Transcriber's Note

The Greek word 'polloi' (many) occurs twice: on pages 159 and 260. On both pages it is used to mean the large number of musically-uneducated people who enjoy opera. On page 159 polloi appears as polloi: on page 260 it appears in Greek letters as πολλοί. It is not clear why 'polloi' should appear in two different forms but both of them have been kept as printed.

In Chapter III the singer of one of the female leads in the opera Oberto is named as Madame Alfred Shaw. She is better known as Mary Shaw. Born Mary Postans, she married the painter Alfred Shaw in 1835.

In Chapter IX the Chorus of Hebrew Slaves is placed in the opera I Lombardi: it belongs, of course, to Nabucco.

Apart from the correction of one or two obvious typographical errors, the spelling is that of the original text.

Several Italian passages, most of them taken from opera librettos, were incorrectly typeset in the original text. These passages have not been corrected in the main text but they are listed below with the changes needed to correct them. The page numbers refer to the original text.

Chapter III
Page 43:	"festivi giu cadono" should be "festivi giù cadono".
	"Oh, dischinso e il firmamento" should be "Oh, dischuiso è il firmamento".
Page 48:	"Deh! l'empri" should be "Deh! l'empio".
	"Suppressaugi'istanti" should be "S'appressan gl'istanti".
	"Oh di qual onta aggravesi" should be "Oh di qual onta aggravasi".
Chapter V
Page 88:	"Volasti alma beati" should be "Volasti, alma beata".
Chapter VIII
Page 175	"Morir! si pura e bella" should be "Morir! sì pura e bella".
Chapter IX
Page 207	"Avrai tu L'universo vesti L'Italia me!" should be "Avrai tu l'universo resti l'Italia me!".
Chapter X
Page 229	"Il Corsari" should be "Il Corsaro".
Chapter XI
Page 284	"aria d'entratà" should "aria d'entrata".