It seems impossible to support a Royal English Opera House with its special commodity of English Opera, that is, Opera composed by an Englishman to an Englishman's libretto, and played by English operatic singers. _Ivanhoe_, a genuine English Opera, by a genuine English Composer (with an Irish name), produced with great éclat, has, after a fair run and lots of favour, been Doylécarté, in order to make room for the _Basoche_, an essentially French Opera, by a French Composer and Librettist, done, of course, into English, so as to be "understanded of the people." The _Basoche_ has "caught on," and our friends in front, including Composer, Librettist, and Middleman--Druriolanus, who bought it, and Doyly Carty, who bought it of Sir Druri--are all equally pleased and satisfied. Considered as a matter of business, what signifies the nationality as long as the spec pays?--_tout est là_. "Druriolanus" was _Punch's_ ingenious _agnomen_ for Augustus Harris, who, beginning as a melodramatic actor, had blossomed into a manager and operatic _impresario_ and was knighted in 1891. It was at the close of the same year that Mascagni's _Cavalleria Rusticana_ was first produced in England, scored a success which the composer has never succeeded in recapturing, and established the tyranny of the "Intermezzo," which is not even yet overpast. Verga's powerful story of love and revenge, on which the libretto is based, counted for much, but the crude emotional vigour of the score is not to be denied. _Punch_ adored the "Intermezzo," speaks of the "charm" of the music, but says nothing of the plot. The Italian Company in 1891 were only moderately good; Madame Calvé's marvellously tragic impersonation of Santuzza, in the season of 1892, is inseparably associated in the minds of middle-aged opera-goers with Mascagni's solitary triumph. [Illustration: AN IRISH MELODY TRANSPLANTED GERMAN TENOR WARBLES:-- "I'll not leaf zee, sow lone von, To bine on ze Schtem! Zins ze lôfly are Szchleebingk, Coh! szchleeeb sow fiz dem! Zos ghyntly I schgadder Zy leafs on the bet, Vair zy maids of ze karrten Lie schentless and tet!" ] [Sidenote: _Gilbert and Sullivan_]