rs as well
as singers.

While in England Braham had shown proof s of a transcendent talent. His
singing both in oratorio and opera was of such a stamp as to place him
in the van with the most accomplished Italian singers. With the added
finish of method which he gained by his Italian studies, he made a most
favorable impression in the various cities when he sang in Italy, and
his name was freely quoted as being one of the very greatest living
singers. The elder Davide, whose reputation at that time had no equal,
even Crescentini being placed second to him, said on hearing him sing,
"There are only two singers in the world, I and the Englishman." Braham
had one great advantage over his rivals in this, that his knowledge of
the science of music in all its most abstruse difficulties was thorough.
Skillful adept as he was in all the refinements of executive technique,
his profound musical grasp and insight made all difficulties of
interpretation perfect child's-play. Our readers will recall an
illustration of Braham's readiness and quickness of resource in the
anecdote of him told in connection with Mrs. Billington's life.

Refusing the most flattering offers from Italian impressarii, who were
eager to retain him for a while in Italy, Braham returned to England in
1801, and for the most part during a number of years devoted himself to
English opera. Though he had approved himself a brilliant master in the
Italian school, his taste and talents also peculiarly fitted him--like
Sims Reeves, who seems to have taken Braham for a model--for the
simple and affecting ballad-music with which English opera is so
characteristically marked. His only appearances in Italian opera in
England after his return were in the seasons of 1804, 1805,1800, and
1816. These seasons were marked by the performance of the fine operas
of Winter, of some of the masterpieces of Cimarosa, and by the first
introduction into England of the music of Mozart, the "Clemenza di
Tito," in which Mrs. Billington and Braham appeared, having been the
earliest acquaintance of the English public with the greatest of the
German operatic composers. The production of this opera was at the
suggestion of George IV., then Prince of Wales, who had a manuscript
score of the work, with instrumental parts, sent to him as a gift by the
great Haydn several years before, as a memorial of the kindness shown by
the Prince to the composer of the "Creation," when in London conducting