Part 75 (2/2)

At length, he had his rehearsal After various trials he invited representatives of the London Press to be present at the last They all ca accounts for their respective journals

”I don't kno it is,” said he to Beatrice ”Every thing has come into my hands I don't understand it It seems to me exactly as if there was soin my ho paid these artists first and then sent them to me, and influenced all the journals in my favor I should be sure of this if it were not athan the actual result itself As it is I a that is without parallel I have a coether on one stage I have e second and third parts without caring what I pay them, or whether I pay them or not I know theis unexampled, and I can not comprehend it

I have tried to find out froive me no satisfaction At any rate, my Bicina, you will make your _debut_ under the most favorable circumstances You sa they admired your voice at the rehearsal The world shall adhetti was puzzled, and, as he said, bewildered, but he did not slacken a single effort toas though he were still struggling against difficulties

After all that had been done for hiood house, yet he worked as hard as though his audience was very uncertain

At length the appointed evening caood house froiven him the co-operation of the entire musical world and of the press Yet when he looked out and saw the house that waited for the rising of the curtain he was overwhel before the tireat murmur had attracted his attention He saw the house crammed in every part All the boxes were filled In the pit was a vast congregation of gentleed

The wonder that had all along filled hireater than ever

He well knew under what circuether There must either be undoubted fame in the prima donna, or else the most wide-spread and comprehensive efforts on the part of a skillful ireat, but not such as to insure any thing like this To account for the prodigious crohich filled every part of the large edifice was simply impossible

He did not attempt to account for it He accepted the situation, and prepared for the performance

What sort of an idea that audience hetti need hardly be conjectured They had heard of it as a novelty

They had heard that the company was the best ever collected at one tienius That was enough for theh-pitched that it would have proved disastrous in the extreer who should have proved to be in the slightest degree inferior

Consummate excellence alone in every part could now save the piece frohetti felt; but he was calm, for he had confidence in his work and in his company Most of all, he had confidence in Beatrice

At last the curtain rose

The scene was such a one as had never before been represented A blaze of dazzling light filled the stage, and before it stood seven foran one of the subliers had in some on eminence

They had thrown theiven to them had produced an exalted effect upon their own hearts, and now they rendered forth that grand ”Chorus of Angels” which those who heard the ”Prootten The words rese in Goethe's ”Faust,” but the nificent opening onderful The audience sat spell-bound--hushed into stillness by those transcendent harels the”

which is spoken of in Revelation The grandeur of Handel's stupendous chords was renewed, and every one present felt its power

Then ca The ocean ny with his woes The sufferer lay chained to a bleak rock in the summit of frosty Caucasus Far and wide extended an expanse of ice In the distance arose a vast world of snow-coveted peaks In front was a _e

Prometheus addressed all nature--”the divine ether, the singed winds, Earth the All-hter of the ocean waves” The thoughts were those of Aeschylus, expressed by the hetti

The ocean ny of mournful sweetness, whose indescribable pathos touched every heart It was the intensity of syuish, for the heart that felt it had identified itself with the heart of the sufferer

Then followed an extraordinary strain It was the Voice of Universal Nature, aniony of the God of Love In that strain was heard the voice ofof the sea, thein extraordinary unison, and all speaking of woe

And now a third scene opened It was Athene Athene represented Wisdoeance is dethroned, and gives place to the eternal rule of the God of Love To but few of those present could this idea of Langhetti's be intelligible The arded the fable and itsbeneath the surface

To these, and to all, the appearance of Beatrice was like a new revelation She caiven to Athene, but in her hand she held the olive--her emblem--instead of the spear From beneath her helmet her dark locks flowed down and reathed in thick waves that clustered heavily about her head

Here, as Athene, the pure classical contour of Beatrice's features appeared in marvelous beauty--faultless in their perfect Grecian e, dark eyes looked with a certain sole out upon the vast audience Her whole face was refined and subliht that ithin her In her artistic nature she had appropriated this character to herself so thoroughly, that, as she stood there, she felt herself to be in reality all that she represented The spectators caught the sa fro was the perfection of her for representation of the ideal Goddess that the whole vast audience after one glance burst forth into pealing thunders of spontaneous and irresistible applause