Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME I.
1909
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Beginnings of Light Opera.
Opera Buffa, Opera Comique, and Singspiel.
While Gluck was
altering the course of musical history in Vienna, another revolution,
less grand in scope and more gradually accomplished, but scarcely less
important in its results, was being effected in Italy. This was the
development of opera buffa, a form of art which was destined, in Italy
at any rate, to become a serious rival to the older institution of opera
seria, and, in the hands of Mozart, to produce masterpieces such as the
world had certainly not known before his day, nor is ever likely to see
surpassed.
There is some uncertainty about the actual origin of opera buffa. A
musical comedy by Vergilio Mazzocchi and Mario Marazzoli, entitled
Chi sofre speri, was produced in Florence under the patronage of
Cardinal Barberini as early as 1639. The poet Milton was present at this
performance, and refers to it in one of his Epistoiœ Familiares.
In 1657 a theatre was actually built in Florence for the performance of
musical comedies. For some reason, however, it did not prove a success,
and after a few years was compelled to close its doors. After these
first experiments there seems to have been no attempt made to
resuscitate opera buff a until the rise of the Neapolitan school in the
following century. The genesis of the southern branch of opera buffa may
with certainty be traced to the intermezzi,
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or musical interludes, which were introduced into the course of operas
and dramas, probably with the object of relieving the mental strain
induced by the effort of following a long serious performance.
The popularity of these intermezzi throws a curious light upon the
character of Italian audiences at that time. As time went on, the
proportions and general character of these intermezzi acquired greater
importance, but it was not until the eighteenth century was well
advanced that one of them was promoted to the rank of an independent
opera, and, instead of being performed in scraps between the acts of a
tragedy, was given for the first time as a separate work. This honor was
accorded to Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, in 1734, and the great
success which it met with everywhere soon caused numberless imitations
to spring up, so that in a few years opera buffa in Italy was launched
upon a career of triumph.
Founded as it was in avowed imitation of the tragedy of the Greeks,
opera had never deigned to touch modrn life at any point. For a long
time the subjects of Italian operas were taken solely from classical
legend, and though in time librettists were compelled to have recourse
to the medieval romances, they never ventured out of an antiquity more
or less remote. Thus it is easy to conceive the delight of the
music-loving people of Naples when they found that the opera which they
adored could be enjoyed in combination with a mirthful and even farcical
story, interpreted by characters who might have stepped out of one of
their own market places. But, apart from the freedom and variety of the
subjects with which it dealt, the development
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of opera buff a gave rise to an art form which is of the utmost
importance to the history of opera—the concerted finale.
Nicola Logroscino (1700-1763) seems to have been the first composer who conceived the idea of working up the end of an act to a musical climax by bringing all his characters together and blending their voices into a musical texture of some elaboration. Logroscino wrote only in the Neapolitan dialect, and his works had little success beyond the limits of his own province; but his invention was quickly adopted by all writers of opera buff a, and soon became an important factor in the development of the art. Later composers elaborated his idea by extending the finale to more than one movement, and by varying the key-color. Finally, but not until after many years, it was introduced into opera seria, when it gave birth to the idea of elaborate trios and quartets, which were afterwards to play so important a part in its development
Logroscino’s reputation was chiefly local, but the works of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) and Nicola Jomelli (1714-1774) made the Neapolitan school famous throughout Europe. Both these composers are now best known by their sacred works, but during their lives their operas attained an extraordinary degree of popularity. Both succeeded equally in {44} comedy and tragedy, but Jomelli’s operas are now forgotten, while Pergolesi ia known only by his delightful intermezzo, La Serva Padrona. This diverting little piece tells of the schemes of the chambermaid, Serpina, to win the hand of her master, Pandolfo. She is helped by Scapin, the valet, who, disguised as a captain, makes violent love to her, and piques the old gentleman into proposing, almost against his will. La Serva Padrona made the tour of Europe, and was received everywhere with tumultuous applause. In Paris it was performed in 1750, and may be said at once to have founded the school of French opéra comique. Rousseau extolled its beauty as a protest against the arid declamation of the school of Lulli, and it was the {subject} of one of the bitterest dissensions ever known in the history of music. But the “Guerre des Bouffons,” as the struggle was called, proved one thing, which had already been satisfactorily decided in Italy, namely, that there was plenty of room in the world for serious and comic opera at the same time.
There had been a kind
of opéra comique in France for many years, a species of musical
pantomime, which was very popular at the fairs of St. Laurent and St.
Gervais. This form of entertainment scarcely came within the province of
art, but it served as a starting-point for the history of opéra comique,
which was afterwards so brilliant. The success of the Italian company
which performed the comic operas of Pergolesi, Jomelli and others, fired
the French composers to emulation,
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and in 1753 the first French opéra comique, in the strict sense of the
word, Le Devin. du Village, by Jean Jacques Rousseau, was
performed at the Académie de Musique. Musically the work is feeble and
characterless, but the contrast which it offered to the stiff and
serious works of the tragic composers made it upon ears too well
accustomed to the pomposities of Rameau and his school.
At first lovers of opéra comique in Paris had to subgist chiefly
upon translations from the Italian; but in 1755 Ninette à la Cour,
a dainty little work written by a Neapolitan composer, Duni, to a
French libretto, popular. Whatever its faults may be, it is simple and
natural, and its tender little melodies fell pleasantly gained a great
success. Soon afterwards, Monsigny, a composer who may well be called
the father of opéra comique, produced his first work, and started upon a
career of success which extended into the next century.
The early days of
opéra comique in Paris were distracted by the jealousy existing between
the French and Italian schools, but in 1762 peace was made between the
rival factions, and by process of fusion the two became one. With the
opening of the new Théâtre de l’Opéra Comique—the Salle Favart, as it
was then called—there began a new and brilliant period for the history
of French art. It is a significant fact, and one which goes far to prove
how closely the foundation of opéra comique was connected with a revolt
against the boredom of grand opera, that the most successful composers
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who were actually innocent of any musical training whatsoever.
Pierre Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817) is a particularly striking
instance of natural genius triumphing in spite of a defective education.
Nothing can exceed the thinness and poverty of his scores, or their lack
of all real musical interest; yet, by the sureness of his natural
instinct for the stage, he succeeded in writing music which still moves
us as much by its brilliant gaiety as by its tender pathos. Le
Déserteur, his most. famous work, is a touching little story of a
soldier who deserts in a fit of jealousy, and is condemned to be shot,
but is saved by his sweetheart, who begs his pardon from the king. Much
of the music is almost childish in its naïveté, but there is real
pathos in the famous air, Adieu, Louise,” and some of the lighter scenes
in the opera are touched off very happily.
The musical education of André Erneste Modeste Grétry (1741-1831) was perhaps more elaborate than that of Monsigny, but it fell very far short of profundity. His music excels in grace and humor, and he rarely treated serious subjects with success. Such works as Le Tableau Parlant, Les Deux Avares and L’Amant Jaloux are models of lightness and brilliancy, whatever may be thought of their musicianship. Richard Cœur de Lion is the one instance of Grétry having successfully attempted a loftier theme, and it remains his masterpiece. The scene is laid at the castle of Dürrenstein in Austria, where Richard lies imprisoned, {47} and deals with the efforts of his faithful minstrel, Blondel, to rescue him. In this work Grétry adapted his style to his subject with wonderful versatility. Much of the music is noble and dignified in style, and Blondel’s air in particular, “O, Richard, O mon roi,” has a masculine vigor which is rarely found in the composer’s work. But as a rule, Grétry is happiest in his delicate little pastorals and fantastic comedies, and, for all their slightness, his works bear the test of revival better than those of many of his more learned contemporaries.
François André
Danican-Philidor (1726-1797) was almost more famous as a chess-player
than as a composer. He had the advantage of a sound musical education
under Campra, one of the predecessors of Rameau, and his music has far
more solid qualities than that of Grétry or Monsigny. His treatment of
the orchestra, too, was more scientific than that of his contemporaries,
but he had little gift of melody, and he was deficient in dramatic
instinct He often visited England, and ended by dying in London. One of
the best of his works, Tom Jones, was written upon an English
subject. Philidor was popular in his day, but his works have rarely been
heard by the present generation.
With Grétry the first period of opéra comique may be said to close;
indeed, the taste of French audiences had begun to change some years
before the close of the eighteenth century. The mighty wave of the
Revolution swept away the idle gallantries of the sham pastoral,
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while Ossian newly discovered and Shakespeare newly translated opened
the eyes of cultivated Frenchmen to the possibilities of poetry and
romance. At the same time, the works of Haydn and Mozart, which had
already crossed the frontier, disturbed preconceived notions about the
limits of orchestral coloring, and made the thin little scores of Grétry
and his contemporaries seem doubly jejune. The change in public taste
was gradual, but none the less certain. The opening years of the
nineteenth century saw a singular evolution, if not revolution, in the
history of opéra comique.
Meanwhile opera in Italy was pursuing its triumphant course. The introduction of the finale brought the two great divisions of opera into closer connection, and most of the great composers of this period succeeded as well in opera buffa as in opera seria. The impetus given to the progress of the art by the brilliant Neapolitan school was ably sustained by such composers as Nicolo Piccinni (1728-1800), a composer who is now known principally to fame as the unsuccessful rival brought forward by the Italian party in Paris in the year 1776 in the vain hope of crushing Glück. Piccinni sinks into insignificance by the side of Glück, but he was nevertheless an able composer, and certainly the leading representative of the Italian school at the time. He did much to develop the concerted finale, which before his day had been used with caution, not to say timidity, and was so constant in his devotion to the {49} loftiest ideal of art that he died in poverty and starvation.
In Dominico Cimarosa
(1749 (1754?)-1801) we have a man of original genius. Left an orphan at
the age of seven years, he was admitted a pupil at the Conservatoire of
Santa Maria di Loreto at Naples. His ability soon declared itself, and
on leaving the Conservatoire he was at once engaged to compose an opera
for the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples. In 1775 he was called to Rome,
and, returning to Naples, continued to produce a succession of operas,
among which Il Fanatico per gli antichi Romani, written in 1777,
was the first to contain trios and quintets carrying on the dramatic
action.
His genius was everywhere in demand, and in 1789 he was induced to
visit St. Petersburg. The rigors of the Russian climate proved too great
for him, and in 1792 he went to Vienna, where he was most warmly
received by the Emperor, who wished to attach him to his court. It was
there that he produced his masterpiece, Il Matrimonio Segreto.
Cimarosa died in Venice in 1801.
Cimarosa was a prolific writer, the number of his operas reaching
the formidable total of seventy-six; but, save for Il Matrimonio
Segreto, they have all been consigned to oblivion. Although he was
born only seven years before Mozart, and actually survived him for ten
years, he belongs entirely to the earlier school of opera buff a. His
talent is thoroughly Italian, untouched by
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German influence, and he excels in portraying the gay superficiality of
the Italian character, without attempting to dive below the surface.
Comic opera in two
acts by Dominico Cimarosa. Libretto by Bertati.
Characters: Carolina, younger daughter of Geronimo; Fidalmo, sister
of Geronimo; Elisetta, elder daughter of Geronimo; Paolino, clerk; Count
Robinson; Geronimo, a wealthy merchant.
Place, London, in the house of Geronimo. First produced in Florence
in 1792.
The story of Il Matrimonio Segreto is simplicity’ itself,
but the situations are amusing in themselves, and are led up to with no
little adroitness. Paolino, a young lawyer, has secretly married
Carolina, the daughter of Geronimo, a rich and avaricious merchant. In
order to smooth away the difficulties which must arise when the
inevitable discovery of the marriage takes place, he tries to secure a
rich friend of his own, Count Robinson, for Geronimo’s other daughter,
Elisetta. Unfortunately, Robinson prefers Carolina, and proposes himself
as son-in-law to Geronimo, who is, of course, delighted that his
daughter should have secured so unexceptionable a parti, while
the horrified Paolino discovers to his great dissatisfaction that the
elderly Fidalmo, Geronimo’s sister, has cast languishing eyes upon
himself.
There is nothing for the young couple but flight, but unfortunately
as they are making their escape they are
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discovered, and their secret is soon extorted. Geronimo’s wrath is
tremendous, but in the end matters are satisfactorily arranged, and the
amiable Robinson, after all, expresses himself content with the charms
of Elisetta.
Il Matrimonio Segreto
was produced at Vienna in 1792, and proved so very much
to the taste of the Emperor Leopold, who was present at the performance,
that he gave all the singers and musicians a magnificent supper, and
then insisted upon their performing the opera again from beginning to
end.
Even more prolific
than Cimarosa was Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1815), a composer whose works,
though immensely popular in their day, did not possess individuality
enough to defy the ravages of time.
Paisiello deserves to be remembered as the first man to write an
opera on the tale of Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
This work, though coldly received when it was first performed,
ended by establishing so firm a hold upon the affections of the Italian
public, that when Rossini tried to produce his opera on the same subject,
the Romans refused to give it a hearing.
Ferdinando Paer
(1771-1839) belongs chronologically to the next generation, but
musically he has more in common with Paisiello than with Rossini. His
principal claim to immortality rests upon the fact that a performance of
his opera, Eleanora, inspired Beethoven with the idea of writing Fidelia;
but although
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his serious efforts are comparatively worthless, many of his comic
operas are exceedingly bright and attractive.
Le Maître de Chapelle, which was written to
French libretto, is still performed. ‘with tolerable frequency in Paris.
It is hardly likely that the whirligig of time will ever bring
Paisiello and his contemporaries into general popularity again, but in
Italy there has been of late years a remarkable revival of interest in
the works of the eighteenth century. Some years ago the Argentina
Theatre, in Rome, devoted its winter season al- most entirely to
reproductions of the works of this
school. Many of these old-world little operas, whose very names had
been forgotten, were received most cordially, some of them—Paisiello’s
Scuffiara Raggiratrice, for instance—with genuine enthusiasm.
The Singspiel.
Wars and rumors of
wars stunted musical development of all kinds in Germany during the
earlier years of the eighteenth century. After the death of Keiser, in
1739, the glory departed from Hamburg, and opera seems to have lain
under a cloud until the advent of Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804), the
inventor of the Singspiel. Hiller’s Singspie]e were vandevilles of a
simple and humorous description, interspersed with music, occasionally
concerted numbers of a very simple description, but more often songs
derived directly from the traditions of the German Lied. These operettas
were very popular, as the frequent editions of them which were called
for prove.
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Yet, in spite of their success, it
was felt by many of the composers who imitated him that the combination
of dialogue and music was inartistic, and Johann Fried-rich Reichardt
(1752-1814) attempted to solve the difficulty by relegating the music to
a merely incidental position and conducting all the action of the piece
by means of the dialogue. Nevertheless the older form of the Singspiel
retained its popularity, and although founded upon incorrect æsthetic
principles—for no art, however ingenious, can fuse the convention of
speech and the convention of song into an harmonious whole—was the means
in later times of giving to the world, in “Die Zauberflöte” and
“Fidelio,” nobler music than had yet been consecrated to the service of
the stage.
Last updated January 17, 2007