ing replaced by the "Regnava
nel silenzio" now used, written for Persiani when the opera was first
given at the San Carlo, Naples.]

In Nelusko's first air occurs the following passage, in which a great
_crescendo_ is marked, culminating _ff_ on the word _rien_:

[Music: non, n'otent rien a ta majeste!]

Although the opera was produced after the composer's death,
Jean-Baptiste Faure, the great baritone chosen to create the role of
Nelusko, studied it with Meyerbeer, who authorized several verbal and
musical changes in it.

[Music: non, n'otent rien, non, non, non, n'otent rien a ta majeste!]

Without the first alteration it is impossible to realize the
composer's wish for a climax on the word "_rien_"; the second change
is due to the fact that the _tessitura_ of the phrase is somewhat
high, and Faure, who was a low rather than high baritone, dreaded the
high _f_-[sharp].

Indeed, it was for this latter reason that this most accomplished
singer never sang in Verdi's operas. According to his own statement,
he had to deny himself this pleasure, because most of the baritone
parts in the Italian composer's operas are written in a high
_tessitura_.

When Gounod wrote his _Faust_ for the Theatre-Lyrique, Paris, spoken
dialogue was used in place of the recitatives subsequently added by
the composer when the work passed, ten years later, into the
repertoire of the Opera. In its earlier form, therefore, it belonged
to the category of _opera-comique_, in which tenors were then
permitted to use the falsetto voice for their very highest tones. This
custom, though sanctioned in _opera-comique_, was not permitted or
accepted in _grand opera_, to which Gounod's work in the revised form
now belongs. At the beginning of the sixth bar from the end of the
tenor _cavatina_ in the Garden Scene: "_Salut! demeure chaste et
pure_," occurs the high sustained _c_.

Not all tenors who sing the role are possessed of the much-coveted
"_do di petto_," so a discreet _pointage_ becomes a necessity, since
the tone was originally intended, as I have said, to be sung in
falsetto. Those robust tenors who, possessing this tone, launch it out
at full voice, unheeding the delicate accompaniment with violin
obbligato in the orchestra, and the calm, mystic serenity of the
surroundings, are surely more desirous of drawing the attention of the
public to themselves, than actuated by an artistic desire to interpret
faithfully the scene as intended by com