though the lighter school of opera in Germany produced nothing of importance, upon the more congenial soil of France opera comique, in the hands of a school of earnest and gifted composers, was acquiring a musical distinction which it was far from possessing in the days of Gretry and Monsigny.  Strictly speaking, the operas of Mehul and Cherubini should be ranked as operas comiques, by reason of the spoken dialogue which takes the place of the recitative; but the high seriousness which continually animates the music of these masters makes it impossible to class their works with operas so different in aim and execution as those of Gretry.  Of the many writers of opera comique at the beginning of this century, it will be enough to mention two of the most prominent, Nicolo and Boieldieu.  Nicolo Isouard (1777-1818), to give him his full name, shone less by musical science or dramatic instinct than by a delicate and pathetic grace which endeared his music to the hearts of his contemporaries.  He had little originality, and his facility often descends to commonplace, but much of the music in ‘Joconde’ and ‘Cendrillon’ lives by grace of its inimitable tenderness and charm.  Nicolo is the Greuze of music.  Boieldieu (1775-1834) stands upon a very different plane.  Although he worked within restricted limits, his originality and resource place him among the great masters of French music.  His earlier works are, for the most, light and delicate trifles; but in ‘Jean de Paris’ (1812) and ‘La Dame Blanche’ (1825), to name only two of his many successful works, he shows real solidity of style and no little command of musical invention, combined with the delicate melody and pathetic grace which rarely deserted him.  The real strength and distinction of ‘La Dame Blanche’ have sufficed to keep it alive until the present day, although it has never, in spite of the Scottish origin of the libretto, won in this country a tithe of the popularity which it enjoys in France.  The story is a combination of incidents taken from Scott’s ‘Monastery’ and ‘Guy Mannering.’  The Laird of Avenel, who was obliged to fly from Scotland after the battle of Culloden, entrusted his estates to his steward Gaveston.  Many years having passed without tidings of the absentee, Gaveston determines to put the castle and lands up for sale.  He has sedulously fostered a tradition which is current among the villagers, that the castle is haunted by a White Lady, hoping by this means to deter any of the neighbouring farmers from competing with him for the estate.  The day before the sale takes place, Dickson, one of the farmers, is summoned to the castle by Anna, an orphan girl who had been befriended by the Laird.  Dickson is too superstitious to venture, but his place is taken by George Brown, a young soldier, who arrived at the village that day.  George has an interview with the White Lady, who is of course Anna in disguise.  She recognises George as the man whose life she saved after a battle, and knowing him to be the rightful