The next great event, and one which brought my first season through all its difficulties and dangers to a successful conclusion, was the reappearance of the great tenor Rubini, He was announced for a limited number of nights only, previous to his final retirement from the stage. The intense desire to hear the last notes of this long-established favorite of the frequenters of the opera, brought crowded houses, during every one of his performances, which commenced on the 13th of June, until the end of the season. In the "Sonnambula," in "Don Giovanni," in the "Puritani," in the "Matri- monio Segreto," in "Anna Bolena," in "Otello," in "Cosi Fan Tutti," and in his favourite air from the "Pirata" (given on the nights when he did not appear in a whole opera), sung with an embroidery as delicate as Mechlin lace — in all these parts he was listened to with rapture, up to his final farewell. The public prints of the day tell, night by night, the same tale of "overcrowded and fashionable audiences," and of "tumultuous applause."