“The golden thread of melody flows on, side by side with the mighty harmony, like a heavenly hope; it is embroidered on it, and with what marvelous skill!  Genius never lets go of the science that guides it.  Here Alice’s song is in B flat leading into F sharp, the key of the demon’s chorus.  Do you hear the tremolo in the orchestra?  The host of devils clamor for Robert.

“Bertram now reappears, and this is the culminating point of musical interest; after a recitative, worthy of comparison with the finest work of the great masters, comes the fierce conflict in E flat between two tremendous forces—­one on the words ‘Oui, tu me connais!’ on a diminished seventh; the other, on that sublime F, ’Le ciel est avec moi.’  Hell and the Crucifix have met for battle.  Next we have Bertram threatening Alice, the most violent pathos ever heard—­the Spirit of Evil expatiating complacently, and, as usual, appealing to personal interest.  Robert’s arrival gives us the magnificent unaccompanied trio in A flat, the first skirmish between the two rival forces and the man.  And note how clearly that is expressed,” said Gambara, epitomizing the scene with such passion of expression as startled Andrea.

“All this avalanche of music, from the clash of cymbals in common time, has been gathering up to this contest of three voices.  The magic of evil triumphs!  Alice flies, and you have the duet in D between Bertram and Robert.  The devil sets his talons in the man’s heart; he tears it to make it his own; he works on every feeling.  Honor, hope, eternal and infinite pleasures—­he displays them all.  He places him, as he did Jesus, on the pinnacle of the Temple, and shows him all the treasures of the earth, the storehouse of sin.  He nettles him to flaunt his courage; and the man’s nobler mind is expressed in his exclamation: 

  “Des chevaliers de ma patrie
  L’honneur toujours fut le soutien!

“And finally, to crown the work, the theme comes in which sounded the note of fatality at the beginning.  Thus, the leading strain, the magnificent call to the deed: 

  “Nonnes qui reposez sous cette froide pierre,
  M’entendez-vous?

“The career of the music, gloriously worked out, is gloriously finished by the allegro vivace of the bacchanalian chorus in D minor.  This, indeed, is the triumph of hell!  Roll on, harmony, and wrap us in a thousand folds!  Roll on, bewitch us!  The powers of darkness have clutched their prey; they hold him while they dance.  The great genius, born to conquer and to reign, is lost!  The devils rejoice, misery stifles genius, passion will wreck the knight!”

And here Gambara improvised a fantasia of his own on the bacchanalian chorus, with ingenious variations, and humming the air in a melancholy drone as if to express the secret sufferings he had known.