to his reputation. It is a gloomy and, to tell the truth, somewhat
conventional story of a Corsican vendetta. The instrumental part of the
work is treated in masterly fashion, but the opera as a whole met with
little favour at its production at Monte Carlo, and it has not been
performed elsewhere.

Saint Saens's theory of opera has been to combine song, declamation, and
symphony in equal proportions, and thus, though he has written works
which cannot fail to charm, he seems often to have fallen foul of both
camps in the world of music. The Wagnerians object to the set form of
his works, and the reactionaries condemn the prominence which he often
gives to the declamatory and symphonic portions of his score. He is by
nature a thorough eclectic, and his works possess a deep interest for
musicians, but it may be doubted whether, in opera at any rate, a more
masterful personality is not necessary to produce work of really
permanent value.

To Ernest Reyer success came late. The beauties of his early works,
'Erostrate' (1852) and 'La Statue' (1861), were well known to musicians;
but not until the production of 'Sigurd' in 1884 did he gain the ear of
the public. Sigurd is the same person as Siegfried, and the plot of
Reyer's opera is drawn from the same source as that of 'Goetterdaemmerung.'
Hilda, the youthful sister of Gunther, the king of the Burgundians,
loves the hero Sigurd, and at the instigation of her nurse gives him a
magic potion, which brings him to her feet. Sigurd, Gunther, and Hagen
then swear fealty to each other and start for Iceland, where
Brunehild lies asleep upon a lofty rock, surrounded by a circle
of fire. There Sigurd, to earn the hand of Hilda, passes through
the flames and wins Brunehild for Gunther. His face is closely hidden by
his visor, and Brunehild in all innocence accepts Gunther as her
saviour, and gives herself to him. The secret is afterwards disclosed by
Hilda in a fit of jealous rage, whereupon Brunehild releases Sigurd from
the enchantment of the potion. He recognises her as the bride ordained
for him by the gods, but before he can taste his new-found happiness he
is treacherously slain by Hagen, while by a mysterious sympathy
Brunehild dies from the same stroke that has killed her lover. Although
not produced until 1884, 'Sigurd' was written long before the first
performance of 'Goetterdaemmerung,' but in any case no suspicion of
plagiarism can attach to Reyer's choice of Wagner's sub