Several interesting discoveries of unknown works by great composers have
been made lately. One of them is an unfinished opera of Mozart called L' Om del Cairo (the Goose of Cairo) of which some account is given in last week's Gazette Musicale. It appears that it was composed at Salzburg in 1783, when Mozart was seven-and-twenty, after the suc- cessful production of the Entfahrang gits dean Serail (the first of his works which gained permanent fame). The words are by the Abbe Varesoo, the author of the libretto of Idomeneo ; and it would seem that, after Mozart had made considerable progress with it, he laid it aside, in con- sequence of his attention being occupied with that grand lyrical tragedy. Of the Om del Cairo the entire first act has been found in manuscript, together with fragments .and sketches of the remainder. From these remains it appears that the subject is gay and comic, and the music is in the most charming style of the composer. They have been published, with the accompaniments arranged for the piano, by Andre of Offen- bach; and, though the opera is too incomplete to be brought upon the stage, yet these remains must be invaluable for concerts or private per- formance.
Haydn's Oratorio, Il Ritorno di Tobin (the Return of Tobias) which he composed at the age of five-and-forty, and which has always been be- lieved to have been lost in the fire in the palace of Prince Esterhazy which destroyed many precious manuscripts of the composer, has re- cently been discovered, through the active researches of M. Lachner. The Italian text is being translated into German ; and the work is about to be performed at Munich.
Among the papers found in the repositories of the late lamented Spohr, there is an opera in three acts, written by him at Gotha, in 1808, which bears the singular title of Airuna, the Queen of the Owls.
An interesting religious solemnity took place at Chartres, on Wednes-. day last—the celebration of the sixth hundredth anniversary of the con- secration of the magnificent cathedral of that city on the 17th of October, 1260, in the presence of St. Louis, the King of France. The subterra- neous crypt; closed in 1789, was reopened; and the twelve altars within it were reconsecrated by twelve bishops. The solemnity of the celebra- tion was heightened by a grand musical performance.
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