, is laid out upon an
entirely different plan. It consists of a string of detached scenes with
but little mutual connection, which, without some previous knowledge of
the story, would be barely comprehensible. The first act deals with the
meeting of the lovers at Amiens and their flight to Paris. In the second
act we find Manon installed as the mistress of Geronte di Lavoir,
surrounded by crowds of admirers. Des Grieux penetrates to her
apartment, and after a scene of passionate upbraiding persuades her to
fly with him. But before they can depart they are interrupted by the
entrance of Manon's irate protector, who, in revenge for her
faithlessness, summons the police and consigns her to St. Lazare. The
third act shows the quay at Havre, and the embarkation of the _filles de
joie_ for New Orleans; and the last act, which takes place in America,
is one long duet between Manon and Des Grieux, ending with Manon's
death. Puccini looked at the story of Manon through Italian spectacles.
His power of characterisation is limited, and there is little in his
music to differentiate Manon and her lover from the ordinary hero and
heroine of Italian opera. The earlier scenes of the opera demand a
lighter touch than he could then command, but in the tragic scene at
Havre he is completely successful. Here he strikes the true note of
tragedy. The great concerted piece with which the act ends is a masterly
piece of writing, and proves that Puccini can handle a form, which as
employed by lesser men is a synonym for stereotyped conventionality,
with superb passion and sincerity.

But Puccini's earlier successes sank into insignificance by the side of
the triumph of 'La Boheme,' which was produced in 1896. It was
impossible to weave a connected story from Murger's famous novel.
Puccini's librettists attempted nothing of the kind. They took four
scenes each complete in itself and put them before the audience without
any pretence of a connecting thread of interest. In the first act we see
the joyous quartet of Bohemians in their Paris attic--Rodolphe the poet,
Marcel the painter, Colline the philosopher, and Schaunard the musician.
Rodolphe sacrifices the manuscript of his tragedy to keep the fire
going, and Marcel keeps the landlord at bay, until the arrival of
Schaunard with an unexpected windfall of provisions raises the spirits
of the company to the zenith of rapture. Three of the Bohemians go out
to keep Christmas Eve at their favourite c