The Great Musicians: Rossini and His School Part 5

Leonora's scena, too, "O mon Fernand," possesses, at least in the slow movement (the quick one being quite unworthy of it), a certain amount of beauty. But the fourth act of _La Favorita_ is worth all the rest of the opera, and it may well be regarded as the finest act Donizetti has composed. The calmness and purity of the tenor's air, "Ange si pur," and the pa.s.sionate impulsiveness of the final duet for the despondent lovers, are eminently dramatic: the character of each piece being perfectly in accord with the situation. The choruses are highly impressive, and the whole scene becomes filled with earnest animation as it moves towards the final climax. Donizetti is said to have sketched and in the main to have completed this act at a single sitting, and in the s.p.a.ce of some three or four hours. The andante, however, of the duet was added at the rehearsals; and the cavatina, "Ange si pur" was borrowed from the score of a work never brought out--_Le Duc d'Albe_. If there could be any doubt about the fact, it would be difficult to believe that Fernando's air had not been inspired by the situation in which it occurs. So, after all, in a measure it was; since the composer took it from elsewhere to introduce it where he knew it would be in place.

_La Favorita_ was by no means Donizetti's last work. He had yet to write _Linda di Chamouni_, in which there is more of what is called "local colour" than in any other of his operas; and _Don Pasquale_, which, apart from the brightness and gaiety of its never-ending series of melodies, would be remembered if only from the circ.u.mstance of its having been written for that incomparable quartet, Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and Lablache. The very year (1843) that Donizetti produced _Don Pasquale_ at Paris he brought out _Maria di Rohan_ at Vienna. The music of _Maria di Rohan_ is in some respects the most dramatic that Donizetti has written. The libretto, like almost every good libretto, is based on a French play--_Un Duel sous Richelieu_; and it contains a very strong part for the baritone, in which, at our Royal Italian Opera, Ronconi has often shown the highest histrionic genius, together with a certain inability to sing in tune. _Maria di Rohan_, however, is not to be called dramatic simply because it contains one great dramatic part.

What is more important is the fact that the music of the work is appropriate to the various personages and to the great situations of the piece. In portraying the original of the jealous husband, Donizetti exhibits all the earnestness and vigour of Verdi, whom, as before observed, he resembles more in _Maria di Rohan_ than in any of his earlier works.

Donizetti's last opera was _Catarina Cornaro_, brought out at Naples in 1844. This was his sixty-third dramatic work, without counting a certain number--variously estimated, but not likely to be great--which have not been represented. At least two-thirds of Donizetti's operas have never been heard in England. Soon after the production of _Catarina Cornaro_ Donizetti fell into a melancholy condition. Symptoms of dementia manifested themselves while he was on a visit to Paris. The doctors thought the air of his native town might have some salutary effect, and the patient was accordingly ordered to Bergamo; but the case was already a hopeless one. He was taken to Bergamo, but was attacked with paralysis on the journey; and soon after his arrival, having experienced a second attack, he succ.u.mbed.

Donizetti, as has already been said, worked for some time before and for many years after Bellini, whom he preceded and survived. Bellini was born in 1806, nine years after Donizetti, and died in 1837, thirteen years before him. He was a native of Sicily, and his father, with whom he took his first lessons in music, was an organist at Catania. The organist was persuaded to send his son to Naples by a Sicilian n.o.bleman, who promised to pay his expenses as a student at the famous Conservatorio, which he in due time entered, and where he had for fellow-pupil Mercadante--more or less known whereever Italian opera has been cultivated by his _Giuramento_, the only one of his numerous works which ever met with anything like an enduring success. Mercadante was a better musician than Bellini. But he possessed far less creative power; and his creations or inspirations in the shape of melodies are seldom comparable in beauty to those of which the scores of _La Sonnambula_, _Norma_, and _I Puritani_ are so full. The tenor's love-song in _Il Giuramento_, and the highly dramatic duet which brings that opera to a conclusion, will be remembered by all who have once heard this masterpiece of a composer who did not produce masterpieces. Opera-goers of the last thirty years cannot altogether forget him; and it may in particular be observed that he made a far more effective use of the orchestra than his more divinely endowed fellow-student, who thought and felt in melody as Ovid, and afterwards Pope, "lisped in numbers:"

every sequence of notes that occurred to him being melodious.

Bellini composed his first work while he was studying at the Conservatorio, where it was afterwards performed. His next production was intended for the outside public. It was ent.i.tled _Adelson e Salvino_, and had the honour, or at least the advantage, of being represented in the presence of the ill.u.s.trious Barbaja, who, without being a musician, was, as we have already seen, a keen appreciator of musical excellence. It would have been necessary, perhaps, to have been a little blind not to perceive the merit of three such masters as Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. Such blindness however, was as a matter of fact exhibited by a good many, whereas the ex-waiter of the San Carlo gambling saloon showed himself clear-sighted in the matter. Rossini and Donizetti had both been under engagements to Barbaja, and he was not going to allow Bellini to escape him. The famous impresario was at this time director of the San Carlo at Naples, of the Scala at Milan, of some smaller operatic establishments in Italy, and of the Italian Opera at Vienna. He commissioned Bellini in the first place to write an opera for Naples, where, in 1826, he brought out his _Bianca e Fernando_. This work obtained no very great amount of success. But it pleased a considerable portion of the public; and it so far satisfied Barbaja that the sagacious manager entrusted the young composer, now twenty years of age, with the libretto of _Il Pirata_, in which the princ.i.p.al part was to be written specially for Rubini. This time Bellini's opera was to be produced at La Scala. In the simple touching melodies of _Il Pirata_--of which the princ.i.p.al one for the tenor, quickly laid hold of by composers for the pianoforte and the violin, was still remembered long after the opera, as a whole, had been forgotten--Bellini at once revealed the character of his genius; and the composer of twenty was destined to express the reaction he felt within himself, and which the public was prepared to feel, against the florid style of Rossini. While composing _Il Pirata_, Bellini retired into the country with the singer on whose execution the success of the work would so much depend. Rubini sang the melodies of his part as Bellini wrote them; and Bellini is said not to have succeeded all at once in inducing him to abandon his taste for ornamentation, and in prevailing upon him to deliver the simple phrases of his princ.i.p.al airs, not only from the chest, but also from the heart.

Rubini and his composer, Bellini and his singer, soon understood one another; and in his great scene the admired tenor excited the utmost enthusiasm. Now were fulfilled the words of the prophet Stendhal (or perhaps it was the seer Carpani beneath whose mantle Stendhal, we know, was in the habit of concealing himself), who, writing only some two or three years before, had foretold that Rossini would be followed by a composer remarkable for the simplicity of his style.

After producing in succession _La Straniera_ (Milan, 1828), _Zaira_ (Parma, 1829), Bellini brought out at Venice his operatic version of _Romeo and Juliet_, under the t.i.tle of _I Capuletti ed i Montecchi_ which owed such success as it obtained to the singing of Mdle. Pasta, as _Il Pirata_ had been indebted for the favour with which it was received to the singing of Rubini. The years 1829, 1830, 1831, and 1832 are especially memorable in the history of Italian opera; for in the first of these Rossini's _William Tell_, in the second Donizetti's _Anna Bolena_, in the third Bellini's _Sonnambula_, and in the fourth Bellini's _Norma_, was produced. The Italian school of operatic music was certainly at that time supreme in Europe; and Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini continued for many years to hold sway at theatres where they have now to share their dominion with the composers of France and Germany--with Gounod, Ambroise Thomas, and Bizet, with Meyerbeer and with Wagner.

_La Sonnambula_, as the work of a new composer, was a good deal sneered at on the occasion of its first production in London. But its endless flow of melodies--many of which, being full of true emotion, are so far thoroughly dramatic--could not fail to ensure its success, with the public at large; and this success, now of half a century's duration, has scarcely diminished since the part of _Amina_ was first undertaken by Pasta, and that of _Elvino_ by Rubini. Our old friend, Lord Mount-Edgc.u.mbe, true type of the praiser of times gone by, having been scared by Rossini, was not likely to be calmed down by Bellini. Of _Norma_ he tells us that the scene of the opera was laid "in Wales," and that it "was not liked." It is difficult to understand the mood of one, having ears to hear, who, whatever he might think of _Norma_ as a specimen of the highest kind of tragic opera, could fail to "like it."

Rossini, together with a ma.s.s of opera-goers in all countries, was of those who not only "liked" but greatly admired _Norma_; and he gave the composer the benefit of his counsels when the still young Bellini (he was even now only thirty years of age) undertook to write an opera for the Italian Theatre of Paris, with Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache in the princ.i.p.al parts. The effect of Rossini's advice may be seen in the greater degree of attention paid by Bellini to the orchestration of _I Puritani_ and to the concerted music. It would have been well if some one had recommended Bellini not to set to work upon so poor a libretto as that of _I Puritani_ derived from Ancelot's poor novel, _Les Puritains d'Ecosse_. Rubini's air, "Ah te, o cara," the polacca for Grisi, the duet in three movements for Tamburini and Lablache,--as to which Rossini, writing an account of the opera to a friend at Milan, remarked that some echo of the final outburst for the two voices, with its brazen accompaniments, must surely have reached him,--and the beautiful tenor solo of the closing concerted piece: these in themselves must have been enough to secure the success of the opera.

The last-named melody for the tenor voice, so thoroughly religious in character, was sung at Bellini's funeral to the words of the _Lacrymosa_; and it was in the midst of the enthusiasm created by his last work that Bellini, at the age of thirty-eight, died.

CHAPTER XIII.

VERDI.

GUISEPPE VERDI, the successor at once of Bellini and of Donizetti, but whose energetic style bears a far greater resemblance to that of Donizetti in his later works (_Maria di Rohan_, for instance) than to that of Bellini, was born near Parma, on the 9th of October, 1814. His father was an innkeeper in a humble way of business, and Verdi's first lessons in music were taken from the local organist. In 1833, thanks to the a.s.sistance of a rich patron of art, he went to Milan, where for three years he studied under Lavigna, musical conductor at the Scala Theatre. It was not until 1839 that he succeeded in getting his first opera, _Oberto, Conte di San Bonifazio_, produced. But the manager of the Scala, where it was performed was so satisfied with its success that he gave the young composer an order for three other works. Unfortunately at this juncture Verdi lost a wife whom he had recently married and to whom he was tenderly attached. He had just undertaken the uncongenial and now hateful task of composing an _opera buffa_ ent.i.tled, _Un Giorno di Regno_; and, as might have been expected, this work was somewhat deficient in comedy. It failed; and so complete was the fiasco that the director of La Scala felt himself justified in declining to receive from Verdi the two other operas which he had agreed to take.

The unhappy composer had now to begin his career again; and as the first step he pa.s.sed a year without writing a note. He then set to work once more and composed his well-known opera on the subject of Nebuchadnezzar, called familiarly _Nabuco_. _Nabucodonosore_, produced in London, where the biblical subject had been objected to by the censors.h.i.+p, under the t.i.tle of Nino, was the first work by which Verdi became famous out of his own country; and the success of _Nabuco_ became in due time European. _Nabuco_ (1842) was followed by _I Lombardi_ (1843), and _Ernani_ (1844); and the three works by which Verdi established his reputation in Italy were all given without much delay at Her Majesty's Theatre. The first production, in fact, of Verdi's works dates from immediately before the secession which led to the establishment of the Royal Italian Opera. An opera on the subject of the _Two Foscari_ was brought out at Rome in 1844, and some three or four years afterwards was given at the Royal Italian Opera, with Ronconi in the princ.i.p.al part.

_Ernani_, however, at both our rival opera houses was for some time the most admired and the most often played of the new composer's works.

At this time Verdi's music met with but little appreciation from critics, who declared it to be noisy and commonplace, and who were particularly offended by so much bra.s.s being employed in the orchestration, and by so many of the choruses being written in unison.

The new composer was accused, moreover, of pa.s.sing too abruptly from one piece to another, of not sufficiently preparing his effects, and so on.

We have seen how Rossini was attacked when his operas were first produced in England; and the Lord Mount-Edgc.u.mbes of 1848, and indeed of many years later, were thoroughly dissatisfied with Verdi, whom it was the fas.h.i.+on to represent in the newspapers of the day as a sort of melodramatic mountebank. Even as late as 1856, when the richly melodious, and in many respects highly dramatic _Trovatore_ was given at the Royal Italian Opera, the talent, or rather the genius of Verdi, was still systematically denied. The style in which Verdi's operas were habitually executed in London may have had something to do with the charges pressed so energetically against him. Those, however, who have heard Verdi conduct his own works are aware that though his scores may contain parts for a considerable number of bra.s.s instruments, yet the bra.s.siness of the orchestra is kept down and a proper balance of sonority maintained. Fully informed as to why Verdi's works ought not to be admired, the public of London persisted in admiring them; and it may be here mentioned that for some years Verdi was not much better treated by the critical press of France than by that of England. M. Scudo, writing in the _Revue des deux Mondes_ found in Verdi the same faults already mentioned as those of which he was habitually accused in England. _Il Trovatore_, however, did much towards converting M. Scudo; and the success of that work, if not the work itself, did much to shake the faith, or rather the unfaith, of those English critics and connoisseurs who had previously disbelieved in Verdi. The production of _Rigoletto_ at the Royal Italian Opera a year or two later, with Madame Bosio (most charming of Gildas), Signor Mario, and Signor Ronconi in the princ.i.p.al parts, made those who were still sceptical as to Verdi's high merits appear somewhat ridiculous. _La Traviata_, with its questionable story derived from the younger Dumas's novel and play of _La Dame aux Camelias_, was a good deal blamed by reason of its libretto; and also on account of the alleged triviality of the music, which, however, thanks to the tone of genuine emotion in many of its strains, still lives, and is now, indeed, more popular than ever.

Verdi's success in England was confirmed, and more than confirmed, by the production at the Royal Italian Opera of _Un Ballo in Maschera_ (founded on the same subject as Auber's _Gustave III._), with an execution which was above all remarkable for the style in which the part of the Duke, vaguely described as "Il Duca," was played by Signor Mario, and that of Renato, whose wife the Duke betrays, by Signor Graziani; and for the last twelve or fifteen years it has been considered bad taste not to admire Verdi's music. Indeed, since _Ada_, his latest, most serious, most studied, and, in the true sense of the word, most dramatic opera, it has become the fas.h.i.+on in some musical circles to place him above all other Italian composers, to contrast the significance of his melodies, the characterisation of his personages, and the forcible construction of his scenes, with the careless, haphazard stringing together of meaningless, if singable tunes, and of ingenious rather than dramatic concerted pieces which mark the style or want of style of so many Italian composers. It is only fair, however, to remember that Verdi has not yet surpa.s.sed _William Tell_, that he has produced nothing superior in the way of concerted finale to the celebrated one which closes the second act of _Lucia_, and that he scarcely could have treated the last act of _La Favorita_ more dramatically, or with a greater abundance of melodic ideas than Donizetti--here by the way, writing at times very much in Verdi's own manner.

In pursuing the story of Verdi's constantly increasing success among the English we have departed from the general history of his career. It must be mentioned, however, that many of Verdi's operas which gained great favour in Italy have either never been given in England at all, or have been performed in this country without exciting much enthusiasm. Nor was any great impression made in England by the work which, under the t.i.tle of _Masnadieri_, Verdi wrote expressly for Her Majesty's Theatre in the days of Jenny Lind, with Jenny Lind herself, Gardoni, and Lablache in the princ.i.p.al parts. No one seems to have suggested that Verdi's _King Lear_ should be performed in England; but from time to time there has been some talk of producing his _Macbeth_, of which a French version was brought out, not unsuccessfully, at the Theatre Lyrique of Paris, with some additional music, and especially some new ballet scenes by the composer.

It is scarcely worth while to recall Verdi's failures: but _Luisa Miller_ and _La Forza del Destino_ must in fairness be reckoned among the number. _Luisa Miller_ is based on the theme of Schiller's pathetic but over-dolorous drama _Cabale und Liebe_. For the basis of _La Forza_ Verdi did not have recourse to Schiller as in the case of _Luisa Miller_ and _I Ma.s.sdieri_, nor to Victor Hugo as in that of _Ernani_ and of _Rigoletto_ (_Le Roi s'amuse_). His librettist borrowed the subject from a most sanguinary melodrama by a Spanish author of some distinction, though with such bloodthirsty tendencies that he brings almost every character in his play to a violent end, while one of the leading personages, after apparently meeting his death, is restored to life to be killed again. In _La Forza del Destino_ the composer has so neglected the concerted music that the work does not include one regularly constructed concerted piece. It contains, however, some beautiful melodies for the solo voice, including one in particular a.s.signed to the prima donna, which Verdi, from having inscribed it beneath one of his best portraits, would seem to regard as characteristically his own. Of Verdi's _Requiem_, composed in memory of Manzoni, little need be said except that it is melodious, impressive, and often very dramatic--dramatic, however, in the style of _Ada_ not of the less thoroughly dramatic, but more stagey works of Verdi's youth.

Verdi, now (1880) in his sixty-seventh year, has by no means renounced musical composition; and he is understood to be actively engaged on a new _Oth.e.l.lo_, of which Signor Boito, author and composer of _Mefistofele_, has furnished the libretto, and which is to be brought out as soon as completed under the t.i.tle of _Iago_.

Unlike other composers, Verdi has played a certain political part, which, however, seems in a great measure to have been forced upon him.

In the days before Italian unity it was discovered that the letters composing his name might, in due order, be regarded as signifying "Vittore Emanuele, Re d'Italia"; so that "Viva Verdi!" came to be accepted as an aspiration for a united Italian kingdom with Victor Emanuel on the throne. When _Macbeth_ was brought out, all sorts of political allusions were discovered in the libretto; and nothing would satisfy the electors of Verdi's native town but to make him a member of the National a.s.sembly of Parma. After the formation of the Italian kingdom Verdi became a member of the Italian parliament; and in 1874 the king made him a senator.