SOME LESSER STARS IN THE OPERATIC FIRMAMENT.
(_a_) THE ITALIAN SCHOOL (CIMAROSA TO VERDI).
The Italian school—Opera Buffa—The
Neapolitan school—Piccini—A notable
contest—Cimarosa—Rossini: his _Barber
of Seville_—Recitative and its
significance—_William Tell_—Bellini and
Donizetti—Verdi: his early and later operas.
[Sidenote: =The Italian School=]
Italy was the birthplace of modern opera, and for generations the
language of opera was Italian, irrespective of the nationality of
the composer. Thus a large number of the operatic works of Gluck and
of Mozart, both of whom rank as German masters, were to libretti
in Italian. On the contrary, many Italian-born musicians, such as
Cherubini and Spontini, devoted their best efforts to Grand Opera in
France. When speaking of the Italian school, therefore, it must be
understood that the language of the libretto and the class of opera are
taken into account, rather than the nationality of the composer.
[Sidenote: =Opera Buffa=]
Side by side with Grand Opera, as typified by Gluck, there grew up a
lighter and less serious form of musical play known as “Opera Buffa.”
At first designed as an interlude or intermezzo between the acts of
a serious drama, this new and bright art form was so fascinating as
to quickly justify for itself a separate existence. It was mostly
harmonious in character, and the music was, appropriately, of slighter
texture. It flourished most luxuriantly in Naples, from which fact the
composers of these charming little operas are generally classed as the
“Neapolitan school.”
[Sidenote: =The Neapolitan School=]
[Sidenote: =Piccini, 1728-1800=]
[Sidenote: =A Notable Contest=]
Logroscino (born about 1700), who invented the connected series of
separate movements known as the Concerted Finale, and Pergolesi
(1710-36), who wrote a famous example of this kind of opera under the
title _La Serva Padrona_, are two notable members of this little band
of composers. In addition to these may be named Jomelli, Sacchini,
Galuppi, Paisiello, and Piccini, the last-named being specially famous
through his contest with Gluck, a musical duel yet more notorious than
that between Handel and Buononcini already mentioned. For Piccini, a
man of great talent though not of genius, was brought to Paris in 1776
and pitted against the reformer Gluck, whose revolutionary methods
of procedure met with anything but favour in certain quarters. The
rival composers, strongly backed by their respective supporters, fought
bitterly for pre-eminence, with results only too disastrous to the
poor Italian maestro, who was very unfortunately handicapped. For we
read that on the night of the first production of the work, which was
seriously intended to beat Gluck on his own ground (the same subject
for a libretto—viz., _Iphigenia in Tauride_—having been chosen),
his music was almost wrecked by the prima donna of the occasion, that
good lady being hopelessly intoxicated; whereupon men exclaimed, “Not
Iphigenia in Tauride, but Iphigenia in Champagne!” In spite of his
merits, this composer of eighty operas is now hardly known, except in
connection with this famous controversy.
[Illustration: CIMAROSA.]
[Sidenote: =Cimarosa, 1749-1801=]
A more famous Neapolitan is Cimarosa, whose sparkling work, _The
Secret Marriage_, is still played to-day. On the occasion of its first
performance at Vienna in 1792, the Emperor was so delighted with it
that he ordered its repetition on the same evening, thoughtfully
providing the artistes with supper between the performances. Cimarosa’s
other works, although charming and sometimes of great beauty, are now
practically dead: his fame was soon eclipsed by that of the young and
rising Mozart.
[Sidenote: =Rossini, 1792-1868=]
With the success of Mozart and Weber in German opera, and the
desertion of the Italian methods in favour of the French by Cherubini
and Spontini, Italian opera lay for a while under a cloud. This was
dispersed by the furore created by the operatic creations of Rossini,
who, although by no means a very skilled or capable musician, had a
rare knowledge both of effect and also of the kind of thing to which
the general public loves to listen. Melodic gifts were his, and when
one adds a certain clever and tricky use of the orchestra and an
evident desire to give the singers the most vocal and effective music
that he could possibly invent, we can readily understand how successful
was this facile composer.
[Sidenote: “=The Barber of Seville=”]
The earliest of his operas to win him fame was _Tancredi_, a grand
opera produced in 1813. This was followed after an interval of two
years by the production of one of his best known works, _The Barber of
Seville_, an excellent example of Opera Buffa. Its overture is well
known, and introduces samples of that effective device, cheap and yet
wondrously convincing, known as the “Rossinian _Crescendo_.” This is
attained, as will be seen, by the use of a simple figure of melody
begun very softly and continued with greater and greater degrees of
power and more and more instruments. In spite of its simplicity and
obviousness, its effect is an intoxicating one, and is an example of
the simple and yet unfailing means by which Rossini attracted his
public.
Example of a Rossini “Crescendo,” from the Overture to “Il Barbiere.”
<Music>
[Sidenote: =Recitative=]
The whole opera, with its brilliant bravura voice passages, its
grandiose effects of double thirds, and its periods of climax, is
particularly characteristic of its composer. Rossini produced a vast
number of operas, both serious and comic; in the former he made a great
innovation when he wrote _Otello_ in 1816. We have already frequently
mentioned that in Grand Opera the music must be always continuous;
this, however, does not imply a continuous series of airs, duets, and
choruses. These were divided by passages of blank verse or dialogue,
which correspond to the passages of dialogue with which we in England
are so familiar in the productions of Gilbert and Sullivan. When these
passages were _spoken_, as in Beethoven’s _Fidelio_ or Weber’s _Der
Freischütz_, the work, however tragic in subject, was not termed “Grand
Opera” at all, but rather “Comic Opera” or “Singspiel.” When, however,
_all_ was sung, then the term “Grand Opera” was applied.
But a difference was given to the musical setting of such passages to
that allotted to the more lyrical portions. At first, when there were
no lyrics, as in the early Monteverde operas, the musical setting was
of the same character throughout; after the introduction of the Aria
into opera by Scarlatti, the intermediary dialogue was often set to
music of a _parlante_ (or speaking) nature, generally without time
divisions or musical accent: this portion of the music was termed the
Recitative.
So unimportant was this Recitative considered from a musical point
of view that no trouble was taken in the writing of it—it was a
necessary evil. Mozart, we find, on one or two occasions, entrusted
its composition to his pupil Sussmäyr. Moreover, the orchestra rarely
played the accompaniment to it, this task being entrusted to the
harpsichord; even the part for this was not written out, only a bass
with figures being provided. It will thus be seen how small a degree
of importance was attached to the music of these connecting links:
such recitative was termed “Recitativo secco,” and of this our first
quotation from Peri is a good example. (See page 35.)
Both Monteverde and Gluck had made attempts at relieving the dulness
of this method of accompaniment by the introduction not only of the
orchestra, but also of fitting and suitable music on certain occasions.
Rossini revived this plan in _Otello_, and since then it has been
generally employed in all serious opera. From the fact that the
instruments of the orchestra are necessary for its proper presentation,
this form of recitative has received the name of _Recitativo
Stromentato_.
[Sidenote: “=William Tell=”]
Rossini’s operas have mostly gone the way of all such light and trivial
music, but among the more long-lived specimens may be named _La
Cenerentola_, _Gazza Ladra_, and _William Tell_. The last-named, with
its popular overture, is a work of much better class than its brethren,
and was written some long period after the others, when Rossini
himself began to be dissatisfied with his earlier works. The fact,
however, remains that he can never have taken himself as a very serious
musician, for the last forty years of his life were spent in idleness
and he wrote practically nothing.
[Sidenote: =Bellini and Donizetti=]
What has been said of the operas of Rossini applies also in very large
measure to those of his followers—Mercadante, Pacini, Bellini, and
Donizetti, all of whom wrote on the same empty plan. Of these four the
last-named produced works which have had the greatest longevity, and,
thanks to certain _prime donne_ who have more belief in the beauty
and skill of manipulation of their voices than they have love for the
real and artistic in music, some are still to be heard during every
opera season. The most famous Bellini opera is _Norma_, while _La
Sonnambula_ runs it a close second. Donizetti is remembered by _Lucia
di Lammermoor, Lucretia Borgia, La Favorita, La Fille du Régiment, and
L’Elisir d’Amore_.
[Sidenote: =Verdi, 1814-1901=]
More worth attaches to the many beautiful works of the last of this
school, Verdi, who lived to so ripe an age and so modernized his
methods that his later operas all belong rightly to a post-Wagner
period. But in his early scores Verdi wrote entirely on the Italian
model, and although of sterner mould than Bellini and Donizetti,
his works bear a close family resemblance to those of his immediate
predecessors. Like them, Verdi had a ready gift of melody. Such operas
as _Ernani_ (1844), _Rigoletto_ (1851), _Il Trovatore_ (1853), and _La
Traviata_ (1853)—the last-named having been written in the short space
of one month—are replete with energy and vigour and full of broad and
sometimes somewhat vulgar tune. These works still hold their position
on the stage, and appeal to those who love easily grasped and tuneful
music, coupled with interesting dramatic action.
[Illustration: VERDI.]
For years Verdi wrote operas on this popular plan, producing the
familiar _Un Ballo in Maschera_ as late as 1859. But the influence
of the methods of Wagner was creeping over him, and (although he
never attempted to follow the master to the full) it is evident in
his grand opera _Aïda_, produced in 1871. This work, rich and glowing
with local colour, and with a plot whose action is laid in Egypt, is
a stepping-stone between the earlier and later operas, and shows the
music of its composer in a transition stage. Here is a type of Verdi’s
ready gift of melody:—
Radamès’ first Aria in “Aïda” (Verdi).
[Music]
Celeste Aïda forma divina mistico serto di luce e fior
[Sidenote: =Verdi’s Later Operas=]
_Otello_, produced in 1887, and _Falstaff_ in 1893, when its wonderful
creator was just upon eighty years of age, are modern operas in the
real sense of the expression. The old Verdi is to a great extent laid
aside, and these marvellous and powerful works, while still exhibiting
great freshness of melody, give evidence also of such masterly use of
the orchestra, and such perfect wedding of words with music as is only
to be found in the music of the most modern days. So that in Verdi’s
operas we stretch hands across the chasm that divides the simple,
melodious, old-fashioned works from the complex polyphonic modern
examples, and note in his compositions a movement and progress parallel
with that made in all other branches of musical art during a similar
period of its history.