him with great zeal into the loftier field of operatic
composition.

The dominating influence of Gluck, so potent in shaping the tastes and
methods of the more serious French composers, asserted itself from the
beginning in the work of Gounod, and no modern composer has been so
brilliant and effective a disciple in carrying out the formulas of
that great master. More free, flexible, and melodious than Spontini and
Halevy, measuring his work by a conception of art more lofty and ideal
than that of Meyerbeer, and in creative power and originality by far
their superior, Gounod's genius, as shown in the one opera of "Faust,"
suffices to stamp his great mastership.

But he had many years of struggle yet before this end was to be
achieved. His early lyric compositions fell dead. Score after score was
rejected by the managers. No one cared to hazard the risk of producing
an opera by this unknown composer. His first essay was a pastoral opera,
"Philemon and Baucis," and it did not escape from the manuscript for
many a long year, though it has in more recent times been received by
critical German audiences with great applause. A catalogue of Gounod's
failures would have no significance except as showing that his industry
and energy were not relaxed by public neglect. His first decided
encouragement came in 1851, when "Sappho" was produced at the French
Opera through the influence of Madame Pauline Viardot, the sister of
Malibran, who had a generous belief in the composer's future, and such
a position in the musical world of Paris as to make her requests almost
mandatory. This opera, based on the fine poem of Emile Augier, was well
received, and cheered Gounod's heart to make fresh efforts. In 1852
he composed the choruses for Poussard's classical tragedy of "Ulysse,"
performed at the Theatre Francais. The growing recognition of the world
was evidenced in his appointment as director of the Normal Singing
School of Paris, the primary school of the Conservatory. In 1854 a
five-act opera, with a libretto from the legend of the "Bleeding Nun,"
was completed and produced, and Gounod was further gratified to see that
musical authorities were willing to grant him a distinct place in the
ranks of art, though as yet not a very high one.

For years Gounod's serious and elevated mind had been pondering on
Goethe's great poem as the subject of an opera, and there is reason to
conjecture that parts of it were composed and arranged, if not