itself felt. A director's first
idea at that time was to demand changes in the piece given him. "A
single act by you, Master? Is that permissible? What can we put on after
that? A new work by Meyerbeer should take up the entire evening." That
was the way the insidious director talked, and there was all the more
chance of his being listened to as the author was possessed by a mania
for retouching and making changes. So Meyerbeer took the score to the
Mediterranean where he spent the winter. The next spring he brought back
the work developed into three acts with choruses and minor characters.
Besides these additions he had written the words which Barbier and Carre
should have done.

The rehearsals were tedious. Meyerbeer wanted Faure and Madame Carvalho
in the leading roles but one was at the Opera-Comique and the other at
her own house, the Theatre-Lyrique. The work went back and forth from
the Place Favart to the Place du Chatelet. But the author's hesitancy
was at bottom only a pretext. What he wanted was to secure a
postponement of Limnander's opera _Les Blancs et les Bleus_. The action
of this work and of _Dinorah_, as well, took place in Brittany. In the
hope of being Meyerbeer's choice, both theatres turned poor Limnander
away. Finally, _Dinorah_ fell to the Opera-Comique. After long hard
work, which the author demanded, Madame Cabel and MM. Faure and
Sainte-Foix gave a perfect performance.

There was a good deal of criticism of having the hunter, the reaper, and
the shepherd sing a prayer together at the beginning of the third act.
This was not considered theatrical; to-day that is a virtue.

There was a good deal of talk about _L'Africanne_, which had been looked
for for a long time and which seemed to be almost legendary and
mysterious; it still is for that matter. The subject of the opera was
unknown. All that was known was that the author was trying to find an
interpreter and could get none to his liking.

Then Marie Cruvelli, a German singer with an Italian training, appeared.
With her beauty and prodigious voice she shone like a meteor in the
theatrical firmament. Meyerbeer found his Africanne realized in her and
at his request she was engaged at the Opera. Her engagement was made the
occasion for a brilliant revival of _Les Huguenots_ and Meyerbeer wrote
new ballet music for it. To-day we have no idea of what _Les Huguenots_
was then. Then the author went back to his Africanne and went to work
again. He