With the exception of the perfect lyric "Who is Sylvia?" composers have
left this play severely alone; but +Sir Henry Bishop+ certainly
produced a pasticcio opera on _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ at the
Royal, Covent Garden, in 1821. The work is the usual jumble of words
from the plays, poems, and sonnets, set to music for the most part by
Bishop. There is an overture which is really a string of tunes, mostly
in C major, not labelled by the composer, and which do not occur later
in the opera. It is a very bad example of a very bad class of
so-called overture. The first song is a setting of the fifth to the
twelfth lines of the Sonnet No. 64, sung by a character called
Philippe, who does not appear in Shakespeare's play. It was performed
by a Master Longhurst, a boy of some importance in his time, as he is
mentioned by name in several books of reference regarding this song.
The song in question is not worth very much, but is a good example of
how a perfect sonnet may be transformed into a very indifferent song.
This is followed by a duet for Philippe and Julia, with words from
Shakespeare's 92nd Sonnet, but the first line is unhappily changed from
"But do thy worst to steal thyself away," into "Save, though you strive
to steal yourself away." The improvement is obvious! and the musical
setting quite in keeping with the improvement in the text; only a few
lines of the poem are sung, but oh! how often repeated!
Sylvia has a great show in the next number. It is an extraordinary
perversion of the Sonnet No. 109, "Oh, never say that I was false of
heart," a poem that any {159} decent-minded pirate or burglar would
have left alone. Still, Sir Henry rushes in with what is officially
described as a bravura song. Certainly only lines 1-4 and 13-14 are
set to music, but how the few words are contorted! In the coda Sylvia
sings on the word "all," fourteen bars first and then fifteen!
A society for the protection of sonnets should certainly be formed.
The ever-useful _Passionate Pilgrim_ is used for a mixture of Dr Arne
and Bishop as an unaccompanied quartet, "Good night, good rest," and we
will leave it at that; but the following number cannot be lightly
treated. It is difficult to forgive a composer who seizes on the
perfect sonnet in the world and writes a "Solo Brilliante" on the first
four lines. These are certainly correctly printed, save that the word
"curse" (Shakespeare) is transformed into "moan" (Bishop), and lines
9-12, with endless repetitions, are dragged in for the second half.
This solo ends with a long cadenza for voice and flute, the voice only
using the first half of the word "heaven"; there are just thirty bars
on the syllable "hea-"! The four-part round, "To see his face," words
from _Venus and Adonis_ (only the first four lines of stanza 183 are
set), is an ingenious and entertaining piece of work, and should be
most effective. For some strange reason, "Who is Sylvia?" is set as a
quintet, with Julia on the top line. The first half of the melody is
by Bishop, but the second half is believed to be by Rousseau; anyhow,
no one would quarrel now as to how to apportion the requisite blame;
the "dishonours" appear to be equally divided, except that Rousseau,
being a Swiss, could not be expected to show so tender a regard for
Shakespeare as Shakespeare's own fellow-countryman Bishop did. The
cavatina sung by Julia is to the first eight lines of the 73rd Sonnet;
and the male chorus, "Now the hungry lion roars," is, of course, from
one of Puck's speeches in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, but is sadly cut
and altered.
The duet, "On a Day," words from _Love's Labour's Lost_, and also _The
Passionate Pilgrim_, is another "I know a {160} bank"-like thing, and
quite as uninteresting. Julia's next song, "Should he upbraid," is
familiar to all, and the words are founded on a speech of Baptista in
_The Taming of the Shrew_. The finale is a duet by Sylvia and Julia,
assisted by the full chorus: its title is "How like a winter," and the
words are partly adapted, very freely, from the first four lines of the
97th Sonnet, and from the masque in _As You Like It_.
A stranger jumble of words could hardly be conceived; yet this opera
was quite successful, and no one seemed to think any the worse of
Bishop, who was mainly responsible for its monstrosities.
+Dr Arne's+ version of "Who is Sylvia?" is really a very charming song,
very melodious, very vocal, and full of delicate grace-notes. The last
verse is set as a trio, but can be sung as a solo without spoiling the
composer's intentions; in fact, he says it may be done without
additional voices.
+Macfarren's+ part-song is very good--I mean Sir George's, not
Walter's. Both have set the words. But the best setting of "Who is
Sylvia?" must for ever remain +Schubert's+--one of the perfect songs of
the world.
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