the Feasts of St. Germain, St. Laurent, and St. Ovide. The two companies were always inimical, and the "Comédiens de la Foire" were from time to time suppressed by their stronger rival,[22] but always revived, until at last in 1762 the two companies were amalgamated.[23] In this soil was planted opera buffa, and, favoured by circumstances, it grew into a great national institution.[24] Translations and adaptations of favourite Italian operas satisfied the public at first, and were decried by the Bouffonists as travesties of the original.[25] But very soon, especially after the brilliant success of Vade's "Les Troqueurs" in 1753, a new school of composers sought to reconcile the excellencies of the Italian music, especially in singing, with the exigencies of the national taste. It was difficult at first to break loose from the defined outline and simple design of the intermezzi, but gradually the French taste became apparent in the greater connection and interest of the plot, and the delicacy and wit of the composition. The lively interest of the public induced poets of talent, such as Favart, Sedaine, and Marmontel, to devote themselves to operatic writing, and the French comic opera soon surpassed the opera buffa, from a dramatic as well as a musical point of view. These various impulses were all the more lasting since they were founded on the national character.[26] Egidio Romoaldo Duni (1709-1775), born and educated in Naples, having made his reputation on the Italian stage, was led by his connection with the court at Parma, which was French in manners and in taste, to compose French operettas, as, for instance, "Ninette ä la Cour." The applause with which they were received induced him to go to Paris in 1757, where he made an exceptionally favourable début with the "Peintre Amoureux," and during the next {FRENCH OPERA.} (12) thirteen years produced a succession of comic operas, the easy style and simple form of which secured them both the favour of the public and the imitation of untrained French composers.[27]