"Not enough," replied Rossini. "She has more than voice; she has intelligence and _le feu sacré--un rossignol doublé de velours_; and more than all, she sings my music as I have written it. Every one likes to add a little of their own. I said to Patti the other day: 'a chère_ Adelina, when you sing the "Barbiere" do not make it too '_strakoschonée_' [Strakosch is Patti's brother-in-law, and makes all her cadenzas for her]. If I had wanted to make all those little things, don't you think that I could have made them myself?'" Auber asked me, "Do you know what Rossini said about me?" "No," I answered, "I know what he ought to have said. What did he say?" "He said," Auber replied, with a merry twinkle in his eye, 'Auber est un grand musicien qui fait de la petite musique.'" "That was pure envy," I said. "I should like to know what you said about Rossini." "Well, I said," and he hesitated before continuing, "I said that Rossini _est un très grand musicien et fait de la belle musique, mais une exécrable cuisine_." Rossini adores Alboni, but deplores her want of confidence in herself. She has such stage frights that she swears that she will have to leave the stage. He has written "La Messe solennelle" for her voice. The "Agnus Dei" is perfectly wonderful. She sang it after I had sung. If she had been first, I never should have had the courage to open my mouth. Auber asked him how he had liked the representation of "Tannhäuser"? Rossini answered, with a satirical smile, "It is a music one must hear several times. I am not going again." Rossini said that neither Weber nor Wagner understood the voice. Wagner's interminable dissonances were insupportable. That these two composers imagine that to sing is simply to _dégoiser_ the note; but the art of singing, or technic was considered by them to be secondary and insignificant Phrasing or any sort of _finesse_ was superfluous. The orchestra must be all powerful. "If Wagner gets the upper hand," Rossini continued, "as he is sure to do, for people will run after the New, then what will become of the art of singing? No more _bel canto_, no more phrasing, no more enunciation! What is the use, when all that is required of you is to _beugler_ (bellow)? Any _cornet à piston_ is just as good as the best tenor, and better, for it can be heard over the orchestra. But the instrumentation is magnificent. There Wagner excels. The overture of Tannhäuser is a _chef-d'oeuvre;_ there is a swing, a sway, and a shush that carries you off your feet.... I wish I had composed it myself."