seen in the musicianly development of the melodies than in their employment as guiding themes, though of this, too, there are not a few instances.  But the parts of the work in which Goetz’s indebtedness to Wagner are most apparent are the choruses, which, both in their tunefulness and in the elaborate nature of the part-writing, often recall ’Die Meistersinger,’ and in the orchestration, which is extraordinarily fanciful and imaginative.  ‘Der Widerspaenstigen Zaehmung’ has never been properly appreciated in this country, in spite of the familiar nature of the libretto.  Goetz left another opera, ‘Francesca da Rimini,’ unfinished.  This was completed by his friend Ernst Frank, but has never met with much success.

Cornelius and Goetz would have been the first to admit the influence which Wagner’s works exercised upon their imagination, yet their admiration for his music never seduced them into anything like mere imitation.  The operas of Carl Goldmark are founded far more directly upon the methods and system of Wagner.  Yet it would be unjust to dismiss him as a mere plagiarist.  In his first work, ‘Die Koenigin von Saba’ (1875), there is a great deal which is entirely independent of Wagner’s or any one else’s influence.  The plot of the work has really nothing Biblical about it, and if the names of the characters were changed, the work might be produced to-morrow at Covent Garden without offending the most puritanical susceptibilities.  Sulamith, the daughter of the high priest, is to wed Assad, a Jewish warrior, upon his return from a military expedition, but Assad has fallen in with the Queen of Sheba on her way to Jerusalem, and her charms have proved fatal to his constancy.  Sulamith is prepared to forgive him, but his love for the queen is irresistible, and even at the altar he leaves Sulamith for her embraces.  Finally Assad is banished to the desert, where he is overwhelmed by a sandstorm.  ‘Die Koenigin von Saba’ is a strong and effective opera.  The local colour is managed very skilfully, and the orchestration is novel and brilliant.  Yet there is very little of that indefinable quality, which we call sincerity, about the score.  It was happily described at its production as a clever imitation of good music.  The influence of Wagner is strongest in the love music, which owes much to ’Tristan und Isolde,’ ‘Merlin’ (1886), Goldmark’s second opera, has not been as successful in Germany as ‘Die Koenigin von Saba,’ The libretto, which is founded upon the Arthurian legend of Merlin and Vivien, shows many points of resemblance to Wagner’s later works, and the music follows his system of guiding themes far more closely than in the earlier work.  ‘Merlin’ may stand as an instance of the unfortunate influence which a man of Wagner’s power and originality exercises upon his contemporaries.  There is little in it which cannot be traced more or less directly to a prototype in the works of Wagner, and it need scarcely be said that Goldmark does not