6 JULY 1861, Page 19

It is proposed to revive Glnek's great work, 211ceste, at

the Grand Opera; and M. Royer, the manager, requested Hector Berlioz to undertake the superintendence of its production, offering him liberal terms of remuneration. Berlioz wrote in reply, declining the task. "It is," he said, "as senseless and as revolting to annex final cadences and alter notes in the masterpieces of great masters, as it would be to add words or alter rhymes in the verses of Corneille. Seeing the excisions and transpositions which are about to be made in this admirable score, I mast refrain from any personal participation therein; though I thank you for your proposal and the generous offer with which it is accompanied." Had a certain Italian maestro, to whom a similar proposal was made by the manager of our Royal Italian Opera respecting the production of .Don Giovanni, returned a similar answer, the text of Mozart's immortal work would have been saved from the treatment it suffered at that theatre.