arried to the principal cities of the country. On December 16, 1906,
Mr. Heinrich Conried thought that the peculiar charms of Madame
Cavalieri, combined with the popularity of Signor Caruso, might give
habitation to Giordano's setting of an opera book made out of Sardou's
"Fedora"; but it endured for only four performances in the season of
1906-1907 and three in the next, in which Conried's career came to an
end. In reviving "Andrea Chenier" Mr. Hammerstein may have had visions
of future triumphs for its composer, for a few weeks before (on
February 5, 1908) he had brought forward the same composer's "Siberia,"
which gave some promise of life, though it died with the season that
saw its birth.

The critical mind seems disposed to look with kindness upon new works
in proportion as they fall back in the corridors of memory; and so I am
inclined to think that of the four operas by Giordano which I have
heard "Andrea Chenier" gives greatest promise of a long life. The
attempt to put music to "Fedora" seemed to me utterly futile. Only
those moments were musical in the accepted sense of the word when the
action of the drama ceased, as in the case of the intermezzo, or when
the old principles of operatic construction waked into life again as in
the confession of the hero-lover. Here, moreover, there comes into the
score an element of novelty, for the confession is extorted from Lorris
while a virtuoso is entertaining a drawing-roomful of people with a set
pianoforte solo. As for the rest of the opera, it seems sadly deficient
in melody beautiful either in itself or as an expression of passion.
"Andrea Chenier" has more to commend it. To start with, there is a good
play back of it, though the verities of history were not permitted to
hamper the imagination of Signor Illica, the author of the book. The
hero of the opera is the patriotic poet who fell under the guillotine
in 1794 at the age of thirty-two. The place which Saint-Beuve gave him
in French letters is that of the greatest writer of classic verse after
Racine and Boileau. The operatic story is all fiction, more so, indeed,
than that of "Madame Sans-Gene." As a matter of fact, the veritable
Chenier was thrown into prison on the accusation of having sheltered a
political criminal, and was beheaded together with twenty-three others
on a charge of having engaged in a conspiracy while in prison. In the
opera he does not die for political reasons, though they are alleged as
a