lf-Ferrari got the subject of "I Giojelli della
Madonna" from the sources drawn on by his predecessors, I do not know.
I believe that, like Leoncavallo, he has said that the story of his
opera has a basis of fact. Be this as it may, it is certain that the
composer called on two versifiers to help him out in making the book of
the opera and that the story in its essence is not far removed from
that of the French opera "Aphrodite," by Baron Erlanger. In that opera
there is a rape of the adornments of a statue of Venus; in
Wolf-Ferrari's work of the jewels enriching an effigy of the Virgin
Mary. The story is not as filthy as the other plots rehearsed
elsewhere, but in it there is the same striving after sharp ("piquant,"
some will say) contrasts, the blending of things sacred and profane,
the mixture of ecclesiastical music and dances, and--what is most
significant--the generous use of the style of melody which came in with
Ponchielli and his pupils. In "I Giojelli della Madonna" a young woman
discards the love of an honest-hearted man to throw herself, out of
sheer wantonness, into the arms of a blackguard dandy. To win her heart
through her love of personal adornment the man of faithful mind (the
suggestion having come from his rival) does the desperate deed of
stealing for her the jewels of the Madonna. It is to be assumed that
she rewards him for the sacrilegious act, but without turning away from
the blackguard, to whom she grants a stolen interview during the time
when her true love is committing the crime. But even the vulgar and
wicked companions of the dandy, who is a leader among the Camorristi,
turn from her with horror when they discover the stolen jewels around
her neck, and she gives herself to death in the sea. Then the poor
lover, placing the jewels on the altar, invokes forgiveness, and,
seeing it in a ray of light which illumines them, thrusts a dagger into
his heart and dies at the feet of the effigy of the goddess whom he had
profaned.

The story would not take long in the telling were it not tricked out
with a multitude of incidents designed to illustrate the popular life
of Naples during a festival. Such things are old, familiar, and
unnecessary elements, in many cases not even understood by the
audience. But with them Signor Wolf-Ferrari manages to introduce most
successfully the atmosphere which he preserves even throughout his
tragical moments--the atmosphere of Neapolitan life and feeling. The
sc