First, Costa felt neglected by Lumley, who wisely from an artistic point of view was not keen to produce Costa's own ballets and operas. Furthermore, Lumley refused to let Costa to take up the task of chief conductor to the Royal Philharmonic Society, then the leading London symphonic orchestra. In 1846 Costa decamped to Covent Garden with most of the orchestra and singers and the support of some leading London critics, to establish there the second Royal Italian Opera Company in competition with Lumley. Lumley swiftly fought back, showing all his skills as an opportunist. He engaged the composer Michael Balfe to replace Costa. In 1847, despite legal threats from the Covent Garden management, he brought Jenny Lind over for her London debut, for which he had prepared with unprecedented levels of spin and publicity. Giuseppe Verdi had been engaged to write an opera for London, originally intended to be Macbeth, but this was first given in Florence, and so Verdi decided to produce I masnadieri for London. Verdi left Italy at the end of May 1847 with his work for London completed except for the orchestration, which he left until the opera was in rehearsal. The cast for the première on 22 July 1847 was of the highest international standard. In particular, as the highlight of her first season in England, the great Swedish coloratura soprano Jenny Lind was engaged to create the role of Amalia, the opera's heroine. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the first performance, together with the Duke of Wellington and every member of the British aristocracy and fashionable society able to gain admission. After considerable persuasion, Verdi agreed to conduct the première, which was a triumphant success; the press was for the most part generous in its praise. Fortunately for Lumley, things had turned out well and very profitably. Lind appeared as Alice in Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Mendelssohn, who on his last London visit had encouraged her to take up Lumley's offer, was in the audience despite his known distaste for Meyerbeer's work. Lumley had also extensively advertised Mendelssohn's Tempest opera as forthcoming. This was a bare-faced lie. Mendelssohn found the libretto by Eugene Scribe completely unacceptable and did not even begin to write the music for it. The death of Mendelssohn in 1847 however gave Lumley an escape from his fabrications, and he commissioned the French composer Fromental Halévy