improve upon his model In ‘Das Heimchen am Herd’ (1896), the libretto of which is founded upon Dickens’s famous story ‘The Cricket on the Hearth,’ Goldmark seems to have tried to emulate the success of Humperdinck’s ‘Haensel und Gretel,’ There are suggestions in it, too, of the influence of Smetana who dawned upon the Viennese horizon in 1890.  In this work, which has been performed with great success in Germany, and was produced in English by the Carl Rosa Company in 1900, the composer contrived very cleverly to put off the grandiose manner of his earlier operas.  Elaborate as the orchestral part of the score is, it is never allowed to overpower the voices, and the general impression of the opera is one of rare simplicity and charm.  Goldmark’s later works, ‘Die Kriegsgefangene’ (1899) and ‘Goetz von Berlichingen’ (1902), have been less successful.

Cyrill Kistler (1848-1907) was spoken of some years ago as the man upon whom Wagner’s mantle had fallen, but his recent death has shattered the hopes founded upon the promise of his early works.  ‘Kunihild,’ a work dealing with a heroic legend, was produced in 1883.  It is a clever imitation of the Wagnerian manner, except as regards the choruses, which scarcely rise above the standard of the Liedertafel; but neither at its production nor at an elaborate revival, which took place at Wuerzburg a few years ago, did it meet with more than a succes d’estime.  There seems to be better work in ‘Eulenspiegel,’ a comic opera founded upon Kotzebue’s comedy.  The music is instinct with genuine humour, and though but remotely suggesting the methods of Wagner shows complete mastery of technical resource.

The most important contribution to German opera made during the decade that followed the death of Wagner was Humperdinck’s ‘Haensel und Gretel,’ which was produced in December 1893.  Before that time the composer was known to fame, at any rate so far as England is concerned, only by a couple of cantatas and some arrangements of scenes from Wagner’s works for concert purposes, but at one bound he became the most popular living operatic composer of Germany.  The libretto of ‘Haensel und Gretel’ is a very charming arrangement, in three scenes, of a familiar nursery tale.  The action opens in the cottage of Peter the broom-maker.  Haensel and Gretel, the two children, are left to keep house together.  They soon tire of their tasks, and Gretel volunteers to teach her brother how to dance.  In the middle of their romp, Gertrude their mother comes in, and angrily packs them off into the wood to pick strawberries.  Tired and faint she sinks into a chair, bewailing the lot of the poor man’s wife, with empty cupboards and hungry mouths to be fed.  Soon Peter’s voice is heard singing in the distance.  He has had a good sale for his besoms, and comes back laden with good cheer.  But his delight is cut short by the absence of the children, and when he finds that they are out in the wood alone, he terrifies