erview with Fouche, now a great man, who had
been one of her most ardent admirers. He awarded her a pension of 2,400
livres, and ordered that apartments should be given her in the Hotel
d'Angevilliers. In 1803 she died in obscurity.

Among the celebrated male singers of this period were Gasparo
Pacchierotti, and Giovanni Battista Rubinelli. The former of these was
considered to have been the finest singer of the latter part of the
eighteenth century. Endowed with a vivid imagination, uncommon
intelligence, and profound sensibility, a tall and lean figure, a voice
which was often uncertain and nasal, he required much determination and
strength of character to overcome the defects and take advantage of the
good qualities which nature had bestowed upon him. Yet he is described
by Lord Mt. Edgecumbe as "decidedly the most perfect singer it ever fell
to his lot to hear."

Rubinelli, on the other hand, from his fullness of voice and simplicity
of style pleased a greater number than Pacchierotti, though none perhaps
so exquisitely as that singer. Rubinelli's articulation was so pure and
well accented that in his recitatives no one conversant with the Italian
language ever had occasion to look at a libretto while he was singing.
His style was true cantabile, in which he was unexcelled.

Upon the retirement of Sophie Arnould a new star appeared in the person
of Antoinette Cecile Clavel St. Huberty, the daughter of a brave old
soldier who was also a musician. Her first appearances in opera were
made in Warsaw, where her father, M. Clavel, was engaged as repetitor to
a French company. From Warsaw she went to Berlin, where she married a
certain Chevalier de Croisy, after which she sang for three years at
Strasbourg. At last she went to Paris, where she appeared in 1777 in
Gluck's "Armida." Madame St. Huberty did not rush meteor-like into
public favor. Her success was gained after years of patient labor,
during which she endured bitter poverty, and sang only minor parts. In
person she was small, thin, and fair; her features were not finely
formed, and her mouth was of unusual size, but her countenance was
expressive. In 1783 she reached the summit of her success, when she
appeared in the title role of Piccini's opera, "Dodon." Louis XVI., who
did not much care for opera, had it performed twice, and was so much
pleased that he granted Madame St. Huberty a pension of 1,500 livres, to
which he added one of five hundred more from his