The second trial--Beethoven withdraws his opera--A second revision
--The revival of 1814--Success at last--First performances in London
and New York--The opera enriched by a ballet--Plot of "Fidelio"--
The first duet--The canon quartet--A dramatic trio--Milder-Hauptmann
and the great scena--Florestan's air--The trumpet call--The opera's
four overtures--Their history.

Chapter VI "Faust"

The love story in Gounod's opera--Ancient bondsmen of the devil--
Zoroaster, Democritus, Empedocles, Apollonius, Virgil, Albertus
Magnus, Merlin, Paracelsus, Theophilus of Syracuse,--The myth-making
capacity--Bismarck and the needle-gun--Printing, a black art--Johann
Fust of Mayence--The veritable Faust--Testimony of Luther and
Melanchthon--The literary history of Dr. Faustus--Goethe and his
predecessors--Faust's covenant with Mephistopheles--Dr. Faustus
and matrimony--The Polish Faust--The devil refuses to marry Madame
Twardowska--History of Gounod's opera--The first performance--
Popularity of the opera--First productions in London and New York--
The story--Marguerite and Gretchen--The jewel song--The ballet.

Chapter VII "Mefistofele"

Music in the mediaeval Faust plays--Early operas on the subject--
Meyerbeer and Goethe's poem--Composers of Faust music--Beethoven--
Boito's reverence for Goethe's poem--His work as a poet--A man of
mixed blood--"Mefistofele" a fiasco in Milan--The opera revised--
Boito's early ambitions--Disconnected episodes--Philosophy of the
opera--Its scope--Use of a typical phrase--The plot--Humors of the
English translation--Music of the prologue--The Book of Job--Boito's