ar the mantle of Grisi."

In no previous season was Mlle. Titiens so popular or so much admired
as during the season of 1862. Her most remarkable performance was
the character of _Alice_, in Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable." "Mlle.
Titiens's admirable personation of _Alice_," observes the critic of a
leading daily paper, "must raise her to a still higher rank in public
estimation than that she has hitherto so long sustained. Each of the
three acts in which the German soprano was engaged won a separate
triumph for her. We are tired of perpetually expatiating on the splendid
brightness, purity, and clearness of her glorious voice, and on the
absolute certainty of her intonation; but these mere physical requisites
of a great singer are in themselves most uncommon. Irrespectively of the
lady's clever vocalization, and of the strong dramatic impulse which she
evinces, there is an actual sensual gratification in listening to her
superb voice, singing with immovable certainty in perfect tune.
Her German education, combined with long practice in Italian opera,
peculiarly fit Mlle. Titiens for interpreting the music of Meyerbeer,
who is equally a disciple of both schools."

IV.

Mlle. Titiens was such a firmly established favorite of the English
public that, in the line of great tragic characters, no one was held
her equal. The most brilliant favorites who have arisen since her
star ascended to the zenith have been utterly unable to dispute her
preeminence in those parts where height of tragic inspiration is united
with great demands of vocalization. Cherubini's opera of "Medea," a work
which, had never been produced in England, because no soprano could
be found equal to the colossal task of singing a score of almost
unprecedented difficulty in conjunction with the needs of dramatic
passion no less _exigeant_, was brought out expressly to display her
genius. Though this classic masterpiece was not repeated often, and
did not become a favorite with the English public on account of the
old-fashioned austerity of its musical style, Titiens achieved one of
the principal triumphs of her life in embodying the character of the
Colchian sorceress as expressed in song. Pasta's _Medea_, created
by herself musically and dramatically out of the faded and correct
commonplace of Simon Mayer's opera, was fitted with consummate skill to
that eminent artist's idiosyncrasies, and will ever remain one of the
grand traditions of the musical worl