Chapter XIX (3)

[43] French audiences owe something to the Count de Lauragais who, by paying an immense sum of money as compensation, procured the abolition of the seats on the stage. Previously, the _habitués_ were in the habit of crowding the stage to such an extent, that an actor was sometimes obliged to request the public to open a way for him before he could make his entry.

[44] Compare this with the Duke of Wellington keeping foxhounds in the Peninsula, and observe the characteristic pastimes of English and French generals. So, in our House of Commons, there is always an adjournment over the Derby day; in France, nothing used to empty the Chamber of Deputies so much as a new opera; and during the last French republic, when a question affecting its very existence was about to be discussed, the Assemblée Nationale was quite deserted, from the anxiety of the members to be present at the first representation of the _Prophète_.

[45] On this subject see _ante_, page 1.

[46] "Gods and devils," says Arteaga, "were banished from the stage as soon as poets discovered the art of making men speak with dignity."--_Rivoluzioni del teatro Italiano._

[47] Published by John Chapman, London.

[48] Addison gives some such description of the French Opera in No. 29 of the _Spectator_.

[49] The origin of this absurd title has been already explained (page 15).

[50] _Molière Musicien_, par Castil Blaze, vol. II., p. 409.

[51] Gluck's name proves nothing to the contrary. The Slavonian languages are such unknown tongues, and so unpronounceable to the West of Europe that Slavonians have in numerous instances Latinised their names like Copernicus (a Pole), or Gallicised them like Chopin (also a Pole), or above all, have Germanised them like Guttenberg (a native of Kutna Gora in Bohemia), Schwarzenberg (from Tcherna Gora, the Black Mountain).

[52] We have a right to suppose that the priest did not exactly know for whose arm the mass was ordered.

[53] Of which, the best account I have met with is given in the memoirs of Fleury the actor.

[54] From 1821 to 1828.

[55] For an interesting account of the production of this work, see "Beaumarchais's Life and Times," by Louis de Loménie. See also the Preface to _Tarare_, in Beaumarchais's "Dramatic Works."

[56] See vol I.

[57] _Question._ Quelle est la meilleure? _Answer._ C'est Mara. _Rejoinder._ C'est bientôt dit (_bien Todi_).--(From a joke-book of the period).

[58] A celebrated male soprano, and one of the last of the tribe.

[59] Some writers speak of Mara as a violinist, others as a violoncellist.

[60] Banti was born at Crema, in 1757.

[61] Nasolini, a composer of great promise, died at a very early age.

[62] All three sopranists.

[63] It will be remembered that Berton, the director of the French Academy, entertained Gluck and Piccinni in a similar manner. (See vol. I.)

[64] We sometimes hear complaints of the want of munificence shown by modern constitutional sovereigns, in their dealings with artists and musicians. At least, however, they pay them. Louis XV. and Louis XVI. not only did not pay their daughters' music-masters, but allowed the royal young ladies to sponge upon them for what music they required.

[65] In chronicling the material changes that have taken place at the French Opera, I must not forgot the story of the new curtain, displayed for the first time, in 1753, or rather the admirable inscription suggested for it by Diderot--_Hic Marsias Apollinem._ Pergolese's _Servante Maitresse_ (_La Serva padrona_) had just been "_écorchée_" by the orchestra of the Académie.

[66] Mémoires Secrètes, vol. xxi., page 121.

[67] This prevented me, when I was in Warsaw, from hearing M. Moniuszko's Polish opera of _Halka_.

[68] To say that a theatre is "full" in the present day, means very little. The play-bills and even the newspapers speak of "a full house" when it is half empty. If a theatre is tolerably full, it is said to be "crowded" or "crammed;" if quite full, "crammed to suffocation." And that even in the coldest weather!

[69] M. de Lamartine before writing the _History of the Restoration_, did not even take the trouble to find out whether or not the Duke of Wellington led a cavalry charge at the Battle of Waterloo. The same author, in his _History of the Girondist_, gives an interesting picture of Charlotte Corday's house at Caen, considered as a ruin. Being at Caen some years ago, I had no trouble in finding Charlotte Corday's house, but looked in vain for the moss, the trickling water, &c., introduced by M. de Lamartine in his poetical, but somewhat too fanciful description. The house was "in good repair," as the auctioneers say, and persons who had lived a great many years in the same street assured me that they had never known it as a ruin.--S. E.

[70] There was a Marquis de Louvois, but he was employed as a scene-shifter.

[71] It was built chiefly with the money of Danton and Sébastian Lacroix.

[72] Twenty-eight thousand francs a year, to which Napoleon always added twelve thousand in presents, with an annual _congé_ of four months.

[73] According to M. Thiers, the pretended copies of the secret articles, sold to the English Government, were not genuine, and the money paid for them was "_mal gagné_."

[74] Alexander II. gives Verdi an honorarium of 80,000 roubles for the opera he is now writing for St. Petersburg. The work, of course, remains Signor Verdi's property.

[75] Nouvelle Biographie de Mozart. Moscou, 1843.

[76] There are numerous analogies between the various Spanish legends of Don Juan, the Anglo-Saxon and German legends of Faust, and the Polish legend of Twardowski. It might be shown that they were all begotten by the legend of Theophilus of Syracuse, and that their latest descendant is _Punch_ of London.

[77] Madame Alboni has appeared as Zerlina, and sings the music of this, as of every other part that she undertakes, to perfection; but she is not so intimately associated with the character as the other vocalists mentioned above.

[78] Waters appears to have spent nearly all the money he made during the seasons of 1814 and 1815, in improving the house.

[79] After receiving, the first year she sang in London, two thousand guineas, (five hundred more than was paid to Banti,) she declared that her price was ridiculously low, and that to retain her "_ci voglioni molte mila lira sterline_." She demanded and obtained five thousand.

[80] There is a scientific German mind and a romantic German mind, and I perhaps need scarcely say, that Weber's music appears to me thoroughly German, in the sense in which the legends and ballads of Germany belong thoroughly to that country.

[81] As for instance where _Semiramide_ is described as an opera written in the German style!

[82] It would be absurd to say that if Rossini had set the _Marriage of Figaro_ to music, he would have produced a finer work than Mozart's masterpiece on the same subject; but Rossini's genius, by its comic side, is far more akin to that of Beaumarchais, than is Mozart's. Mozart has given a tender poetic character to many portions of his _Marriage of Figaro_, which the original comedy does not possess at all. In particular, he has so elevated the part of "Cherubino" by pure and beautiful melodies, as to have completely transformed it. It is surely no disparagement to Mozart, to say, that he took a higher view of life than Beaumarchais was capable of?

I may add, that, in comparing Rossini with Beaumarchais, it must always be remembered that the former possesses the highest dramatic talent of a serious, passionate kind--witness _Otello_ and _William Tell_; whereas Beaumarchais's serious dramatic works, such as _La Mère Coupable_, _Les Deux Amis_, and _Eugénie_ (the best of the three), are very inferior productions.

[83] The serious opera consisted of the following persons: the _primo uomo_ (_soprano_), _prima donna_, and tenor; the _secondo uomo_ (_soprano_), _seconda donna_ and _ultima parte_, (bass). The company for the comic opera consisted of the _primo buffo_ (tenor), _prima buffa_, _buffo caricato_ (bass), _seconda buffa_ and _ultima parte_ (bass). There were also the _uomo serio_ and _donna seria_, generally the second man and woman of the serious opera.

[84] The San Carlo, Benedetti Theatre, &c., are named after the parishes in which they are built.

[85] Particularly celebrated for her performance of the brilliant part of the heroine in _La Cenerentola_, which, however, was not written for her.

[86] When Madame Pasta sang at concerts, after her retirement from the stage, her favourite air was still Tancredi's _Di tanti palpiti_.

[87] Mémorial de Sainte Hélène.

[88] "Lutèce" par Henri Heine (a French version, by Heine himself, of his letters from Paris to the _Allgemeine Zeitung_).

[89] He persisted in this declaration, in spite of his judges, who were not ashamed to resort to torture, in the hope of extracting a full confession from him. The thumb-screw and the rack were not, it is true, employed; but sentinels were stationed in the wretched man's cell, with orders not to allow him a moment's sleep, until he confessed.

[90] The Académie Royale became the Opéra National; the Opéra National, after its establishment in the abode of the former Théâtre National, became the Théâtre des Arts; and the Théâtre des Arts, the Théâtre de la République et des Arts. Napoleon's Théâtre des Arts became soon afterwards the Académie Impériale, the Académie Impériale the Académie Royale, the Académie Royale the Académie Nationale, the Académie Nationale once more the Académie Impériale, and the Académie Impériale simply the Théâtre de l'Opera, by far the best title that could be given to it.

[91] I was in Paris at the time, but, I forget the specific objections urged by the doctor against the _Freischütz_ set before him at the "Académie Nationale," as the theatre was then called. Doubtless, however, he did not, among other changes, approve of added recitatives.

[92] No. 1.--_Vive Henri IV._ No. 2.--_La Marseillaise._ No. 3.--_Partant pour la Syrie._ No. 4.--_La Parisienne._ No. 5.--_Partant pour la Syrie_ (encored). No. 6.--?

[93] Mozart, Cimarosa, Weber, Hérold, Bellini, and Mendelssohn.

[94] In the case of _Il Crociato_, however, the model was an Italian one.

[95] Rossini's natural inability to sympathize with sopranists is one more great point in his favour.

[96] For instance: _Fra Diavolo_ and _Les Diamans la Couronne_.

[97] The second, _Le Duc d'Albe_, was entrusted to Donizetti, who died without completing the score.

[98] Nourrit was the author of _la Sylphide_, one of the most interesting and best designed ballets ever produced; that is to say, he composed the libretto for which Taglioni arranged the groups and dances.

[99] See Raynouard's veracious "Histoire des Troubadours."

[100] When are we to hear the last of the "ovations" which singers are said to receive when they obtain, or even do not obtain, any very triumphant success? A great many singers in the present day would be quite hurt if a journal were simply to record their "triumph." An "ovation" seems to them much more important; and it cannot be said that this misapprehension is entirely their fault.

[101] That is to say, a quarter or a third part of an inch.

[102] "What a pity I did not think of this city fifty years ago!" exclaimed Signor Badiali, when he made his first appearance in London, in 1859.

[103] Joanna Wagner.

[104] Richard Wagner.

[105] Tancredi.

[106] Once more, I may mention that the "romantic opera" (in the sense in which the French say "romantic drama,") was founded by Da Ponte and Mozart, the former furnishing the plan, the latter constructing the work--"The Opera of Operas."

[107] The gist of M. Lenz's accusations against M. Oulibicheff amounts to this: that the latter, believing Mozart to have attained perfection in music, considered it impossible to go beyond him. "_Ou ce caractère d'universalité que Mozart imprime à quelques-un de ses plus grandes chefs-d'œuvre_," says M. Oulibicheff. "_M'avait paru le progrès immense que la musique attendait pour se constituer définitivement,--pour se constituer, avais-je dit, et non pour ne plus avancer._" According to M. Lenz, on the other hand, Mozart's master-pieces (after those which M. Lenz discovers among his latest compositions), are what preparatory studies are to a great work.

[108] New form of his overtures, national melodies, &c.--(_Straker_). Love of traditions, melancholy, fanciful, spiritual; also popular.--(_Der Freischütz_).

[109] I will not here enter into the question whether or not Meyerbeer desecrated this hymn by introducing it into an opera. Such was the opinion of Mendelssohn, who thought that but for Meyerbeer and the _Huguenots_, Luther's hymn might have been befittingly introduced in an oratorio which he intended to compose on the subject of the Reformation.

[110] Another proof that this device is not new in the hands of Herr Wagner.