new, ever heard and retained with pleasure." Mendelssohn, too, writing
to his father of a performance of this opera, speaks of the enthusiasm
of the audience as extreme, as well as of his own pleasure as surpassing
anything he had ever experienced in a theatre. Mendelssohn, who never
completed an opera, because he did not find until shortly before
his death a theme which properly inspired him to dramatic creation,
corresponded with Planché, with the hope of getting from the latter a
libretto which should unite the excellences of "Fidelio" with those of
"Les Deux Journées." He found, at last, a libretto, which, if it did not
wholly satisfy him, at least overcame some of his prejudices, in a story
based on the Rhine myth of Lorelei. A fragment of it only was finished,
and the finale of the first act is occasionally performed in England.


VI.

Before Napoleon became First Consul, he had been on familiar terms with
Cherubini. The soldier and the composer were seated in the same box
listening to an opera by the latter. Napoleon, whose tastes for music
were for the suave and sensuous Italian style, turned to him and said:
"My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician; but really
your music is so noisy and complicated that I can make nothing of it;"
to which Cherubini replied: "My dear general, you are certainly an
excellent soldier; but in regard to music you must excuse me if I
don't think it necessary to adapt my music to your comprehension." This
haughty reply was the beginning of an estrangement. Another illustration
of Cherubini's sturdy pride and dignity was his rejoinder to Napoleon,
when the latter was praising the works of the Italian composers, and
covertly sneering at his own. "Citizen General," he replied, "occupy
yourself with battles and victories, and allow me to treat according to