ts for the principal singers in Mozart's
operas of _Don Giovanni_ and _Le Nozze di Figaro_, edited and revised
for performance by the well-known singing-master and excellent
musician, Signor Randegger, are also admirable. But other editions
exist which do not bear the same imprint of authority, or
conscientious care in their revision, as do the versions just
mentioned.

In the edition of the well-known air "_J'ai perdu mon Eurydice_" (_che
faro senza Euridice?_) from _Orphee_ (Gluck), revised by Madame
Pauline Viardot-Garcia, no mention is made of two traditions which
have been used and handed down by a number of the most famous singers
of the role of Orphee. I give them here:

[Music: (as printed)

dechire mon coeur. J'ai perdu mon Eurydice

(Traditional changes)

Ah! dechire mon coeur. J'ai perdu mon Eurydice]

The change on the third repetition of the principal theme is quite in
accordance with the license then accorded in such airs.

In a special version of the opera _Armide_ (Gluck), revised and edited
by the late Sir Charles Halle, the first bars of the great air of
Armide in the first scene of the fourth act, "_Ah! si la liberte_"
(Ah! if my liberty must from me then be taken), are printed thus:

[Music: Ah! si la liberte]

The situation is where Armide perceives the knight Renaud in the
gardens of her enchanted palace, whither he has come to destroy the
sorceress on account of her magic arts. Although the enchantress knows
that the mission of the knight is to deprive her of liberty, she
herself succumbs to the fatal passion of love. I have briefly
described the scene in order that my meaning may be clear. In the
second half of the first bar, the _acciaccatura_ was never intended by
the composer to be actually sung as printed. It was his only way of
indicating the sob or sigh whereby Armide finishes her exclamation,
"Ah!" The effect is called "the Dramatic sob," and is known to every
opera-singer. Here is the composer's meaning, as far as it is possible
to convey it in writing:

[Music: Ah! si la liberte]

(A _portamento_ must be made from the first note to the next, when the
breath must be taken quickly to give the idea of a sob or sigh.)

Again, in a recent edition of the same air by the distinguished
composer Vincent d'Indy (_Nouvelle Edition Francaise de Musique
Classique_), occurs the following:

[Music: tu regnes dans mon coeur!]

The effect of the _F_ sharp in the last bar, if sung again