love-scenes, written evidently _con amore_, the composer having
practised them many a time in his youth."

This opera is still performed in many parts of Europe to delighted
audiences, and is ranked by competent critics as the third finest
comic opera extant, Mozart and Rossini only surpassing him in their
masterpieces. It was a great favorite with Lablache, and its magnificent
performance by Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and the king of bassos, is a
gala reminiscence of English and French opera-goers.

We quote an opinion also from another able authority: "The drama of 'Gli
Orazi' is taken from Corneille's tragedy 'Les Horaces.' The music is
full of noble simplicity, beautiful melody, and strong expression. In
the airs dramatic truth is never sacrificed to vocal display, and the
concerted pieces are grand, broad, and effective. Taken as a whole, the
piece is free from antiquated and obsolete forms; and it wants nothing
but an orchestral score of greater fullness and variety to satisfy
the modern ear. It is still frequently performed in Germany, though
in France and England, and even in its native country, it seems to be
forgotten."

Cardinal Consalvi, Cimarosa's friend, caused splendid funeral honors to
be paid to him at Rome. Canova executed a marble bust of him, which was
placed in the gallery of the Capitol.

ROSSINI.

I.

The "Swan of Pesaro" is a name linked with some of the most charming
musical associations of this age. Though forty years silence made
fruitless what should have been the richest creative period of Rossini's
life, his great works, poured forth with such facility, and still
retaining their grasp in spite of all changes in public opinion, stamp
him as being the most gifted composer ever produced by a country so
fecund in musical geniuses. The old set forms of Italian opera had
already yielded in large degree to the energy and pomp of French
declamation, when Rossini poured into them afresh such exhilaration and
sparkle as again placed his country in the van of musical Europe.
With no pretension to the grand, majestic, and severe, his fresh and
delightful melodies, flowing without stint, excited alike the critical
and the unlearned into a species of artistic craze, a mania which has
not yet subsided. The stiff and stately Oublicheff confesses, with many
compunctions of conscience, that, when listening for the first time to
one of Rossini's operas, he forgot for the time being all that he ha