For Lully “came, saw, and conquered.” Although an Italian,[1] his name is one of the most prominent in the history of opera in France. Coming from Florence to Paris at an early age, he quickly saw his way to improving on the popular operas of Cambert, and his inventive and fertile talent soon put the older writer into the background. Lully’s great gift lay less in aptitude for the conception of melody, or even in his skill with the orchestra, than in the powers he possessed of writing truly dramatic and suitably expressive recitative. Moreover, he employed his chorus as an integral factor in the situation, not as a mere collection of puppets encumbering the stage; he is credited, too, with the invention of the “French” overture, a form in which an introductory slow movement is followed by another in quick fugal style, with a third short dance movement to conclude. Like Scarlatti in Italy, Lully in France towers high above all opera composers of that period, and his mark upon French Grand Opera exists till this day. [1] The name is often spelt with _i_, not _y_.—ED. [Illustration: LULLY.] [Sidenote: =Keiser, 1673-1739=] Germany at the same period can boast of no name of like importance, but operatic development was taking place in this country also, the chief agent in its progress here being Keiser, who produced a great number of operas in Hamburg. Although not the first to write such works in Germany, he is important as being an early factor in the popularization of opera during the forty years in which he laboured in this direction: he had also many followers, among whom must be named Handel, who wrote a few operas for Hamburg at an early period of his career. German opera at this time, however, gave but little promise of the grand future before it: the operas of Keiser and Hasse contain but few indications of the glories of a school of composers that includes Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber. [Sidenote: =Purcell, 1658-95=]