In modern opera the overture, Prelude, Vorspiel, or whatever else it may be called, is often nothing more definite than that portion of the music which takes place before the curtain rises.
Tannhauser is the last important opera in which the overture retains vestiges of a self-contained sonata form. Fifty years be fore Wagner's wonderful Vorspie/ to Lohengrin, Maul had achieved an equally complete departure from classical forms in his interesting overtures to Ariodant and Uthal, in the latter of which a voice is heard on the stage before the rise of the curtain. Even the most self-contained of Wagner's later preludes lose by transference to the concert-room. The glorious Vorspiel to Die Meistersinger is nobler when its long crescendo leads to the rise of the curtain and the engaging of all the listener's sense of sight and language, than when it can merely lead to a final tonic chord. Wagner himself added a page to finish the Vorspiel to Tristan, and by the richness and subtlety of that page he reveals how unready for independent existence the original Vorspie/ was. He also finished the Parsifal Vorspiel for concert use by the addition of a few extra bars, which will always sound per functory. The four dramas of the Ring begin with introductions designed to prepare the hearer immediately for the rise of the curtain; and these works can no more be said to have overtures than Verdi's Falstaff and Strauss's Salome, Electra and Die Frau ohne Schatten, in which the curtain rises at the first note of the music. (D. F. T.) OVERYSSEL, a Netherlands province, bounded south and south-west by Gelderland, west by the Zuider Zee, north by Friesland and Drente, and east by the Prussian provinces of Han over and Westphalia. The north-east Polder will be in contact with the north of the province which has a present area, including Schokland in the Zuider Zee, of 1,295 sq.m. ; pop. (1931) 520, 788, showing about 5o% increase during the present century. It is an extremely picturesque and varied glaciated delta land con sisting of a sandy flat relieved by hillocks, and covered with waste stretches of heath broken by patches of wood and high fen; but the coastal strip north of Zwartsluis consists largely of low-lying fertile pasture lands with cattle-rearing and associated butter and cheese manufactures, while along the shores mats and brushes are made. The river system is determined by two main glacial ridges, of which the eastern one, separating the Dinkel and Regge, extends from Enschede northwards into the German enclave; the larger one runs parallel with it and commencing at Lochem (Gelderland) extends into south Drente. In the south it sep
arates the Yssel and Regge; its summit height (Lemeler Hill, 262 ft.) is near where it is breached by the Vecht. This river crosses the province from east to west and joins a part of the Yssel near Zwolle to form the Zwarte Water, which communicates with the Zuider Zee by the Zwolsche Diep; the main Yssel enters the Zuider Zee separately below Kampen. The streams are flanked by small-estate fertile grasslands from which agriculture and cattle-rearing have gradually spread over the sand-grounds ; much of the area, however, is still waste though forest culture is prac tised locally, especially in the east, and pigs are largely bred. The deposits of the Yssel and the Dinkel streams contain iron ore, which is extracted and exported to Germany. Peat-digging and fen reclamation have long been practised and much high fen north of the Vecht in the neighbourhood of Dedemsvaart has been re claimed though the main reclamation at present is taking place along and near to the eastern ridge. Large scale manufactures are not important in Overyssel but cotton-spinning, together with bleaching-works, came into some prominence in the 19th century in the south-east district of Twente. The inhabitants for long had practised weaving as a home craft but capitalist Baptist refugees who arrived in the 17th and 18th centuries organized it into an industry. Deventer has iron foundries and carpet factories but is more famed for its honey cakes. The capital of the province is Zwolle (40,496 pop. in 1930) though Enschede (51,805) is the largest town. Deventer, Hengelo and Almelo each exceed 20,000 population and all four are situated in the south. Deventer is an old but busy little river port with a 16th century weigh-house of unusual design. Kampen, on the Yssel with its harbour long since silted up, has lost much of its impor tance of Hanseatic days but its 14th century churches and gate ways are interesting. Its Stathuis (I 6th and 18th century) is probably the finest town hall in the Netherlands. It shares a fishing trade with Vollenhove and Blokzijl, all on the Zuider Zee. Tucked away in the extreme north near the Drente border is the delightful little settlement of Giethoorn, literally a water village, each house possessing its own quay, drawbridge and punt. The railway system of the province is supplemented by tramlines and the roads are good but the waterways still carry much traffic.