ompany is expected,
and the Marchioness desires Marie to rehearse a romance ("The Light of
Early Days was breaking"), which she is to sing to them.

Before she finishes it she and the Sergeant break out into the
rollicking Rataplan and go through with the military evolutions, to
the horror of the Marchioness. While regret for the absent Tony keeps
her in a sad mood, she is suddenly cheered up by the sound of drums
and fifes, announcing the approach of soldiers. They are the gallant
Twenty-first, with Tony, now a colonel, at their head. He applies once
more for Marie's hand. The soldiers also put in a spirited choral
appeal ("We have come, our Child to free"). The Marchioness again
refuses. Tony proposes an elopement, to which Marie, in resentment at
her aunt's cruelty, consents. To thwart their plans, the Marchioness
reveals to Marie that early in life she had been secretly married to
an officer of lower family position than her own, and that this
officer was Marie's father. Unable to dispute the wishes of her
mother, she renounces Tony in an agony of grief. At last Marie's
sorrow arouses old associations in the mind of the Marchioness, and
she consents to the union of Tony and Marie.

While the music of the opera is light, it is none the less very
attractive, and the work is nearly always popular when performed by
good artists, owing to the comedy strength of the three leading parts,
Marie, Tony, and the Sergeant. The role of the heroine, small as it
is, has always been a favorite one with such great artists as Jenny
Lind, Patti, Sontag, and Albani, while in this country Miss Kellogg
and Mrs. Richings-Bernard made great successes in the part. The latter
singer, indeed, and her father, whose personation of the Sergeant was
very remarkable, were among the first to perform the work in the
United States.

LA FAVORITA.

"La Favorita," an opera in four acts, words by Royer and Waetz, the
subject taken from the French drama, "Le Comte de Commingues," was
first produced at the Academie, Paris, Dec. 2, 1840, with Mme. Stolz
as Leonora, Duprez as Fernando, and Baroelhst as Balthasar. Its
success in England, where it was first produced Feb. 16, 1847, was
made by Grisi and Mario. The scene of the opera is laid in Spain, and
the first act opens in the convent of St. James, of Compostella, where
the young novice, Fernando, is about to take monastic vows. Before the
rites take place he is seized with a sudden passion for Leono