opera on the subject of the Prodigal Son in 1811, and Berton, who
had also dipped into Old Testament story in an oratorio, entitled
"Absalon," illustrated the parable in a ballet. The most recent
settings of the theme are also the most significant: Auber's five-
act opera "L'Enfant Prodigue," brought out in Paris in 1850, and
Ponchielli's "Il Figliuolo Prodigo," in four acts, which had its
first representation at La Scala in 1880.

The mediaeval mysteries were frequently interspersed with choral
songs, for which the liturgy of the Church provided material. If we
choose to look upon them as incipient operas or precursors of that
art-form we must yet observe that their monkish authors, willing
enough to trick out the story of the Nativity with legendary matter
drawn from the Apocryphal New Testament, which discloses anything
but a reverential attitude toward the sublime tragedy, nevertheless
stood in such awe before the spectacle of Calvary that they deemed
it wise to leave its dramatic treatment to the church service in
the Passion Tide. In that service there was something approaching
to characterization in the manner of the reading by the three
deacons appointed to deliver, respectively, the narrative, the
words of Christ, and the utterances of the Apostles and people; and
it may be--that this and the liturgical solemnities of Holy Week
were reverently thought sufficient by them and the authors of the
first sacred operas. Nevertheless, we have Reiser's "Der Blutige
und Sterbende Jesus," performed at Hamburg, and Metastasio's "La
Passione di Gesu Christi," composed first by Caldara, which
probably was an oratorio.

Earlier than these was Theile's "Die Geburt Christi," performed in
Hamburg in 1681. The birth of Christ and His childhood (there was