s. Norse folk-lore. English nursery
rhymes. Crickets as fiddlers. Progenitors of violin. The violin of
Queen Elizabeth and her age. Shakespeare in Twelfth Night. Household
of Charles II. Butler, in Hudibras. Viola d'amore in Milwaukee, Wis.
Brescian and Cremonese violin-makers. Early violinists. Value and
history of some violins. Strings and bow. Violin virtuosi from
Corelli to our day. Mad rush for technique.

Queens of Song 183

Florentine lady, Vittoria Archilei. Embryo opera of Cavalieri.
Peri's "Eurydice." Euterpe. Marthe le Rochois and Lully's operas.
Rival queens in London. Steele, in "Tattler." Second pair of rivals,
Cuzzoni and Faustina. Master Handel. Germany's earliest queen of
song. Frederick the Great and German singers. Mrs. Billington. Haydn
and Sir Joshua Reynold's St. Cecilia. Mozart's operas introduced
into England. Catalani. Pasta. Sontag. Schroeder-Devrient and
Goethe's "Erl King." Malibran a dazzling Meteor. Another daughter of
Manuel del Popolo Garcia. Marchesi, Grisi and Mario. Manuel Garcia
and the Swedish Nightingale. Other Swedish songstresses. Patti.
Queens of song pass in review. Two Wagner interpreters. A Valkyrie's
horse. A word for American girls.

The Opera and Its Reformers 213

Evolution of drama. At the altar of Dionysus. Greek poetry and
music. Aristotle on Greek stage-plays. AEschylus and Sophocles.
Euripides. Words, music and scenic effect. Lenaean theatre
exhibitions. More costly than Peloponnesian war. Roman dominion.
Primitive Christian church. St. Augustine. Mystery, miracle,
morality and passion plays. Strolling histriones, etc. Florence
"Academy." Vincenzo Galilei. Monody. Polyphonic music. Emilio del
Cavalieri. Vittorio Archilei. Music of Greeks recovered. Peri.
Monteverde and his work. First opera house. Alessandro Scarlatti.
Troubadours. Lully, Rameau and French opera. Purcell, Handel and
music in England. Gluck, the regenerator. German opera. Mozart,
Beethoven, Weber and Wagner. What came from Bach, Chopin and
Berlioz. Rossini's melodies. Wagner's influence. Verdi, the grand
old man.

Certain Famous Oratorios 235

Neri's oratory. Dramatized versions of biblical stories. Palestrina
and harmon