Darrell Fancourt performed in opera productions at the Academy, creating the role of Tackleton, the toy merchant, in Alexander Mackenzie's opera "The Cricket on the Hearth", and playing Colas in Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienne", and Benoit in "La bohème". "The Times" thought him "amusing but not noticeably musical" in the last. Even before completing his studies, Fancourt was building a concert career in London, the British provinces and the European continent. "The Times" said of an Aeolian Hall recital in 1912, "Mr. Fancourt has some noble notes in his voice, except when he forces it occasionally ... Schubert's "Tod und das Mädchen"
Comic opera of other Italians, like Galuppi and Cimarosa, and also the Belgian/French composer Grétry. The first Russian comic opera was "Anyuta" (1772). The text was written by Mikhail Popov, with music by an unknown composer, consisting of a selection of popular songs specified in the libretto. Another successful comic opera, "Melnik – koldun, obmanshchik i svat" ("The Miller who was a Wizard, a Cheat and a Match-maker"', text by Alexander Ablesimov, Moscow, 1779), on a subject resembling Rousseau's "Devin", is attributed to Mikhail Sokolovsky. Ivan Kerzelli, Vasily Pashkevich and Yevstigney Fomin also wrote a series of successful comic operas in the