transfers her allegiance to the bull-fighter Escamillo, who follows her
to the smugglers' lair, and is nearly killed by the infuriated Jose.
Micaela also finds her way up to the camp, and persuades Jose to go home
with her and tend the last moments of his dying mother. The last act
takes place outside the Plaza de Toros at Seville. Jose has returned to
plead once more with Carmen, but her love has grown cold and she rejects
him disdainfully. After a scene of bitter recrimination he kills her,
while the shouts of the people inside the arena acclaim the triumph of
Escamillo. 'Carmen' was coldly received at first. Its passionate force
was miscalled brutality, and the suspicion of German influence which
Bizet's clever use of guiding themes excited, was in itself enough to
alienate the sympathies of the average Frenchman in the early seventies.
Since its production 'Carmen' has gradually advanced in general
estimation, and is now one of the most popular operas in the modern
repertory. It is unnecessary to do more than allude to its many
beauties, the nervous energy of the more declamatory parts, the
brilliant and expressive orchestration, the extraordinarily clever use
of Spanish rhythms, and the finished musicianship displayed upon every
page of the score. The catalogue of Bizet's works is completed by 'Don
Procopio,' an imitation of Italian opera buffa dating from his student
days in Rome. It was unearthed and produced at Monte Carlo in 1906. It
is a bright and lively little work, but has no pretensions to original
value. Bizet's early death deprived the French school of one of its
brightest ornaments. To him is largely due the development of opera
comique which has taken place within the last twenty years, a
development which has taken it almost to the confines of grand opera.

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), though German by birth, may fitly be
mentioned here, since the greater part of his life was spent in Paris,
and his music was more typically French than that of any of his Gallic
rivals. His innumerable operas bouffes scarcely come within the scope of
this work, but his posthumous opera comique, 'Les Contes d'Hoffman
(1881), is decidedly more ambitious in scope, and still holds the stage
by virtue of its piquant melody and clever musicianship. In Germany,
where 'Les Contes d' Hoffmann' is still very popular under the name of
'Hoffmann's Erzaehlungen,' it is usually performed in a revised version,
which differs conside