Act III. The crypt of the castle, where _Fiora_ lies upon her bier

with white flowers all about her, and tapers at her head and feet. Around her, people of her country, young and old, make their moan, while from within the chapel voices of a choir are heard.

Out of the darkness comes _Avito_. The others depart in order that he may be alone with his beloved dead, for he too is of their country, and they know. "Fiora! Fiora!--È silenzio!" (Fiora! Fiora!--Silence surrounds us) are his first words, as he gazes upon her.

[Music: Fiora, Fiora! È silenzio.]

Then, desperately, he throws himself beside her and presses his lips on hers. A sudden chill, as of approaching death, passes through him. He rises, takes a few tottering steps toward the exit.

Like a shadow, _Manfredo_ approaches. He has come to seize his wife's lover, whose name his father could not wring from her, but whom at last they have caught. He recognizes _Avito_. Then it was he whom she adored.

"What do you want?" asks _Avito_. "Can you not see that I can scarcely speak?"

Scarcely speak? He might as well be dead. Upon _Fiora's_ lips _Archibaldo_ has spread a virulent poison, knowing well that her lover would come into the crypt to kiss her, and in that very act would drain the poison from her lips and die. Thus would they track him.

With his last breath, _Avito_ tells that she loved him as the life that they took from her, aye, even more. Despite the avowal, _Manfredo_ cannot hate him; but rather is he moved to wonder at the vast love _Fiora_ was capable of bestowing, yet not upon himself.

_Avito_ is dead. _Manfredo_, too, throws himself upon _Fiora's_ corpse, and from her lips draws in what remains of the poison, quivers, while death slowly creeps through his veins, then enters eternal darkness, as _Archibaldo_ gropes his way into the crypt.

The blind king approaches the bier, feels a body lying by it, believes he has caught _Fiora's_ lover, only to find that the corpse is that of his son.

Such is the love of three kings;--of _Archibaldo_ for his son, of _Avito_ for the woman who loved him, of _Manfredo_ for the woman who loved him not.

Or, if deeper meaning is looked for in Sem Benelli's powerful tragedy, the three kings are in love with Italy, represented by _Fiora_, who hates and scorns the conqueror of her country, _Archibaldo_; coldly turns aside from _Manfredo_, his son and heir apparent with whose hand he sought to bribe her; hotly loves, and dies for a prince of her own people, _Avito_. Tragic is the outcome of the conqueror's effort to win and rule over an unwilling people. Truly, he is blind.

* * * * *

Italo Montemezzi was born in 1875, in Verona. A choral work by him, "Cantico dei Cantici," was produced at the Milan Conservatory, 1900. Besides "L'Amore dei Tre Re," he has composed the operas "Giovanni Gallurese," Turin, 1905, and "Hélléra," Turin, 1909.

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice, January 12, 1876, the son of August Wolf, a German painter, and an Italian mother. At first self-taught in music, he studied later with Rheinberger in Munich. From 1902-09 he was director of the conservatory Licio Benedetto Marcello. He composed, to words by Dante, the oratorio "La Vita Nuova." His operas, "Le Donne Curiose," "Il Segreto di Susanna," and "L'Amore Medico," are works of the utmost delicacy. They had not, however, been able to hold their own on the operatic stage of English-speaking countries. This may explain the composer's plunge into so exaggerated, and "manufactured" a blood and thunder work as "The Jewels of the Madonna." In American opera this has held its own in the repertoire of the Chicago Opera Company. It has at least some substance, some approach to passion, even if this appears worked up when compared with such spontaneous productions as "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "I Pagliacci," which it obviously seeks to outdo in sordidness and brutality.

The failure of Wolf-Ferrari's other operas to hold the stage in English-speaking countries disappointed many, who regarded him as next to Puccini, the most promising contemporary Italian composer of opera. The trouble is that the plots of his librettos are mere sketches, and his scores delicate to the point of tenuity, so that even with good casts, they are futile attempts to re-invoke the Spirit of Mozart behind the mask of a half-suppressed modern orchestra.

I GIOJELLI DELLA MADONNA

(THE JEWELS OF THE MADONNA)

Opera in three acts by Wolf-Ferrari; plot by the composer, versification by C. Zangarini and E. Golisciani. Produced in German (Der Schmuck der Madonna), at the Kurfuersten Oper, Berlin, December 23, 1911. Covent Garden Theatre, London, March 30, 1912. Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, January 16, 1912; Metropolitan Opera House, New York, March 5, 1912, both the Chicago and New York productions by the Chicago Opera Company, conducted by Cleofonte Campanini, with Carolina White, Louis Bérat, Bassi, and Sammares.

CHARACTERS

GENNARO, in love with _Maliella_ _Tenor_ MALIELLA, in love with _Rafaele_ _Soprano_ RAFAELE, leader of the Camorrists _Baritone_ CARMELA, _Gennaro's_ mother _Mezzo-Soprano_ BIASO _Tenor_ CICCILLO _Tenor_ STELLA _Soprano_ CONCETTA _Soprano_ SERENA _Soprano_ ROCCO _Bass_

Grazia, a dancer; Totonno, vendors, monks, populace.

_Time_--The present.

_Place_--Naples.