his genius under a more lyrical aspect.  Here he gives freer reign to the romanticism which he had designedly checked in ‘Alceste,’ and much of the music seems in a measure to anticipate the new influences which Mozart was afterwards to infuse into German music.  Unfortunately the libretto of ‘Paride ed Elena,’ though possessing great poetical merit, is monotonous and deficient in incident, so that the opera has never won the success which it deserves, and is now almost completely forgotten.

The admiration for the French school of opera which had been aroused in Gluck by hearing the works of Rameau was not by any means a passing fancy.  His music proves that the French school had more influence upon his development than the Italian, so it was only natural that he should wish to have an opportunity of introducing his works to Paris.  That opportunity came in 1774, when, after weary months of intrigue and disappointment, his ‘Iphigene en Aulide’ was produced at the Academie Royale de Musique.  After that time Gluck wrote all his greatest works for the French stage, and became so completely identified with the country of his adoption, that nowadays we are far more apt to think of him as a French than as a German composer.  ‘Iphigenie en Aulide’ is founded upon Racine’s play, which in its turn had been derived from the tragedy of Euripides.  The scene of the opera is laid at Aulis, where the Greek fleet is prevented by contrary winds from starting for Troy.  Diana, who has been unwittingly insulted by Agamemnon, demands a human sacrifice, and Iphigenia, the guiltless daughter of Agamemnon, has been named by the high priest Calchas as the victim.  Iphigenia and her mother Clytemnestra are on their way to join the fleet at Aulis, and Agamemnon has sent a despairing message to bid them return home, hoping thus to avoid the necessity of sacrificing his child.  Meanwhile the Greek hosts, impatient of delay, clamour for the victim, and are only appeased by the assurance of Calchas that the sacrifice shall take place that very day.  Left alone with Agamemnon, Calchas entreats him to submit to the will of the gods.  Agamemnon, torn by conflicting emotions, at first refuses, but afterwards, relying upon the message which he has sent to his wife and daughter, promises that if Iphigenia sets foot in Aulis he will give her up to death.  He has hardly spoken the words when shouts of joy announce the arrival of Clytemnestra and Iphigenia.  The message has miscarried, and they are already in the camp.  As a last resource Agamemnon now tells Clytemnestra that Achilles, the lover of her daughter, is false, hoping that this will drive her from the camp.  Clytemnestra calls upon Iphigenia to thrust her betrayer from her bosom, and Iphigenia replies so heroically that it seems as though Agamemnon’s plot to save his daughter’s life might actually succeed.  Unfortunately Achilles himself appears, and, after a scene of reproach and recrimination, succeeds in dispelling Iphigenia’s doubts and winning her to complete reconciliation.