at Pozzuoli--when a sudden and extreme admiration for his music broke
out in Italy, and soon spread to other countries. Naples, in her tardy
enthusiasm, justified the reproach of Dr. Burney, who wrote, "Had she
known her own happiness, Naples might have boasted of possessing one
of the greatest geniuses she or the world had ever produced. The first
opera of Giovanni Battista Pergolese was performed at her second theatre!
The young composer found not among his countrymen minds sensible of his
extraordinary talents or that acknowledged the natural maxim of Horace,
'_Bonus sis felixque tuis_.' His native land was the last to discover, or
to confess, his superior powers."
Two years after its author's death the "Olimpiade" was reproduced in
splendid fashion at Rome and received with honor. The "Serva Padrona"
was translated into other languages and heard in many European cities.
It reached Paris about 1750, and although performed by inferior singers,
it created so deep an impression,--subsequently increased by "Il Maestro
di Musica,"--that some French authorities have not hesitated to say
that this music almost revolutionized theatrical art and led to the
establishment of comic opera as it has been since understood in France.
His sacred music was also introduced in the Concerts Spirituels and
greatly applauded as among the chief sensations of the time. Pergolese
is judged to have had his first adequate hearing in England in 1724.
The poet Gray had brought home from Italy fine reports of the new
music, and in that year the "Olimpiade" was put upon the stage of the
King's Theatre, then directed by the Duke of Middlesex. It had not a
distinguished success, but one air, "_Tremende oscure atroci_," became an
established favorite in concerts with the principal Italian tenors for
ten years after.
* * * * *
For a good many years after Pergolese's death his music, both dramatic
and sacred, was in the highest esteem throughout Italy, and received the
tribute of much imitation. His "Stabat Mater," which may be regarded as
the best of his ecclesiastical compositions--unless some should prefer
the "Salve Regina"--even held its own, and not in Italy alone, by any
means, until it was superseded by the larger and more popularly written
work of Rossini.
The rush of modern music and the modifications in taste have pushed the
scores of Pergolese from the theatre and the concert room, and no later
performances of his operas are to be noted as of consequence since the
double revival of "La Serva Padrona" in Paris, in 1863, when the original
version was given at the Italiens and the French translation at the Opéra
Comique, Mesdames Galli-Marié and Penco carrying off the honors. The
instrumental trios are never heard nowadays, and although Catholic choirs
throughout the world still keep his church music in use, it is only
upon rare occasions that the "Stabat Mater" is produced for Protestant
auditors by some serious-minded choral society.
Pergolese was a quite industrious writer, if allowance be made for the
diversions caused by his personal indulgences, and for the discouragement
which was naturally produced upon a temperament like his by the lack of
appreciation, sympathy and material support, individual patronage having
undoubtedly contributed at least as much to his material and spiritual
comfort and development as public applause and sustenance. He was not a
rapid writer, however, and the record of his compositions, so far as they
are known, includes besides the operas which have been already named, a
large cantata entitled "Orfeo;" five minor cantatas; an oratorio having
for its subject the Nativity; the thirty trios already alluded to; five
masses, and a dozen or so of religious pieces. A considerable number of
the vocal scores were published and twenty-four of the trios were printed
in London or Amsterdam, but the minor religious works and some of the
operas remained in manuscript and are practically inaccessible except to
studious inquirers in Italian libraries.
It is not difficult to establish now a just estimate of the genius of
Pergolese, which was undervalued during his lifetime, then suddenly
exalted above its worth and then again depreciated below its true
plane. It was seldom that the external form of his compositions gave an
adequate idea of the spiritual qualities which dwelt within them. Wise
and careful observers often remarked that they heard with surprise and
delight much which they had not anticipated from an examination of the
scores. Educated strictly in the severe and learned Neapolitan school,
he was of course a master of counterpoint and of all the devices and
figures of musical effect, which, as has been said, constituted the
staple of his first pieces. But he had an intuitive sense of the dramatic
element in man and in music, and he made this felt, alike in the humorous
sprightliness of "La Serva Padrona," the emotional piety of the "Salve
Regina," and the pathetic strophes of the "Stabat Mater."
Except in his grand operas and his ecclesiastical pieces, he asked for
no large forces of singers or players. In his masses he wrote as usual
for four voices, although he seems to have preferred five, and he not
infrequently required in them two choirs, each in five parts. The "Stabat
Mater" is for two voices only, and its accompaniment is so simple and so
thin that Paisiello subsequently wrote additional instrumentation for
it. The "Serva Padrona" has only two characters and the accompaniment
requires only the string quartet; yet so ingenious, so bright, so gay and
so apposite is all the music, that the hearer never finds it monotonous
or tedious.
That Pergolese should have began his musical life as a violinist and
yet should have written for the voice with perfect expressiveness and
exact adaptation, has sometimes been thought strange. But his is by no
means an isolated case, for many of the best writers of vocal music
have begun their studies as instrumentalists and have even excelled as
performers; besides which, he put aside the violin as soon as the larger
scope of his gifts was discovered and further improved his feeling for
the voice by association with Vinci and Hasse when he was once free of
the Conservatory.
[Illustration: Reproduction of original title-page and a portion of
musical manuscript of the celebrated "Salve Regina," by Pergolesi, now in
the possession of the British Museum. The added note on title-page made
by Mr. Venna is probably incorrect, for the best authorities agree that
he died in 1736, aged 26.]
Pergolese's limitations sprang from the same source whence flowed his
power--his understanding of the natural adaptation of the means of
expression to the ideas and emotions to be conveyed. He could not or
would not pass into the theatrical, the meretricious and the exaggerated,
and hence it is that his music sometimes fell short of the effect which
he had hoped for it or lacked the variety of color and manner without
which a large and extended work must weary the ear, or at least fail to
keep it alert and interested.
He excelled in grace, simplicity and purity of style, although his music,
written for singers who had been trained to depend upon themselves and
not to lean upon accompaniments, may appear abstruse and difficult to
present readers. He brought to his time the vitality, movement, spring
and sincerity of life which it had not, and he used his means with
tact and directness in appealing to sentiment, mirth, pathos and piety
according as he wished to evoke them. If he cannot be accorded the honor
of having created a new manner of musical composition, he must be awarded
that of having beautified and enlivened the art as he found it, and of
having done the world a lasting benefit, greater perhaps in the impulse
given to contemporary and subsequent thought, than in the impression
directly made by him upon his time and his people.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Outline sketch of commemorative medal. See page 45.]
[Illustration: GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
_Reproduction of a lithograph made by A. Lemoine, after a photograph from
life taken by Erwin of Paris, in 1861._]
[Illustration: ROSSINI]
[Illustration]
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
Rossini is one of the last and most glorious representatives of that
admirable Italian school which for three centuries cast such a brilliant
radiance over the art of its country, and which seems unhappily, to
have come to a close with the illustrious Verdi. A genius, fertile and
luminous, gifted with an inspiration warm and generous, an imagination
ardent and active, he astonished the world for twenty years by his
creative power, and after having enchanted his native land by a long
series of works which were distinguished, now by the grace, now by the
grandeur, now by the novelty of their forms, he prematurely terminated
his dramatic career at the age of thirty-seven, by a marvellous
masterpiece written expressly for the French stage. This was the _William
Tell_ which radiated from France over the entire world, and which to-day,
after an existence of sixty years, is still young, fresh and powerful,
like a colossus which nothing can harm. The history of this immortal
artist, whose name should be inscribed in letters of gold in the annals
of the art, is certainly one of the most interesting which the history of
music can furnish us.
Gioacchino Rossini was born at Pesaro, a little town of the Romagne,
Feb. 29, 1792. His father, who was a musician and played very well on
the horn, was employed in this little town in the double capacity of
_tubatore_ (town-trumpeter) and inspector of the slaughter houses. His
mother, whose name was Anna Guidarini, was very beautiful and gifted with
an exceptionally fine voice. At the time of the passage through Pesaro in
1796 of the victorious French army, Rossini's father, it is said, in a
burst of enthusiasm for republican ideas, let fall some imprudent remarks
which the reaction soon afterwards judged worthy of punishment. They
began by dismissing him from the post of _tubatore_, after which it was
not long before he was thrown into prison. Left alone with her child,
his wife joined a travelling opera troupe, and when the prisoner was set
at liberty he followed her in her peregrinations, playing the horn in the
orchestra of the theatres at which she performed.
During this time the child learned from his father the first elements
of music, and even reached the dignity of playing second horn in the
orchestra. But the lad gave such unusual promise that his parents soon
determined to give him a regular musical education. He was sent to
Bologna and placed under the instruction of a professor named Angelo
Tesei, with whom he studied singing and the piano, and as he had a very
sweet soprano voice he was able to earn something by singing in the
churches. Notwithstanding his tender age he rapidly became an excellent
reader and clever accompanist, so that his father thought it best to take
the boy with him on his tours and to obtain for him the post of _maestro
al cembalo_ at the theatres. This was only for a short time, however,
and early in 1807 the young Rossini returned to Bologna and entered the
famous musical lyceum of that city, where he studied counterpoint with P.
Stanislas Mattei, and the violoncello with Cavedagni. The following year
he was charged with the composition of the annual cantata, which it was
the custom to confide to the best pupil of the institution. This cantata,
which was entitled _Pianto d'armonia per la Morte d'Orfeo_, was performed
on Aug. 8, 1808. Rossini was sixteen years old, and already six of his
compositions had been performed, one of which was an opera, _Demetrio e
Polibio_.
But he was impatient of the yoke of his master Mattei, who dismayed him
with numberless rules of counterpoint for which he could give no reason,
and who, when questioned on these points by his pupil would simply
respond that such was the tradition. Dissatisfied with such insufficient
explanation, Rossini thought out a more practical and certainly excellent
means of familiarizing himself with the forms of harmony and modulation;
he applied himself to the study of the quartets and symphonies of Haydn
and Mozart, and also to the task of scoring them. Thus, by an attentive
analysis, he learned more in a few months than he had learned in several
years through the empirical teaching of Mattei. Then when he felt pretty
sure of himself, he left the school, determined to start out on the
career of composer. He had just passed his eighteenth year.
He returned to Pesaro, his native town, and there found friends and
advocates who facilitated his entrance upon that career by obtaining
for him an engagement with the San Mosê theatre of Venice, to write
an opera entitled _la Cambiale di matrimonio_, which was performed
at that theatre in the autumn of 1810. This little work was a happy
beginning for him. The following year he gave to the Corso theatre of
Bologna, _l'Equivoco stravagante_, and in 1812 he brought out no less
than six operas: _l'Inganno felice_ (San Mosê theatre, Venice), _Ciro
in Babilonia_ (Communal theatre, Ferrare), _la Scala di seta_ (San Mosê
theatre, Venice), _Demetrio e Polibio_ (Valle theatre, Rome), _la Pietra
del paragone_ (Scala theatre, Milan), and _l'Occasione fa il ladro, o
il Cambio della valigia_ San Mosê theatre, Venice. These works were not
all equally successful, but most of them were very well received as was
proved by the eagerness with which the different theatres already strove
for the works of so young a composer. Moreover, one could point out in
these different scores many remarkable fragments which gave some idea
of the precocious genius of the artist, and of the freshness, grace and
originality of his inspiration; in _l'Inganno felice_, a very beautiful
trio; in _la Pietra del paragone_, a charming cavatina and the finale of
the first act; in _Ciro in Babilonia_, two airs and a fine chorus, the
principal motive of which became later the theme of the adorable cavatina
of the _Barber of Seville_ (Ecco ridente il cielo); finally, in _Demetrio
e Polibio_, an exquisite quartet which was afterwards interpolated by the
singers into several of the master's works.
In 1813, after a _farsa_ entitled _il Signor Bruschino o il Figlio per
azzardo_, Rossini again wrote two very important works, one in the
serious _genre_, _Tancredi_, the other in the _genre bouffe, l'Italiana
in Algeri_. These two works, the first of which was performed at the
Fenice theatre, Venice, and the second at the San Benedetto, of the same
city, was a double triumph for the author, and placed Rossini once for
all in the first rank of the composers of his time. Moreover, they proved
that the young master was as much at home in the dramatic _genre_, where
he worked with a remarkable grandeur and power, as in light opera, in
which he displayed an unequalled verve, gaiety, warmth and originality.
Rossini's artistic successes led to another kind of success, no less
important. Italy was then under French rule, and Napoleon, emperor of
the French people, had taken the title of king of Italy. But Napoleon,
whose very life it was to fight, was a terrible devourer of men and his
constant cry was for more soldiers. Rossini had reached the age when he
must draw lots for the conscription. Was it possible to enroll a young
artist whose genius announced itself in so brilliant a fashion, and could
they force this artist, who promised to win distinction for his country,
to take the chances of combat? All Italy was as one voice which demanded
that Rossini be exempt from military service. Prince Eugène, who bore
the title and fulfilled the functions of viceroy, took it upon himself
to pronounce this exemption, and the future author of _William Tell_ was
able to pursue in peace the career in which he was to find honor and
glory. In 1814 Rossini gave in quick succession to the Scala theatre of
Milan two great works, one of them serious, _Aureliano in Palmira_, which
was not very successful, the other light, _il Turco in Italia_, which
was more fortunate; then in the following year he brought out at Venice
_Sigismondo_. It was from this time forth that he found a place worthy of
him.
[Illustration: GIOACCHINO ROSSINI.
Reproduction of an excellent lithograph portrait of Rossini in middle
life.]
There was at that time at the San Carlo theatre of Naples a man who
had made himself famous throughout all Italy, a remarkable impresario,
whose cleverness and fortune were matters of surprise even to those best
acquainted with the mysteries of the green-room, and the difficulties
attending all enterprises of this kind. A Milanese by birth, this man,
whose name was Domenico Barbaja, was born of very poor parents, who
had given him no education whatever. But he was naturally intelligent,
astute, audacious, consumed with ambition, and to all this he joined a
very sagacious mind and a remarkable artistic instinct, coupled with
an indefatigable activity. Ascended from the lowest round in the social
ladder, apt at everything he undertook, having been in turn commissioner,
horse-jockey, waiter at the café, petty usurer and contractor for the
public gaming tables, he had ended by becoming quite at home in public
affairs, which he managed with a consummate cleverness. He had installed
himself at Naples in 1808, and it was there that he had obtained the
license for keeping a gambling house. The following year he took the
direction of the two royal theatres, San Carlo and Fondo, to which
he soon added the other two theatres, the Fiorentini and the Nuovo.
Then, as if this did not suffice to satisfy his ardor, he undertook
in a short time, without abandoning any of his other projects, the
management of the two great stages of the Scala and the Canobbiana at
Milan, and the Italian opera at Vienna. And under his inspired direction
all these enterprises prospered so well that the Italians surnamed
Barbaja il _Napoleone degl' impresari_. It is certain that for twenty
years he succeeded in uniting at the theatres which he directed, all
the most celebrated composers, poets, singers and dancers, and that his
liberality, good taste and artistic sense contributed very considerably
to the surprising development of dramatic art in Italy during this period.
[Illustration: ROSSINI.
Reproduction of a lithograph portrait of Rossini in his thirty-sixth
year, drawn by H. Grévédon, Paris]
Like the rest of the world Barbaja was acquainted with Rossini's
precocious success, and with his remarkable perception he quickly
understood that the composer might become an important source of his
prosperity. He resolved to ally himself to him, and as he was at once
equitable and generous, he desired to pay a fair compensation for the
services which he expected. Rossini had just given in Venice his last
opera, _Sigismondo_, and had returned to Bologna. It was there that
Barbaja went to find him and to offer him an engagement. Hitherto
Rossini's experience with impresari had been confined almost solely to
the poor unfortunate specimens who were in a chronic state of collapse.
Imagine then his surprise when Barbaja, whose reputation was well known
to him, came to propose an engagement of several years, assuring him,
besides a fixed sum of about 11,000 francs, an annual interest of about
4,000 francs in his gambling business. It is true that in return Rossini
was to agree to write two new works each year, and to arrange and adapt
all the ancient works which it might please Barbaja to mount at the
San Carlo and Fondo theatres. It was, in fact, besides the composition
of his operas the whole musical direction of these two theatres, which
Rossini was thus assuming, a charge which was simply enormous and which
had dismayed all others. But what was that for an artist such as he, in
exchange for the fortune which Barbaja held before his eyes, and the
influence upon his future of the brilliant situation offered him on one
of the first lyric stages of Italy?
So the contract was quickly signed, and Rossini went immediately to
Naples to assume his new functions. No sooner did he arrive at that city,
in the beginning of the year 1815, than Barbaja gave him the libretto of
_Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra_, to set to music. It was with this
work that he was to make his debut at the San Carlo, having for principal
interpreter an artist of Spanish origin, Isabella Colbran, then in the
zenith of her talent and her beauty, and who was one of the most esteemed
cantatrices of that period in all Italy. (Isabella Colbran, then the
mistress of Barbaja, soon became that of Rossini, who afterwards married
her, only to be separated at the end of a few years). The composer and
the cantatrice obtained a wonderful success and the _Elisabetta_ won a
veritable triumph at Naples.
[Illustration: ISABELLA ANGELA COLBRAN.
Rossini's first wife. From an original contemporary drawing in chalks and
pencil.]
Rossini profited by this success to leave Naples for a time. His
engagement with Barbaja was not exclusive, and a certain liberty of
action was reserved to him. He took himself to Rome, whither he was
called to write two operas for two different theatres; one, _Torvaldo e
Dorliska_, for the Valle theatre, the others _il Barbiere di Siviglia_
for the Argentina.
We know that Paisiello had already treated the subject of the Barber of
Seville, and that the opera conceived by him on Beaumarchais's comedy
had been performed in 1789 at St. Petersburg, where he was imperial
capellmeister; from there the work of the Neapolitan master had spread
over all Europe, and had met, particularly in Italy, with a very
flattering reception. Therefore it happened that Rossini was charged with
presumption for daring to put _il Barbiere_ to music, and that he was
accused of trying to eclipse the glory of Paisiello, who was the first to
use this idea. The reproach was all the more singular since such things
were of very frequent occurrence in Italy, where, for nearly a century,
composers had been setting to music, one after another, all the lyric
poems of Apostolo, Zeno and Metastasio, such as _Nerone_, _Alessandro
nell'Indie_, _Artaserse_, _l'Olimpiade_, etc., etc. Why then should
Rossini, who in this case had only done what so many others had done
before him, become thus an object of criticism and anger? It is difficult
to say. Possibly it was Paisiello himself, whose jealousy and faults of
character are sufficiently well known, who from Naples, where he had
retired, started the hostile sentiments against his rival, and secretly
planned the fall of the new work. At least, so it has been said, and the
idea does not seem wholly unlikely.
Rossini, however, out of respect for the old master, had courteously
written to him on the subject, declaring that it was not his intention
to enter into competition with him, but simply to treat a subject which
pleased him. Furthermore, and in order to avoid even the appearance of a
desire for competition on his part, he had taken the precaution to have
a new libretto made on the subject, and even to change the title of the
work to _Almaviva, ossia l'inutile precauzione_ (it was not until later
that the title of _il Barbiere di Siviglia_ was definitely adopted).
Finally, in order that the wishes and intentions of the poet and composer
might not be misunderstood, and that the public might not be mistaken in
the matter, the following preface was placed at the head of the libretto.
"Notice to the public. The comedy by Beaumarchais entitled _le Barbier
de Séville_ or _la Prècaution inutile_, is presented to Rome under the
form of a comic drama, with the title of _Almaviva, ossia l'inutile
precauzione_, with the object of fully convincing the public of the
sentiments of respect and veneration which the author of the music of the
present drama entertains toward the celebrated Paisiello, who has already
treated this subject under its original title.