r Me, Norma, is especially familiar.

VI--THE EARLIER FRENCH SCHOOL

Meyerbeer, born in 1791, though of German birth, spent most of his life
in Paris. He wrote many excellent operas, even though they were marred
by sensationalism. Robert le Diable, L'Africaine, Les Huguenots, and Le
Prophete have all been often given by great singers. Les Huguenots is
considered Meyerbeer's best work, and the duet in the fourth act is of
immense dramatic force.

In contrast with this composer stands Berlioz, born in 1803. His work is
serious, with romantic and delicate touches. He wrote The Damnation of
Faust and Benvenuto Cellini, but his great opera is Les Troyens, though
it is scarcely known to the public.

Halevy belongs with Meyerbeer, for one reflected the other. La Juive
appeared before Les Huguenots, and the music of both has much in common.

Just at this time light opera, or _opera comique_, found in Auber its
greatest composer. He began to write late in life, and his last opera,
The Dream of Love, was produced when he was eighty-eight. His music was
full of gaiety and brightness. Fra Diavolo and Masaniello are familiar,
and the part of _Fenella_ in the latter has been taken by many famous
dancers. Auber has many followers to-day, notably Offenbach, whose Tales
of Hoffman is well known.

VII--WAGNER AND HIS SCHOOL

Richard Wagner, born in 1813, is by far the most imposing and most
interesting of all writers of opera. His life and work deserve more than
a passing paper, and clubs are urged to make an entire year's study of
them. At twenty he wrote his first opera, Die Feen, rather a simple
affair; this was distinctly in the Italian manner. Next he tried the
French method, and wrote Rienzi, with an excellent libretto but showy
music. Later, in poverty in Paris, he wrote The Flying Dutchman, a
picturesque piece of music with beautiful chorus work. After this came
the first of his great operas, Tannhauser, the story of the struggle of
a soul between good and evil. This contains two famous passages, the
Pilgrims' Chorus and the exquisite song to the Evening Star. It is in
this opera that there first appears Wagner's distinctive method, the use
of the _Leit-motif_, or guiding-theme, which associates one strain or
one set of instruments with one character. This idea had been slightly
used by Gluck, but Wagner developed it.

Five years later came Lohengrin, not as strong a piece of work as its
predecessor, though the prelu