on the stage, though nine-tenths of the
operas which made his fame and fortune have already sunk into
oblivion; Meyerbeer, too, is still a more or less potent factor with
his "Huguenots," which, like "Lucia," has endured from ten to twenty
years longer than the average "immortal;" but the continued existence
of Bellini and Donizetti seems to be as closely bound up with that of
two or three singers as was Meleager's life with the burning billet
which his mother snatched from the flames. So far as the people of
London and New York are concerned whether or not they shall hear
Donizetti more, rests with Mesdames Patti and Melba, for Donizetti
spells "Lucia;" Bellini pleads piteously in "Sonnambula," but only
Madame Nevada will play the mediator between him and our stiff-necked
generation.

[Sidenote: _An unstable art-form._]

[Sidenote: _Carelessness of the public._]

[Sidenote: _Addison's criticism._]

[Sidenote: _Indifference to the words._]

Opera is a mixed art-form and has ever been, and perhaps must ever be,
in a state of flux, subject to the changes of taste in music, the
drama, singing, acting, and even politics and morals; but in one
particular the public has shown no change for a century and a half,
and it is not quite clear why this has not given greater fixity to
popular appreciation. The people of to-day are as blithely
indifferent to the fact that their operas are all presented in a
foreign tongue as they were two centuries ago in England. The
influence of Wagner has done much to stimulate a serious attitude
toward the lyric drama, but this is seldom found outside of the
audiences in attendance on German representations. The devotees of the
Latin exotic, whether it blend French or Italian (or both, as is the
rule in New York and London) with its melodic perfume, enjoy the music
and ignore the words with the same nonchalance that Addison made merry
over. Addison proves to have been a poor prophet. The
great-grandchildren of his contemporaries are not at all curious to
know "why their forefathers used to sit together like an audience of
foreigners in their own country, and to hear whole plays acted before
them in a tongue which they did not understand." What their
great-grandparents did was also done by their grandparents and their
parents, and may be done by their children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren after them, unless Englishmen and Americans shall
take to heart the lessons which Wagner ess