amusing have been the anachronisms which have resulted from these
illustrations of artistic vanity, and diverting are the glimpses
which they give of the tastes and sensibilities of great prime
donne. Grisi and Alboni, stimulated by the example of Catalani
(though not in this opera), could think of nothing nobler than
to display their skill by singing Rode's Air and Variations, a
violin piece. This grew hackneyed, but, nevertheless, survived
till a comparatively late day. Bosio, feeling that variations were
necessary, threw Rode's over in favor of those on "Gia della mente
involarmi"--a polka tune from Alary's "A Tre Nozze." Then Mme.
Gassier ushered in the day of the vocal waltz--Venzano's, of
amiable memory. Her followers have not yet died out, though Patti
substituted Arditi's "Il Bacio" for Venzano's; Mme. Sembrich,
Strauss's "Voce di Primavera," and Mme. Melba, Arditi's "Se saran
rose." Mme. Viardot, with a finer sense of the fitness of things,
but either forgetful or not apprehensive of the fate which befell
her father at the first performance of the opera in Rome, introduced
a Spanish song. Mme. Patti always kept a ready repertory for the
scene, with a song in the vernacular of the people for whom she was
singing to bring the enthusiasm to a climax and a finish: "Home,
Sweet Home" in New York and London, "Solovei" in St. Petersburg.
Usually she began with the bolero from "Les Vepres Siciliennes," or
the shadow dance from "Dinorah." Mme. Seinbrich, living in a period
when the style of song of which she and Mme. Melba are still the
brightest exemplars, is not as familiar as it used to be when they
were children, also found it necessary to have an extended list of
pieces ready at hand to satisfy the rapacious public. She was wont
at first to sing Proch's Air and Variations, but that always led
to a demand for more, and whether she supplemented it with "Ah!
non giunge," from "La Sonnambula," the bolero from "The Sicilian