Chapter I: Foreword

Through the thoughtfulness of William J. Henderson I was asked to supply material for _The Complete Opera Book_, which was missing at the time of Mr. Kobbé's death.

In performing my share of the work it has been my endeavor to confine myself to facts, rather than to intrude with personal opinions upon a work which should stand as a monument to Mr. Kobbé's musical knowledge and convictions.

KATHARINE WRIGHT.

NEW YORK, 1919.

Contents

PAGE

Schools of Opera 1

Opera before Gluck 4

Christoph Willibald Gluck, 1714-1787 8
Orpheus and Eurydice
Armide
Iphigenia in Tauris

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791 21
Marriage of Figaro
Don Giovanni
Magic Flute

Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827 54
Fidelio

Carl Maria von Weber, 1786-1826 63
Freischütz
Euryanthe
Oberon

Why Some Operas are rarely given 77

From Weber to Wagner 79

Richard Wagner, 1813-1883 81
Rienzi
Flying Dutchman
Tannhäuser
Lohengrin
Ring of the Nibelung
Rheingold--Walküre--Siegfried--Götterdämmerung
Tristan and Isolde
Meistersinger
Parsifal

Gioachino Antonio Rossini, 1792-1868 293
Barber of Seville
Semiramide
William Tell

Vincenzo Bellini, 1802-1835 318
Sonnambula
Norma
Puritani

Gaetano Donizetti, 1797-1848 334
Elisire d'Amore
Lucrezia Borgia
Lucia di Lammermoor
Daughter of the Regiment
Favorita
Linda di Chamounix
Don Pasquale

Giuseppe Verdi, 1813-1901 376
Ernani
Rigoletto
Trovatore
Traviata
Ballo in Maschera

Before and After "Ballo in Maschera" 433
Luisa Miller
Sicilian Vespers
Force of Destiny
Don Carlos
Aïda
Othello
Falstaff

Arrigo Boïto, 1842- 474
Mephistopheles
Nero

Amilcare Ponchielli, 1834-1886 481
Gioconda

French Opera 493

Méhul to Meyerbeer 495

Étienne Nicholas Méhul, 1763-1817 495
Joseph

François Adrien Boieldieu, 1775-1834 495
Caliph of Bagdad
Jean de Paris
Dame Blanche

Daniel François Esprit Auber, 1782-1871 496
Masaniello
Fra Diavolo

Louis J.F. Hérold, 1791-1833 497
Zampa

Adolphe Charles Adam, 1802-1856 497
Postilion of Longumeau

Jacques François Fromental Élie Halévy, 1799-1862 498
Juive

Giacomo Meyerbeer, 1791-1864 499
Robert le Diable
Huguenots
Prophet
L'Africaine
Star of the North
Dinorah

Hector Berlioz, 1803-1869 535
Benvenuto Cellini
Beatrice and Benedict
Trojans
Damnation of Faust

Friedrich von Flotow, 1812-1883 546
Martha

Charles François Gounod, 1818-1893 561
Faust
Romeo and Juliet

Ambroise Thomas, 1811-1896 580
Mignon
Hamlet

Georges Bizet 586
Carmen
Pearl Fishers
Djamileh

Italian Opera Since Verdi 607

Pietro Mascagni, 1863- 610
Cavalleria Rusticana
Maschere
Friend Fritz
Iris
Lodoletta
Isabeau

Ruggiero Leoncavallo, 1858- 627
Pagliacci

Giacomo Puccini, 1858- 638
Villi
Manon Lescaut
Bohème
Tosca
Madam Butterfly
Girl of the Golden West
Rondine
Sister Angelica
Tabarro
Gianni Schicchi

Riccardo Zandonai 680
Francesca da Rimini

Franco Leoni, 1864- 686
L'Oracolo
Rip Van Winkle
Raggio di Luna
Ib and Little Christina

Italo Montemezzi, 1875- 690
Love of Three Kings
Giovanni Gallurese
Hélléra

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, 1876- 698
Jewels of the Madonna
Donne Curiose
Secret of Suzanne
Doctor Cupid

Umberto Giordano, 1867- 707
Madame Sans-Gêne
André Chénier
Fedora
Siberia

Modern Italian Opera 715

Luigi Mancinelli 715
Ero e Leandro

Riccardo Zandonai 716
Conchita

Alberto Franchetti 717
Cristoforo Colombo

Luigi and Federico Ricci 718
Crispino e la Comare

Alfred Catalani 719
Loreley

Umberto Giordano 720
Fedora

Alberto Franchetti 721
Germania

Modern French Opera 723

Jacques Offenbach 723
Tales of Hoffmann

Delibes 724
Lakmé

Saint-Saëns 725
Samson et Dalila

Lalo 727
Roi d'Ys

Massenet 727
Grisélidis
Thaïs
Manon
Le Cid
Don Quichotte
Cinderella
Navarraise
Jongleur de Nôtre Dame
Werther
Hérodiade
Sapho
Cléopâtre

Gustave Charpentier 750
Louise

Reyer 752
Salammbô

Debussy 752
Pelléas and Mélisande

Pierre Louÿs 756
Aphrodite

Alfred Bruneau 758
Attack on the Mill

Paul Dukas 759
Ariadne and Blue-Beard

Henri Février 761
Monna Vanna
Gismonda

Henri Rabaud 763
Marouf

Sylvio Lazzari 764
Grasshopper

Xavier Leroux 765
Queen Fiammette
Wayfarer

Raoul Gunsbourg 767
Old Eagle

Modern German and Bohemian Opera 769
St. Elizabeth

Peter Cornelius 770
Barber of Bagdad

Herman Goetz 772
Taming of the Shrew

Karl Goldmark 773
Queen of Sheba
Cricket on the Hearth

Engelbert Humperdinck 776
Königskinder
Hänsel and Gretel

Brüll 779
Golden Cross

Blech 781
Sealed In

Viktor E. Nessler 784
Trumpeter of Säkkingen

Wilhelm Kienzl 787
Evangelist
Kuhreigen

Ludwig Thuille 791
Lobetanz

Hugo Wolf 792
Magistrate

Richard Strauss, 1864- 796
Fire Famine
Guntram
Salome
Elektra
Rosenkavalier
Ariadne on Naxos

Friedrich Smetana 815
Bartered Bride

Russian Opera 818

Michael Ivanovich Glinka 818
Russlan and Ludmilla

Borodin 819
Prince Igor

Moussorgsky 822
Boris Godounoff

Peter Ilitsch Tschaikowsky 825
Eugen Onegin
Pique-Dame

Rimsky-Korsakoff 828
Coq d'Or

Ignace Jan Paderewski 830
Manru

American Opera 832

Frederick Shepherd Converse 832
Sacrifice
Pipe of Desire

Charles Wakefield Cadman 834
Shanewis

John Adams Hugo 834
Temple Dancer

Joseph Breil 836
Legend

Victor Herbert 837
Natomah

Horatio Parker 840
Mona

Walter Damrosch 841
Cyrano

Reginald de Koven 843
Canterbury Pilgrims

Spanish Opera 849

Enrique Granados, 1867-1916 849
Goyescas

Index 851

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Mary Garden as Sapho _Frontispiece_

Louise Homer as Orpheus in "Orpheus and Eurydice" 10

Hempel (_Susanna_), Matzenauer (_The Countess_), and
Farrar (_Cherubino_) in "Le Nozze di Figaro" 26

Scotti as _Don Giovanni_ 34

Sembrich as _Zerlina_ in "Don Giovanni" 35

Scotti as _Don Giovanni_ 42

Alten and Goritz as _Papagena_ and _Papageno_ in "The
Magic Flute" 43

Matzenauer as _Fidelio_ 56

Farrar as _Elizabeth_ in "Tannhäuser" 108

"Tannhäuser," Finale, Act II. _Tannhäuser_ (Maclennan),
_Elizabeth_ (Fornia), _Wolfram_ (Dean), _The
Landgrave_ (Cranston) 109

Sembach as _Lohengrin_ 122

Schumann-Heink as _Ortrud_ in "Lohengrin" 123

Emma Eames as _Elsa_ in "Lohengrin" 128

Louise Homer as _Fricka_ in "The Ring of the Nibelung" 129

Lilli Lehmann as _Brünnhilde_ in "Die Walküre" 166

"The Valkyr" Act I. _Hunding_ (Parker), _Sieglinde_
(Rennyson), and _Siegmund_ (Maclennan) 167

Fremstad as _Brünnhilde_ in "Die Walküre" 172

Fremstad as _Sieglinde_ in "Die Walküre" 173

Weil as _Wotan_ in "Die Walküre" 178

"Die Walküre" Act III. _Brünnhilde_ (Margaret
Crawford) 179

Édouard de Reszke as _Hagen_ in "Götterdämmerung" 210

Jean de Reszke as _Siegfried_ in "Götterdämmerung" 211

Nordica as _Isolde_ 228

Lilli Lehmann as _Isolde_ 236

Jean de Reszke as _Tristan_ 237

Gadski as _Isolde_ 242

Ternina as _Isolde_ 243

Emil Fischer as _Hans Sachs_ in "Die Meistersinger" 248

Weil and Goritz as _Hans Sachs_ and _Beckmesser_ in "Die
Meistersinger" 249

The Grail-Bearer 272

Winckelmann and Materna as _Parsifal_ and _Kundry_ 273

Scaria as _Gurnemanz_ 273

Sammarco as _Figaro_ in "The Barber of Seville" 298

Galli-Curci as _Rosina_ in "The Barber of Seville" 302

Sembrich as _Rosina_ in "The Barber of Seville" 303

Hempel (_Adina_) and Caruso (_Nemorino_) in "L'Elisir
d'Amore" 336

Caruso as _Edgardo_ in "Lucia di Lammermoor" 348

Galli-Curci as _Lucia_ in "Lucia di Lammermoor" 349

Galli-Curci as _Gilda_ in "Rigoletto" 392

Caruso as the Duke in "Rigoletto" 393

The Quartet in "Rigoletto." _The Duke_ (Sheehan),
_Maddalena_ (Albright), _Gilda_ (Easton), _Rigoletto_
(Goff) 400

Riccardo Martin as _Manrico_ in "Il Trovatore" 401

Schumann-Heink as _Azucena_ in "Il Trovatore" 410

Galli-Curci as _Violetta_ in "La Traviata" 411

Farrar as _Violetta_ in "La Traviata" 420

Scotti as _Germont_ in "La Traviata" 421

Emma Eames as _Aïda_ 442

Saléza as _Rhadames_ in "Aïda" 443

Louise Homer as _Amneris_ in "Aïda" 448

Rosina Galli in the Ballet of "Aïda" 449

Alda as _Desdemona_ in "Otello" 460

Amato as _Barnaba_ in "La Gioconda" 461

Caruso as _Enzo_ in "La Gioconda" 488

Louise Homer as _Laura_ in "La Gioconda" 489

Plançon as _Saint Bris_ in "The Huguenots" 508

Jean de Reszke as _Raoul_ in "The Huguenots" 509

Ober and De Luca; Caruso and Hempel in "Martha" 548

Plançon as _Méphistophélès_ in "Faust" 549

Galli-Curci as _Juliette_ in "Roméo et Juliette" 578

Calvé as _Carmen_ with Sparkes as _Frasquita_, and Braslau
as _Mercedes_ 579

Caruso as _Don José_ in "Carmen" 590

Caruso as _Don José_ in "Carmen" 591

Calvé as _Carmen_ 594

Amato as _Escamillo_ in "Carmen" 595

Gadski as _Santuzza_ in "Cavalleria Rusticana" 614

Bori as _Iris_ 615

Caruso as _Canio_ in "I Pagliacci" 630

Farrar as _Nedda_ in "I Pagliacci" 631

Farrar as _Mimi_ in "La Bohème" 644

Café Momus Scene, "La Bohème." Act II. _Mimi_
(Rennyson), _Musette_ (Joel), _Rudolph_ (Sheehan) 645

Cavalieri as _Tosca_ 656

Scotti as _Scarpia_ 657

Emma Eames as _Tosca_ 660

Caruso as _Mario_ in "Tosca" 661

Farrar as _Tosca_ 664

"Madama Butterfly." Act I. (Francis Maclennan,
Renée Vivienne, and Thomas Richards) 665

Farrar as _Cio-Cio-San_ in "Madama Butterfly" 668

Destinn as _Minnie_, Caruso as _Johnson_, and Amato as
_Jack Rance_ in "The Girl of the Golden West" 669

Alda as _Francesca_, and Martinelli as _Paolo_ in "Francesca
da Rimini" 682

Bori and Ferrari-Fontana in "The Love of Three
Kings" 683

Farrar as Catherine in "Mme. Sans-Gêne" 710

Galli-Curci as _Lakmé_ 711

Caruso as _Samson_ in "Samson and Dalila" 726

Mary Garden as _Grisélidis_ 727

Mary Garden as _Thaïs_ 730

Farrar and Amato as _Thaïs_ and _Athanaël_ 731

Farrar as _Thaïs_ 734

Farrar and Amato as _Thaïs_ and _Athanaël_ 735

Caruso as _Des Grieux_ in "Manon" 738

Mary Garden in "Le Jongleur de Nôtre Dame" 739

Mary Garden as _Louise_ 750

Lucienne Bréval as _Salammbô_ 751

Mary Garden as _Mélisande_ in "Pelléas and Mélisande" 754

Farrar as the _Goose Girl_ in "Königskinder" 776

Van Dyck and Mattfeld as _Hänsel_ and _Gretel_ 777

Mary Garden as _Salome_ 802

Hempel as the _Princess_ and Ober as _Octavian_ in "Der
Rosenkavalier" 803

Scene from the Ballet in "Prince Igor" (with Rosina
Galli) 820

Anna Case as _Feodor_, Didur as _Boris_, and Sparkes as
_Xenia_ in "Boris Godounoff" 821

The Complete Opera Book

Schools of Opera

There are three great schools of opera,--Italian, French, and German. None other has developed sufficiently to require comment in this brief chapter.

Of the three standard schools, the Italian is the most frankly melodious. When at its best, Italian vocal melody ravishes the senses. When not at its best, it merely tickles the ear and offends common sense. "Aïda" was a turning point in Italian music. Before Verdi composed "Aïda," Italian opera, despite its many beauties, was largely a thing of temperament, inspirationally, but often also carelessly set forth. Now, Italian opera composers no longer accept any libretto thrust at them. They think out their scores more carefully; they produce works in which due attention is paid to both vocal and orchestral effect. The older composers still represented in the repertoire are Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. The last-named, however, also reaches well over into the modern school of Italian opera, whose foremost living exponent is Puccini.

Although Rameau (1683-1764), whose "Castor and Pollux" held the stage until supplanted by Gluck's works, was a native of France, French opera had for its founder the Italian, Lully; and one of its chief exponents was the German, Meyerbeer. Two foreigners, therefore, have had a large share in developing the school. It boasts, however, many distinguished natives--Halévy, Auber, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet.

In the French school of opera the instrumental support of the voice is far richer and the combination of vocal and instrumental effect more discriminating than in the old school of Italian opera. A first cousin of Italian opera, the French, nevertheless, is more carefully thought out, sometimes even too calculated; but, in general, less florid, and never indifferent to the librettist and the significance of the lines he has written and the situations he has evoked. Massenet is, in the truest sense, the most recent representative of the school of Meyerbeer and Gounod, for Bizet's "Carmen" is unique, and Débussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" a wholly separate manifestation of French art for the lyric stage.

The German school of opera is distinguished by a seriousness of purpose that discards all effort at vocal display for itself alone, and strives, in a score, well-balanced as between voice and orchestra, to express more forcibly than could the spoken work, the drama that has been set to music.

An opera house like the Metropolitan, which practically has three companies, presents Italian, French, and German operas in the language in which they were written, or at least usually does so. Any speaker before an English-speaking audience can always elicit prolonged applause by maintaining that in English-speaking countries opera should be sung in English. But, in point of fact, and even disregarding the atrocities that masquerade as translations of opera into English, opera should be sung in the language in which it is written. For language unconsciously affects, I might even say determines, the structure of the melody.

Far more important than language, however, is it that opera be sung by great artists. For these assimilate music and give it forth in all its essence of truth and beauty. Were great artists to sing opera in Choctaw, it would still be welcome as compared with opera rendered by inferior interpreters, no matter in what language.

Opera Before Gluck

Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" (Orpheus and Eurydice), produced in 1762, is the oldest opera in the repertoire of the modern opera house. But when you are told that the Grand Opéra, Paris, was founded by Lully, an Italian composer, in 1672; that Italians were writing operas nearly a century earlier; that a German, Reinhard Keiser (1679-1739), is known to have composed at least 116 operas; and that another German, Johann Adolph Hasse, composed among his operas, numbering at least a hundred, one entitled "Artaxerxes," two airs from which were sung by Carlo Broschi every evening for ten years to soothe King Philip V. of Spain;--you will realize that opera existed, and even flourished before Gluck produced his "Orpheus and Eurydice."

Opera originated in Florence toward the close of the sixteenth century. A band of composers, enthusiastic, intellectual, aimed at reproducing the musical declamation which they believed to have been characteristic of the representation of Greek tragedy. Their scores were not melodious, but composed in a style of declamatory recitative highly dramatic for its day. What usually is classed as the first opera, Jacopo Peri's "Dafne," was privately performed in the Palazzo Corsi, Florence, in 1597. So great was its success that Peri was commissioned, in 1600, to write a similar work for the festivities incidental to the marriage of Henry IV. of France with Maria de Medici, and composed "Euridice," said to have been the first opera ever produced in public.

The new art form received great stimulus from Claudio Monteverdi, the Duke of Mantua's director of music, who composed "Arianna" (Ariadne) in honor of the marriage of Francesco Gonzaga with Margherita, Infanta of Savoy. The scene in which _Ariadne_ bewails her desertion by her lover was so dramatically written (from the standpoint of the day, of course) that it produced a sensation. The permanency of opera was assured, when Monteverdi brought out, with even greater success, his opera "Orfeo," which showed a further advance in dramatic expression, as well as in the treatment of the instrumental score. This composer invented the tremolo for strings--marvellous then, commonplace now, and even reprehensible, unless employed with great skill.

Monteverdi's scores contained, besides recitative, suggestions of melody. The Venetian composer, Cavalli, introduced melody more conspicuously into the vocal score in order to relieve the monotonous effect of a continuous recitative, that was interrupted only by brief melodious phrases. In his airs for voice he foreshadowed the aria form, which was destined to be freely developed by Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725). Scarlatti was the first to introduce into an opera score the _ritornello_--the instrumental introduction, interlude, or postlude to a composition for voice. Indeed, Scarlatti is regarded as the founder of what we call Italian opera, the chief characteristic of which is melody for the voice with a comparatively simple accompaniment.

By developing vocal melody to a point at which it ceased to be dramatically expressive, but degenerated into mere voice pyrotechnics, composers who followed Scarlatti laid themselves open to the charge of being too subservient to the singers, and of sacrificing dramatic truth and depth of expression to the vanity of those upon the stage. Opera became too much a series of show-pieces for its interpreters. The first practical and effective protest against this came from Lully, who already has been mentioned. He banished all meaningless embellishment from his scores. But in the many years that intervened between Lully's career and Gluck's, the abuse set in again. Then Gluck, from copying the florid Italian style of operatic composition early in his career, changed his entire method as late as 1762, when he was nearly fifty years old, and produced "Orfeo ed Euridice." From that time on he became the champion for the restoration of opera to its proper function as a well-balanced score, in which the voice, while pre-eminent, does not "run away with the whole show."

Indeed, throughout the history of opera, there have been recurring periods, when it has become necessary for composers with the true interest of the lyric stage at heart, to restore the proper balance between the creator of a work and its interpreters, in other words to prevent opera from degenerating from a musical drama of truly dramatic significance to a mere framework for the display of vocal pyrotechnics. Such a reformer was Wagner. Verdi, born the same year as Wagner (1813), but outliving him nearly twenty years, exemplified both the faults and virtues of opera. In his earlier works, many of which have completely disappeared from the stage, he catered almost entirely to his singers. But in "Aïda" he produced a masterpiece full of melody which, while offering every opportunity for beautiful singing, never degenerates into mere vocal display. What is here said of Verdi could have been said of Gluck. His earlier operas were in the florid style. Not until he composed "Orpheus and Eurydice" did he approach opera from the point of view of a reformer. "Orpheus" was his "Aïda."

Regarding opera Gluck wrote that "the true mission of music is to second the poetry, by strengthening the expression of the sentiments and increasing the interest of the situations, without interrupting and weakening the action by superfluous ornaments in order to tickle the ear and display the agility of fine voices."

These words might have been written by Richard Wagner, they express so well what he accomplished in the century following that in which Gluck lived. They might also have been penned by Verdi, had he chosen to write an introduction to his "Aïda," "Otello," or "Falstaff"; and they are followed by every successful composer of grand opera today--Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Massenet, Strauss.

In fact, however much the public may be carried away temporarily by astonishing vocal display introduced without reason save to be astonishing, the fate of every work for the lyric stage eventually has been decided on the principle enunciated above. Without being aware of it, the public has applied it. For no matter how sensationally popular a work may have been at any time, it has not survived unless, consciously or unconsciously, the composer has been guided by the cardinal principle of true dramatic expression.

Finally, I must not be misunderstood as condemning, at wholesale, vocal numbers in opera that require extraordinary technique. Scenes in opera frequently offer legitimate occasion for brilliant vocal display. Witness the arias of the _Queen of the Night_ in "The Magic Flute," "Una voce poco fa" in "The Barber of Seville," "Ah! non giunge" in "Sonnambula," the mad scene in "Lucia," "Caro nome" in "Rigoletto," the "Jewel Song" in "Faust," and even _Brünnhilde's_ valkyr shout in "Die Walküre"--works for the lyric stage that have escorted thousands of operatic scores to the grave, with Gluck's gospel on the true mission of opera for a funeral service.

Christoph Willibald Gluck

(1714-1787)

Gluck is the earliest opera composer represented in the repertoire of the modern opera house. In this country three of his works survive. These are, in the order of their production, "Orfeo ed Euridice" (Orpheus and Eurydice), "Armide," and "Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigenia in Tauris). "Orpheus and Eurydice," produced in 1762, is the oldest work of its kind on the stage. It is the great-great-grandfather of operas.

Its composer was a musical reformer and "Orpheus" was the first product of his musical reform. He had been a composer of operas in the florid vocal style, which sacrificed the dramatic verities to the whims, fancies, and ambitions of the singers, who sought only to show off their voices. Gluck began, with his "Orpheus," to pay due regard to true dramatic expression. His great merit is that he accomplished this without ignoring the beauty and importance of the voice, but by striking a correct balance between the vocal and instrumental portions of the score.

Simple as his operas appear to us today, they aroused a strife comparable only with that which convulsed musical circles during the progress of Wagner's career. The opposition to his reforms reached its height in Paris, whither he went in 1772. His opponents invited Nicola Piccini, at that time famous as a composer of operas in the florid Italian style, to compete with him. So fierce was the war between Gluckists and Piccinists, that duels were fought and lives sacrificed over the respective merits of the two composers. Finally each produced an opera on the subject of "Iphigenia in Tauris." Gluck's triumphed, Piccini's failed.

Completely victorious, Gluck retired to Vienna, where he died, November 25, 1787.

ORFEO ED EURIDICE

ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE

Opera in three acts. Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck;
book by Raniero di Calzabigi. Productions and revivals.
Vienna, October 5, 1762; Paris, as "Orphée et Eurydice,"
1774; London, Covent Garden, June 26, 1860; New York,
Metropolitan Opera House, 1885 (in German); Academy of
Music, American Opera Company, in English, under Theodore
Thomas, January 8, 1886, with Helene Hastreiter, Emma Juch,
and Minnie Dilthey; Metropolitan Opera House, 1910 (with
Homer, Gadski, and Alma Gluck).

CHARACTERS

ORPHEUS _Contralto_
EURYDICE _Soprano_
AMOR, God of Love _Soprano_
A HAPPY SHADE _Soprano_

Shepherds and Shepherdesses, Furies and Demons, Heroes and
Heroines in Hades.

_Time_--Antiquity.

_Place_--Greece and the Nether Regions.

Following a brief and solemn prelude, the curtain rises on Act I, showing a grotto with the tomb of _Eurydice_. The beautiful bride of _Orpheus_ has died. Her husband and friends are mourning at her tomb. During an affecting aria and chorus ("Thou whom I loved") funeral honours are paid to the dead bride. A second orchestra, behind the scenes, echoes, with charming effect, the distracted husband's evocations to his bride and the mournful measures of the chorus, until, in answer to the piercing cries of _Orpheus_ and the exclamatory recitative, "Gods, cruel gods," _Amor_ appears. He tells the bereaved husband that Zeus has taken pity on him. He shall have permission to go down into Hades and endeavour to propitiate Pluto and his minions solely through the power of his music. But, should he rescue _Eurydice_, he must on no account look back at her until he has crossed the Styx.

Upon that condition, so difficult to fulfil, because of the love of _Orpheus_ for his bride, turns the whole story. For should he, in answer to her pleading, look back, or explain to her why he cannot do so, she will immediately die. But _Orpheus_, confident in his power of song and in his ability to stand the test imposed by Zeus and bring his beloved _Eurydice_ back to earth, receives the message with great joy.

"Fulfil with joy the will of the gods," sings _Amor_, and _Orpheus_, having implored the aid of the deities, departs for the Nether World.

Louise Homer as Orpheus in "Orpheus and Eurydice"]