"The Margaret was beautiful. She reminded me of Dryden's lines: "'So pois'd, so gently she descends from high, It seems a soft dismission from the sky.'" CHAPTER IX OPÉRA COMIQUE To most persons "opéra comique" means simply comic opera. If they make any distinction at all it is to call it "high-class comic opera." As a matter of fact, tragedy and comedy are hardly farther apart in spirit than are the rough and farcical stuff that we look upon as comic opera nowadays and the charming old pieces that formed the true "opéra comique" some fifty years ago. "Opéra bouffe" even is many degrees below "opéra comique." Yet "opéra bouffe" is, to my mind, something infinitely superior and many steps higher than modern comic opera. So we have some delicate differentiations to make when we go investigating in the fields of light dramatic music. In Paris at the Comique they try to keep the older distinction in mind when selecting their operas for production. There are exceptions to this rule, as to others, for play-houses that specialise; but for the most part these Paris managers choose operas that are light. I use the word advisedly. By _light_ I mean, literally, _not heavy_. Light music, light drama, does not necessarily mean humorous. It may, on the contrary, be highly pathetic and charged with sentiment. The only restriction is that it shall not be expressed in the stentorian orchestration of a Meyerbeer, nor in the heart-rending tragedy of a Wagner. In theme and in treatment, in melodies and in text, it must be of delicate fibre, something easily seized and swiftly assimilated, something intimate, perfumed, and agreeable, with no more harshness of emotion than of harmony. Judged by this standard such operas as _Martha_, _La Bohème_, even _Carmen_--possibly, even _Werther_--are not entirely foreign to the requirements of "opéra comique." _Le Donne Curiose_ may be considered as an almost perfect revival and exemplification of the form. A careful differentiation discovers that humour, a happy ending, and many rollicking melodies do not at all make an "opéra comique." These qualities all belong abundantly to _Die Meistersinger_ and to Verdi's _Falstaff_, yet these great operas are no nearer being examples of genuine "comique" than _Les Huguenots_ is or _Götterdämmerung_.