which begins the prologue, ends the epilogue.  The reader may label it as he pleases.  Its significance is obvious from the circumstances of its employment.  It rings out fortissimo when the mystic chorus, which stands for the Divine Voice, puts the question, “Knowest thou Faust?” An angelic ascription of praise to the Creator of the Universe and to Divine Love is the first vocal utterance and the last.  In his notes Boito observes:  “Goethe was a great admirer of form, and his poem ends as it begins,—­the first and last words of ‘Faust’ are uttered in Heaven.”  Then he quotes a remark from Blaze de Bury’s essay on Goethe, which is apropos, though not strictly accurate:  “The glorious motive which the immortal phalanxes sing in the introduction to the first part of ‘Faust’ recurs at the close, garbed with harmonies and mystical clouds.  In this Goethe has acted like the musicians,—­like Mozart, who recurs in the finale of ’Don Giovanni’ to the imposing phrase of the overture.”

M. de Bury refers, of course, to the supernatural music, which serves as an introduction to the overture to “Don Giovanni,” and accompanies the visitation of the ghostly statue and the death of the libertine.  But this is not the end of Mozart’s opera as he wrote it, as readers of this book have been told.

This prologue of “Mefistofele” plays in heaven.  “In the heavens,” says Theodore Marzials, the English translator of Boito’s opera, out of deference to the religious sensibilities of the English people, to spare which he also changes “God” into “sprites,” “spirits,” “powers of good,” and “angels.”  The effect is vastly diverting, especially when Boito’s paraphrase of Goethe’s

  Von Zeit zu Zeit seh’ ich den Alten gern
  Und hute mich mit ihm zu brechen. 
  Es ist gar hubsch von einem grossen Herrn,
  So menschlich mit dem Teufel selbst zu sprechen. {1}

is turned into:  “Now and again ’tis really pleasant thus to chat with the angels, and I’ll take good care not to quarrel with them.  ’Tis beautiful to hear Good and Evil speak together with such humanity.”  The picture disclosed by the opening of the curtain is a mass of clouds, with Mefistofele, like a dark blot, standing on a corner of his cloak in the shadow.  The denizens of the celestial regions are heard but never seen.  A trumpet sounds the fundamental theme, which is repeated in full harmony after instruments of gentler voice have sung a hymn-like phrase, as follows:—­

[Musical excerpt]

It is the first period of the “Salve Regina” sung by Earthly Penitents in the finale of the prologue.  The canticle is chanted through, its periods separated by reiterations of the fundamental theme.  A double chorus acclaims the Lord of Angels and Saints.  A plan, evidently derived from the symphonic form, underlies the prologue as a whole.  Prelude and chorus are rounded out by the significant trumpet phrase.  One movement is completed.  There follows a second movement, an Instrumental Scherzo, with a first section beginning thus:—­