We also used to have dramatic recitals which were excellent both for the performers and the audiences as they gave works which were not in the usual repertoire. In these recitals they gave Mehul"s _Joseph_, which had disappeared from the stage for a long time. The beautiful choruses sung by the fresh voices of the pupils made such a success and the whole work was so enthusiastically applauded that it was revived at the Opera-Comique and won back a success which it has never lost. We also heard there Gluck"s _Orphee_ long before that masterpiece was revived at the Theatre-Lyrique. Then there was Mehul"s _Irato_, a curious and charming work which the Opera took up afterwards. And there, too, they gave the last act of Rossini"s _Otello_. The tempest in that act gave me the idea of the one which rumbles through the second act of _Samson_.