping suddenly to ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... necessary thing is that the whole be really comical; then, if possible, there should be two equally good female parts, one seria, the other mezzo carattere; but one must be as good as the other. The third woman may be all buffa, also ...
— Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words • Friedrich Kerst and Henry Edward Krehbiel
... fear, and shame, and anger contending against the habitual deference he was in the use of rendering to his lady. At length it ended, as is usual with timid minds placed in such circumstances, in his adopting a mezzo termine—a ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott
... "D——n your 'mezzo cammin[79]'—you should say 'the prime of life,' a much more consolatory phrase. Besides, it is not correct. I was born in 1788, and consequently am but thirty-two. You are mistaken on another point. The 'Sequin Box' never came into requisition, nor is it likely to do so. It were ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. IV - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore
... I tell you the price of provisions at Nice, it will be necessary to say something of the money. The gold coin of Sardinia consists of the doppia di savoia, value twenty-four livres Piedmontese, about the size of a loui'dore; and the mezzo doppia, or piece of twelve livres. In silver, there is the scudo of six livres, the mezzo scudo of three; and the quarto, or pezza di trenta soldi: but all these are very scarce. We seldom see any gold and silver coin, but the loui'dore, and the ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett
... servitori: ma come una piccolo palla di neve, che discende dall' erto si va tanto ingrossando, che nel fine diviene quasi una montagna eminente; cosi abandonando il popolo le case e le botteghe, con plauso e con allegrezza, per seguitarlo, non fu a mezzo la citta, che aveva dietro piu di trentamila persone, ed era tanta la calca, che a pena egli medesimo poteva seguitare la sua strada. Andavan le grida del popolo insino al cielo, ne mai fu con tanto plauso gridato, "Vita il Re" con quanto ora si gridava "Vita Guisa." Chi lo sulutava, chi ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden
... and so his fame increased, together with his credit. After this he painted many pictures in fresco in S. Maria del Monte, a seat of the Black Friars without Bologna, beyond the Porta di S. Mammolo; and the whole church of the Casa di Mezzo, on the same road, was likewise painted by his hand with works in fresco, in which he depicted the stories ...
— Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 3 (of 10), Filarete and Simone to Mantegna • Giorgio Vasari
... [487] "In mezzo alle piu angosciose crisi politiche, esclamava nelle solitudine delle sue stanze; 'Perisca il mio nome, perisca la mia fama, purche l'Italia sia,'" Artom (Cavour's secretary), Cavour in Parlameuto: ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe
... never saw the man, who henceforth went by the name of La Morale e un Mezzo Baioccho! without pointing the moral with a copper coin. Not content with this, he once took him round to the Lepre restaurant, and ordered a right good supper for him. Several other artists were with him, and all declared that no one could do better ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. • Various
... odd. I couldn't have got it done cheaper. And if he only wants a bit of straw to lie on, I might make him do an errand or two up and down the hill. Who need know? And sin that's hidden's half forgiven. ['Peccato celato e mezzo perdonato.'] He's a stranger: he'll take no notice of her. And I'll tell her to keep her ...
— Romola • George Eliot
... fresco sotto la loggetta ... il giudizio di Salamone. Appresso tomato a Venezia, dipinse la facciata de' Grimani; e in Padoa nella chiesa di Sant' Antonio alcune storie ... de fatti di quel santo: e in quella di Santo Spirito fece ... un San Marco a sedere in mezzo a certi Santi." We now know on documentary evidence that the Vicenza fresco (which was destroyed later) dated from 1521, and similarly that the frescoes at Padua were painted in 1511, whilst the date of the S. Mark picture may be fixed ...
— Giorgione • Herbert Cook
... winter evening and the last day of the Christmas holidays. I was playing with nuts with my companions. About six o'clock we dined and, after we had finished, we began to play at Sette e Mezzo Reale [a game of cards]. We re-charged the acetylene lamps, for we intended to sit up late. The professor opened [the window and went out on] the balcony to see what the weather was like; observing that the sky ...
— Castellinaria - and Other Sicilian Diversions • Henry Festing Jones
... copre il membro di Menofila, che sola basterebbe a tutti i commenianti. Io O Flacco, avevo creduto (imperocche si siamo sovente lavati insiême) che esso sollecito avesse cura delle sua voce; lotta in mezzo la palestra a vista del popolo, la fibula ...
— Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction • John Davenport
... the door of the drawing-room, Margaret was finishing Rosina's Cavatina from the Barbiere di Siviglia in a perfect storm of fireworks, having transposed the whole piece two notes higher to suit her own voice, for it was originally written for a mezzo-soprano. ...
— The Primadonna • F. Marion Crawford
... to say, in her deep mezzo soprano voice, that she knew it meant sacrifice for us, but that it was by just such sacrifices that we grew in grace, and she desired to suggest the nature of the sacrifice, one that we would probably feel the most, and would therefore ...
— A Circuit Rider's Wife • Corra Harris
... West I remember she had a very pretty mezzo-concertina voice, but she's been so long away helping Stub Wilson to make Milwaukee famous that nowadays her top notes sound like a cuckoo clock after it's ...
— You Should Worry Says John Henry • George V. Hobart
... upon a theme which is closely suggestive of the sickening sensations of the Egyptians, and increases in loathsomeness to the close, as the theme is variously treated. The next number is an aria for mezzo soprano voice ("Their Land brought forth Frogs"), the air itself serious and dignified, but the accompaniment imitative throughout of the hopping of these lively animals. It is followed by the plague of insects, whose afflictions are described by the double chorus. The tenors and ...
— The Standard Oratorios - Their Stories, Their Music, And Their Composers • George P. Upton
... Moscouta et Rossia, et va diritto al Cataio. Et che cio sia la verita, le nauigationi che hanno fatte gl' Inglesi con le loro naui, volendo andare a scoprire il Cataio al tempo del Re Odoardo Sesto d'Inghilterra, questi anni passati, ne possono far vera testimonianza: perche nel mezzo del loro viaggio, capitate per fortuna a i liti di Moscouia doue trouarano all' hora regnare Giouanni Vasiliuich Imperatore della Rossia e gran Duca di Moscouia, il quale con molto piacere e marauiglia vedutogli, fece grandissime carezze, hanno trouato quel mare essere nauigabile, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation v. 4 • Richard Hakluyt
... existence of part of this palace so late as the year 1422, speaks of it as built by Ziani. The old "palace of which half remains to this day, was built, as we now see it, by Sebastian Ziani." [Footnote: "El palazzo che anco di mezzo se vede vecchio, per M. Sebastian Ziani fu fatto compir, come el se vede."—Chronicle of Pietro Dolfino, Cod. Ven. p. 47. This Chronicle is spoken of by Sansovino as "molto particolare, e distinta."—Sansovino, Venezia descritta, p. 593.—It terminates ...
— Stones of Venice [introductions] • John Ruskin
... was a little disconcerting. He found her at the piano, singing in her pathetic mezzo-soprano a song that used to he a favorite of Tyson's. The selection was another freak; it was the first time Louis had heard her sing that song since ...
— The Tysons - (Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson) • May Sinclair
... The woman of mezzo-tints, of soft half-tones of complexion, hair and eyes, loses all color and force when she clothes herself with deep, intense hues. Low, warm, unaggressive shades are needed as a background to bring out all ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... the funeral of a cardinal is considered as one of the most imposing at Rome, which is a city of ceremonies, and yielding only in magnificence to the obsequies of royal personages. The burial of the Mezzo-ceto classes is conducted rather differently. The body is exposed much in the same manner, at home; but the convoi, or passage from the habitation to the sepulchre, is generally considered as an occasion which calls for the utmost display. Torches, priests, psalmody, are sought for with a ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 284, November 24, 1827 • Various
... Chiesa nera Con spettacolo fiero accompagnato Da soldati, e da gente molto fiera, Con la Croce alle spalle incaminato Christo Giesu in mezzo a l'empia schiera, Seguendolo Giovanni addolorato, Che di Giesu sostien la sconsolata ...
— Ex Voto • Samuel Butler |
