_William Ratcliff_ was followed by a series of admirable songs which indicated that Cui's talent as a vocal composer was rapidly maturing. A new opera, in four acts, entitled _Angelo_,[44] was completed and performed in St. Petersburg in February 1876, under the direction of Napravnik, the occasion being the benefit of the great baritone Melnikov. The book of _Angelo_ is based upon a play of Victor Hugo--a tale of passionate love; of rivalry between two beautiful and contrasting types of womanhood; of plotted revenge, and final atonement, when Tisbe saves the life of her rival at the expense of her own. The scene is laid in Padua during the middle of the sixteenth century. This work is generally regarded as the fruit of Cui's maturity. The subject is more suited to his temperament than Heine's "Ratcliff," and lends itself to the frequent employment of a chorus. Here Cui has been very successful, especially in the lighter choruses written in Italian dance rhythms, such as the tarantella "The moon rides in the clear bright sky," in the third act, and the graceful valse-like chorus "Far o'er the sea." The love duet between Catarina and Rodolfo is preferred by many to the great love duet in _Ratcliff_. Cui, whose heroines are more convincing than his male types, has found congenial material in Catarina and Tisbe, who have been described as "Woman in Society and Woman outside it"; thus combining in two typical personalities "all women and all womanhood." There is power, too, in the purely dramatic moments, as when Ascanio addresses the populace. The opera concludes with a fine elegiac chorus, in which the character of the period and locality--mediæval Italy, tragic and intense--is not unsuccessfully reflected.