In ‘Nadeshda,’ an opera written upon a Russian subject, which was produced in 1885, there was much charming music, but the libretto was uninteresting, and the success of the work never equalled that of its predecessor.  The most attractive part of the opera was the delightfully quaint and original ballet music, to which local colour was given by clever orchestration and ingenious use of Russian rhythms.

To the initiative of the Carl Rosa company was due the production of Mr. Frederick Corder’s ‘Nordisa,’ a work of undoubted talent though suffering from a fatal lack of homogeneity, and of two operas by Sir Alexander Mackenzie.  The first of these, ‘Colomba,’ was produced in 1883.  It achieved a success, but the gloomy character of the libretto prevented it from becoming really popular.  It is founded upon Prosper Merimee’s famous Corsican tale.  The father of Orso and Colomba della Rebbia has been treacherously murdered by two of the family of Barracini.  Colomba is burning for vengeance, but her brother is an officer in the French army, and has been absent from Corsica for many years.  When he returns she finds that his love for Lydia, the daughter of the Count de Nevers, has driven thoughts of revenge from his mind.  She succeeds, however, in rousing him to action, and one day he kills both the murderers, though wounded himself by a cowardly ambush.  He has to take to the mountains for refuge, and there he remains, tended by Lydia and Colomba, until news of his pardon comes.  It is too late, however, to save the life of Colomba, who has been mortally wounded in endeavouring to divert the soldiers from Orso’s hiding-place.  Mackenzie’s music is exceedingly clever and effective.  He uses guiding themes with judgment and skill, and his employment of some old Corsican melodies is also very happy.  ‘Colomba’ is a work which eminently merits revival, and it will be probably heard of again.  ‘The Troubadour,’ which was produced a few years later, failed completely.  The story is thoroughly dull, and completely failed to inspire the musician.  Sir Alexander Mackenzie has recently completed the score of an opera on the subject of Dickens’s ‘Cricket on the Hearth,’ the production of which is awaited with much interest.

During the closing years of the nineteenth century the fortunes of English opera, never very brilliant, reached a lower point than at any time in our musical history.  The Carl Rosa opera company fell upon evil days, and was compelled to restrict its energies almost entirely to the performance of stock operas, while at Covent Garden the opportunities afforded to native composers were few and far between.  In these disheartening circumstances it is not surprising that English musicians were not encouraged to devote their powers to a form of art in which so little prospect of success could be entertained.  What they might have achieved under happier conditions the operatic career of Sir Charles Stanford suggests in the most convincing manner.  Stanford is a composer whose natural endowment conspicuously fits him for operatic work, and he has grasped such opportunities as have been vouchsafed to him with almost unvarying success.  Had he been blessed with a more congenial environment he would have taken rank with the foremost operatic composers of his time.