that one of them was promoted to the rank of an independent opera, and, instead of being performed in scraps between the acts of a tragedy, was given for the first time as a separate work.  This honour was accorded to Pergolesi’s ‘La Serva Padrona,’ in 1734, and the great success which it met with everywhere soon caused numberless imitations to spring up, so that in a few years opera buffa in Italy was launched upon a career of triumph.

Founded as it was in avowed imitation of the tragedy of the Greeks, opera had never deigned to touch modern life at any point.  For a long time the subjects of Italian operas were taken solely from classical legend, and though in time librettists were compelled to have recourse to the medieval romances, they never ventured out of an antiquity more or less remote.  Thus it is easy to conceive the delight of the music-loving people of Naples when they found that the opera which they adored could be enjoyed in combination with a mirthful and even farcical story, interpreted by characters who might have stepped out of one of their own market-places.  But, apart from the freedom and variety of the subjects with which it dealt, the development of opera buffa gave rise to an art-form which is of the utmost importance to the history of opera—­the concerted finale.  Nicolo Logroscino (1700-1763) seems to have been the first composer who conceived the idea of working up the end of an act to a musical climax by bringing all his characters together and blending their voices into a musical texture of some elaboration.  Logroscino wrote only in the Neapolitan dialect, and his works had little success beyond the limits of his own province; but his invention was quickly adopted by all writers of opera buffa, and soon became an important factor in the development of the art.  Later composers elaborated his idea by extending the finale to more than one movement, and by varying the key-colour.  Finally, but not until after many years, it was introduced into opera seria, when it gave birth to the idea of elaborate trios and quartets, which were afterwards to play so important a part in its development.  Logroscino’s reputation was chiefly local, but the works of Pergolesi (1710-1736) and Jomelli (1714-1774) made the Neapolitan school famous throughout Europe.  Both these composers are now best known by their sacred works, but during their lives their operas attained an extraordinary degree of popularity.  Both succeeded equally in comedy and tragedy, but Jomelli’s operas are now forgotten, while Pergolesi is known only by his delightful intermezzo ‘La Serva Padrona,’ This diverting little piece tells of the schemes of the chambermaid, Serpina, to win the hand of her master, Pandolfo.  She is helped by Scapin, the valet, who, disguised as a captain, makes violent love to her, and piques the old gentleman into proposing, almost against his will.  ‘La Serva Padrona’ made the tour of Europe, and was received everywhere with tumultuous applause.  In Paris it was performed