e full; on the other he has proved himself more
susceptible to the influence of Wagner than any other French composer
of his generation. The combination is extremely piquant, and it says
much for Massenet's individuality that he has contrived to blend such
differing elements into a fabric of undeniable beauty.

Alfred Bruneau is a composer whose works have excited perhaps more
discussion than those of any living French composer. By critics who
pretend to advanced views he has been greeted as the rightful successor
of Wagner, while the conservative party in music have not hesitated to
stigmatise him as a wearisome impostor. 'Kerim' (1887), his first work,
passed almost unnoticed. 'Le Reve,' an adaptation of Zola's novel, was
produced in 1891 at the Opera Comique, and in the same year was
performed in London. The scene is laid in a French cathedral city. The
period is that of the present day.

Angelique, the adopted child of a couple of old embroiderers, is a
dreamer of dreams. All day she pores over the lives of the saints until
the legends of their miracles and martyrdoms become living realities to
her mind, and she hears their voices speaking to her in the silence of
her chamber. She falls in love with a man who is at work upon the
stained glass of the Cathedral windows. This turns out to be the son of
the Bishop. The course of their love does not run smooth. The Bishop, in
spite of the protestations of his son, refuses his consent to their
marriage. Angelique pines away, and is lying at the point of death when
the Bishop relents, and with a kiss of reconciliation restores her to
life. She is married to her lover, but in the porch of the Cathedral
dies from excess of happiness. The entire work is rigorously
constructed upon Wagner's system of representative themes. Each act runs
its course uninterruptedly without anything approaching a set piece. Two
voices are rarely heard together, and then only in unison. So far
Bruneau faithfully follows the system of Wagner. Where he differs from
his master is in the result of his efforts; he has nothing of Wagner's
feeling for melodic beauty, nothing of his mastery of orchestral
resource, and very little of his musical skill. The melodies in 'Le
Reve'--save for an old French _chanson_, which is the gem of the
work--are for the most part arid and inexpressive. Bruneau handles the
orchestra like an amateur, and his attempts at polyphony are merely
ridiculous. Yet in spite of all t