romantic operas, though never so striking as in grand tragedy, seemed to
develop with practice.

Her last English engagement was in 1837, opening the season with
a performance of "Fidelio" in English. The whole performance was
lamentably inferior to that at the Opera-House in 1832. "Norma" was
produced, Schröder-Devrient being seconded by Wilson, Giubilei, and Miss
Betts. She was either very ill advised or overconfident, for her "massy"
style of singing was totally at variance with the light beauty of
Bellini's music. Her conception of the character, however, was in the
grandest style of histrionic art. "The sibyls of Michael Angelo are not
more grand," exclaimed one critic; "but the vocalization of Pasta
and Grisi is wholly foreign to her." During this engagement, Mme.
Schröder-Devrient was often unable to perform, from serious illness.
From England she went to the Lower Rhine.

In 1839 she was at Dresden with Herr Tichatschek, one of the first
tenors of Germany, a handsome man, with a powerful, sweet, and extensive
voice. In June, 1841, she gave a performance at Berlin, to assist the
Parisian subscription for a monument to Cherubini. The opera was "Les
Deux Journées," in which she took her favorite part of _Constance_. The
same year she sang at Dresden with the utmost success, in a new _rôle_
in Goethe's "Tasso," in which she was said to surpass her _Fidelio_. For
several years Mme. Schröder-Devrient resided in perfect seclusion in the
little town of Rochlitz, and appeared to have forgotten all her stage
ambition. Suddenly, however, she made her reappearance at Dresden in the
_rôle_ of _Romeo_ in Bellini's "I Montecchi ed i Capuletti." She had
lost a good deal of her vocal power and skill, yet her audiences seemed
to be moved by the same magic glamour as of old, in consequence of her
magnificent acting. Among other works in which she performed during this