_La Muette_ was the first of those important works to which the French Opera owes its actual celebrity in Europe. _Le Siège de Corinthe_, translated and adapted from _Maometto II._, with additions (including the admirable blessing of the flags) written specially for the Académie, had been brought out eighteen months before, but without much success. _Maometto II._ was not one of Rossini's best works, the drama on which it was constructed was essentially feeble and uninteresting, and the manner in which the whole was "arranged" for the French stage, was unsatisfactory in many respects. _Le Siège de Corinthe_ was greatly applauded the first night, but it soon ceased to have any attraction for the public. Rossini had previously written _Il Viaggio a Reims_ for the coronation of Charles X., and this work was re-produced at the Academy three years afterwards, with several important additions (such as the duet for "Isolier" and the "Count," the chorus of women, the unaccompanied quartett, the highly effective drinking chorus, and the beautiful trio of the last act), under the title of _le Comte Ory_. In the meanwhile _La Muette_ had been brought out, to be followed the year afterwards by _Guillaume Tell_, which was to be succeeded in its turn by Meyerbeer's _Robert le Diable_, _Les Huguenots_ and _Le Prophète_, (works which belong specially to the Académie and with which its modern reputation is intimately associated), by Auber's _Gustave III._, Donizetti's _la Favorite_, &c. _La Muette de Portici_ had the great advantage of enabling the Académie to display all its resources at once. It was brought out with magnificent scenery and an excellent _corps de ballet_, with a _première danseuse_, Mademoiselle Noblet as the heroine, with the new tenor, Nourrit, in the important part of the hero, and with a well taught chorus capable of sustaining with due effect the prominent _rôle_ assigned to it. For in the year 1828 it was quite a novelty at the French Opera to see the chorus taking part in the general action of the drama. [Sidenote: LA MUETTE DE PORTICI.]