ildly and leaves the unhappy father a prey to
mental torture. At last he decides to send Arkas at once to Mykene
with mother and daughter and to hide them there, until the wrath of the
goddess be appeased. But it is too late.

In the third act the people assemble before the Royal tent and with
much shouting and noise demand the sacrifice. Achilles in vain
implores Iphigenia to follow him. She is ready to be sacrificed, while
he determines to kill anyone, who dares touch his bride. Klytemnestra
then tries everything in her power to save her. She offers herself in
her daughter's stead and finding it of no avail at last sinks down in a
swoon. The daughter, having bade her an eternal farewell, with quiet
dignity allows herself to be led to the altar. When her mother awakes,
she rages in impotent fury; then she hears the people's hymn to the
goddess, and rushes out to die with her child.--The scene changes.--The
High-priest at the altar of Artemis is ready to pierce the innocent
victim. A great tumult arises, Achilles with his native Thessalians
makes his way through {155} the crowd, in order to save Iphigenia, who
loudly invokes the help of the goddess. But at this moment a loud
thunder-peal arrests the contending parties, and when the mist, which
has blinded all, has passed, Artemis herself is seen in a cloud with
Iphigenia kneeling before her.

The goddess announces that it is Iphigenia's high mind, which she
demands and not her blood, she wishes to take her into a foreign land,
where she may be her priestess and atone for the sins of the blood of
Atreus.

A wind favorable to the fleet has risen, and the people filled with
gratitude and admiration behold the vanishing cloud and praise the
goddess.

IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.

Opera in four acts by GLUCK.

Text by GUILLARD.

Gluck's Iphigenia stands highest among his dramatic compositions. It
is eminently classic and so harmoniously finished, that Herder called
its music sacred.

The libretto is excellent. It follows pretty exactly the Greek
original.

Iphigenia, King Agamemnon's daughter, who has been saved by the goddess
Diana (or Artemis) from death at the altar of Aulis, has been carried
in a cloud to Tauris, where she is compelled to be High-priestess in
the temple of the barbarous Scythians. There we find her, after having
performed her cruel service for fifteen years.--Human {156} sacrifices
are required, but more than once she has saved