"My letter, my dear Constance, has been interrupted by an excursion into the country, organised on the spur of the moment. We purpose spending two more days at Lucca, at Prince Poniatowski's, with S.A.R., who has made himself as charming as usual.
"When I was in Paris I bought a cane with a knob made of lead. It took the fancy of the Duke, and I have given it to him. He has given me his own in exchange, and as it has a knob of gold it has a double value.
CH. DE BÉRIOT."
With 1835 we come to an important advance of Manuel Garcia's position as a teacher, the first official recognition of his growing fame. When at the close of 1830, fresh from his anatomical studies at the hospital, he had joined his father in his work, he at once resolved to apply the knowledge thus gained. It was, therefore, his custom to insist that every pupil who presented himself should undergo a vocal and medical examination, while at the same time he made him submit to a special treatment, if the larynx appeared to him to demand it.
This scientific method of approaching singing made a great stir, and he soon found himself surrounded by an ever-increasing clientèle. With his pupils, both amateur and professional, he gained such continuous success that at last, in 1835, he was appointed to a professorial chair at the Paris Conservatoire, and this naturally marked a very distinct step in his career.
It has always been stated that he was given the post by Auber, but investigation proves this to be incorrect. Auber was not appointed to the directorship of the Conservatoire until the year 1842. At the time Señor Garcia joined the staff Cherubini was at the head of affairs, having been made director in the year 1821 (after being professor of composition there for five years), and he remained in that position until the close of 1841, when he retired at the age of eighty-one, to be succeeded by the younger composer.
In the year of Manuel Garcia's appointment to the Conservatoire, his sister, Maria Malibran, was in London during May and June, having been engaged by the management of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden for twenty-one performances at a fee of £2775.
How little did those who listened to her in London that summer foresee that with the close of the season they were to hear her in the capital no more, and that in little over a year her life was to be brought to a tragic end! Yet such was to be the case.
After the close of the London season the contralto retired to Brussels for a rest, and then in the early autumn set out for Naples.
Immediately on her arrival she received an urgent visit from Giovanni Gallo, the director of the little theatre of "St Jean Chrysostôme." The interview led to a delightful episode.