Alice. With
the exception of the debutante, such a disgraceful exhibition was
never before witnessed on the operatic stage. Mendelssohn was sitting
in the stalls, and at the end of the third act, unable to bear any
longer the executive infliction, he left the theatre."

The libretto of "Robert the Devil" is absurd in its conceptions and
sensational in its treatment of the story, notwithstanding that it
came from such famous dramatists as Scribe and Delavigne; and it would
have been still worse had it not been for Meyerbeer. Scribe, it is
said, wished to introduce a bevy of sea-nymphs, carrying golden oars,
as the tempters of Robert; but the composer would not have them, and
insisted upon the famous scene of the nuns, as it now stands, though
these were afterwards made the butt of almost endless ridicule.
Mendelssohn himself, who was in Paris at this time, writes: "I cannot
imagine how any music could be composed on such a cold, formal
extravaganza as this." The story runs as follows: The scene is laid in
Sicily, where Robert, Duke of Normandy, who by his daring and
gallantries had earned the sobriquet of "the Devil," banished by his
own subjects, has arrived to attend a tournament given by the Duke of
Messina. In the opening scene, while he is carousing with his knights,
the minstrel Raimbaut sings a song descriptive of the misdeeds of
Robert. The latter is about to revenge himself on the minstrel, when
Alice, his foster-sister and the betrothed of Raimbaut, appears and
pleads with him to give up his wicked courses, and resist the spirit
of evil which is striving to get the mastery of him. Robert then
confides to Alice his hopeless passion for Isabella, daughter of the
Duke. While they are conversing, Bertram, "the unknown," enters, and
Alice shrinks back affrighted, fancying she sees in him the evil
spirit who is luring Robert on to ruin. After she leaves, Bertram
entices him to the gaming-table, from which he rises a beggar,--and
worse than this, he still further prejudices his cause with Isabella
by failing to attend the tournament, thus forfeiting his knightly
honor.

The second act opens upon an orgy of the evil spirits in the cavern of
St. Irene. Bertram is present, and makes a compact with them to loose
Robert from his influence if he does not yield to his desires at once.
Alice, who has an appointment with the minstrel in the cavern,
overhears the compact, and determines to save him. Robert soon
appears, mou