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STORIES OF
was again called for, sung by Lays with the whole power of his magnificent voice, and re-ceived with rapturous applause. On July 14th, 1815, Lays had a similar success when repeat-ing the air at a performance of " Iphigenie en Aulide" and "La Dansonaine" before Louis XVIII., the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, on the opening of the new theatre of the Academie Royale de Musique, in the Rue le Peletier, the first words sung in that aria, and the loss of which Is so much to be regretted on acoustical grounds, were those of "Vive Henri IV." All this according to Groves.
A word may be said of the one-time favourite, the " Carnaval de Venise"—does the present generation know anything of it?—Paganini was the first to introduce the piece to England —nay, to the whole world, one may say. The great violinist first heard the melody when he visited the Queen of the Adriatic in 1816. No one seems to know who composed it, though many a musician has added to it, and varied it, and embroidered it from time to time. Several fantasias have been written upon it, notably by Herz and Schulhoff, and these have been played by most pianists of note. It has been intro-duced into comic operas. Ambroise Thomas introduced variations of it into the overture of
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