At the outset of our review of living Italian opera composers we meet the strange figure of Arrigo Boito, more famous for his one completed opera than are many composers who have endowed the world with dozens of such works. The charm of his personality has aided its success, while the ill fortune which dogged its birth and its intimate relationship to a great home have also contributed to its world-wide fame. [Sidenote: =His interesting Personality=] Not that Boito’s _Mefistofele_ is a work in the repertoire of every opera-house; rather, its performances seem to be limited in number, and yet all the world knows of its composer as the capable litterateur and musician who, amidst intense excitement, brought his _Mefistofele_ before the Milanese public at La Scala in 1868, and by the novelty of its form and musical treatment so displeased a very large number of his would-be admirers, that he fell from the height of popularity to which expectation had elevated him almost to the depth of extinction so far as his musical efforts were concerned. _Mefistofele_ has been rewritten; it was a work in advance of its time, and honour must be given to Boito for the artistic beauty of his conceptions, and for his courage and skill in the wielding of them to the ultimate conviction of an unwilling public. This fascinating but tantalizing composer still stimulates interest by the fact that he keeps two other and newer operas, _Nero_ and _Orestiade_, in his desk, and refuses, at any rate for the present, to bring them to the light. He has received the degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Cambridge, and at a concert given to celebrate the event in 1893 the author had the pleasure of taking part in a performance of the Prologue to _Mefistofele_ under his bâton. Verdi’s last two operas are to libretti by Boito. Commencement of Vocal Scherzo from Boito’s “Mefistofele.” [Music] Siam nimbi volanti dai limbi, nei santi [Illustration] [Sidenote: =Mascagni=] We now come to a composer whose music, or part of it, at any rate, must have been heard by everybody; we speak of Pietro Mascagni, whose most famous opera, entitled _Cavalleria Rusticana_, is probably the most popular modern work in the operatic repertoire. It was produced in 1890, and soon attained to fame; this was due, to some extent, to the introduction of a new device—namely, the performance of an orchestral intermezzo dividing the work into two parts, the curtain remaining up and disclosing an empty stage (a street scene). Possibly the original intention in leaving the curtain up was to prevent the buzz of conversation which always accompanies its fall, and precludes the possibility of careful attention to the music; but in this instance the music is so melodious, tuneful, and cleverly scored that it assured the success of the opera. Succeeding works from the same pen, _L’Amico Fritz_, _I Rantzau_, _William Ratcliff_, _Iris_, and others, have not yet found equal success.