Catholic partisans have watched with excitement the…

Catholic partisans have watched with excitement the unfolding of the July Revolution in France, details of which have been swiftly reported in the newspapers.

Daniel Auber’s La Muette de Portici, a sentimental and patriotic opera suited to fire National Romanticism, set as it is against Masaniello's uprising against the Spanish masters of Naples in the seventeenth century, has rapidly become a European favorite, its overture, arias, and choruses heard everywhere.

The duet Amour sacré de la patrie is welcomed like a new Marseillaise; the Brussels premiere on August 25, 1830, engenders a riot that becomes the spark for the Belgian Revolution.

The crowd pours into the streets after the performance, shouting patriotic slogans, and swiftly takes possession of government buildings.

The ensuing days will see an explosion of the desperate and exasperated proletariat of Brussels.