ORPHEE We know, or, rather we used to know--for we are beginning to forget that there is an admirable edition of Gluck's principal works.

This edition was due to the interest of an unusual woman, Mlle.

Fanny Pelletan, who devoted a part of her fortune to this real monument and to fulfill a wish Berlioz expressed in one of his works.Mlle.Pelletan was an unusually intelligent woman and an accomplished musician, but she needed some one to help her in this large and formidable task.

She was unassuming and distrusted her own powers, so that she secured as a collaborator a German musician, named Damcke, who had lived in Paris a long time and who was highly esteemed.

He gave her the moral support she needed and some bad advice as well, which she felt obliged to follow.
This collaboration accounts for the change of the contralto parts to counter-tenors.