_Papageno_ in Mozart's "Zauberflote." Anything more ridiculous and
mirthful than these comedy _chef-d'ouvres_ could hardly be fancied. The
same critic quoted above says: "One could write a page on his _Barber_
in Rossini's master-work; a paragraph on his _Duke_ in 'Lucrezia
Borgia,' an exhibition of dangerous, suspicious, sinister malice such as
the stage has rarely shown; another on his _Podesta_ in 'La Gazza Ladra'
(in these two characters bringing him into close rivalry with Lablache,
a rivalry from which he issued unharmed); and last, and almost best of
his creations, his _Masetto_." Ronconi is, we believe, still living,
though no longer on the stage; but his memory will remain one of the
great traditions of the lyric drama, so long as consummate histrionic
ability is regarded as worthy of respect by devotees of the opera.


V.

Mme. Viardot's name is, perhaps, more closely associated with the music
of Meyerbeer than that of any other composer. Her _Alice_ in "Robert le
Diable," her _Valentine_ in "Les Huguenots," added fresh luster to her
fame. In the latter character no representative of opera, in spite of
the long bead-roll of eminent names interwoven with the record of this
musical work, is worthy to be compared with her. This part was for years
regarded as standing to her what _Medea_ was to Pasta, _Norma_ to Grisi,
_Fidelio_ to Malibran and Schröder-Devrient, and it was only when she
herself made a loftier flight as _Fides_ in "Le Prophète" that this
special connection of the part with the _artist_ ceased. Her genius
always found a more ardent sympathy with the higher forms of music. "The
florid graces and embellishments of the modern Italian school," says a
capable judge, "though mastered by her with perfect ease, do not appear
to be consonant with her genius. So great an artist must necessarily be