Of the younger men the most prominent are Vincent d’Indy, Gustave Charpentier, and Claude Debussy.  Vincent d’Indy’s ‘Fervaal’ was produced at Brussels in 1897 and was given in Paris shortly afterwards.  It is a story of the Cevennes in heroic times, somewhat in the Wagnerian manner, and the music is defiantly Wagnerian from first to last Clever as ‘Fervaal’ unquestionably is, it is valuable less as a work of art than as an indication of the real bent of the composer’s talent.  The dramatic parts of the opera suggest nothing but a brilliant exercise in the Wagnerian style, but in the lyrica scenes, such as the last act in its entirety, there are evidences of an individuality of conspicuous power and originality.  ‘L’Etranger’ (1903) hardly bore out the promise of ‘Fervaal,’ in spite of much clever musicianship.  The plot is an adaptation of the legend of the Flying Dutchman, and the unmitigated gloom of the work prevented it from winning the degree of favour to which its many merits entitled it.  Gustave Charpentier’s ‘Louise,’ produced in 1900, hit the taste of the Parisian public immediately and decisively.  It tells the story of the loves of Louise, a Montmartre work-girl, and Julien, a poet of Bohemian tendencies.  Louise’s parents refuse their consent to the marriage, whereupon Louise quits her home and her work and follows Julien.  Together they plunge into the whirl of Parisian life.  Louise’s mother appears, and persuades her daughter to come home and nurse her sick father.  In the last act, the parents, having, as they think, snatched their child from destruction, do all in their power to keep her at home.  At first she is resigned, but afterwards revolts, and the curtain falls as she rushes out to rejoin Julien with her father’s curses ringing in her ears.  The strongly marked Parisian flavour of the libretto ensured the success of ‘Louise’ in Paris, but the music counts for a good deal too.  Charpentier owes much to Bruneau, but his music is more organic in quality, and his orchestration is infinitely superior.  Nothing could be more brilliant than his translation into music of the sights and sounds of Parisian street life.  The vocal parts of ‘Louise’ are often ugly and expressionless, but they are framed in an orchestral setting of curious alertness and vivacity.  It remains to be seen how Charpentier’s unquestionable talent will adapt itself to work of a wider scope than ‘Louise.’

The fame of Claude Debussy is a plant of recent growth, and dates, so far as the general public is concerned, from the production of his ‘Pelleas et Melisande’ in 1902, though for some years before he had been the idol of an intimate circle of adorers.  ‘Pelleas et Melisande’ is founded upon Maeterlinck’s play of that name, the action of which it follows closely, but not closely enough, it seems, to please the poet, who publicly dissociated himself from the production of Debussy’s opera and, metaphorically speaking, cursed it root and branch.  Golaud, the