mposition of "Samson et Dalila" in 1869. The author of the book,
Ferdinand Lemaire, was a cousin of the composer. Before the breaking
out of the Franco-Prussian War the score was so far on the way to
completion that it was possible to give its second act a private trial.
This was done, an incident of the occasion-which afterward introduced
one element of pathos in its history-being the singing of the part of
Samson by the painter Henri Regnault, who soon after lost his life in
the service of his country. A memorial to him and the friendship which
existed between him and the composer is the "Marche Heroique," which
bears the dead man's name on its title-page. Toward the end of 1872 the
opera was finished. For two years the score rested in the composer's
desk. Then the second act was again brought forth for trial, this time
at the country home of Mme. Viardot, at Croissy, the illustrious
hostess singing the part of Dalila. In 1875 the first act was performed
in concert style by M. Edouard Colonne in Paris. Liszt interested
himself in the opera and secured its acceptance at the Grand Ducal
Opera House of Weimar, where Eduard Lassen brought it out on December
2, 1877. Brussels heard it in 1878; but it did not reach one of the
theatres of France until March 3, 1890, when Rouen produced it at its
Theatre des Arts under the direction of M. Henri Verdhurt. It took
nearly seven months more to reach Paris, where the first representation
was at the Eden Theatre on October 31 of the same year. Two years
later, after it had been heard in a number of French and Italian
provincial theatres, it was given at the Academie Nationale de Musique
under the direction of M. Colonne. The part of Dalila was taken by Mme.
Deschamps-Jehin, that of Samson by M. Vergnet, that of the High Priest
by M. Lassalle. Eight months before this it had been performed as an
oratorio by the Oratorio Society of New York. There were two
performances, on March 25 and 26, 1892, the conductor being Mr. Walter
Damrosch and the principal singers being Frau Marie Ritter-Goetze,
Sebastian Montariol, H. E. Distelhurst, Homer Moore, Emil Fischer, and
Purdon Robinson. London had heard the work twice as an oratorio before
it had a stage representation there on April 26, 1909, but this
performance was fourteen years later than the first at the Metropolitan
Opera House on February 8, 1895. The New York performance was
scenically inadequate, but the integrity of the record demand