It is scarcely worth while to recall Verdi's failures: but _Luisa Miller_ and _La Forza del Destino_ must in fairness be reckoned among the number. _Luisa Miller_ is based on the theme of Schiller's pathetic but over-dolorous drama _Cabale und Liebe_. For the basis of _La Forza_ Verdi did not have recourse to Schiller as in the case of _Luisa Miller_ and _I Massdieri_, nor to Victor Hugo as in that of _Ernani_ and of _Rigoletto_ (_Le Roi s'amuse_). His librettist borrowed the subject from a most sanguinary melodrama by a Spanish author of some distinction, though with such bloodthirsty tendencies that he brings almost every character in his play to a violent end, while one of the leading personages, after apparently meeting his death, is restored to life to be killed again. In _La Forza del Destino_ the composer has so neglected the concerted music that the work does not include one regularly constructed concerted piece. It contains, however, some beautiful melodies for the solo voice, including one in particular assigned to the prima donna, which Verdi, from having inscribed it beneath one of his best portraits, would seem to regard as characteristically his own. Of Verdi's _Requiem_, composed in memory of Manzoni, little need be said except that it is melodious, impressive, and often very dramatic--dramatic, however, in the style of _Aïda_ not of the less thoroughly dramatic, but more stagey works of Verdi's youth. Verdi, now (1880) in his sixty-seventh year, has by no means renounced musical composition; and he is understood to be actively engaged on a new _Othello_, of which Signor Boito, author and composer of _Mefistofele_, has furnished the libretto, and which is to be brought out as soon as completed under the title of _Iago_. Unlike other composers, Verdi has played a certain political part, which, however, seems in a great measure to have been forced upon him. In the days before Italian unity it was discovered that the letters composing his name might, in due order, be regarded as signifying "Vittore Emanuele, Re d'Italia"; so that "Viva Verdi!" came to be accepted as an aspiration for a united Italian kingdom with Victor Emanuel on the throne. When _Macbeth_ was brought out, all sorts of political allusions were discovered in the libretto; and nothing would satisfy the electors of Verdi's native town but to make him a member of the National Assembly of Parma. After the formation of the Italian kingdom Verdi became a member of the Italian parliament; and in 1874 the king made him a senator. LIST OF ROSSINI'S WORKS WITH THE DATE OF THEIR PRODUCTION IN PUBLIC.