which is heard again in the last scene, its lightly tripping measures contrasting strangely with the savage glee of Rigoletto, so soon to change to wails of despair as he realizes the full force of the malediction.  The second is the great quartet in the third scene between the Duke, Gilda, Magdalena, and Rigoletto ("Bella figlia dell’ amore"), which stands out as an inspiration in comparison with the rest of the opera, fine as its music is.  The story itself is almost too repulsive for stage representation; but in beauty, freshness, originality, and dramatic expression the music of “Rigoletto” is Verdi’s best; and in all this music the quartet is the masterpiece.

LA TRAVIATA.

“La Traviata,” an opera in three acts, words by Piave, is founded upon Dumas’s “Dame aux Camelias,” familiar to the English stage as “Camille.”  The original play is supposed to represent phases of modern French life; but the Italian libretto changes the period to the year 1700, in the days of Louis XIV.; and there are also some material changes of characters,—­Marguerite Gauthier of the original appearing as Violetta Valery, and Olympia as Flora Belvoix, at whose house the ball scene takes place.  The opera was first produced at Venice, March 6, 1853, with the following cast of the principal parts:—­

VIOLETTA      Mme. DONATELLI. 
ALFREDO       M. GRAZIANI. 
GERMONT       M. VARESI.

The opera at its first production was a complete failure, though this was due more to the singers than to the music.  It is said that when the doctor announced in the third act that Mme. Donatelli, who impersonated the consumptive heroine, and who was one of the stoutest ladies ever seen on the stage, had but a few days to live, the whole audience broke out into roars of laughter.  Time has brought its consolations to the composer, however, for “Traviata” is now one of the most popular operas in the modern repertory.  When it was first produced in Paris, Oct. 27, 1864, Christine Nilsson made her debut in it.  In London, the charming little singer Mme. Piccolomini made her debut in the same opera, May 24, 1856.  Adelina Patti, since that time, has not only made Violetta the strongest character in her repertory, but is without question the most finished representative of the fragile heroine the stage has seen.

The story as told by the librettist simply resolves itself into three principal scenes,—­the supper at Violetta’s house, where she makes the acquaintance of Alfred, and the rupture between them occasioned by the arrival of Alfred’s father; the ball at the house of Flora; and the death scene and reconciliation, linked together by recitative, so that the dramatic unity of the original is lost to a certain extent.  The first act opens with a gay party in Violetta’s house.  Among the crowd about her is Alfred Germont, a young man from Provence, who is passionately in love with her.