Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/176

 1868 (Svendsen and Card), and by Madame Albani and Messrs. Fransella and Warner-Hollis at the Norwich Festival of 1899. Bach has accompanied a soprano aria with two flutes in several of his works, and Verdi accompanies the soprano and contralto voices in his "Agnus Dei" (Requiem) with three flutes: these, however, are not, strictly speaking, obligatos.

The Italian operatic composers, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, etc., write melodious passages for the flute, often in unison with the voice or the violin. A notable obligato occurs in the mad scene in Lucia de Lammermoor, which has given rise to the remark that whenever the principal female character in opera becomes distraught with passion or grief, her recovery is marked by a flute , Overture, Scmiramide. obligato! Rossini frequently combines the flute with the oboe or clarinet in rapid passages; as in the overtures to La Gazza Ladra and Semiramide, in the latter the above well-known passage is given first to the