extremely enthusiastic, and in the autumn of 1903--thirty years after its first performance--it was restored to the repertory of the St. Petersburg Opera. The subject of _The Maid of Pskov_ is taken from one of Mey's dramas, dealing with an episode from the history of the sixteenth century when Ivan the Terrible, jealous of the enterprise and independence of the twin cities of Pskov and Novgorod, resolved to humble their pride and curtail their power. Novgorod fell; but the awful doom of Pskov was mitigated by the Tsar's discovery that Olga, who passes for the daughter of Prince Tokmakov, the chief magistrate of the city, was in reality his own natural child, the daughter of Vera Sheloga whom he had loved in youth, and for whose memory the tyrant could still feel some spark of affection and some pangs of remorse. One of the finest moments in the opera is the summoning of the _Vêche_, or popular assembly, in the second act. The great city of mediæval Russia, with all it contained of characteristic energy, of almost Elizabethan vigour and enterprise, is set before us in this musical picture. The stress and anger of the populace; the fine declamatory monologue for Prince Tokmakov; the song sung by Michael Toucha, Olga's lover, who leads the rebellious spirits of Pskov; the impressive knell of the tocsin calling the citizens to attend the _Vêche_--all unite to form a dramatic scene worthy to compare with the finale of Glinka's _Russlan and Liudmilla_, or with the _Slavsia_ (the chorus of acclamation) which makes the Kremlin ring in _A Life for the Tsar_. Russians, as everyone knows who has lived in their country, have a passion for bells, and often reproduce their effects in their music: witness the orchestral prelude "Dawn Breaking over Moscow" in Moussorgsky's _Khovanstchina_ and the familiar Overture "1812" by Tchaikovsky. The bell effects in _The Maid of Pskov_ are extraordinarily moving. Recalling, as it does, traditions of political liberty and free speech, this bell--so I have been told--appeared in the eyes of the Censor the most objectionable and revolutionary character in the whole opera. The scenes in which the old nurse Vlassievna takes part--a _Nianka_ is so much a part of domestic life in Russia that no play or opera seems complete without one--are full of quiet humour and tenderness. The love-music for Michael and Olga is graceful rather than passionate, more warmth and tenderness being shown in the relations between the young girl and the Tsar, for whom she has an instinctive filial feeling. Psychologically the later scenes in the opera, in which we see the relentless and superstitious heart of Ivan gradually softening under the influence of paternal love, interest and touch us most deeply. In 1899 Rimsky-Korsakov added, at Shaliapin's request, the aria now sung by the Tsar in his tent, in the last act. This number reveals much of Ivan's strange and complex nature; in it he is