CHAPTER XIV.
OPERA TO-DAY IN ITALY, GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.
Boito—His interesting personality—Puccini—Mascagni —Leoncavallo—Cilea—German composers—Goldmark and Humperdinck—The French school—Saint-Saëns— Massenet—Bruneau—English composers—Stanford— Mackenzie—Cowen—Corder—Bunning, etc.
To-day the art of operatic composition appears to be returning for its best results to its much loved home, Italy: it is the young Italian composers, among all its devotees of all nationalities, who appear to be putting forth the strongest work. Contemporary English, French, and German operas, with a few notable exceptions, are rarely heard beyond the borders of the land which gives them birth, but the works of Mascagni, Puccini, and Leoncavallo find a home in every opera-house.
[Sidenote: =Boito, 1842=]
At the outset of our review of living Italian opera composers we meet the strange figure of Arrigo Boito, more famous for his one completed opera than are many composers who have endowed the world with dozens of such works. The charm of his personality has aided its success, while the ill fortune which dogged its birth and its intimate relationship to a great home have also contributed to its world-wide fame.
[Sidenote: =His interesting Personality=]
Not that Boito’s _Mefistofele_ is a work in the repertoire of every opera-house; rather, its performances seem to be limited in number, and yet all the world knows of its composer as the capable litterateur and musician who, amidst intense excitement, brought his _Mefistofele_ before the Milanese public at La Scala in 1868, and by the novelty of its form and musical treatment so displeased a very large number of his would-be admirers, that he fell from the height of popularity to which expectation had elevated him almost to the depth of extinction so far as his musical efforts were concerned. _Mefistofele_ has been rewritten; it was a work in advance of its time, and honour must be given to Boito for the artistic beauty of his conceptions, and for his courage and skill in the wielding of them to the ultimate conviction of an unwilling public. This fascinating but tantalizing composer still stimulates interest by the fact that he keeps two other and newer operas, _Nero_ and _Orestiade_, in his desk, and refuses, at any rate for the present, to bring them to the light. He has received the degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Cambridge, and at a concert given to celebrate the event in 1893 the author had the pleasure of taking part in a performance of the Prologue to _Mefistofele_ under his bâton. Verdi’s last two operas are to libretti by Boito.
Commencement of Vocal Scherzo from Boito’s “Mefistofele.”
[Music]
Siam nimbi volanti dai limbi, nei santi
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Mascagni=]
We now come to a composer whose music, or part of it, at any rate, must have been heard by everybody; we speak of Pietro Mascagni, whose most famous opera, entitled _Cavalleria Rusticana_, is probably the most popular modern work in the operatic repertoire. It was produced in 1890, and soon attained to fame; this was due, to some extent, to the introduction of a new device—namely, the performance of an orchestral intermezzo dividing the work into two parts, the curtain remaining up and disclosing an empty stage (a street scene). Possibly the original intention in leaving the curtain up was to prevent the buzz of conversation which always accompanies its fall, and precludes the possibility of careful attention to the music; but in this instance the music is so melodious, tuneful, and cleverly scored that it assured the success of the opera. Succeeding works from the same pen, _L’Amico Fritz_, _I Rantzau_, _William Ratcliff_, _Iris_, and others, have not yet found equal success.
[Sidenote: =Leoncavallo=]
Very frequently coupled upon the same play-bill with Mascagni’s _Cavalleria_ is the short modern Italian opera, _I Pagliacci_ (The Strolling Players), the work of Leoncavallo, and written upon much the same general lines as its forerunner; its prologue, for a solo baritone, is popular in our concert halls; in the opera it occurs as part of the overture, the singer pushing his way through the curtain, and retiring again after his performance, before the stage scene is actually disclosed. Leoncavallo has written many other works, but his chief distinction of later date has been that upon him has fallen the choice of the German Emperor to write a typically German opera on the subject of _Roland of Berlin_. The work was produced in Berlin in 1905, but without giving full satisfaction, the general opinion being that a German composer should have been chosen to clothe so essentially national a subject with music, and that Leoncavallo’s attempt was uninspired, grandiose, and lacking in the elements of beauty.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Cilea=]
Other followers of Mascagni are Giordano, composer of _Andrea Chenier_; Spinelli, chiefly known by _A Basso Porto_; and Franchetti. More famous than these is Francesco Cilea, a young composer of promise, whose one work that has been submitted to English audiences, _Adriana Lecouvreur_, contains music of great beauty and charm. The method of Mascagni is closely followed, even to the introduction of a tuneful and charmingly scored intermezzo, but there is independence of melodic phrase and real grip in the music. _Adriana_ was originally produced at Milan in 1902, and was staged at Covent Garden during the autumn visit of the San Carlo Company two years later.
[Sidenote: =Puccini=]
Undoubtedly the greatest of the modern Italian composers is Giacomo Puccini, who has made himself famous not merely by one opera but by several. His earlier works, _Manon Lescaut_, etc., hardly represent him at his best, although they contain much fine music; but in _La Bohème_ (produced in 1896), in _La Tosca_, and most of all in _Madama Butterfly_ (1904), this clever musician has found himself and has risen to great heights. He is most happy in the way in which his music paints the situation to be depicted, and he has a most wonderfully ready power of melody. The continuous use of distinctive and rhythmic melody and the absence of any definite characterization by means of the _leit-motif_ differentiates his work very largely from that of the Wagner School—it is altogether on a lighter basis, but the melody has an irresistible attractiveness, which accounts largely for the favour which his operas are finding at the present day. Such straightforward lyrical writing as the theme which usually accompanies Sharpless the Consul (in _Madama Butterfly_),—
[Music]
or the more tenderly impassioned themes, such as this one from the love duet which closes the first Act of the same opera,
Love Duet, from “Butterfly.”
[Music]
will convey some idea of the style which this composer adopts. His next promised opera is to be upon an American subject, _The Girl of the Golden West_.
[Illustration: LEONCAVALLO.]
[Sidenote: =German Composers=]
[Sidenote: =Goldmark, 1830=]
Germany to-day can hardly be held to have produced such an array of familiar names, but that of Humperdinck has become famous through his setting of the delightful fairy tale _Hansel and Gretel_. There is, however, still living a senior to Humperdinck in the person of Goldmark, whose _Cricket on the Hearth_ has been performed in this country. Goldmark was born as long ago as 1830, and became famous by his opera, _The Queen of Sheba_, produced in Vienna in 1875: he has penned much music, and other operas, but the two above named are his best known contributions to operatic literature.
[Sidenote: =Humperdinck=]
More interesting, because his fairy opera has been seen by almost everyone, is Humperdinck, who has skilfully applied Wagnerian methods to opera on a comparatively light subject. The story of _Hansel and Gretel_, from Hans Andersen, is worked up into a charming plot, and if some of the incidents seem, upon the modern stage, somewhat trivial and childish, the music is so perfect in form and matter that the ear is delighted throughout. The use of folk-songs and simple melodies which appeal to all, is supplemented by a wonderfully capable and polyphonic use of the orchestra, which shows the master hand in every bar of the score.
From Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” Overture, showing three important Motives.
[Music]
_Hansel and Gretel_ can be appreciated alike by the smallest child and by the skilled musician, and therein lies its great charm, for much study must usually precede appreciation of work so elaborate and complex. Humperdinck’s succeeding works, several in number, have not risen to the same level, either of beauty or of popularity: his recent opera, _Die Heirat wider Willen_, was produced with a fair measure of success under Strauss at Berlin in April 1905.
[Sidenote: =Richard Strauss=]
Richard Strauss, the well-known composer of orchestral tone poems, has made several bids for fame in opera: his early works, such as _Guntram_ and _Feursnot_, have not called so much attention as have _Salome_, produced at Dresden in 1906, and the _Elektra_ staged in 1909 (January 25th). Strauss writes very boldly, with the most cacophonous lack of blend between orchestra and voice, as this example, culled at random from _Elektra_, will show.
Fragment from Strauss’ “Elektra” (1909).
[Music]
Ich habe solche Angst mir zittern die Knie bei Tag und Nacht
Other living composers of German opera are Max Schillings; Weingartner, the great orchestral conductor; Siegfried Wagner, son of the great master; Nessler, composer of _The Trumpeter of Sákkingen_ (a wonderfully popular work, which, however, is not of the first rank), and many others whose fame may or may not be enduring. Modern German opera since Wagner has hardly, with the exception of _Hansel and Gretel_, the distinction, power, and originality which we find in the followers of the young Italian school.
[Sidenote: =The French School=]
More famous are the men of the French school, the natural followers of Gounod, Ambroise Thomas, and their fellows. Progress is noticeable from the type of music which prevails in _Faust_ in the works of such composers as Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and Bruneau, and the influence of Wagner is quite apparent. But in French opera the traditions which belonged to the “Académie” of old, and which have descended to the more modern “Grand Opera,” combine with a certain Gallic grace and charm to preserve individuality to this school.
[Sidenote: =Saint-Saëns 1835=]
Foremost among French composers in every branch of the art is that versatile and gifted man, who has just missed becoming a genius, Camille Saint-Saëns. Like Boito, he possesses an interesting personality, prominent amongst his characteristics being a habit he has of suddenly disappearing for months together from the eyes of a world of which he has grown temporarily weary. He will then come back from some half civilized or totally barbarous district of Africa or elsewhere, bearing with him piles of manuscript, which soon finds a ready publisher. The music so composed often bears some impress of the surroundings amidst which it has been penned, which adds in no small degree to its acceptance by the public. Saint-Saëns has written many operas both for the Grand and the Comique stage without any very marked success: the work best known in England is _Samson and Delilah_, a dramatized version of the Bible story. As such, by the censorship of stage plays that exists in England, this was not allowed to be performed in its original condition until the year 1909; but it then became as popular as it is on the Continent, where its beautiful and impassioned music finds many admirers. Saint-Saëns’ _Henry VIII._ is, of his other works, the best known. The list also includes _Proserpine_, _Ascanio_, _Phryne_, and _Les Barbares_. His last work is _L’Ancètre_, produced at Monte Carlo in 1906.
[Sidenote: =Massenet, 1842=]
[Illustration]
Jules Massenet is the author of many operas, of which mention may be made of _Le Roi de Lahore_, _Hérodiade_, _Manon_, _Le Cid_, _Esclarmonde_, _Werther_, _Thaïs_, _La Navarraise_, and _Le Jongleur de Notre Dame_. _Hérodiade_ is really a dramatic version of the Bible story of St. John and Salome. By a few trivial alterations of names and lines it was so altered as to pass the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship, and was produced at Covent Garden in 1904. The general atmosphere of the sacred subject, however, still hovered over it, and to English taste it was unpleasing and unpopular: it is perhaps the best of the Massenet operas, _Manon_ and _La Navarraise_ approaching it nearest in popular esteem. His latest success is _Le Jongleur de Notre Dame_, produced at Monte Carlo in 1902.
[Sidenote: =Bruneau, 1857=]
A most earnest and serious minded composer, who more closely follows Gluck and Wagner in his desire for operatic truth, is Alfred Bruneau, one of the finest of French musicians. From the first his style has been revolutionary, and owing to crudities somewhat hard to accept; but while sometimes musically deficient, his dramatic grip and sincerity of purpose are so strong that there is doubtless a future before his operas. _Le Rêve_, _L’Attaque du Moulin_, _Messidor_, and _L’Ouragan_ are the names given to his chief works, the third named of these being perhaps the best. Bruneau was fortunate in securing the services of the late M. Zola as his librettist, several prose-poems by the great novelist having been entrusted to his care.
André Messager has chiefly distinguished himself by a charming light work, _La Basoche_, which has had much attention at English hands. Dubois, Paladihle, and others are still at work in the field of French opera, but perhaps its most prominent modern representative is Gustave Charpentier, whose opera _Louise_ (1900) has made a great hit, and shows possession of great gifts from which much more may in the future be expected. Vincent d’Indy, another of the younger school, is the composer of a fairly successful work, _Fervaal_.
[Sidenote: =Debussy=]
Claude Debussy, a composer who has written an amount of successful music of an unique kind, in that it employs mostly a scale of whole tones, rather than one of tones and semitones, produced in 1902 an opera based on Maeterlinck’s _Pelleas et Melisande_. This original and distinctive work has become highly popular, and was performed at the Covent Garden season of 1909. Here is a fragment showing the composer’s curious use of whole tones.
Debussy’s “Pelleas and Melisande.”
[Music]
[Sidenote: =English Composers=]
With the exception of Sir Hubert Parry, all the chief living composers of English nationality have made a bid for fame in Grand Opera, but with only partial success. Those whose efforts appear to have led to the best results are Stanford and Mackenzie. Unfortunately for us, there is in this country less opportunity for operatic composers than in almost any other: works when written have little chance of being staged, unless perhaps semi-privately. Occasionally the management of the Grand Opera invites a work from an English musician, but even then it is sometimes coupled, as was the case with Bunning’s _Princess Osra_, with the condition that it be performed in a foreign language. Opera is not the hobby and delight of the man in the street, as it is in many Continental countries, and the works that find favour at Covent Garden seem to be chosen according to the wishes of the boxholders and members of the syndicate. After all, it is these that supply the sinews of war, and therefore the English public at large has no just cause for complaint. If the English public will come forward and support national opera schemes, as it is constantly being invited to do, there would be some hope for English opera composers. Under present conditions opportunity is infrequent, although when it comes it is generally seized by those concerned.
[Sidenote: =Stanford, 1852=]
Undoubtedly the pluckiest attempts to wrest fame from grudging audiences in this respect has been made by Sir Charles Stanford. Undeterred by failure, indifferent success, and lack of appreciation, he has made repeated efforts in opera. His earliest were in Germany, where _The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan_ (Hanover) and _Savonarola_ (Hamburg) came to light. Later on came the _Canterbury Pilgrims_, produced at Covent Garden in 1884. Some success attended the last-named, but it was many years before it found a companion, _Shamus O’Brien_ not appearing until 1896. Stanford is an Irishman, and the subject particularly suited his individual temperament. The work, confessedly less in the grand opera style than that of the romantic comic opera, enjoyed great favour for a short time, and contained charming music. Of still more importance is his last born, a version of _Much Ado about Nothing_, staged at Covent Garden in 1901, the music of which, although unequal, contains some fine moments.
[Illustration: _Photo_] [_Russell & Sons._
SIR A. C. MACKENZIE.]
[Sidenote: =Mackenzie 1847=]
Mackenzie’s operas are _Colomba_ (1883), _The Troubadour_ (1886), and _The Cricket on the Hearth_. The last-named still awaits a hearing, and promises to be of much interest. A lighter work of the Savoy type was also written by this composer, and had a good run. A bid for popularity, in the shape of a small and trifling but musically interesting operetta, produced at one of our largest music halls in 1905, was also made by Mackenzie. Of such innovations as this, and their purport, we may say more anon.
[Sidenote: =Cowen, 1852=]
Frederic Cowen seems to have lost heart, so far as operatic enterprise is concerned. The list of his essays in this form of art are _The Lady of Lyons_ (1876), _Thorgrim_ (1890), _Signa_ (1893), and _Harold_ (1895). The general opinion of these is, that while containing much music that is genuinely charming and beautiful, there is not enough dramatic virility or depth of idea to carry so exacting a work as a grand opera to a successful issue.
Mr. Frederick Corder has completed many operas, only one of which, _Nordisa_, has been produced, and this as long ago as 1886. Mr. Hamish MacCunn, a Scotch composer, is answerable for the music to _Jeanie Deans_ and _Diarmid_. Miss Ethel Smyth is one of the rare instances of a member of the fairer sex rising to any point of distinction in operatic composition: her one-act work _Der Wald_ (“The Wood”)[3] achieved considerable success in England a few years back, and her music is held in still higher esteem in Germany, where her last opera, _The Wreckers_, has had great success.
[3] Performed at Covent Garden, July 1902, and distinctly Wagnerian in style. The opening woodland scene music is as original as it is delightful, and evidences the real ability of this native lady composer.—ED.
[Illustration]
_Princess Osra_, produced at Covent Garden in 1902, is the work of a young Englishman, Herbert Bunning, who simulates the modern Italian method, and from whom more may be heard ere long. Mr. de Lara has produced _The Light of Asia_, _Amy Rosbart_, and _Messaline_, while other workers in this direction may include Mr. Somerville, Alick McLean, Edward German, and Franco Leoi.
English opera suffers much from lack of opportunity, still more from absence of individuality. Were English composers able to graft on to their style some trace of natural characteristics, as we find the Russians and Bohemians of to-day have done, there is little doubt but that their productions would command a greater interest and a more enduring success.