spite of these defects, his tragic passion and the splendid intelligence
displayed in his vocal art gave him a deserved prominence. Duprez
composed many songs and romances, chamber-music, two masses, and eight
operas, and was the author of a highly esteemed musical method, which is
still used at the Conservatoire, where he was a professor of singing.

Another name linked with not a few of Mme. Viardot's triumphs is that
of Ronconi, a name full of pleasant recollections, too, for many of the
opera-goers of the last generation in the United States. There have been
only a few lyric actors more versatile and gifted than he, or who
have achieved their rank in the teeth of so many difficulties and
disadvantages. His voice was limited in compass, inferior in quality,
and habitually out of tune, his power of musical execution mediocre, his
physical appearance entirely without grace, picturesqueness, or dignity.
Yet Ronconi, by sheer force of a versatile dramatic genius, delighted
audiences in characters which had been made familiar to the public
through the splendid personalities of Tamburini and Lablache,
personalities which united all the attributes of success on the lyric
stage--noble physique, grand voice, the highest finish of musical
execution, and the actor's faculty. What more unique triumph can be
fancied than such a one violating all the laws of probability? Ronconi's
low stature and commonplace features could express a tragic passion
which could not be exceeded, or an exuberance of the wildest, quaintest,
most spontaneous comedy ever born of mirth's most airy and tameless
humor. Those who saw Ronconi's acting in this country saw the great
artist as a broken man, his powers partly wrecked by the habitual
dejection which came of domestic suffering and professional reverses,
but spasmodic gleams of his old energy still lent a deep interest to the
work of the artist, great even in his decadence. In giving some idea of
the impression made by Ronconi at his best, we can not do better than