IN 1892 I was asked by my co-directors of the Carl Rosa Opera Company to go to Florence to hear the first performance of Mascagni's new opera, I Rantzau, and to report on it for possible production by the company. My travelling companion was the late Mr. Eugene Ascherberg, the music-seller, who purchased the rights of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci; he also wanted to hear the new opera, to see if it was worth his while to publish it in England. Thanks to him, I made the acquaintance of Signor Sonzogno, Mascagni's publisher, through whom I was in- troduced to Mascagni, who conducted the per- formance at the Pergola Theatre, which is very large and has six to eight rows of boxes, but no gallery. Signor Ferraris, the ordinary conductor had a splendid orchestra and fine chorus. Madame Darclee, a Roumanian soprano, took the part of Luisa. De Lucia, whom I remembered hearing at Covent Garden, was the tenor. The most prominent artist in the cast was the great baritone Signor Battistini, whom I visited during the interval in his dressing-room and asked him why he never came to England. He replied that he would like very much to come, only had not yet had any offers of an engagement. But I think Sir Augustus Harris had wished to engage him, only that his terms were so high. The fact was that Battistini was a great favourite in Russia, and got high fees there. In Russia a baritone was a draw, in England not at all even the former great baritones, Ronconi and Graziani, never drew crowded houses.