ound to be out of the question to produce the effect
desired with the words as they stood, the phrase was afterwards
changed to:

[Music: pour combattre l'infame]

Frequently modifications, most happy in their effect, are due to the
inspiration of a particularly gifted artist.

Madame Viardot-Garcia, finding the phrase of the cabaletta in the aria
"_Se Romeo t'uccise_" (_Romeo e Giulietta_, Bellini) somewhat weak and
ineffective, made the skilful _pointage_ here given:

[Music: (as printed)

Ma su voi ricada il sangue

(as sung by Mme. Viardot-Garcia)

Ma su voi ricada il sangue]

A great artist may feel at times the inadequacy of the phrase as it
stands to convey justly the composer's idea. Take, for instance, the
well-known change which every soprano who sings the role of Leonora
introduces in the _Miserere_ scene of _Il Trovatore_. The passage
occurs four times in succession, and as printed becomes commonplace
and monotonous.

[Music: Di te, di te scordarmi! di te, di te scordarmi!]

The accepted traditional change certainly conveys the impression of
Leonora's gradually increasing anguish and terror; not the idea that
it is introduced merely to exploit a high tone:

[Music: Di te, di te scordarmi! di te, di te scordarmi!]

That this departure from the text must have been sanctioned by Verdi,
is, I think, proved by the fact that it has always been sung thus, and
the composer himself must often have heard the substitution. He would
certainly have forbidden its use, had he not approved of it, for he
was particularly averse to having changes made in his music. The
following anecdote illustrates this trait in his character. It was
related by the late Mme. Marie Saxe, better known under her
Italianized name of Marie Sasse. This distinguished soprano singer, a
member of the Paris Opera for a number of years, was engaged to give a
certain number of performances at the Opera of Cairo. _Aida_ was one
of the operas stipulated for in her contract. She had never sung the
role, and in studying it found the _tessitura_ of the music, at one or
two points, a little too high for her natural means. As she was
compelled by her contract to sing the opera, she asked Verdi to make
some slight changes to bring the music within her reach. But he
refused absolutely to make the least alteration.

Madame Saxe was specially selected by Meyerbeer to create the role of
Selika in _l'Africaine_. She studied the part for three months