Although rarely recognized, the work of the author of the libretto is of vast importance. In the days when the story meant little or nothing, provided so many pegs were provided on which to hang the “Arias,” the share of the librettist was a less conspicuous one; to-day no inconsiderable part of the failure of an opera is due to a poor libretto. It therefore frequently happens that composers, finding it impossible to find a poem to please them, write their own libretti, the chief example of this dual work being Wagner, whose dramas are often very fine considered from a literary point of view alone. [Sidenote: =Metastasio and Scribe=] Most famous of the librettists of early operas is Metastasio (1698-1782), some of whose poems were set by thirty and forty different composers: he wrote dramas used by such composers as Handel, Hasse, Jomelli, Porpora, Graun, Gluck, Meyerbeer, Caldara, Haydn, Cimarosa, and Mozart. In later days mention may be made of the dramatist Scribe (1791-1861), a French poet who provided a vast number of works for both the Grand Opera and the Opera Comique. The list of composers who have used Scribe’s libretti includes Auber, Adam, Boieldieu, Donizetti, Hérold, Halèvy, Meyerbeer, and Verdi. Quite one hundred of his operas were staged and performed, to say nothing of light dramatic and other pieces. [Sidenote: =The Prima Donna=] Scattered here and there in literature that deals with opera may be found endless stories of singers, composers, and art-patrons. Most fruitful in providing amusing tales are the _prime donne_, whose jealousies and bickerings, although unpleasant enough for those who have to contend against them, make sufficiently good reading. The Prima Donna generally knows her power, and is autocratic: there is not every day at hand a Handel, to take such a one forcibly by the scruff of her neck and hang her suspended from a window in mid-air until his will is granted. When such a factious lady has a husband in the same rôle consequences may be very bad indeed: the tenor Arsani, for example, the teacher of the Garcias, had a wife who was a prima donna; but instead of acting together, so jealous were they of each other, that when one was receiving the plaudits of the audience the other would go round into the auditorium and hiss! Rivalry is not always, however, so apparent, and when fine singers are willing to co-operate, very fine results are sometimes obtained. The most notable ensemble in this respect was probably that of the four great singers, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache, a combination of talent very seldom equalled, which delighted auditors of the early Victorian era.