le of the opera indicates that the Biblical story of the visit
of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon had been drawn on for the plot. This
is true, but only in a slight degree. Sheba's Queen comes to Solomon in
the opera, but that is the end of the draft on the Scriptural legend so
far as she is concerned. Sulamith, who figures in the drama, owes her
name to the Canticles, from which it was borrowed by the librettist,
but no element of her character nor any of the incidents in which she
is involved. The "Song of Songs, which is Solomon's" contributes a few
lines of poetry to the book, and a ritualistic service which is
celebrated in the temple finds its original text in the opening verses
of Psalms lxvii and cxvii, but with this I have enumerated all that the
opera owes to the Bible. It is not a Biblical opera, in the degree that
Mehul's "Joseph," Rossini's "Moses," or Rubinstein's "Maccabees" is
Biblical, to say nothing of Saint-Saens's "Samson et Dalila." Solomon's
magnificent reign and marvellous wisdom, which contribute a few factors
to the sum of the production, belong to profane as well as to sacred
history and it will be found most agreeable to deeply rooted
preconceptions to think of some other than the Scriptural Solomon as
the prototype of the Solomon of Mosenthal and Goldmark, who, at the
best, is a sorry sort of sentimentalist. The local color has been
borrowed from the old story; the dramatic motive comes plainly from
Wagner's "Tannhauser."

Assad, a favorite courtier, is sent by Solomon to extend greetings and
a welcome to the Queen of Sheba, who is on the way to visit the king,
whose fame for wealth and wisdom has reached her ears in far Arabia.
Assad is the type (though a milk-and-watery one, it must be confessed)
of manhood struggling between the things that are of the earth and the
things which are of heaven--between a gross, sensual passion and a
pure, exalting love. He is betrothed to Sulamith, the daughter of the
High Priest of the temple, who awaits his return from Solomon's palace
and leads her companions in songs of gladness. Assad meets the Queen at
Gath, performs his mission, and sets out to return, but, exhausted by
the heat of the day, enters the forest on Mount Lebanon and lies down
on a bank of moss to rest. There the sound of plashing waters arrests
his ear. He seeks the cause of the grateful noise and comes upon a
transportingly beautiful woman bathing. The nymph, finding herself
observed, does