the sculptor’s mighty Perseus, which wins him the hand of the fair Teresa.  The Carnival scenes are gay and brilliant, but the form of the work belongs to a bygone age, and it is scarcely possible that a revival of it would meet with wide acceptance.  ‘Beatrice et Benedict’ is a graceful setting of Shakespeare’s ’Much Ado about Nothing.’  It is a work of the utmost delicacy and refinement.  Though humour is not absent from the score, the prevailing impression is one of romantic charm, passing even to melancholy.  Very different is the double drama ‘Les Troyens.’  Here Berlioz drew his inspiration directly from Gluck, and the result is a work of large simplicity and austere grandeur, which it is not too much to hope will some day take its place in the world’s repertory side by side with the masterpieces of Wagner.  The first part, ‘La Prise de Troie,’ describes the manner in which the city of Priam fell into the hands of the Greeks.  The drama is dominated by the form of the sad virgin Cassandra.  In vain she warns her people of their doom.  They persist in dragging up the wooden horse from the sea-beach, where it was left by the Greeks.  The climax of the last act is terrific.  AEneas, warned by the ghost of Hector of the approaching doom of Troy, escapes; but the rest of the Trojans fall victims to the swords of the Greeks in a scene of indescribable carnage and terror.  Cassandra and the Trojan women, driven to take shelter in the temple of Cybele, slay themselves rather than fall into the hands of their captors.  ‘La Prise de Troie’ is perhaps epic rather than dramatic, but as a whole it leaves an impression of severe and spacious grandeur, which can only be paralleled in the finest inspirations of Gluck.  In the second division of the work, ‘Les Troyens a Carthage,’ human interest is paramount.  Berlioz was an enthusiastic student of Virgil, and he follows the tragic tale of the AEneid closely.  The appearance of AEneas at Carthage, the love of Dido, the summons of Mercury, AEneas’ departure and the passion and death of Dido, are depicted in a series of scenes of such picturesqueness and power, such languor and pathos, as surely cannot be matched outside the finest pages of Wagner.  A time will certainly come when this great work, informed throughout with a passionate yearning for the loftiest ideal of art, will receive the recognition which is its due.  Of late indeed there have been signs of a revival of interest in Berlioz’s mighty drama, and the recent performances of ‘Les Troyens’ in Paris and Brussels have opened the eyes of many musicians to its manifold beauties.  Some years ago the experiment was made of adapting Berlioz’s cantata, ’La Damnation de Faust,’ for stage purposes.  The work is of course hopelessly undramatic, but the beauty of the music and the opportunities that it affords for elaborate spectacular effects have combined to win the work a certain measure of success, especially in Italy where Gounod’s ‘Faust’ has never won the popularity that it enjoys north