SOME LESSER STARS IN THE OPERATIC FIRMAMENT.
(_b_) THE GERMAN SCHOOL (KEISER TO NICOLAI).
Keiser and his successors—Hiller—Real German
opera—Spohr—Marschner—Operatic interest
not centred in Germany at this time.
[Sidenote: =Keiser and his Successors=]
A good start was given to German opera, as we have already shown, by
Keiser, who wrote over one hundred operas for the Hamburg house. The
fact that after his decease the centre of interest shifts partly to
England (where Handel was at work), and still more to Italy, does not
mean that German composers were idle. True, many of them were writing
operas on the Italian plan, and therefore must be classed with the
Italian school, and even the greatest sons of German soil were content
to produce their masterpieces in foreign capitals rather than at home.
Thus it is that we find Gluck bringing out all his important works in
Vienna or Paris; Mozart his at Prague, Munich, or Vienna; Beethoven his
only specimen in Vienna.
The work done on German soil must not, however, be passed over lightly.
Stars of the second magnitude, such as Hasse (1699-1783), who wrote
over one hundred operas, and Graun (1701-1759) have their place among
the constellations. They are not important either in their influence
upon opera generally nor upon German opera in particular, since their
work was almost exclusively done to Italian libretti on the prevailing
Italian model; but they both had great influence upon Adam Hiller, who
has a distinct place in the history of opera.
[Sidenote: =Hiller, 1728-1804=]
For it is very largely to Hiller that the credit of the foundation of
the “Singspiel” may be allotted. This form of opera, to which we must,
of necessity, allude frequently, seeing that it was the form very
largely in vogue at the time of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, although
possibly derived in the first instance from the French operetta, soon
justified its existence as a distinctly German form of art.
Hiller raised it from a mere collection of songs, and adopted an able
and dramatic method in setting the words to forms of larger outline and
of more complex development. His chief works are _Der Dorfbarbier_ and
_Die Jagel_, both of which sometimes gain a hearing to-day. Without
doubt he had something to do with the success attained by Weber and
Mozart, for although their settings of similar “song-plays” are
infinitely superior, their work is certainly more sure by reason of the
leadership he gave them. The pioneer in a new land seldom reaches its
utmost limits.
[Sidenote: =Real German Opera=]
Hiller’s operettas were German and not Italian, and that also must
have affected Mozart and Weber, for they were able to notice the
deeper appeal made on a German audience by a performance in the
vernacular, and both eventually followed suit. Until the production of
_Der Freischütz_ at the Berlin Opera House in 1821 there was little
to justify such a course, but after that date we find many composers
writing German operas, and founding a school of composition which
includes such names as Spohr, Marschner, Lortzing, Lindpaintner, and
Nicolai.
[Sidenote: =Spohr, 1784-1859=]
Spohr’s greatest operatic work, _Faust_, was actually staged at
Frankfort two years before _Der Freischütz_ first saw the light of day.
Although very popular both in Germany and England for many years, this
opera rarely gets a performance now, it having been entirely eclipsed
by Gounod’s work of the same title.
[Illustration: J. A. HILLER.]
Besides _Faust_, Spohr wrote many other operas, following Weber to
a large extent in romanticism of method, although the peculiarly
chromatic genius of his music never leaves one in doubt as to its
authorship. The most successful of these are _Zemir and Azor_,
_Jessonda_, _Der Berggeist_, and _Der Alchymist_, all almost entirely
forgotten now. The popular song with sopranos, “Rose Softly Blooming,”
comes from the first-named of these.
[Sidenote: =Marschner, 1796-1861=]
A still more faithful follower in the footsteps of Weber was Heinrich
Marschner, who loved the demoniacal and the weird, and gloated over
them in his music. His operas, the most famous of which are _Der
Vampyr_, _Hans Heiling_, and _The Templar and the Jewess_ (founded on
Scott’s _Ivanhoe_), still have a hold on German affections. The study
of _Hans Heiling_ is held to have had a great influence over Wagner at
the time he was composing _The Flying Dutchman_.
Many composers of this school and this date remain in our memories
through the more or less frequent performances of their most successful
work. Among such may be named Lortzing (1803-1852), composer of
_Peter the Shipwright_ (a story dealing with Peter the Great’s life
in the shipbuilder’s yard at Zaandam); Flotow (1812-83), composer of
the tuneful and popular _Martha_; Kreutzer (1782-1849), Lindpaintner
(1791-1856), and Nicolai (1810-49). The overture to the last-named
composer’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_ is world famous. Peter Cornelius
(1824-74) and Goetz (1840-76) each composed a well-known opera, _The
Barber of Bagdad_ and _The Taming of the Shrew_ respectively.
[Sidenote: =Operatic interest not centred in Germany at this time=]
The fact that the Germans at this time did not produce composers of
greater operatic eminence is due largely to the fact that the grandeur
and charm of French grand opera was drawing many devotees and many
composers to Paris. While Italy had its brilliant Rossini and Verdi
to uphold the traditions of national opera in their own land, there
was no composer of German opera on a like eminence, or one that could
successfully vie with the ever-increasing magnificence and interest of
the grand opera of Paris. To that brilliant episode in the story of the
opera we will now turn our attention.