technicality, but intense sympathy with the innermost feelings of human nature, for he was a humanitarian in the broadest sense.  By the common consent of the musical world he stands at the head of all composers, and has always been their guide and inspiration.  He died March 26, 1827, in the midst of a raging thunder storm, one of his latest utterances being a recognition of the “divine spark” in Schubert’s music.

FIDELIO.

“Fidelio, oder die eheliche Liebe” ("Fidelio, or Conjugal Love"), grand opera in two acts, words by Sonnleithner, translated freely from Bouilly’s “Leonore, ou l’Amour Conjugal,” was first produced at the Theatre An der Wien, Vienna, Nov. 20, 1805, the work at that time being in three acts.  A translation of the original programme of that performance, with the exception of the usual price of admissions, is appended:—­

Imperial and Royal Theatre An der Wien. 
New Opera. 
To-day, Wednesday, 20 November, 1805, at the Imperial and Royal
Theatre An der Wien, will be given for the first time. 
Fidelio;
Or, Conjugal Love. 
Opera in three acts, translated freely from the French text by
Joseph Sonnleithner. 
The music is by Ludwig von Beethoven.

Dramatis Personae.

Don Fernando, Minister Herr Weinkoff. Don Pizarro, Governor of a State Prison Herr Meier. Florestan, prisoner Herr Demmer. Leonora, his wife, under the name of Fidelio Fraeulein Milder. Rocco, chief jailer Herr Rothe. Marcellina, his daughter Fraeulein Mueller. Jaquino, turnkey Herr Cache. Captain of the Guard Herr Meister. Prisoners, Guards, People.

The action passes in a State prison in Spain, a few leagues from Seville.  The piece can be procured at the box-office for fifteen kreutzers.

During this first season the opera was performed three times and then withdrawn.  Breuning reduced it to two acts, and two or three of the musical numbers were sacrificed, and in this form it was played twice at the Imperial Private Theatre and again withdrawn.  On these occasions it had been given under Beethoven’s favorite title, “Leonore.”  In 1814 Treitschke revised it, and it was produced at the Kaernthnerthor Theatre, Vienna, May 23, of that year, as “Fidelio,” which title it has ever since retained.  Its first performance in Paris was at the Theatre Lyrique, May 5, 1860; in London, at the King’s Theatre, May 18, 1832; and in English at Covent Garden, June 12, 1835, with Malibran in the title-role.  Beethoven wrote four overtures for this great work.  The first was composed in 1805, the second in 1806, the third in 1807, and the