be allowed to remain in the work some reference to liberty or republicanism.
The "Masked Ball" was not at first permitted a representation because it dealt with the assassination of King Gustavus III, of Sweden; so Verdi offered to turn his king into a duke; but finally, to give satisfaction, he metamorphosed the monarch into the "Governor of Massachusetts" and allowed him to be killed in sedate old Boston! The tenor, Mario, was to appear in this first presentation, and when he came to don the sombre garb of the Puritan governor, he decidedly objected to its lack of color and ornamentation. So Verdi obligingly allowed the sober Puritan to strut the stage in Spanish mantle, high boots, spurs, and a helmet with waving plume!
Rossini's "William Tell" has also come under the ban of governmental displeasure in monarchical Europe. At various times the libretto has undergone change for political reasons.
At the Royal Opera, Berlin, in 1830, for example, the title "William Tell" was altered to "Andreas Hofer," the hero of the Tyrolese insurrection against the French and Bavarians, who was shot at Mantua in 1810; while the tyrant Gessler was, of course, replaced by a French general. In Russia the piece was some sixty years ago rechristened "Charles the Bold," and instead of William Tell another hero was invented, called Rodolphe Doppelguggel.
264.—FALLIBLE.
Here is a little incident that illustrates how great composers are not above the slips made by common mortals, and how human ears are not always as infallible as their owners would pretend them to be.
Meyerbeer once went to Stuttgart to conduct the first performance of one of his operas at the court theater. During the rehearsal of the work, he found fault with the clarinet player because he played a certain melody
