From a lithograph at the Paris Opera Library, made after a drawing by
E. Nesle.
]
At last, however, Rameau found the golden key which, so the proverb
says, opens every door, even the door of the Opera, in the person of the
great financier, M. de la Popelinière, whose wife was one of his pupils
and took lessons on the harpsichord. M. de la Popelinière arranged a
meeting at his house between the most illustrious Voltaire and Rameau,
the humble aspirant to musical glory. Voltaire promised to write an
opera for the protégé of the great Farmer-General, and this piece
appears in the complete works of Voltaire under the title of “Samson.”
The literary masterpiece of the great writer pleased Rameau greatly, and
he set to work upon the accompanying music with great enthusiasm. When
the score was finished the musician rendered it at de la Popelinière’s
house, in presence of Voltaire and a chosen few. Rameau emerged from the
ordeal triumphant; but, alas! there’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip.
The director of the Académie de Musique would have nothing to do with
the piece, which he considered unsuitable for the opera, because founded
on a biblical subject. It is interesting to remember what Voltaire has
written on this question.
“Rameau,” says he, in speaking of “Samson,” “Rameau, the greatest
musician in France, set this opera to music about the year 1732. It was
about to be produced, when the same cabal which at a later date
succeeded in causing the representations of ‘Mahomet’ (one of Voltaire’s
tragedies) to be suspended, prevented the production of ‘Samson’ at the
Opéra.”
I do not know whether the cabal spoken of by the author of the
“Dictionnaire Philosophique” was responsible in this matter. I should be
inclined to think that the director of the Opéra simply took counsel
with himself. Whatever the fact, Voltaire adds:
“And at the very time when permission was given for this piece
(“Samson”) to be played at the Theatre of the Comédie Italienne, and
when ‘Samson’ worked miracles conjointly with Arlequin, permission was
not granted for the same subject to be represented in a noble and worthy
manner at the Theatre of the Académie de Musique. Our musician has since
made use of nearly all the airs in ‘Samson’ in other lyric compositions,
which envy was unable to suppress.”
It is quite true that Rameau utilized, but long afterwards, a part of
the music in “Samson” for his opera “Zoroastre.” This work was not his
début at the opera. The composer appeared before the Académie de Musique
with “Hippolyte et Aricie,” by the Abbé Pellegrin, a worldly abbé if
there ever was one, and a great playwright, concerning whom these verses
were written:
Le matin catholique et le soir idolâtre,
Il dîne de l’autel et soupe du théâtre.
M. de la Popelinière advanced 500 livres to the Abbé to secure him
against the possible failure of the piece, and Rameau set to work again.
This opera was given on the first of October, 1733. The composer
attained renown in his fiftieth year: he was old in years but young in
fame, as we have seen.
[Illustration: