While in England Braham had shown proof s of a transcendent talent.  His singing both in oratorio and opera was of such a stamp as to place him in the van with the most accomplished Italian singers.  With the added finish of method which he gained by his Italian studies, he made a most favorable impression in the various cities when he sang in Italy, and his name was freely quoted as being one of the very greatest living singers.  The elder Davide, whose reputation at that time had no equal, even Crescentini being placed second to him, said on hearing him sing, “There are only two singers in the world, I and the Englishman.”  Braham had one great advantage over his rivals in this, that his knowledge of the science of music in all its most abstruse difficulties was thorough.  Skillful adept as he was in all the refinements of executive technique, his profound musical grasp and insight made all difficulties of interpretation perfect child’s-play.  Our readers will recall an illustration of Braham’s readiness and quickness of resource in the anecdote of him told in connection with Mrs. Billington’s life.

Refusing the most flattering offers from Italian impressarii, who were eager to retain him for a while in Italy, Braham returned to England in 1801, and for the most part during a number of years devoted himself to English opera.  Though he had approved himself a brilliant master in the Italian school, his taste and talents also peculiarly fitted him—­like Sims Reeves, who seems to have taken Braham for a model—­for the simple and affecting ballad-music with which English opera is so characteristically marked.  His only appearances in Italian opera in England after his return were in the seasons of 1804, 1805,1800, and 1816.  These seasons were marked by the performance of the fine operas of Winter, of some of the masterpieces of Cimarosa, and by the first introduction into England of the music of Mozart, the “Clemenza di Tito,” in which Mrs. Billington and Braham appeared, having been the earliest acquaintance of the English public with the greatest of the German operatic composers.  The production of this opera was at the suggestion of George IV., then Prince of Wales, who had a manuscript score of the work, with instrumental parts, sent to him as a gift by the great Haydn several years before, as a memorial of the kindness shown by the Prince to the composer of the “Creation,” when in London conducting the celebrated Salaman symphonic concerts.  The characters of Vittellia and Cesto were splendidly performed by the two singers; but the Italian part of the company did not perform the difficult and exacting music con amore, neither were the audiences of that day trained up to the appreciation of the glorious music of Mozart which has obtained since that time.