Yet he understood so well the purpose of the lyric drama that his scores are never heavy with ostentatious counterpoint or intricate polyphony. That he was capable of dignity and forcefulness, his graver and less familiar works illustrate, and the praise bestowed upon his string quartets when they were played in Paris, in 1856, proved that he was equal to composition upon classic lines had it been demanded of him. Besides his sixty-six operas, most of which have been named above, he wrote many overtures, some large church pieces, many albums of songs in various languages, of which none are unworthy of preservation, beside a multitude of ephemeral things of which none remain but few and scattered traces. All the greatest vocalists of the first half of the century sang for him, and the rosters of the opera-houses for which he wrote, repeat the names of Catalani, Cecconi, Méric-Lalande, Tosi, Pasta, Grisi, Ungher, Borghesi, Dorus-Gras and Stolz among the women, and of Fioravanti, Donzelli, Busti, Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, Verger, Winter, Donzelli, Negrini, Salvi, Duprez, Derivis, Levasseur, Wartel, Coletti, Baroilhet, Ronconi and Rovere among the men. His life, therefore, was active, honorable, prosperous and happy; and in reviewing it one finds little to regret except that it was not ended by a sudden, instead of a gradual, death. [Illustration: H. M. Ticknor] [Illustration: GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO SPONTINI _Reproduction of a lithograph portrait by Maurin._] [Illustration] GASPARO LUIGI PACIFICO SPONTINI Although Italian by birth, the author of "La Vestale" was, in his life work, almost a Frenchman, and, like other celebrated composers, reflected a share of his glory upon his adopted country.