role was given to Legros.

While it may be true that the author improved this work in the French
version, it is not true in every case. There is some question whether
the overture existed in the Italian score. It is generally believed that
it did, but there are old copies of this version in existence and they
begin the opera with the funeral chorus and show no overture at all.
This overture, although the _Mercure de France_ treats it as a
"beautiful symphonic piece which serves as a good introduction to the
work," in reality does not resemble the style of the rest at all. It in
no way prepares for that admirable chorus at the beginning--unequaled of
its kind--which Orpheus's broken hearted cry of "Eurydice! Eurydice!"
makes so pathetic.

The first act of _Orfeo_ ends in a tumultuous effect of the stringed
instruments which was evidently intended to indicate a change of scene
and the appearance of the stage settings of the infernal regions. This
passage does not appear in the French _Orphee_ and it is lacking in the
engraved score, where it is replaced by a bravura aria of doubtful
taste, accompanied by a single quartet. Whether the stage managers
wanted an entr'acte or the tenor, Legros, demanded an effective aria, or
for both these reasons, a reading of the manuscript indicates how
absolutely the author's meaning was changed. There is no doubt that
except for some such reason he would have changed this aria and put it
in harmony with the rest of the work.

For a long time this aria was attributed to Bertoni, the composer, and
Gluck was accused of plagiarizing it. As a matter of fact, and to the
contrary, this aria came from an older Italian opera of Gluck's. Bertoni
not only imitated it in one of his scores, but he had the hardihood to
write an _Orfeo_ on the text already followed by Gluck in which he
plagiarized the work of his illustrious predecessor in a scandalous
fashion.

This same aria, changed with real genius and performed with prodigious
eclat by Madame Viardot, and re-orchestrated by myself, was one of the
strongest reasons for the success of the famous performances at the
Theatre-Lyrique. But it is well understood that it could not properly
find a place in an edition where the sole end was artistic sincerity and
purity of the text.

From this point of view it would seem that the best manner of giving
_Orphee_ would be to conform to the author's definitive version. A tenor
would have to take the part