At that same rehearsal Gounod did an unusual amount of singing. The solo vocalists comprised what the new critic of the “Times” Dr. Francis Hueffer, was then fond of describing as the “representative English quartet”— Albani, Patey, Edward Lloyd, and Santley; nor have I forgotten how exquisitely William H. Cummings (now principal of the Guildhall School of Music, London) delivered the touching phrase allotted to the Penitent Thief. But, as a matter of fact, Gounod, with his sympathetic voix de compositeur, was singing more or less all through the rehearsal, wisely exercising his rare faculty for impressing his exact ideas upon the interpreters of his music. And what beautiful music it was! What a tremendous effect it created at Birmingham.