e in
his tenderest tones, but the divorced queen rises to the occasion.
Praying for strength to resist the temptation, she throws the letter
into the fire and falls down dead.

Saint Saens has treated this scene with uncommon variety and force, and
indeed the whole opera is a masterly piece of writing. He uses guiding
themes with more freedom than in 'Samson et Dalila,' but the general
outline of 'Henry VIII.' is certainly not Wagnerian in type. The same
may be said of 'Ascanio,' a work produced in 1890, with only partial
success. 'Phryne,' which was given at the Opera Comique in 1893, is on a
much less elaborate scale. It is a musicianly little work, but in form
follows the traditions of the older school of opera comique with almost
exaggerated fidelity. 'Les Barbares' (1901), a story of the Teutonic
invasion of Gaul, did not enhance the composer's reputation. The plot
is of a well-worn kind. Marcomir, the leader of the barbarian invaders,
is subjugated by the charms of the priestess Floria, who, after the
requisite amount of hesitation, falls duly into his arms. Finally
Marcomir is stabbed by Livia, whose husband he had killed in battle.
Saint Saens's music is admirable from the point of view of workmanship,
but it is singularly devoid of anything like inspiration. 'Les Barbares'
was received with all the respect due to a work from the pen of the
leading musician of modern France, but it would be useless to pretend
that it is likely to keep its place in the current repertory.

'Helene' (1904) is a more favourable example of Saint Saens's many-sided
talent. The libretto, which is the work of the composer himself, deals
with the flight of Helen and Paris from Sparta, and the greater part of
the one act of which the opera consists is devoted to an impassioned
duet between the lovers. The apparitions of Venus and Pallas, the one
urging Helen upon her purposed flight, the other dissuading her from it,
give variety to the action, but the work as a whole lacks dramatic
intensity, though it rises to a climax of some power. Saint Saens's
music is interesting and musicianly from first to last. Like Berlioz in
his 'Prise de Troie' he has plainly gone to Gluck for his inspiration,
and in its sobriety and breadth of design no less than in its classic
dignity of melody and orchestration, his music often recalls the style
of the mighty composer of 'Alceste.'

Saint Saens's latest opera, 'L'Ancetre' (1906), has not added materially