Sovereignty with Mrs. Billington.—Her Qualities as an Artist.—Mrs.
Billington's Retirement from the Stage and Declining Years

ANGELICA CATALANI.

ANGELICA CATALANI.
The Girlhood of Catalani.—She makes her __Début__ in Florence.
—Description of her Marvelous Vocalism.—The Romance of Love and
Marriage.—Her Preference for the Concert Stage.—She meets Napoleon in
Paris.—Her Escape from France and Appearance in London.—Opinions
of Lord Mount Edgcumbe and other Critics.—Anecdotes of herself and
Husband.—The Great Prima Donna's Character.—Her Gradual Divergence
from Good Taste in singing.—Bon Mots of the Wits of the Day.—The
Opera-house Riot.—Her Husband's Avarice.—Grand Concert Tour through
Europe.—She meets Goethe.—Her Return to England and Brilliant
Reception.—She sings with the Tenor Braham.—John Braham's Artistic
Career.—The Davides.—Catalani's Last English Appearance, and the
Opinion of Critics.—Her Retirement and Death

GIUDITTA PASTA.

GIUDITTA PASTA.
Greatness of Genius overcoming Disqualification.—The Characteristic
Lesson of Pasta's Life.—Her First Appearance and Failure.—Pasta
returns to Italy and devotes herself to Study.—Her First Great
Successes in 1819.—Characteristics of her Voice and Singing.—Chorley's
Review of the Impressions made on him by Pasta.—She makes her Triumphal
Début in Paris.—Talma on Pasta's Acting.—Her Performances of
"Giulietta" and "Tancredi."—Medea, Pasta's Grandest Impersonation, is
given to the World.—Description of the Performance.—Enthusiasm of the
Critics and the Public.—Introduction of Pasta to the English Public in
Rossini's "Otello."—The Impression made in England.—Recognized as
the Greatest Dramatic Prima Donna in the World.—Glances at the Salient
Facts of her English Career.—The Performance of "Il Crociato in
Egitto."—She plays the Male Rôle "Otello."—Rivalry with Malibran
and Sontag.—The Founder of a New School of Singing.—Pasta creates the
Leading Rôles in Bellini's "Sonnambula" and "Norma" and Donizetti's
"Anna Bolena."—Decadence and Retirement

HENRIETTA SONTAG.

The Greatest German Singer of the Century.—Her Characteristics as an
Artist.—Her Childhood and Early Training.—Her Early Appearances in
Weimar, Berlin, and Leipsic.—She becomes the Idol of the Public.—Her
Charms as a Woman and Romantic Incidents of her Youth.—Becomes
affianced to Count Rossi.—Prejudice against her in Paris, and her
Victory over the Public Hostility.—She becomes the Pet of Aristocratic
Salons.—Rivalry with Malibran.—Her Début in London, where she
is welcomed with Great Enthusiasm.—Returns to Paris.—Anecdotes of her
Career in the French Capital.—She becomes reconciled with Malibran in
London.—Her Secret Marriage with Count Rossi.—She retires from the
Stage as the Wife of an Ambassador.—Return to her Profession after
Eighteen Years of Absence.—The Wonderful Success of her Youth
renewed.—Her American Tour.—Attacked with Cholera in Mexico and dies.

GREAT SINGERS,

FROM FAUSTINA BORDONI TO HENRIETTA SONTAG.

FAUSTINA BORDONI.

The Art-Battles of Handel's Time.—The Feud between Cuzzoni and Faustina.—The Character of the Two Rivals as Women and Artists.—Faustina's Career.—Her Marriage with Adolph Hasse, and something about the Composer's Music.—Their Dresden Life.—Cuzzoni's Latter Years.—Sketch of the Great Singer Farinelli.—The Old Age of hasse and Faustina.

During the early portion of the eighteenth century the art of the stage excited the interests and passions of the English public to a degree never equaled since. Politics and religion hardly surpassed it in the power of creating cabals and sects and in stirring up animosities. This was specially marked in music. The great Handel, who had not then found his true vocation as an oratorio composer, was in the culmination of his power as manager of the opera, though he was irritated by hostile factions. The musical quarrels of the time were almost as interesting as the Gluck-Piccini war in Paris in the latter part of the same century, and the literati took part in it with a zest and wit not less piquant and noticeable. Handel, serenely grand in his musical conceptions, was personally passionate and fretful; and the contest of satire, scandal, and witticism raged without intermission between him and his rivals, supported on each hand by princes and nobles, and also by the great dignitaries of the republic of letters. In this tumult the singers (always a genus irritabile, like the race of poets) who belonged to the opera companies took an active part.

Not the least noteworthy episode of this conflict was the feud between two foremost sirens of the lyric stage, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. When the brilliant Faustina appeared in London, as a fresh importation of Handel, who was as indefatigable in purveying novelties as any modern Mapleson or Strakosch, Cuzzoni was the idol of the public, having succeeded to that honor after Anastasia Robinson retired from the stage as Countess of Peterborough. Handel some years before had introduced Cuzzoni to the English stage, and, though kept in constant turmoil by her insolence and caprice, had taken great pains to display her fine voice by the composition of airs specially suited to her. It is recorded that one morning, after she had refused at rehearsal to sing a song written for her by the master, such rage took possession of Handel that he seized her fiercely, and threatened to hurl her from the window unless she succumbed. One of the arias composed for this singer extorted from Main-waring, a musician bitterly at odds with Handel, the remark, "The great bear was certainly inspired when he wrote that song."

Cuzzoni's popularity with the public had so augmented her native conceit and insolence as to make a rival unbearable. Though she was ugly and ill made, of a turbulent and obstinate temper, ungrateful and capricious, she deported herself as if she possessed all the graces of beauty, art, and genius, and regarded the allegiance of the public as her native right. London had indeed given her some claim to this arrogance, as from the first it had treated her with brilliant distinction, so that fashionable ladies had adopted the style of her stage dresses, and duels were fought by the young "bucks" and "swells" of the time over the right to escort her to her carriage. The bitterness with which Cuzzoni hated Faustina was aggravated by the fact that the latter, in addition to her great ability as a singer, was younger, far more beautiful, and of most fascinating and amiable manner. Handel and the directors of the King's theatre were in ecstasies that they had secured two such exquisite singers; but their joy was destined to receive a sudden check in the bitter squabbles which speedily arose. Indeed, the two singers did not meet in battle for the first time, for seven years before they had been rival candidates for favor in Italy. Faustina Bordoni possessed