all played their parts, however trivial in
detail, with great sincerity. Miss GOODALL was the only disappointment,
though the fault was not altogether her own. At first she was very
effective, but later her entries came to be a signal for gloom, like
those of a skeleton emergent from the family cupboard.

"PRINCE IGOR."

All is fair in Love and War, and the only ethical difficulty arises when
they clash. This was the trouble with _Vladimir Igorievich_, heir of
_Prince Igor_. Father and son had been taken in battle, and were held
captive in the camp of the Tartars; but, while _Prince Igor_ felt very
keenly his position (though treated as a guest rather than a prisoner
and supplied every evening with spectacular entertainments), _Vladimir_
beguiled his enforced leisure by falling in love (heartily reciprocated)
with the daughter of his captor, _Khan Konchak_. An opportunity of
escape being offered, _Prince Igor_ seizes it, but _Vladimir's_ dear
heart is divided between passion and patriotism, and before he can make
up his mind the chance of freedom is gone. A study of the so-called
"libretto" showed that this was the only thing in the opera that bore
any resemblance to a dramatic situation. Figure, therefore, my chagrin
when I discovered that the character of _Vladimir Igorievich_ had been
cut clean out of the text of the actual opera. I could much more easily
have dispensed with the buffooneries of a couple of obscure players upon
the _goudok_ (or prehistoric hurdy-gurdy), who wasted more than enough
of such time as could be spared from the intervals.

There was no part of adequate importance for M. CHALIAPINE, so he
doubled the _roles_ of _Galitsky_, the swaggering and dissolute
brother-in-law that _Prince Igor_ left behind when he went to the wars,
and _Khan Konchak_, most magnanimous of barbarians. Neither character
gave scope for the particular subtlety of which (as he proves in _Boris
Godounov_) M. CHALIAPINE is the sole master among male operatic singers.
But to each he brought that gift of the great manner, that ease and
splendour of bearing, and those superb qualities of voice which, found
together, give him a place apart from his kind.

Of the rest, M. PAUL ANDREEV, as _Prince Igor_, gave his plaint of
captivity with a noble pathos. As for the chorus, it sang with the
singleness and intensity of spirit which are only possible to a
national chorus in national opera, and which (I hope) are the envy of
the cos