‘Kassya,’ which the composer left unfinished, was orchestrated by Massenet, and produced in 1893.  In this work Delibes attempted a tragic story to which his delicate talent was ill suited, and the opera achieved little success.  Delibes is a typically French musician.  Slight as his works often are, the exquisite skill of the workmanship saves them from triviality.  He made no pretensions to advanced views, and though he occasionally trifles with guiding themes, the interest of his works rests almost entirely upon his dainty vein of melody and the finish of his orchestration.

With Delibes may be classed Ferdinand Poise (1828-1892), a composer who made a speciality of operas founded upon the comedies of Moliere and his contemporaries, and Ernest Guiraud (18371892), whose ‘Piccolino’ (1876) is one of the daintiest of modern comic operas.  His ‘Fredegonde,’ produced in Paris in 1895, proved emphatically that his talent did not lie in the direction of grand opera.  Edouard Lalo (1823-1892), a composer of no little charm and resource, owes his fame chiefly to ’Le Roi d’Ys,’ which was successfully produced at the Opera Comique in 1888, and was played in London in 1901.  It is a gloomy story, founded upon a Breton legend.  Margared and Rozenn, the two daughters of the King of Ys, both love the warrior Mylio, but Mylio’s heart is given to Rozenn.  The slighted Margared in revenge betrays her father’s city to Karnac, the defeated enemy of her country, giving him the keys of the sluices which protect the town from the sea.  Karnac opens the sluices and the tide rushes in.  The town and its people are on the point of being overwhelmed, when Margared, stricken by remorse, throws herself into the waters.  St. Corentin, the patron saint of Ys, accepts the sacrifice, and the sea retires.  ‘Le Roi d’Ys’ is an excellent specimen of the kind of opera which French composers of the second rank used to write before the sun of Wagner dawned upon their horizon.  It is redolent of Meyerbeer and Gounod, and though some of the scenes are not without vigour, it is impossible to avoid feeling that in ‘Le Roi d’Ys’ Lalo was forcing a graceful and delicate talent into an uncongenial groove.  He is at his best in the lighter parts of the work, such as the pretty scene of Rozenn’s wedding, which is perfectly charming.  Emmanuel Chabrier (1842-1894), after writing a comic opera of thoroughly Gallic verve and grace, ‘Le Roi malgre lui,’ announced himself as a staunch adherent of Wagner in the interesting but unequal ‘Gwendoline,’ which was performed at Brussels in 1886.  Benjamin Godard (1849-1895), one of the most prolific of modern composers, won no theatrical success until the production of ‘La Vivandiere’ (1895), an attractive work constructed upon conventional lines, in which the banality of the material employed is often redeemed by clever treatment.  Emile Paladilhe won a brilliant success in 1886 with ‘Patrie,’ and among other meritorious composers of what may be called the pre-Wagnerian type are Victorin Joncieres (1839-1903) and Thodeore Dubois.