local color.  Tavena sings a quaint fortune-teller’s roundelay ("La stagione arriva"), and in the next scene Mireille has a number of rare beauty ("Ah! piu non temo fato “), in which she declares her unalterable attachment to Vincenzo.  The finale of this act, with its strong aria ("Qui mi prostro innanzi ate"), is very spirited, and in fact may be considered the only dramatic episode in the whole work.  The third act opens with the quaint little song of Andreluno, the shepherd boy ("L’alba tranquilla"), with oboe accompaniment.  It also contains a plaintive song for tenor ("Ah! se de preghi miei"), and closes with a waltz song ("O d’amor messagera"), which is fairly gorgeous in bravura effects, and Hanslick says was a concession to Miolan-Carvalho, like the jewel song in “Faust” and the waltz song in “Romeo and Juliet.”  In the original libretto the song had its place in the first act, and indeed numerous changes have been made in the libretto since the opera first appeared; as in the original, Mireille dies in the arms of her lover, and Urias, Vincenzo’s rival, is drowned in the Rhone.  When it first appeared, however, great objection was made to several of the situations, and the libretto was declared fantastic and uninteresting; hence the changes.  As a lyric drama, delightfully picturing the quaintness and simplicity of provincial life, not alone in the tunefulness of the music, but also in its pastoral naivete and what may be termed its folk-characteristics, it will hold a high place upon the stage as long as young and fresh voices can be found to sing it.

HALEVY.

Jacques Francois Fromenthal Elias Halevy was born at Paris, May 27, 1799, of Israelitish parents, whose name was originally Levy.  He entered the Conservatory in 1809, and in 1819 obtained the Grand Prize for his cantata of “Hermione.”  After his arrival in Italy he wrote several minor pieces, but his music did not attract public attention until his return to Paris, when his three-act opera, “Clari,” brought out Dec. 9, 1828, with Malibran in the principal role, made a success.  “Le Dilettante d’Avignon” (a satire on Italian librettos), “Manon Lescaut” (a ballet in three acts), “La Langue Musicale,” “La Tentation,” and “Les Souvenirs” rapidly followed “Clari,” with alternating successes and failures.  In 1835 his great work, “La Juive,” appeared, and in the same year, “L’Eclair,” one of his most charming operas, written without chorus for two tenors and two sopranos.  It was considered at the time a marvellous feat that he should have produced two such opposite works in the same year, and great hopes were entertained that he would surpass them.  These hopes failed, however.  He subsequently wrote over twenty operas, among them “Guido et Ginevra” (1838); “Charles VI.” (1842); “La Reine de Chypre” (1842); “Les Mousquetaires de la Reine” (1846); “Le Val d’Andorre” (1848); “La Tempete” (1853):  “Le Juif Errant” (1855), and others; but “La