lents were equal to both, and there was no
music which she did not master as if by inspiration, though she was such
a bad reader that to learn a part perfectly she was obliged to hear it
played on the piano. It was with great unwillingness that she essayed
the music of Mozart, however, who had just become a great favorite in
England. The strict time, the severe form, and the importance of the
accompaniments were not suited to her splendid and luxuriant style,
which disdained all trammels and rules. Yet she was the first singer who
introduced "Le Nozze di Figaro" to the English stage. Besides _Susanna_
in "Le Nozze," she appeared as _Vitellia_ in "La Clemenza di Tito," a
serious _role_; and both in acting and singing these interpretations
were praised by the most intelligent connoisseurs--who had previously
attacked the vicious redundancy of her style severely--as nearly
matchless. Arch and piquant as the waiting-woman, lofty, impassioned,
and haughty as the patrician dame of old Rome, she rendered each as
if her sole talent were in the one direction. Tremmazani, a delightful
tenor, who had just arrived in England, and possessed a voice of that
rich, touching Cremona tone so rare even in Italy, it may be remarked
in passing, refused the part of Count Almaviva as lacking sufficient
importance, and because he regarded it as beneath his dignity to appear
in comic opera.

III.

The year 1813 was the last season of Catalani's regular engagement on
the operatic stage. She continued to sing in "Tito" and "Figaro,"
but her principal pleasure was in the most extravagant and bizarre
show-pieces, such, for example, as variations composed for the violin
on popular airs like "God save the King," "Rule Britannia," "Cease your
Funning." She carried her departure from the true limits of art to such
an outrageous degree as to draw on her head the severest reprobation of
all good judges, though the public listened to her wonderful execution
with unbounded delight and astonishment. Toward the latter part of the
season an extraordinary riot took place in consequence of Catalani's
failure to appear two successive evenings. The managers were in arrears,
and the _diva_ by the advice of her husband adopted this plan to
force payment. There were mutterings of the thunder on the first
non-appearance; but when on the following night Catalani was still
absent, the storm broke. The opera which had been substituted was half
finished when the clam