g anticipations of that pleasure for
which he so ardently longed, but so imperfectly realized at
home--the entire sympathy of the public. Nor was he disappointed.
On the same evening that he alighted at the castle of his noble
entertainer, his opera of 'Figaro' was given at the theatre, and
Mozart found himself for the first time in the midst of that
Bohemian audience of whose enthusiasm and taste he had heard so
much. The news of his presence in the theatre quickly ran through
the parterre, and the overture was no sooner ended than the whole
audience rose and gave him a general acclamation of welcome,
amidst deafening salvos of applause.

"The success of 'Le Nozze di Figaro,' so unsatisfactory at Vienna,
was unexampled at Prague, where it amounted to absolute
intoxication and frenzy. Having run through the whole previous
winter without interruption, and rescued the treasury of the
theatre from ruinous embarrassments, the opera was arranged in
every possible form; for the pianoforte, for wind-instruments
(garden music,) as violin quintets for the chamber, and German
dances; in short, the melodies of 'Figaro' re-echoed in every
street and every garden; nay, even the blind harper himself, at
the door of the beer-house, was obliged to strike up _Non piu
andrai_ if he wished to gain an audience, or earn a kreutzer. Such
was the effect of the popular parts of the opera on the public at
large; its more refined beauties exercised an equal influence on
musicians. The director of the orchestra, Strobach, under whose
superintendence 'Figaro' was executed at Prague, often declared
the excitement and emotion of the band in accompanying this work
to have been such, that there was not a man among them, himself
included, who, when the performance was finished, would not have
cheerfully recommenced and played the whole through again.

"Finding himself, at length, in a region of sympathy so genial and
delightful, a new era in the existence of the composer seemed to
open, and he abandoned himself without reserve to its pleasures.
In retracing a life so ill rewarded by contemporaries, and so
checkered by calamity, it is pleasant to dally awhile in the
primrose path, and enjoy the opening prospects of good fortune.

"In a few days he was called upon to give a grand concert at the
opera-house