Before 1860 the French stage also produced two singers of high rank. In 1858 Madame Artot made her debut at the Paris Opera, though she had already been heard in concerts in Belgium, Holland, and England. She was the daughter of the horn professor at the Brussels Conservatoire, and was taught singing by Madame Viardot-Garcia. Her engagement at Paris was due to Meyerbeer, and her success was such as to draw praise even from the extremely critical Berlioz. In the following year she took to Italian opera, and for many years was well known throughout Europe. Marguerite Josephine Desiree Montaigny Artot, for such was her name in full, was born in 1835, and in 1869 she married a well-known Spanish tenor, Padilla-y-Ramos. Together they sang in most of the great European cities until their retirement. As late as 1887 they sang in Berlin, in which city Madame Artot settled as a teacher of singing. Madame Galli-Marie, whose celebrity as Mignon and Carmen is world-wide, was the daughter of an opera singer, Mecene Marie de l'Isle. She made her debut at Strasburg in 1859, and about the same time married a sculptor named Galli, who died in 1861. Madame Galli-Marie's dramatic talent was great, and she has succeeded in characters of entirely opposite nature. Her voice was not remarkable; but, like many of the most renowned artists of the century, her originality and artistic temperament were sufficient to place her in the first rank. When "Carmen" was produced, and Madame Galli-Marie was chosen for the title role, Bizet re-wrote the part to suit her voice, which was of limited range, having neither the low notes of a contralto nor the high ones of the soprano. She was, however, owing to her dramatic capabilities, not only the first but one of the best Carmens seen until the time of Calve. In 1859 there arose from the opposite ends of the earth, two stars of the first magnitude, whose brilliancy was sufficient to silence the complaints of those who declared that the art of singing was a lost art. Such wails have arisen from time to time ever since opera was established, and possibly they may have existed in some form previous to that time, but up to the present date there is good evidence that the art of singing flourishes. It is human nature to declare that things of the past were superior to those of the present, and in their day Cuzzoni, Gabrielli, Catalani, Pasta, Grisi, and Jenny Lind, besides a number of others, were all such singers "as had never before been heard." Between Pauline Lucca and Adelina Patti there was a wide difference, and yet both singers triumphed in the same parts. Lucca made her debut at Olmutz as Elvira in "Ernani," Patti first appeared in New York as Lucia. Both Lucca and Patti made their debut at the age of sixteen, though some authorities state that Lucca was born in 1841; and both singers followed in matrimony the conventional course of the prima donna, and married twice.