Who, for instance, would have deemed it possible a couple of decades ago that the lessee of Her Majesty's Theatre would have obtained the Lord High Chamberlain's permission to bring out an opera the first scene of which is laid in the heaven of Christianity — not of Buddhism or Brahminism — the entire action and interest of that scene being centred in a wager between the Deity and the Prince of Darkness respecting the ultimate destination of a doubtful human soul? Yet such was the entertainment presented by Colonel Mapleson during the 1880 season to the wealthy and aristocratic frequenters of his opera-house, and by them greeted with an enthusiastic welcome, expressed in tempests of applause such as I never before listened to within the walls of an English theatre.