Italian opera was first brought into England in 1706, when _Arsinöe_ was produced at Drury Lane Theatre, and in order to give those who attended performances of it a chance of understanding it, it was rendered with English words! Yet the article has never wholly commended itself to the English people, who, especially in its early history here, were unable to enter into the spirit of the bombastic, exaggerated plots, and excessive love scenes. Thus it does not, and will not, command equal interest among reasoning musicians, compared particularly with that attaching to symphony or oratorio. Italian opera might well disappear from the face of the earth, so far as English people are concerned; but a similar remark could not be applied to any new oratorio or symphony. Opera _seria_ is not in vogue here, not even a national English opera, and Italian opera is just kept from collapse by another class than that which rushes with delight to performances of operas of _H.M.S. Pinafore_ and _The Grand Duke_ type. Consequent upon all this, critics have gone on chronicling and criticising Verdi's operatic successes (especially in his later operas) and failures, pausing but little to gauge any relative musical worth of the man as compared with other great masters. It is, of course, not possible for such a prolific indefatigable worker as Verdi was to go on occupying the world musically, if only in one direction, without exercising some sway over the minds and dispositions of listeners. It is the bearing of Verdi's operatic efforts upon art that has been neglected by the English press especially. The fact of Verdi having been so little amongst us affords, naturally, another explanation for the comparatively scant literature respecting both him and his works. Until the appearance of the present monograph, no work existed that brought the life and work of the famous Italian master up to date, or that attempted to place him critically and musically among the great exponents of his art. To that extent, at least, Verdi literature was wanting.
But to deal with the bibliography that does exist. Perhaps the best work in English is Pougin's _Anecdotic History of Verdi; his Life and Works_, which has been excellently translated from the French by James E. Matthew (1887). Another interesting book in our language concerning Verdi is Blanche Roosevelt's _Verdi: Milan and "Otello"_ (1887), which is a short life of the master, with letters written about Milan and the opera _Otello_. The brief article by Signor Gianandrea Mazzucato (in Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_) on Verdi is a valuable contribution to the subject, and is probably the best account of the _maestro_ contained in any dictionary. The last work it treats of, however, is _Aïda_, and although it touches _Otello_ somewhat prophetically, it is necessarily silent about that greater work _Falstaff_.