It is true the beginning was very modest.

The early attempts contained few ensemble pieces, no choruses, and no complex finales.

But a new art does not rise from the mind of a nation as Minerva is said to have risen from the head of Jupiter.

Nay, even the fact that the first three composers of Polish operas (Kamienski, Weynert, and Kajetani) were not Poles, but foreigners endeavouring to write in the Polish style, does not destroy the significance of the movement.

The following statistics will, no doubt, take the reader by surprise:--From the foundation of the national Polish opera in 1778 till April 20, 1859, 5,917 performances of 285 different operas with Polish words took place in Poland.