There were male singers also, who were quite on an equality with these female vocalists. Soon after the opening of the opera the tenors Souter and Dauer, a whimsical actor with a fine voice,[16] were engaged, and at a later date Adamberger, one of the most admirable tenors, a singer of artistic style and cultivation, and a "very respectable" actor of lovers' parts. Fischer was secured as a bass; the compass, strength, and beauty of his voice and his artistic cultivation, both as a singer and an actor, placed him in the very first rank among the singers of Germany. With him were associated Günther and Schmidt as bass singers, and Saal as a baritone.[17] There were thus all the materials required for the production of German operas, except a composer who could write them. Umlauf and some others who imitated him were not the men for such an undertaking. Gluck had composed nothing since his "Iphigenia in Taurus," and contented himself with putting on the stage, in 1780, "Die Pilgrimme von Mekka," a comic opera which had been written for Vienna with French words ("La Rencontre Imprévue") in 1764, and which was often played in its German adaptation.[18] In the following year, by the express command of the Emperor Joseph, Salieri wrote a German comic opera, "Der Rauchfangkehrer"[19] ("The Chimney-Sweep"), the text of which, by Dr. Auembrugger, was unusually bad;[20] but Salieri was too much of an Italian to have {GERMAN OPERA.} (193) much effect on German opera. The operetta was assiduously cultivated in North Germany, and a long list of those which were produced might be given. But the contrast between North and South Germany, founded on their political and religious differences, was visible unpleasantly enough in literature and art, and had a marked influence on their musical sympathies and antipathies.[21] Nicolai relates that he had heard in Vienna many genuine and accomplished musical connoisseurs speak of Ph. Em. Bach not only with indifference, but with absolute dislike, and place Kozeluch and Steffan before all other clavier-players.[22] Adamberger, when asked his opinion concerning a celebrated singer from North Germany, answered that she sang like a Lutheran; and on being pressed for an explanation, replied, "I call it singing like a Lutheran to have a beautiful voice as the gift of nature, and even to have received a good musical education, as is frequently the case in North Germany, but to show no signs of study in the Italian school of music, through which alone the true art of singing can be learnt."[23]