Paris.”  The little vocalist of fifteen had to wear heels four inches high, but she sang none the less well, and the audience seemed to feel that they had heard a prodigy.  She also took the part of the heroine in Paer’s opera of “Sargino,” and her brilliant success decided her career, as she was invited to take a position in the Viennese Opera.  Here she met the brilliant Mme. Fodor, then singing an engagement in the Austrian capital.  So great was this distinguished singer’s admiration of the young girl’s talents that she said, “Had I her voice I should hold the whole world at my feet.”

Mlle. Sontag had the advantage at this period of singing with great artists who took much interest in her career and gave her valuable hints and help.  Singing alternately in German and English opera, and always an ardent student of music, she learned to unite all the brilliancy of the Italian style and method to the solidity of the German school.  The beautiful young cantatrice was beset with ardent admirers, not the least important being the English Ambassador Earl Clan William.  He followed her to theatre, to convents, church, and seemed like her shadow.  Sontag in German means Sunday; so the Viennese wits, then as now as wicked and satirical as those of Paris, nicknamed the nobleman Earl Montag, as Monday always follows Sunday.  It was during this Vienna engagement that Weber wrote the opera of “Euryanthe,” and designed the principal part for Sontag.  But the public failed to fancy it, and called it “L’Ennuyante.”  The serious part of her art life commenced at Leipsic in 1824, where she interpreted the “Freischutz” and “Euryanthe,” then in the flush of newness, and made a reputation that passed the bounds of Germany, though foreign critics discredited the reports of her excellence till they heard her.

“Henrietta’s voice was a pure soprano, reaching perhaps from A or B to D in alt, and, though uniform in its quality, it was a little reedy in the lower notes, but its flexibility was marvelous:  in the high octave, from F to C in alt, her notes rang out like the tones of a silver bell.  The clearness of her notes, the precision of her intonation, the fertility of her invention, and the facility of her execution, were displayed in brilliant flights and lavish fioriture; her rare flexibility being a natural gift, cultivated by taste and incessant study.  It was to the example of Mme. Fodor that Mile.  Sontag was indebted for the blooming of those dormant qualities which had till then remained undeveloped.  The ease with which she sang was perfectly captivating; and the neatness and elegance of her enunciation combined with the sweetness and brilliancy of her voice and her perfect intonation to render her execution faultless, and its effect ravishing.  She appeared to sing with the volubility of a bird, and to experience the pleasure she imparted.”  To use the language of a critic of that day:  “All passages are alike to her, but she has appropriated some that were