chool, full of mannerism, affectation, and display, abusing like
Martin his magnificent voice with its prodigious compass (three octaves
comprised between four B flats). He crushes the principal motive of
an air beneath the luxuriance of his ornamentation, which has no other
merit than that of a difficulty conquered. But he is also a singer full
of warmth, _verve_, expression, energy, and musical sentiment. Alone
he can fill up and give life to a scene: it is impossible for another
singer to carry away an audience as he does, and when he will only be
simple he is admirable. He is the Rossini of song. He is the greatest
singer I ever heard. Doubtless the way in which Garcia* plays and sings
the part of _Otello_ is preferable, taking it all together, to that of
Davide; it is pure, more severe, more constantly dramatic; but with all
his faults Davide produces more effect, a great deal more effect.
There is something in him, I can not say what, which, even when he is
ridiculous, entrances attention. He never leaves you cold, and when he
does not move he astonishes you. In a word, before hearing him, I did
not know what the power of singing really was. The enthusiasm he excites
is without limit."

* The father of Mlle. Mulibran and Viardot-Garcia.

This remarkable singer died in St. Petersburg in 1851, being then
manager of an Imperial Opera in that city of enthusiastic music-lovers.

V.

In 1824 Mme. Catalani again filled an engagement in England, making her
reappearance in Mayer's comic _pasticcio_, "Il Fanatico per la Mu-sica,"
the airs of which had been expressly selected for the display of her
vocal _tours de force_. Crowded audiences again welcomed her whom
absence had made an idol dearer than ever, and her transcendent power as
a singer seemed to have rise even beyond the old pitch in her electrical
_bravura_ style of execution. Yet some critics thought they detected
tokens of the destroying hand of time. One critic spoke of the
"fragrance" of her tone as having evaporated. Another compared her
voice to a pianoforte the hammers of which had grown hard by use. In
her appearance she had become even more beautiful than ever, with some
slight accession of _embonpoint_, and was conceded to be the handsomest
woman in Europe. For a while her popularity was unbounded among all
classes, and probably no singer that ever lived rode on a higher wave
of public adoration. But the critics began to be very much dissatisfied