Some Wonderful Achievements Wrought Against Time by Celebrated Men of
Genius Who Saved Critical Situations at the Last Minute—Phenomenal
Records by Artists and Composers.
The world of genius abounds with stories of marvelous achievements at
the last moment, especially the musical and artistic branch of it.
Strange though it may seem, some of the finest music and paintings have
been executed in a rush against time.
“There goes Leader, off to paint his dally picture,” was the usual
comment of his neighbors, upon seeing the artist leave his rooms early
in the morning with a canvas on his back. Although this may, perhaps,
have been a too flattering anticipation, it is a well-known fact that
on several occasions the academician produced a large picture within a
few hours.
Marvelous as is Benjamin Williams Leader’s rapidity with his brush, he
has a formidable rival in Solomon J. Solomon, A.R.A., who painted an
admirable life-size portrait of Israel Zangwill for the Academy
Exhibition within five hours of taking up his brush.
But neither Leader nor Solomon would dispute the honors of swift
workmanship with Sir Edwin Landseer. He had promised a picture for the
Spring Exhibition of the British Institution in 1845, but on the day
before the exhibition was to be opened all the hanging committee had
received was an empty frame, which was duly hung in the position of
honor.
As the prospect of the frame receiving a picture for the opening
seemed very slight, a member of the committee went to interview the
artist. He found Landseer standing in front of a bare canvas.
“That’s the picture I promised,” said Sir Edwin, pointing to the
canvas. “I haven’t touched it yet, but I will send it to the
institution to-night.”
A few hours later the completed picture was delivered, and may be seen
to-day in the National Gallery. This wonderful work of half a dozen
hours was none other than the universally admired “Cavalier’s Pets.”
Sir Arthur Sullivan composed the brilliant epilogue of the “Golden
Legend” in less than twenty-four hours. He sat down at nine o’clock
one evening to compose the overture to “Iolanthe,” and did not rise
from his desk until the last note was written at seven o’clock on the
following morning, while the overture to the “Yeoman of the Guard”
occupied him no more than twelve hours, both to compose and score.
It is told of Gaetano Donizetti that he wrote the instrumentation of
an entire opera within thirty hours. On the very morning on which
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini’s “Gazza Ladra” was to be produced not a
single note of the overture had been written, and the manager was in
despair. He sought out the lazy composer, locked him in one of the
rooms of La Scala, and declared he should have neither food nor
freedom until the overture was completed. Rossini set to work with a
will and to such purpose that the music was written and rehearsed
before the evening performance.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was equally as indolent and procrastinating as
Rossini. At twelve o’clock on the night before the production of “Don
Giovanni” the composer was making merry with a party of convivial
friends and had forgotten that the overture was unwritten. As he was
going to bed, in the early hours of the morning, his wife reminded him
of the fact that it was the day of production and that the overture
was not touched. He asked her to make him a bowl of punch and help
keep him awake, and sat down to his work as the light of dawn began to
stream through the window. He fell asleep, completely exhausted, and
slept soundly for a short time. At five o’clock he resumed his work,
and two hours later the overture was finished.
It is said that Herr Stehmann learned the entire part of the
_Wanderer_ in “Siegfried” in six hours; and on one occasion when Herr
Kraus, who was to have taken the leading rôle in Xaver Scharwenka’s
“Mataswinka,” was suddenly taken ill, Stehmann, who had never before
seen the part, mastered it so completely between the afternoon
rehearsal and the evening performance, that in both words and music he
was absolutely perfect.