CHAPTER VIII.

SOME LESSER STARS IN THE OPERATIC FIRMAMENT.

(_b_) THE GERMAN SCHOOL (KEISER TO NICOLAI).

Keiser and his successors—Hiller—Real German opera—Spohr—Marschner—Operatic interest not centred in Germany at this time.

[Sidenote: =Keiser and his Successors=]

A good start was given to German opera, as we have already shown, by Keiser, who wrote over one hundred operas for the Hamburg house. The fact that after his decease the centre of interest shifts partly to England (where Handel was at work), and still more to Italy, does not mean that German composers were idle. True, many of them were writing operas on the Italian plan, and therefore must be classed with the Italian school, and even the greatest sons of German soil were content to produce their masterpieces in foreign capitals rather than at home. Thus it is that we find Gluck bringing out all his important works in Vienna or Paris; Mozart his at Prague, Munich, or Vienna; Beethoven his only specimen in Vienna.

The work done on German soil must not, however, be passed over lightly. Stars of the second magnitude, such as Hasse (1699-1783), who wrote over one hundred operas, and Graun (1701-1759) have their place among the constellations. They are not important either in their influence upon opera generally nor upon German opera in particular, since their work was almost exclusively done to Italian libretti on the prevailing Italian model; but they both had great influence upon Adam Hiller, who has a distinct place in the history of opera.

[Sidenote: =Hiller, 1728-1804=]

For it is very largely to Hiller that the credit of the foundation of the “Singspiel” may be allotted. This form of opera, to which we must, of necessity, allude frequently, seeing that it was the form very largely in vogue at the time of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, although possibly derived in the first instance from the French operetta, soon justified its existence as a distinctly German form of art.

Hiller raised it from a mere collection of songs, and adopted an able and dramatic method in setting the words to forms of larger outline and of more complex development. His chief works are _Der Dorfbarbier_ and _Die Jagel_, both of which sometimes gain a hearing to-day. Without doubt he had something to do with the success attained by Weber and Mozart, for although their settings of similar “song-plays” are infinitely superior, their work is certainly more sure by reason of the leadership he gave them. The pioneer in a new land seldom reaches its utmost limits.

[Sidenote: =Real German Opera=]

Hiller’s operettas were German and not Italian, and that also must have affected Mozart and Weber, for they were able to notice the deeper appeal made on a German audience by a performance in the vernacular, and both eventually followed suit. Until the production of _Der Freischütz_ at the Berlin Opera House in 1821 there was little to justify such a course, but after that date we find many composers writing German operas, and founding a school of composition which includes such names as Spohr, Marschner, Lortzing, Lindpaintner, and Nicolai.

[Sidenote: =Spohr, 1784-1859=]

Spohr’s greatest operatic work, _Faust_, was actually staged at Frankfort two years before _Der Freischütz_ first saw the light of day. Although very popular both in Germany and England for many years, this opera rarely gets a performance now, it having been entirely eclipsed by Gounod’s work of the same title.

[Illustration: J. A. HILLER.]

Besides _Faust_, Spohr wrote many other operas, following Weber to a large extent in romanticism of method, although the peculiarly chromatic genius of his music never leaves one in doubt as to its authorship. The most successful of these are _Zemir and Azor_, _Jessonda_, _Der Berggeist_, and _Der Alchymist_, all almost entirely forgotten now. The popular song with sopranos, “Rose Softly Blooming,” comes from the first-named of these.

[Sidenote: =Marschner, 1796-1861=]

A still more faithful follower in the footsteps of Weber was Heinrich Marschner, who loved the demoniacal and the weird, and gloated over them in his music. His operas, the most famous of which are _Der Vampyr_, _Hans Heiling_, and _The Templar and the Jewess_ (founded on Scott’s _Ivanhoe_), still have a hold on German affections. The study of _Hans Heiling_ is held to have had a great influence over Wagner at the time he was composing _The Flying Dutchman_.

Many composers of this school and this date remain in our memories through the more or less frequent performances of their most successful work. Among such may be named Lortzing (1803-1852), composer of _Peter the Shipwright_ (a story dealing with Peter the Great’s life in the shipbuilder’s yard at Zaandam); Flotow (1812-83), composer of the tuneful and popular _Martha_; Kreutzer (1782-1849), Lindpaintner (1791-1856), and Nicolai (1810-49). The overture to the last-named composer’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_ is world famous. Peter Cornelius (1824-74) and Goetz (1840-76) each composed a well-known opera, _The Barber of Bagdad_ and _The Taming of the Shrew_ respectively.

[Sidenote: =Operatic interest not centred in Germany at this time=]

The fact that the Germans at this time did not produce composers of greater operatic eminence is due largely to the fact that the grandeur and charm of French grand opera was drawing many devotees and many composers to Paris. While Italy had its brilliant Rossini and Verdi to uphold the traditions of national opera in their own land, there was no composer of German opera on a like eminence, or one that could successfully vie with the ever-increasing magnificence and interest of the grand opera of Paris. To that brilliant episode in the story of the opera we will now turn our attention.