re is a
hollowness and a superficiality about his best work which we cannot
ignore, even while we admit the ingenuity of the means employed. His
influence upon modern opera has been extensive. He was the real founder
of the school of melodramatic opera which is now so popular. Violent
contrasts with him do duty for the subtle characterisation of the older
masters. His heroes rant and storm, and his heroines shriek and rave,
but of real feeling, and even of real expression, there is little in his
scores.

The career of Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was in striking contrast to
that Meyerbeer. While Meyerbeer was earning the plaudits of crowded
theatres throughout the length and breadth of Europe, Berlioz sat alone,
brooding over the vast conceptions to which it taxed even his gigantic
genius to give musical shape. Even now the balance has scarcely been
restored. Though Meyerbeer's popularity is on the wane, the operas of
Berlioz are still known for the most part only to students. Before the
Berlioz cycle at Carlsruhe in 1893, 'La Prise de Troie' had never been
performed on any stage, and though the French master's symphonic works
now enjoy considerable popularity, his dramatic works are still looked
at askance by managers. There is a reason for this other than the
hardness of our hearts. Berlioz was essentially a symphonic writer. He
had little patience with the conventions of the stage, and his attempts
to blend the dramatic and symphonic elements, as in 'Les Troyens,' can
scarcely be termed a success. Yet much may be pardoned for the sake of
the noble music which lies enshrined in his works. 'Benvenuto Cellini'
and 'Beatrice et Benedict,' which were thought too advanced for the
taste of their day, are now perhaps a trifle old-fashioned for our
times. The first is a picturesque story of Rome in Carnival time. The
interest centres in the casting of the sculptor's mighty Perseus, which
wins him the hand of the fair Teresa. The Carnival scenes are gay and
brilliant, but the form of the work belongs to a bygone age, and it is
scarcely possible that a revival of it would meet with wide acceptance.
'Beatrice et Benedict' is a graceful setting of Shakespeare's 'Much Ado
about Nothing.' It is a work of the utmost delicacy and refinement.
Though humour is not absent from the score, the prevailing impression is
one of romantic charm, passing even to melancholy. Very different is the
double drama 'Les Troyens.' Here Berlioz drew his i