Early in April [1779], Covent Garden opened under the sole management of Ernest Gye, whose father had died from the effects of a gun accident in the preceding December. Here the peerless Adelina Patti once more headed the prime donne; Scalchi, still in her prime, was the principal contralto; Gayarre, Nicolini, and Capoul were the leading tenors; and to such barytones as Graziani, Cotogni, and Maurel was now added that superb singer Jean Lassalle, for whom was produced Massenet's picturesque but unequal opera, "Le Roi de Lahore."