I said, at the beginning of this study, that we were ungrateful to Meyerbeer, and this ingratitude is double on the part of France, for he loved her. He only had to say the word to have any theatre in Europe opened to him, yet he preferred to them all the Opera at Paris and even the Opera-Comique where the choruses and orchestra left much to be desired. When he did work for Paris after he had given _Margherita d'Anjou_ and _Le Crociato_ in Italy, he was forced to accommodate himself to French taste just as Rossini and Donizetti were. The latter wrote for the Opera-Comique _La Fille du Regiment_, a military and patriotic work, and its dashing and glorious _Salut a la France_ has resounded through the whole world. Foreigners do not take so much pains in our day, and France applauds _Die Meistersinger_ which ends with a hymn to German art. Such is progress! Something must be said of a little known score, _Struensee_, which was written for a drama which was so weak that it prevented the music gaining the success it deserved. The composer showed himself in this more artistic than in anything else he did. It should have been heard at the Odeon with another piece written by Jules Barbier on the same subject. The overture used to appear in the concerts as did the polonnaise, but like the overture to _Guillaume Tell_, they have disappeared. These overtures are not negligible. The overture to _Guillaume Tell_ is notable for the unusual invention of the five violoncellos and its storm with its original beginning, to say nothing of its pretty pastoral. The fine depth of tone in the exordium of _Struensee_ and the fugue development in the main theme are also not to be despised. But all that, we are told, is lacking in elevation and depth. Possibly; but it is not always necessary to descend to Hell and go up to Heaven. There is certainly more music in these overtures than in Grieg's _Peer Gynt_ which has been dinned into our ears so much. But enough of this. I must stop with the operas, for to consider the rest of his music would necessitate a study of its own and that would take us too far afield. My hope is that these lines may repair an unnecessary injustice and redirect the fastidious who may read them to a great musician whom the general public has never ceased to listen to and applaud. CHAPTER XXI JACQUES OFFENBACH