is thoroughly and radically Italian.  In ‘Aida’ Verdi’s vein of melody is as rich as ever, but it is controlled by a keen artistic sense, which had never had full play before.  For the first time in his career he discovered the true balance between singers and orchestra, and at once took his proper place among the great musicians of the world.  Special attention must be directed to Verdi’s use of local colour in ‘Aida.’  This is often a dangerous stumbling-block to musicians, but Verdi triumphed most where all the world had failed.  In the scene of the consecration of Radames, he employs two genuine Oriental tunes with such consummate art that this scene is not only one of the few instances in the history of opera in which Oriental colour has been successfully employed, but, in the opinion of many, is the most beautiful part of the whole opera.  Another magnificent scene is the judgment of Radames, in the fourth act, where an extraordinary effect is gained by the contrast of the solemn voices of the priests within the chamber with the passionate grief of Amneris upon the threshold.  The love scene, in the third act, shows the lyrical side of Verdi’s genius in its most voluptuous aspect.  The picture of the palm-clad island of Philae and the dreaming bosom of the Nile is divinely mirrored in Verdi’s score.  The music seems to be steeped in the odorous charm of the warm southern night.

Sixteen years elapsed before the appearance of Verdi’s next work.  It was generally supposed that the aged composer had bidden farewell for ever to the turmoil and excitement of the theatre, and the interest excited by the announcement of a new opera from his pen was proportionately keen.  The libretto of ‘Otello’ (1887), a masterly condensation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, was from the pen of Arrigo Boito, himself a musician of no ordinary accomplishment.  The action of the opera opens in Cyprus, amidst the fury of a tempest.  Othello arrives fresh from a victory over the Turks, and is greeted enthusiastically by the people, who light a bonfire in his honour.  Then follows the drinking scene.  Cassio, plied by Iago, becomes intoxicated and fights with Montano.  The duel is interrupted by the entrance of Othello, who degrades Cassio from his captaincy, and dismisses the people to their homes.  The act ends with a duet of flawless loveliness between Othello and Desdemona, the words of which are ingeniously transplanted from Othello’s great speech before the Senate.  In the second act Iago advises Cassio to induce Desdemona to intercede for him, and, when left alone, pours forth a terrible confession of his unfaith in the famous ‘Credo.’  This, one of the few passages in the libretto not immediately derived from Shakespeare, is a triumph on Boito’s part.  The highest praise that can be given to it is to say, which is the literal truth, that it falls in no way beneath the poetical and dramatic standard of its context.  Othello now enters, and Iago contrives to sow the first