The first English composer after Arne to produce anything attaining to real popularity, and to really deserve the name of opera, was Balfe, who, following an example set by John Barnett in his opera _The Mountain Sylph_, produced in 1835 _The Siege of Rochelle_, and eight years later the well-known _Bohemian Girl_. That these operas are not of a particularly exalted type must be admitted; the airs are tuneful and mostly commonplace. There can be no comparison, for example, between the _Bohemian Girl_ and _Faust_, because although both make a ready and immediate appeal, the artistic standard is much lower in the English than in the French work. But still the work of Balfe was an immense advance on the poorly constructed ballad opera that had hitherto found acceptance, and it helped to pave the way to higher ideals and better methods. Type of Balfe’s melody “The Bohemian Girl.” [Music] When other lips and other hearts Their tale of love shall tell, [Sidenote: =Wallace, 1814-65=] On about the same plane is Wallace, whose most popular work is _Maritana_—even more trying to listen to (for the cultured hearer) than the _Bohemian Girl_. These works, although poor and of no interest to the musician, yet play a part in the education of the people. Those quite unenlightened in the forms of opera can make a good start by at first listening to works of this type; and as their experience grows, so their taste will undoubtedly improve, and ripen to an appreciation of better things. The admiration of the crowd for such works as these, although now less than formerly, is not to be altogether condemned, seeing that it may in some cases be the means of raising the masses to an appreciation of something better and more musically satisfactory. As musical education in England gradually improved, so we find our composers more artistic in their outlook and more solid in their work. The operas of Benedict (1804-85) and Macfarren (1813-87), although seldom performed now, are the output of talented and cultured musicians, who possessed, moreover, gifts of melody and dramatic characterization which must not be overlooked. Benedict’s best opera was _The Lily of Killarney_, produced in 1862. [Sidenote: =Goring Thomas, 1851-92=] Greater heights still were reached by Goring Thomas, who wrote _Esmeralda_ and _Nadeshda_, both works of merit, and from which excerpts are frequently given in our concert rooms. [Sidenote: =Sullivan, 1842-1900=]