not disdain occasionally to follow
in the footsteps of Cimarosa, for the most part the task of purveying
light operas for the smaller theatres of Italy fell into the hands of
second and third rate composers. Donizetti, as we have seen, enriched
the repertory of opera buffa with several masterpieces of gay and
brilliant vivacity, but few of the lighter works of his contemporaries
deserve permanent record.

The brothers Ricci, Luigi (1805-1859) and Federico (1809-1877), wrote
many operas, both singly and in collaboration, but 'Crispino e la
Comare' is the only one of their works which won anything like a
European reputation. The story is a happy combination of farce and
_feerie_. Crispino, a half-starved cobbler, is about to throw himself
into a well, when La Comare, a fairy, rises from it and bids him
desist. She gives him a purse of gold, and orders him to set up as a
doctor, telling him that when he goes to visit a patient he must look to
see whether she is standing by the bedside. If she is not there, the
sick man will recover. Crispino follows her directions, and speedily
becomes famous, but success turns his head, and he is only brought back
to his senses by a strange dream, in which the fairy takes him down to a
subterranean cavern where the lamp of each man's life is burning and he
sees his own on the point of expiring. After this uncomfortable vision
he is thankful to find himself still in the bosom of his family, and the
opera ends with his vows of amendment. The music is brilliant and
sparkling, and altogether the little opera is one of the best specimens
of opera buffa produced in Italy after the time of Rossini. The other
men who devoted themselves to opera buffa during this period my be
briefly dismissed. Carlo Pedrotti (1817-1893), whose comic opera 'Tutti
in Maschera,' after a brilliant career in Italy, was successfully
produced in Paris, and Antonio Cagnoni (1828-1896), were perhaps the
best of them. A version of the latter's 'Papa Martin' was performed in
London in 1875, under the name of 'The Porter of Havre.'

CHAPTER VIII

MEYERBEER AND FRENCH OPERA

HEROLD--MEYERBEER--BERLIOZ--HALEVY--AUBER

The romantic movement was essentially German in its origin, but its
influence was not bounded by the Rhine. As early as 1824 Weber's
'Freischuetz' was performed in Paris, followed a few years later by
'Oberon' and 'Euryanthe.' French musicians, always susceptible to
external influences, could not b