tion. But exquisite as were, undoubtedly, Mme.
Pasta's vocal exertions, her histrionic powers, if possible, surpassed
them. It would be difficult for those who have seen her represent, in
Donizetti's excellent opera, the unfortunate _Amina_, with a grandeur
and a dignity above all praise, to conceive that she could so change
(if the expression may be allowed) her nature as to enact the part of a
simple country girl. But she has proved her powers to be unrivaled;
she personates a simple rustic as easily as she identifies herself with
_Medea, Semiramide, Tancredi, and Anna Bolena_."

IV.

After an absence of three years Mme. Pasta returned to England, and
her opening performance of Medea was aided by the talents of Rubini,
Lablache, and Fanny Ayton. Rubini performed the character of _Egeus_,
and the duets between the king of tenors and Pasta were so remarkable
in a musical sense as to rival the dramatic impression made by her great
acting. She was no exception to the rule that very great tragic actors
are rarely devoid of a strong comic individuality. In Erreco's "Prova
d'un Opera Seria," an opera caricaturing the rehearsals of a serious
opera at the house of the prima donna and at the theatre, her
performance was so arch, whimsical, playful, and capricious, that its
drollery kept the audience in a roar of laughter, while Lablache, as
"the composer," seconded her humor by that talent for comedy which
Ronconi alone has ever approached. Lablache also appeared with Pasta in
"Anna Bolena," and the great basso, mighty in bulk, mighty in voice,
and mighty in genius, fairly startled the public by his extraordinary
resemblance to Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII.

After singing a farewell engagement in Paris, Mme. Pasta went to Milan
to enjoy the last great triumph of her life in 1832 at La Scala.

She was supported by an admirable company, among whom were Donizetti
the tenor and Giulia Grisi, then youthful and inexperienced, but giving
promise of what she became in her splendid prime of beauty and genius.
Bellini had written for these artists the opera of "Norma," and the
first performance was directed by the composer himself. Pasta's singing
and acting alone made the work successful, for at the outset it was not
warmly liked by the public. Several years afterward in London she also
saved the work from becoming a _fiasco_, the singular fact being that
"Norma," now one of the great standard works of the lyric stage, took
a