A host in herself was the accomplished and captivating Pauline Lucca, who, after an absence of ten years, returned to Covent Garden in 1882 to gratify opera-goers once more with her unrivaled impersonations of Selika in “L’Africaine”, Cherubino in “”Le Nozze”, Zerlina in “Fra Diavolo”, Leonora in “La Favorita”, and other characters. Despite her twenty-three years upon the stage, this brilliant artist was now also at her best; her voice had lost none of its freshness, and the piquant grace of her style and the marked originality of her conceptions were even more striking than before. Her Selika I can best describe in a single word as a “dream” — a supreme achievement to be mentioned in the same breath with the Bosina of Adelina Patti and the Marguerite of Christine Nilsson. Supported by Mierzwinsky as Vasco da Gama, Lassalle as Nelusko, Bagagiolo as Pedro, and Valleria as Inez, Pauline Lucca's performance in “L'Africaine” is to be folded in the lavender of one's memory.