richs took his place. Another
year elapsed, and then, on January 10, 1894, the opera reached the
Metropolitan Opera House. In spite of the fact that Madame Calve sang
the part of Suzel, only two performances were given to the work.

The failure of this opera did not dampen the industry of Mascagni nor
the zeal of his enterprising publishers. For his next opera the
composer went again to the French authors, Erckmann-Chatrian, who had
supplied him with the story of "L'Amico Fritz." This time he chose "Les
deux Freres," which they had themselves turned into a drama with the
title of "Rantzau." Mascagni's librettist retained the title. The opera
came out in Florence in 1892. The tremendous personal popularity of the
composer, who was now as much a favorite in Vienna and Berlin as he was
in the town of his birth which had struck a medal in his honor, or the
town of his residence which had created him an honorary citizen, could
not save the work.

Now he turned to the opera which he had laid aside to take up his
"Cavalleria," and in 1895 "Guglielmo Ratcliff," based upon the gloomy
Scotch story told by Heine, was brought forward at La Scala, in Milan.
It was in a sense the child of his penury and suffering, but he had
taken it up inspired by tremendous enthusiasm for the subject, and
inasmuch as most of its music had been written before success had
turned his head, or desire for notoriety had begun to itch him, there
was reason to hope to find in it some of the hot blood which surges
through the score of "Cavalleria." As a matter of fact, critics who
have seen the score or heard the work have pointed out that portions of
"I Rantzau" and "Cavalleria" are as alike as two peas. It would not be
a violent assumption that the composer in his eagerness to get his
score before the Sonzogno jury had plucked his early work of its best
feathers and found it difficult to restore plumage of equal brilliancy
when he attempted to make restitution. In the same year, 1895, his next
opera, "Silvano," made a fiasco in Milan. A year later there appeared
"Zanetto," which seems like an effort to contract the frame of the
lyric drama still further than is done in "Cavalleria." It is a
bozzetto, a sketch, based on Coppee's duologue "Le Passant," a scene
between a strumpet who is weary of the world and a young minstrel. Its
orchestration is unique--there are but strings and a harp. It was
brought out at Pesaro, where, in 1895, Mascagni had been appoi