_Iolanthe_, a lyric opera in one act, was Tchaikovsky's last production for the stage. It was first given in St. Petersburg in December, 1893, shortly after the composer's death. "In _Iolanthe_," says Cheshikin, "Tchaikovsky has added one more tender and inspired creation to his gallery of female portraits ... a figure reminding us at once of Desdemona and Ophelia." The music of _Iolanthe_ is not strong, but it is pervaded by an atmosphere of tender and inconsolable sadness; by something which seems a faint and weak echo of the profoundly emotional note sounded in the "Pathetic" Symphony. We may sum up Tchaikovsky's operatic development as follows: Beginning with conventional Italian forms in _The Oprichnik_ he passed in _Cherevichek_ to more modern methods, to the use of melodic recitative and ariosos; while _Eugene Oniegin_ shows a combination of both these styles. This first operatic period is purely lyrical. Afterwards, in _The Maid of Orleans_, _Mazeppa_, and _Charodeika_, he passed through a second period of dramatic tendency. With _Pique-Dame_ he reaches perhaps the height of his operatic development; but this work is the solitary example of a third period which we may characterise as lyrico-dramatic. In _Iolanthe_ he shows a tendency to return to simple lyrical forms. From the outset of his career he was equally attracted to the dramatic and symphonic elements in music. Of the two, opera had perhaps the greater attraction for him. The very intensity of its fascination seems to have stood in the way of his complete success. Once bitten by an operatic idea, he went blindly and uncritically forward, believing in his subject, in the quality of his work, and in its ultimate triumph, with that kind of undiscerning optimism to which the normally pessimistic sometimes fall unaccountable victims. The history of his operas repeats itself: a passion for some particular subject, feverish haste to embody his ideas; certainty of success; then disenchantment, self-criticism, and the hankering to remake and remodel which pursued him through life. Only a few of Tchaikovsky's operas seem able to stand the test of time. _Eugene Oniegin_ and _The Queen of Spades_ achieved popular success, and _The Oprichnik_ and _Mazeppa_ have kept their places in the repertory of the opera houses in St. Petersburg and in the provinces; but the rest must be reckoned more or less as failures. Considering Tchaikovsky's reputation, and the fact that his operas were never allowed to languish in obscurity, but were all brought out under the most favourable circumstances, there must be some reason for this luke-warm attitude on the part of the public, of which he himself was often painfully aware. The choice of subjects may have had something to do with this; for the books of _The Oprichnik_ and _Mazeppa_, though dramatic, are exceedingly lugubrious. But Polonsky's charming text to _Cherevichek_ should at least have pleased a Russian audience.