It is remarkable that Gluck, who fought against the musical inconsistencies and defects of his time, should not have felt the necessity of reforming the dramatic construction of the opera, for he showed a much keener insight and appreciation of dramatic effect than the poets whose librettos he composed. He knew how to give characteristic expression to the personalities of the play. His characters may be read like an open book. In simplicity and dignity of style he approached the Greek ideal. While Gluck increased the significance of accompanied recitative and insisted on truer methods of declamation, he would not allow the air the same prominence that the Italians did. His airs are divested of all richness of ornament and colorature. Many of them are noble in their simplicity, but in general they lack sensuous charm and beauty. The chorus was a very important feature of his operas, and fulfilled something like its original object in ancient tragedy. In his dramatic use of the orchestra, Gluck stood in advance of his time. He added new instruments, and produced original and impressive effects which render his orchestration interesting to musicians of the present day. Notwithstanding the nobility and grandeur of his conceptions, he neither fulfilled the ideal of the musical drama from the point of view of Wagner, nor of the opera as perfected by Mozart. The latter embodied Gluck’s ideas in works which surpass his in every respect except dramatic simplicity. The field of music in which Mozart stands pre-eminent is the opera. He was endowed by nature and favored by opportunity to bring this form to ideal perfection, at least as regards the musical element of the opera of his time. He learned first of the Italians and then of Gluck, and surpassed the highest accomplishments of both. “Don Giovanni” and “Figaro” are the greatest of Italian operas. No one has ever united more perfectly than Mozart precision and energy of dramatic expression with the richest and purest melody. His dramatic characters are thoroughly individualized by the music. Each one appears on the stage to remain true and consistent to his or her individuality in every phase of passion and conflict of action. This power of contrasting characters is especially vivid in his concerted music, in the inimitable quartets and sextets of his latest operas. For this purpose, Mozart exercised his perfect command of vocal composition and polyphony.