tory. After a very
spirited and energetic prelude, the prologue begins with the fruitless
attempt of Lucifer to pull down the cross on the spire of Strasburg
cathedral, the protests of the spirits of the air (first and second
sopranos), the defiance of the bells (male chorus) as each attempt fails,
and the final disappearance of the spirits amid the chanting of the
majestic Latin hymn, "Nocte surgentes," by full chorus in the church,
accompanied by the organ. The second scene opens in Prince Henry's
chamber in the tower of the Vautsberg castle, and reminds one of the
opening scene of "Faust," as set by Gounod. After an expressive
declamation of his melancholy and his longing for rest and health ("I
cannot sleep, my fervid Brain calls up the vanished Past again"), Lucifer
appears in a flash of light, dressed as a travelling physician, and a
dialogue ensues, the purport of which has already been told, which closes
with an ingenious and beautifully-written number for the two voices,
accompanied by a four-part chorus of mixed voices and a small semi-chorus
of sopranos and altos ("Golden Visions wave and hover"). The fourth scene
is an unaccompanied quartet, "The Evening Song," sung by Elsie, Bertha,
Max, and Gottlieb in their peasant home in the Odenwald, as they light
the lamps ("O gladsome Light of the Father"). It is a simple, tranquil
hymn, but full of that sacred sentiment which this composer expresses so
admirably in music. The fifth scene, Elsie's prayer in her chamber ("My
Redeemer and my Lord"), in its calm beauty and religious feeling makes a
fitting pendant to the quartet. In the next number, the orchestra is
utilized to carry on the action, and in march tempo describes the
pilgrimage to Salerno with stately intervals, in which is heard the
sacred song, "Urbs coelestis, urbs beata," supposed to be sung by the
pilgrims "moving slowly on their long journey with uncovered feet." The
seventh scene is laid in the refectory of the convent of Hirschau, in the
Black Forest, where Lucifer enters the gaudiolum of monks, disguised as a
friar, and sings the rollicking Latin drinking-song, "Ave color vini
clari," which Mr. Edmund C. Stedman versified for this work as follows:--

"Hail! thou vintage clear and ruddy!
Sweet of taste and fine of body,
Through thine aid we soon shall study
How to make us glorious!

"Oh! thy color erubescent!
Oh! thy fragrance evanescent!
Oh! within the mouth how pleasant!