he English terms are ambiguous,
and everything that is done in Covent Garden in London or the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York is set down as "grand opera,"
just as the vilest imitations of the French _vaudevilles_ or English
farces with music are called "comic operas." In its best estate, say
in the delightful works of Gilbert and Sullivan, what is designated as
comic opera ought to be called operetta, which is a piece in which the
forms of grand opera are imitated, or travestied, the dialogue is
spoken, and the purpose of the play is to satirize a popular folly.
Only in method, agencies, and scope does such an operetta (the
examples of Gilbert and Sullivan are in mind) differ from comedy in
its best conception, as a dramatic composition which aims to "chastise
manners with a smile" ("_Ridendo castigat mores_"). Its present
degeneracy, as illustrated in the _Opera bouffe_ of the French and the
concoctions of the would-be imitators of Gilbert and Sullivan,
exemplifies little else than a pursuit far into the depths of the
method suggested by a friend to one of Lully's imitators who had
expressed a fear that a ballet written, but not yet performed, would
fail. "You must lengthen the dances and shorten the ladies' skirts,"
he said. The Germans make another distinction based on the subject
chosen for the story. Spohr's "Jessonda," Weber's "Freischuetz,"
"Oberon," and "Euryanthe," Marschner's "Vampyr," "Templer und Juedin,"
and "Hans Heiling" are "Romantic" operas. The significance of this
classification in operatic literature may be learned from an effort
which I have made in another chapter to discuss the terms Classic and
Romantic as applied to music. Briefly stated, the operas mentioned are
put in a class by themselves (and their imitations with them) because
their plots were drawn from the romantic legends of the Middle Ages,
in which the institutions of chivalry, fairy lore, and supernaturalism
play a large part.

[Sidenote: _Modern designations._]

[Sidenote: _German opera and Wagner._]

These distinctions we meet in reading about music. As I have
intimated, we do not concern ourselves much with them now. In New York
and London the people speak of Italian, English, and German opera,
referring generally to the language employed in the performance. But
there is also in the use of the terms an underlying recognition of
differences in ideals of performance. As all operas sung in the
regular seasons at Covent Garde