inger who previously had been an idol of the public. In the
passionate duet with the tenor she made an unsuccessful attempt to
reach the A natural. Notwithstanding the fact that she was well
received and that she got through with the greater part of the opera
with credit, her impressario, J. H. Mapleson, relates in his "Memoirs"
that after the final curtain had fallen she rushed to tell him that it
was all over and that she would never appear again. In "Student and
Singer" Charles Santley writes of the occasion: "I had been singing at
the Crystal Palace concert in the afternoon, and after dining there I
went up to the theatre to see a little of the performance. I felt very
sorry for Grisi that she had been induced to appear again; it was a
sad sight for any one who had known her in her prime, and even long
past it."

However, even English audiences can be cold. John E. Cox, in his
"Musical Recollections," recalls an earlier occasion when Grisi sang
at the Crystal Palace without much success (July 31, 1861): "On
retiring from the orchestra, after a peculiarly cold reception--as
unkind as it was inconsiderate, seeing what the career of this
remarkable woman had been--there was not a single person at the foot
of the orchestra to receive or to accompany her to her retiring room!
I could imagine what her feelings at that moment must have been--she
who had in former years been accustomed to be thronged, wherever she
appeared, and to be the recipient of adulation--often as exaggerated
as it was fulsome--but who was now literally deserted. With
Grisi--although I had been once or twice introduced to her--I never
had any personal acquaintance. I could not, however, resist the
impulse of preceding her, without obtruding myself on her notice, and
opening the door of the retiring room for her, which was situated at
some considerable distance from the orchestra. Her look as I did this,
and she passed out of sight, is amongst the most painful of my
'Recollections.'"

German audiences are usually kind to their favourites. In America we
adopt neither the attitude of the English and Germans, nor yet that of
the Italians and French. We simply stay away from the theatre. Mark
Twain has put it succinctly, "When a singer has lost his voice and a
jumper his legs, those parties fail to draw."

Benjamin Lumley in his "Reminiscences of the Opera," quoting an
anonymous friend, relates a touching story regarding Catalani, who was
born in 1779