in the newly organized Conservatory, at the same time with Cherubini,
left him but little leisure for musical composition; but he found time
to write the spectacular opera "Adrian," which was fiercely condemned by
a republican audience, not as a musical failure, but because their alert
and suspicious tempers suspected in it covert allusions to the dead
monarchy. Even David, the painter, said he would set the torch to the
opera-house rather than witness the triumph of a king. In 1806 Méhul
produced the opera "Uthal," a work of striking vigor founded on an
Ossianic theme, in which he made the innovation of banishing the violins
from the orchestra, substituting therefor the violas.

It was in "Joseph," however, composed in 1807, that this composer
vindicated his right to be called a musician of great genius, and
entered fully into a species of composition befitting his grand style.
Most of his contemporaries were incapable of appreciating the greatness
of the work, though his gifted rival Cherubini gave it the warmest
praise. In Germany it met with instant and extended success, and it is
one of the few French operas of the old school which still continue to
be given on the German stage. In England it is now frequently sung as an
oratorio. It is on this remarkable work that Méhul's lasting reputation
as a composer rests outside of his own nation. The construction of
the opera of "Joseph" is characterized by admirable symmetry of form,
dramatic power, and majesty of the choral and concerted passages,
while the sustained beauty of the orchestration is such as to challenge
comparison with the greatest works of his contemporaries. Such at
least is the verdict of Fétis, who was by no means inclined to be
over-indulgent in criticising Méhul. The fault in this opera, as in all
of Méhul's works, appears to have been a lack of bright and graceful
melody, though in the modern tendencies of music this defect is rapidly
being elevated into a virtue.