The vogue of Donizetti’s serious operas has practically passed away. To modern ears, despite much tender melody and occasional dramatic expressiveness, they sound stilted and lacking in vitality. _Lucia di Lammermoor_, founded on Scott’s tragic romance ‘The Bride of Lammermoor’ (Naples, 1835), immensely popular in the composer’s day, is still given as a ‘prima donna’s opera,’ for the virtuoso display of some favorite artist. The fine sextet enjoys undiminished popularity in its original form as well as in instrumental arrangements, but in general the composer’s subservience to the false standard of public taste detracts from the music. An instance is the ‘mad-scene,’ ridiculous from the dramatic standpoint, with its smooth and polished melody, ending in a virtuoso _fioritura_ cadenza for voice and flute! The same criticism applies to the tuneful _Lucrezia Borgia_ (Milan, 1833), which, in spite of charming melodies and occasionally effective concerted numbers, is orchestrated in a thin and childish manner. _Anna Bolena_ (Milan, 1830), written for Pasta and Rubini, after the good old Italian fashion of adapting rôles to singers, and _Marino Faliero_ (1835) were both written in rivalry with Bellini, and the failure of the last-named opera was responsible for the supreme effort which produced _Lucia_. More important is _Linda di Chamounix_, which aroused such enthusiasm when first performed in Vienna, in 1842, that the emperor conferred the title of court composer on its composer. But _La Favorita_, with its repulsive plot, which shares with _Lucia_ the honor of being the best of Donizetti’s serious operas, is superior to _Linda_ in the care with which it has been written and in the dramatic power of the ensemble numbers. _Spirto gentil_, the delightful romance in the last act, is perhaps the best-known aria in the score. In _Lucia_ and _La Favorita_ Donizetti’s melodic inspiration--his sole claim to the favor of posterity--finds its freest and most spontaneous development. While Donizetti had an occasional sense of dramatic effect, his contemporary, Vincenzo Bellini (1802-1835), the son of an organist of Catania, showed a genius which, if wanting in wit and vivacity, had much melancholy sweetness and a certain elegiac solemnity of expression. He had studied the works of both the German and Italian composers, in particular those of Pergolesi, and, like Donizetti, he fell a victim to the strain of persistent overwork. Among his ten operas--he did not attempt the _buffa_ style--three stand out prominently: _La Sonnambula_ (Milan, 1831), _Norma_ (Milan, 1831), and _I Puritani_ (Paris, 1835).