Spontini had already produced _La Finta Filosofa_, which, originally brought out at Naples, was afterwards performed at the Italian Theatre of Paris, without success; _La Petite Maison_, written for the Opéra Comique, and violently hissed; and _Milton_ also composed for the Opéra Comique, and favourably received. When _La Vestale_ was submitted to the jury of the Académie, it was refused unanimously on the ground of the extravagance of its style, and of the audacity of certain innovations in the score. Spontini appealed to the Empress Josephine, and it was owing to her influence, and through a direct order of the court that _La Vestale_ was put upon the stage. The jury was inexorable, however, as regarded certain portions of the work, and the composer was obliged to submit it to the orchestral conductor, who injured it in several places, but without spoiling it. Spontini wished to give the part of the tenor to Nourrit; but Lainez protested, went to the superintendant of the imperial theatres, represented that he had been first tenor and first lover at the Opera for thirty years, and finally received full permission to make love to the Vestal of the Académie. The Emperor Napoleon had the principal pieces in _La Vestale_ executed by his private band, nearly a year before the opera was brought out at the Académie. He had sufficient taste to admire the music, and predicted to Spontini the success it afterwards met with. He is said, in particular, to have praised the finale, the first dramatic finale written for the French Opera. [Sidenote: SPONTINI.]