The last act opens with a song by Carmen ("Though Love’s the greatest Plague in Life"), which falls far below the excellence of the other songs in the work.  It is followed by a buffo duet between Carmen and Florio, who agree to marry.  The Queen and ladies enter, and the former sings a bravura air ("Oh, joyous, happy Day!"), which was intended by the composer to show Miss Pyne’s vocal ability.  At this point a message is brought her from Don Sebastian, announcing his marriage.  Enraged at the discovery that the muleteer is not Don Sebastian, she severely upbraids him, and he replies in another exquisite ballad ("’Twas Rank and Fame that tempted thee").  At its close she once more declares she will be true to the muleteer.  Don Pedro is delighted at the apparent success of his scheme, as he believes he can force her to abdicate if she marries a muleteer, and gives vent to his joy in a martial song ("Hark! hark! methinks I hear").  The last scene is in the throne-room, where Manuel announces he is king of Castile, and mounts the throne singing a stirring song closely resembling, in its style, the “Fair Land of Poland,” in “The Bohemian Girl.”  Elvira expresses her delight in a bravura air ("Oh, no! by Fortune blessed"), and the curtain falls.  The story of the opera is very complicated, and sometimes tiresome; but the music is well sustained throughout, especially the buffo numbers, while some of the ballads are among the best ever written by an English composer.

BEETHOVEN.

Ludwig Von Beethoven, the greatest of composers, was born Dec. 17, 1770, at Bonn, Germany, his father being a court singer in the chapel of the Elector of Cologne.  He studied in Vienna with Haydn, with whom he did not always agree, however, and afterwards with Albrechtsberger.  His first symphony appeared in 1801, his earlier symphonies, in what is called his first period, being written in the Mozart style.  His only opera, “Fidelio,” for which he wrote four overtures, was first brought out in Vienna in 1805; his oratorio, “Christ on the Mount of Olives,” in 1812; and his colossal Ninth Symphony, with its choral setting of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” in 1824.  In addition to his symphonies, his opera, oratorios, and masses, and the immortal group of sonatas for the piano, which were almost revelations in music, he developed chamber music to an extent far beyond that reached by his predecessors, Haydn and Mozart.  His symphonies exhibit surprising power, and a marvellous comprehension of the deeper feelings in life and the influences of nature, both human and physical.  He wrote with the deepest earnestness, alike in the passion and the calm of his music, and he invested it also with a genial humor as well as with the highest expression of pathos.  His works are epic in character.  He was the great tone-poet of music.  His subjects were always lofty and dignified, and to their treatment he brought not only a profound knowledge of musical