amith with his fleeting
breath. She comes with her wailing maidens, sees the fulfilment of
Solomon's prophecy, and Assad dies in her arms. "Thy beloved is thine,
in love's eternal realm," sing the maidens, while a mirage shows the
wicked Queen, with her caravan of camels and elephants, returning to
her home.

The parallel between this story and the immeasurably more poetical and
beautiful one of "Tannhauser" is apparent to half an eye. Sulamith is
Elizabeth, the Queen is Venus, Assad is Tannhauser, Solomon is Wolfram
von Eschenbach. The ethical force of the drama--it has some, though
very little--was weakened at the performances at the Metropolitan Opera
House [footnote: Goldmark's opera was presented for the first time in
America at the Metropolitan Opera House on December 2, 1885. Cast:
Sulamith, Fraulein Lilli Lehmann; die Konigin von Saba, Frau
Kramer-Wiedl; Astaroth, Fraulein Marianne Brandt; Solomon, Herr Adolph
Robinson; Assad, Herr Stritt; Der Hohe Priester, Herr Emil Fischer;
Baal-Hanan, Herr-Alexi. Anton Seidl conducted, and the opera had
fifteen representations in the season. These performances were in the
original German. On April 3, 1888, an English version was presented at
the Academy of Music by the National Opera Company, then in its death
throes. The opera was revived at the Metropolitan Opera House by Mr.
Conried in the season 1905-1906 and had five performances.] in New York
by the excision from the last act of a scene in which the Queen
attempts to persuade Assad to go with her to Arabia. Now Assad rises
superior to his grosser nature and drives the temptress away, thus
performing the saving act demanded by Solomon.

Herr Mosenthal, who made the libretto of "Die Konigin von Saba,"
treated this material, not with great poetic skill, but with a cunning
appreciation of the opportunities which it offers for dramatic effect.
The opera opens with a gorgeous picture of the interior of Solomon's
palace, decked in honor of the coming guest. There is an air of joyous
expectancy over everything. Sulamith's entrance introduces the element
of female charm to brighten the brilliancy of the picture, and her
bridal song--in which the refrain is an excerpt from the Canticles,
"Thy beloved is thine, who feeds among the roses"--enables the composer
to indulge his strong predilection and fecund gift for Oriental melody.
The action hurries to a thrilling climax. One glittering pageant treads
on the heels of another, ea