"But it was not at the moment of Madame Sontag's reappearance that we could advert to all the difficulty which added to the honour of its success.--She came back under musical conditions entirely changed since she left the stage--to an orchestra far stronger than that which had supported her voice when it was younger; and to a new world of operas.--Into this she ventured with an intrepid industry not to be overpraised--with every new part enhancing the respect of every real lover of music.--During the short period of these new performances at Her Majesty's Theatre, which was not equivalent to two complete Opera seasons, not merely did Madame Sontag go through the range of her old characters--Susanna, Rosina, Desdemona, Donna Anna, and the like--but she presented herself in seven or eight operas which had not existed when she left the stage--Bellini's _Sonnambula_, Donizetti's _Linda_, _La Figlia del Reggimento_, _Don Pasquale_; _Le Tre Nozze_, of Signor Alary, _La Tempesta_, by M. Halevy--the last two works involving what the French call 'creation,' otherwise the production of a part never before represented.--In one of the favourite characters of her predecessor, the elder artist beat the younger one hollow.--This was as Maria, in Donizetti's _La Figlia_, which Mdlle. Lind may be said to have brought to England, and considered as her special property.... With myself, the real value of Madame Sontag grew, night after night--as her variety, her conscientious steadiness, and her adroit use of diminished powers were thus mercilessly tested. In one respect, compared with every one who had been in my time, she was alone, in right, perhaps of the studies of her early days--as a singer of Mozart's music." It was after these last London seasons that Mme. Sontag undertook an American tour. She died in Mexico. The great Mme. Pasta's ill-advised return to the stage in 1850 (when she made two belated appearances in London) is matter for sadder comment. Chorley, indeed, is at his best when he writes of it, his pen dipped in tears, for none had admired this artist in her prime more passionately than he. Here was a particularly good opportunity to study the bare skeleton of interpretative art; the result is one of the most striking passages in all literature: