lliantly. The several generations who admired this work
were not altogether wrong. There is no necessity to class this brilliant
success as a failure, because Robert Schumann, who knew nothing about
the stage, denied its worth. It is surprising that Berlioz's judgment
has not been set against Schumann's. Berlioz showed his enthusiasm for
_Les Huguenots_ in his famous treatise on instrumentation.

The great public is little interested in technical polemics and is
faithful to the old successes. Although little by little success has
come to operas based on legends, there still remains a taste for operas
with a historical background. This is not without a reason for as an
authoritative critic has said: "A historical drama may contain lyric
possibilities far greater than most of the poor, weak mythological
librettos on which composers waste their strength, fully persuaded that
by doing so they cause 'the holy spirit of Bayreuth to descend upon
them.'"

And they never would have dreamed of being mythological, if their god,
instead of turning to Scandinavian mythology, had followed his original
intention of dramatizing the exploits of Frederick Barbarossa. In his
youth he was not opposed to historical opera, for he eulogized _La
Musette de Portici_, _La Juive_, and _La Reine de Chypre_. He made some
justifiable criticisms of the libretto of the last work, although he
admitted that the composer had contrived to write beautiful passages.

"We cannot praise Halevy too highly," he wrote, "for the firmness with
which he resists every temptation, to which many of his contemporaries
succumb, to steal easy applause by relying blindly on the talent of the
singers. On the contrary, he demands that his _virtuosi_, even the most
famous of them, shall subordinate themselves to the lofty inspiration
of his Muse. He attains this result by the simplicity and truth he knows
how to stamp on dramatic melodies."

This is what Richard Wagner said about _La Juive_ in 1842.

Fortunately we no longer demand that operas be mythological, for if we
did we should have to condemn the famous Russian operas and that is out
of the question. However, the method of treatment is still in dispute
and this question is involved. One method of treatment is admitted and
another is not and it is extremely difficult to tell what is what.

I am now going to do a little special pleading for my _Henri VIII_,
which, it would seem, is not in the proper manner. Not tha