life now than it ever had. It is the recognized operatic
masterpiece of the most resourceful and fecund French musician
since Berlioz. Saint-Saens began the composition of "Samson et
Dalila" in 1869. The author of the book, Ferdinand Lemaire, was a
cousin of the composer. Before the breaking out of the Franco-
Prussian War the score was so far on the way to completion that it
was possible to give its second act a private trial. This was done,
an incident of the occasion-which afterward introduced one element
of pathos in its history-being the singing of the part of Samson by
the painter Henri Regnault, who soon after lost his life in the
service of his country. A memorial to him and the friendship which
existed between him and the composer is the "Marche Heroique,"
which bears the dead man's name on its title-page. Toward the end
of 1872 the opera was finished. For two years the score rested in
the composer's desk. Then the second act was again brought forth
for trial, this time at the country home of Mme. Viardot, at
Croissy, the illustrious hostess singing the part of Dalila. In
1875 the first act was performed in concert style by M. Edouard
Colonne in Paris. Liszt interested himself in the opera and secured
its acceptance at the Grand Ducal Opera House of Weimar, where
Eduard Lassen brought it out on December 2, 1877. Brussels heard it
in 1878; but it did not reach one of the theatres of France until
March 3, 1890, when Rouen produced it at its Theatre des Arts under
the direction of M. Henri Verdhurt. It took nearly seven months
more to reach Paris, where the first representation was at the Eden
Theatre on October 31 of the same year. Two years later, after it
had been heard in a number of French and Italian provincial
theatres, it was given at the Academie Nationale de Musique under
the direction of M. Colonne. The part of Dalila was taken by Mme.
Deschamps-Jehin, that of Samson by M. Vergnet, that of the High