As a musician Gounod may be described as an eclectic. Though his genius was essentially lyrical, his models were the kings of dramatic music,--Mozart, Weber (vay´-ber) and Wagner. To his love for the first of these he raised a lovely monument in a book on “Don Giovanni” (jo-vahn´-nee), which opera, he said, had influenced his whole life like a revelation, and had remained from the beginning the embodiment of dramatic perfection. He was one of the first of Wagner’s disciples in France; but his lyrical trend did not permit him to follow the German poet-composer to the logical outcome of his theories. Wagner’s influence upon him stopped with “Lohengrin.” Thereafter, as Gounod himself expressed it, he and Wagner traveled in diametrically opposite directions, he seeking to grow more simple in his manner and more desirous to achieve his ends by unaffected means and truthfulness of feeling. At the end he was disposed to consider Wagner an aberration of genius, a visionary haunted by the colossal, unable longer to estimate aright his own intellectual powers, one who had lost the sense of proportion. So far as American people are concerned the operatic Gounod lives only in “Faust” and “Roméo et Juliette.” There have been a few fitful performances of “Mireille” (mee-ray´) and “Philémon et Baucis” (Anglicized: fy-lee´-mon and baw´-sis); but all the other operas on his list are a blank. Very different is the case of the most popular of his successors, Massenet (mahs-nay´); though it is more than likely that he too will become a two-opera man. Massenet is the most popular of Gounod’s successors, but not the greatest. A greater musical dramatist than he was Bizet (bee-zay´); a greater musician and almost also as prolific an opera writer was, or is, Saint-Saëns (sahng-song´). These two men are represented in current opera lists by a single opera each; but of Massenet’s works New Yorkers have heard no less than eleven,--“Werther” (vare-ter) and “Manon” (mah-nong´), which are likely to endure, and “Le Cid” (lay sid), “La Navarraise,” “Le jongleur de Notre-Dame” (translated: The juggler of no´-tr dahm), “Thaïs” (tah-ees´), “Hérodiade,” “Sapho” (sah-fo´), “Grisélidis,” and “Cendrillon” (sang-dri-yong´) which are not likely to endure long. [Illustration: AMBROISE THOMAS Composer of Mignon.] [Illustration: CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Composer of Samson and Delilah.] [Illustration: LEO DELIBES Composer of Lakmé.] THE QUALITY OF MASSENET So many operas ought to speak well of Massenet’s versatility, as it surely does of his productiveness and industry; but the individuality of this composer, which is incontestable, is an individuality of style which leans heavily on sameness. The French wits who thought it clever to dub him “Mademoiselle Wagner” twenty years ago never got the opportunity to call him _Madame_ Wagner. He never grew up to that estate. He did not grow older in thought or riper in creative ability; but only more facile in expression.