A Book of Operas

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A BOOK OF OPERAS

THEIR HISTORIES, THEIR PLOTS, AND THEIR MUSIC

BY HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL

TO

LUGIEN WULSIN

AN OLD FRIEND

"Old friends are best."--SELDEN.

"I love everything that's old,--old friends, old times, old manners,
old books, old wine."--GOLDSMITH.

"Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust!
Old authors to read!"--MELCHIOR.

CONTENTS

Chapter I "Il Barbiere di Siviglia"

First performance of Italian opera in the United States--Production of
Rossini's opera in Rome, London, Paris, and New York--Thomas Phillipps
and his English version--Miss Leesugg and Mrs. Holman--Emanuel Garcia
and his troupe--Malibran--Early operas in America--Colman's "Spanish
Barber"--Other Figaro operas--How Rossini came to Write "Il Barbiere"
--The story of a fiasco--Garcia and his Spanish song--"Segui, o caro"
--Giorgi-Righetti--The plot of the opera--The overture--"Ecco ridente
in cielo"--"Una voce poco fà,"--Rossini and Patti--The lesson scene
and what singers have done with it--Grisi, Alboni, Catalani, Bosio,
Gassier, Patti, Sembrich, Melba, and Viardot--An echo of Haydn.

Chapter II "Le Nozze di Figaro"

Beaumarchais and his Figaro comedies--"Le Nozze" a sequel to "Il
Barbiere"--Mozart and Rossini--Their operas compared--Opposition
to Beaumarchais's "Marriage de Figaro"--Moral grossness of Mozart's
opera--A relic of feudalism--Humor of the horns--A merry overture
--The story of the opera--Cherubino,--"Non so più cosa son"--
Benucci and the air "Non più andrai"--"Voi che sapete"--A marvellous
finale--The song to the zephyr--A Spanish fandango--"Deh vieni non
tardar."

Chapter III "Die Zauberflöte"

The oldest German opera current in America--Beethoven's appreciation
of Mozart's opera--Its Teutonism--Otto Jahn's estimate--Papageno, the
German Punch--Emanuel Schikaneder--Wieland and the original of the
story of the opera--How "Die Zanberflöte" came to be written--The
story of "Lulu"--Mozart and freemasonry--The overture to the opera--
The fugue theme and a theme from a sonata by Clementi--The opera's
play--"O Isis und Osiris"--"Hellish rage" and fiorituri--The song of
the Two Men in Armor--Goethe and the libretto of "Die Zauberflöte"--
How the opera should be viewed.

Chapter IV "Don Giovanni"

The oldest Italian operas in the American repertory--Mozart as an
influence--What great composers have said about "Don Giovanni,"--
Beethoven--Rossini--Gounod--Wagner--History of the opera--Da Ponte's
pilferings--Bertati and Gazzaniga's "Convitato di Pietra"--How the
overture to "Don Giovanni" was written--First performances of the
opera in Prague, Vienna, London, and New York--Garcia and Da Ponte
--Malibran--English versions of the opera--The Spanish tale of Don
Juan Tenorio--Dramatic versions--The tragical note in the overture
--The plot of the opera--Gounod on the beautiful in Mozart's music
--Leporello's catalogue--"Batti, batti o bel Masetto"--The three
dances in the first finale--The last scene--Mozart quotes from his
contemporaries--The original close of the opera.

Chapter V "Fidelio"

An opera based on conjugal love--"Fidelio," "Orfeo," and "Alceste"--
Beethoven a Sincere moralist--Technical history of "Fidelio,"--The
subject treated by Paër and Gaveaux--Beethoven's commission--The
first performance a failure--A revision by the composer's friends--
The second trial--Beethoven withdraws his opera--A second revision
--The revival of 1814--Success at last--First performances in London
and New York--The opera enriched by a ballet--Plot of "Fidelio"--
The first duet--The canon quartet--A dramatic trio--Milder-Hauptmann
and the great scena--Florestan's air--The trumpet call--The opera's
four overtures--Their history.

Chapter VI "Faust"

The love story in Gounod's opera--Ancient bondsmen of the devil--
Zoroaster, Democritus, Empedocles, Apollonius, Virgil, Albertus
Magnus, Merlin, Paracelsus, Theophilus of Syracuse,--The myth-making
capacity--Bismarck and the needle-gun--Printing, a black art--Johann
Fust of Mayence--The veritable Faust--Testimony of Luther and
Melanchthon--The literary history of Dr. Faustus--Goethe and his
predecessors--Faust's covenant with Mephistopheles--Dr. Faustus
and matrimony--The Polish Faust--The devil refuses to marry Madame
Twardowska--History of Gounod's opera--The first performance--
Popularity of the opera--First productions in London and New York--
The story--Marguerite and Gretchen--The jewel song--The ballet.

Chapter VII "Mefistofele"

Music in the mediaeval Faust plays--Early operas on the subject--
Meyerbeer and Goethe's poem--Composers of Faust music--Beethoven--
Boito's reverence for Goethe's poem--His work as a poet--A man of
mixed blood--"Mefistofele" a fiasco in Milan--The opera revised--
Boito's early ambitions--Disconnected episodes--Philosophy of the
opera--Its scope--Use of a typical phrase--The plot--Humors of the
English translation--Music of the prologue--The Book of Job--Boito's
metrical schemes--The poodle and the friar--A Polish dance in the
Rhine country--Gluck and Vestris--The scene on the Brocken--The
Classical Sabbath--Helen of Troy--A union of classic and romantic
art--First performance of Boito's opera in America, (footnote).

Chapter VIII "La Damnation de Faust"

Berlioz's dramatic legend--"A thing of shreds and patches"--Turned
into an opera by Raoul Gunsbourg--The composer's "Scenes from Faust"
--History of the composition--The Rakoczy March--Concert performances
in New York--Scheme of the work--The dance of the sylphs and the
aërial ballet--Dance of the will-o'-the-wisps--The ride to hell.

Chapter IX "La Traviata"

Familiarity with music and its effects--An experience of the
author's--Prelude to Verdi's last act--Expressiveness of some
melodies--Verdi, the dramatist--Von Bülow and Mascagni--How
"Traviata" came to be written--Piave, the librettist--Composed
simultaneously with "Il Trovatore,"--Failure of "La Traviata,"
--The causes--The style of the music--Dr. Basevi's view--Changes
in costuming--The opera succeeds--First performance in New York,
--A criticism by W. H. Fry--Story of the opera--Dumas's story and
harles Dickens--Controversy as a help to popular success.

Chapter X "Aïda"

Popular misconceptions concerning the origin of Verdi's opera--The
Suez Canal and Cairo Opera-house--A pageant opera--Local color--
The entombment scene--The commission for the opera--The plot and
its author, Mariette Bey--His archaeological discoveries at Memphis
--Camille du Locle and Antonio Ghislanzoni--First performance of
the opera--Unpleasant experiences in Paris--The plot--Ancient
Memphis--Oriental melodies and local color--An exotic scale--The
antique trumpets and their march.

Chapter XI "Der Freischütz"

The overture--The plot--A Leitmotif before Wagner--Berlioz and
Agathe's air--The song of the Bridesmaids--Wagner and his dying
stepfather--The Teutonism of the opera--Facts from a court record
--Folklore of the subject--Holda, Wotan, and the Wild Hint--How
magical bullets may be obtained--Wagner's description of the Wolf's
Glen--Romanticism and classicism--Weber and Theodor Körner--German
opera at Dresden--Composition of "Der Freischütz"--First
performances in New York, (footnote).

Chapter XII "Tannhäuser"

Wagner and Greek ideals--Methods of Wagnerian study--The story of
the opera--Poetical and musical contents of the overture--The
bacchanale--The Tannhäuser legend--The historical Tannhäuser--The
contest of minstrels in the Wartburg--Mediaeval ballads--Heroes
and their charmers--Classical and other parallels--Caves of Venus--
The Hörselberg in Thuringia--Dame Holda--The tale of Sir Adelbert.

Chapter XIII "Tristan und Isolde"

The old legend of Tristram and Iseult--Its literary history--Ancient
elements--Wagner's ethical changes--How the drama came to be written
--Frau Wesendonck--Wagner and Dom Pedro of Brazil--First performances
in Munich and New York--The prelude--Wagner's poetical exposition--
The song of the Sailor--A symbol of suffering--The Death Phrase--The
Shepherd's mournful melody--His merry tune--Tristan's death.

Chapter XIV "Parsifal"

The story--The oracle--The musical symbol of Parsifal--Herzeleide--
Kundry--Suffering and lamentation--The bells and march--The
eucharistic hymn--The love-feast formula--Faith--Unveiling of the
Grail--Klingsor's incantation--The Flower Maidens--The quest of the
Holy Grail--Personages and elements of the legend--Ethical idea of
Wagner's drama--Biblical and liturgical elements--Wagner's aim--The
Knights Templars--John the Baptist, Herodias, and the bloody head--
Relics of Christ's sufferings--The Holy Grail at Genoa--The sacred
lances at Nuremberg and Rome--Ancient and mediaeval parallels of
personages, apparatuses, and scenes--Wagner's philosophy--Buddhism--
First performances of "Parsifal" in Bayreuth and New York, (footnote).

Chapter XV "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"

"Ridendo castigat mores"--Wagner's adherence to classical ideals of
tragedy and comedy--The subject of the satire in "Die Meistersinger"
--Wagenseil's book on Nuremberg--Plot of the comedy--The Church of
St. Catherine in Nuremberg--A relic of the mastersingers--Mastersongs
in the Municipal Library--Wagner's chorus of mastersingers, (footnote)
--A poem by Sixtus Beckmesser--The German drama in Nuremberg--Hans
Sachs's plays--His Tannhäuser tragedy--"Tristram and Iseult"--"The
Wittenberg Nightingale" and "Wach' auf!"--Wagner's quotation from an
authentic mastersong melody--Romanticism and classicism--The prelude
to "Die Meistersinger."

Chapter XVI "Lohengrin"

Wolfram von Eschenbach's story of Loherangrin--Other sources of the
Lohengrin legend--"Der jüngere Titurel" and "Le Chevalier au Cygne"
--The plot of Wagner's opera--A mixture of myths--Relationship of
the Figaro operas--Contradictions between "Lohengrin" and "Parsifal"
--The forbidden question--Wagner's love of theatrical effect--The
finale of "Tannhäuser,"--The law of taboo in "Lohengrin"--Jupiter and
Semele--Cupid and Psyche--The saga of Skéaf--King Henry, the Fowler.

Chapter XVII "Hänsel und Gretel"

Wagner's influence and his successors--Engelbert Humperdinck--Myths
and fairy tales--Origin of "Hänsel und Gretel"--First performances--
An application of Wagnerian principles--The prelude--The Prayer Theme
--The Counter-charm--Theme of Fulfilment--Story of the opera--A relic
of an old Christmas song--Theme of the Witch--The Theme of Promise--
"Ring around a Rosy"--The "Knusperwalzer."

CHAPTER I

"IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA"

The history of what is popularly called Italian opera begins in the
United States with a performance of Rossini's lyrical comedy "Il
Barbiere di Siviglia"; it may, therefore, fittingly take the first
place in these operatic studies. The place was the Park Theatre,
then situated in Chambers Street, east of Broadway, and the date
November 29, 1825. It was not the first performance of Italian opera
music in America, however, nor yet of Rossini's merry work. In the
early years of the nineteenth century New York was almost as fully
abreast of the times in the matter of dramatic entertainments as
London. New works produced in the English capital were heard in New
York as soon as the ships of that day could bring over the books and
the actors. Especially was this true of English ballad operas and
English transcriptions, or adaptations, of French, German, and
Italian operas. New York was five months ahead of Paris in making
the acquaintance of the operatic version of Beaumarchais's "Barbier
de Séville." The first performance of Rossini's opera took place in
Rome on February 5, 1816. London heard it in its original form at
the King's Theatre on March 10, 1818, with Garcia, the first
Count Almaviva, in that part. The opera "went off with unbounded
applause," says Parke (an oboe player, who has left us two volumes
of entertaining and instructive memoirs), but it did not win the
degree of favor enjoyed by the other operas of Rossini then current
on the English stage. It dropped out of the repertory of the King's
Theatre and was not revived until 1822--a year in which the
popularity of Rossini in the British metropolis may be measured by
the fact that all but four of the operas brought forward that year
were composed by him. The first Parisian representation of the opera
took place on October 26, 1819. Garcia was again in the cast. By
that time, in all likelihood, all of musical New York that could
muster up a pucker was already whistling "Largo al factotum" and
the beginning of "Una voce poco fà," for, on May 17, 1819, Thomas
Phillipps had brought an English "Barber of Seville" forward at a
benefit performance for himself at the same Park Theatre at which
more than six years later the Garcia company, the first Italian
opera troupe to visit the New World, performed it in Italian on
the date already mentioned. At Mr. Phillipps's performance the
beneficiary sang the part of Almaviva, and Miss Leesugg, who
afterward became the wife of the comedian Hackett, was the Rosina.
On November 21, 1821, there was another performance for Mr.
Phillipps's benefit, and this time Mrs. Holman took the part of
Rosina. Phillipps and Holman--brave names these in the dramatic
annals of New York and London a little less than a century ago!
When will European writers on music begin to realize that musical
culture in America is not just now in its beginnings?

It was Manuel Garcia's troupe that first performed "Il Barbiere
di Siviglia" in New York, and four of the parts in the opera were
played by members of his family. Manuel, the father, was the Count,
as he had been at the premières in Rome, London, and Paris; Manuel,
son, was the Figaro (he lived to read about eighty-one years of
operatic enterprise in New York, and died at the age of 101 years in
London in 1906); Signora Garcia, mère, was the Berta, and Rosina was
sung and played by that "cunning pattern of excellent nature," as a
writer of the day called her, Signorina Garcia, afterward the famous
Malibran. The other performers at this representation of the Italian
"Barber" were Signor Rosich (Dr. Bartolo), Signor Angrisani (Don
Basilio), and Signor Crivelli, the younger (Fiorello). The opera was
given twenty-three times in a season of seventy-nine nights, and the
receipts ranged from $1843 on the opening night and $1834 on the
closing, down to $356 on the twenty-ninth night.

But neither Phillipps nor Garcia was the first to present an
operatic version of Beaumarchais's comedy to the American people.
French operas by Rousseau, Monsigny, Dalayrac, and Grétry, which may
be said to have composed the staple of the opera-houses of Europe in
the last decades of the eighteenth century, were known also in the
contemporaneous theatres of Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
New York. In 1794 the last three of these cities enjoyed "an opera
in 3 acts," the text by Colman, entitled, "The Spanish Barber; or,
The Futile Precaution." Nothing is said in the announcements of
this opera touching the authorship of the music, but it seems to
be an inevitable conclusion that it was Paisiello's, composed for
St. Petersburg about 1780. There were German "Barbers" in existence
at the time composed by Benda (Friedrich Ludwig), Elsperger, and
Schulz, but they did not enjoy large popularity in their own
country, and Isouard's "Barbier" was not yet written. Paisiello's
opera, on the contrary, was extremely popular, throughout Europe.
True, he called it "The Barber of Seville," not "The Spanish
Barber," but Colman's subtitle, "The Futile Precaution," came from
the original French title. Rossini also adopted it and purposely
avoided the chief title set by Beaumarchais and used by Paisiello;
but he was not long permitted to have his way. Thereby hangs a
tale of the composition and first failure of his opera which I
must now relate.

On December 26, 1815, the first day of the carnival season, Rossini
produced his opera, "Torvaldo e Dorliska," at the Teatro Argentina,
in Rome, and at the same time signed a contract with Cesarini, the
impresario of the theatre, to have the first act of a second opera
ready on the twentieth day of the following January. For this opera
Rossini was to receive 400 Roman scudi (the equivalent of about
$400) after the first three performances, which he was to conduct
seated at the pianoforte in the orchestra, as was then the custom.
He seems to have agreed to take any libretto submitted by the
impresario and approved by the public censor; but there are
indications that Sterbini, who was to write the libretto, had
already suggested a remodelling of Paisiello's "Barber." In order
to expedite the work of composition it was provided in the contract
that Rossini was to take lodgings with a singer named Zamboni, to
whom the honor fell of being the original of the town factotum
in Rossini's opera. Some say that Rossini completed the score in
thirteen days; some in fifteen. Castil-Blaze says it was a month,
but the truth is that the work consumed less than half that period.
Donizetti, asked if he believed that Rossini had really written the
score in thirteen days, is reported to have replied, no doubt with
a malicious twinkle in his eyes: "It is very possible; he is so
lazy." Paisiello was still alive, and so was at least the memory of
his opera, so Rossini, as a precautionary measure, thought it wise
to spike, if possible, the guns of an apprehended opposition. So
he addressed a letter to the venerable composer, asking leave to
make use of the subject. He got permission and then wrote a preface
to his libretto (or had Serbini write it for him), in which,
while flattering his predecessor, he nevertheless contrived to
indicate that he considered the opera of that venerable musician
old-fashioned, undramatic, and outdated. "Beaumarchais's comedy,
entitled 'The Barber of Seville, or the Useless Precaution,'"
he wrote, "is presented at Rome in the form of a comic drama under
the title of 'Almaviva, ossia l'inutile Precauzione,' in order
that the public may be fully convinced of the sentiments of respect
and veneration by which the author of the music of this drama is
animated with regard to the celebrated Paisiello, who has already
treated the subject under its primitive title. Himself invited to
undertake this difficult task, the maestro Gioachino Rossini, in
order to avoid the reproach of entering rashly into rivalry with
the immortal author who preceded him, expressly required that 'The
Barber of Seville' should be entirely versified anew, and also
that new situations should be added for the musical pieces which,
moreover, are required by the modern theatrical taste, entirely
changed since the time when the renowned Paisiello wrote his work."

I have told the story of the fiasco made by Rossini's opera on its
first production at the Argentine Theatre on February 5, 1816, in an
extended preface to the vocal score of "Il Barbiere," published in
1900 by G. Schirmer, and a quotation from that preface will serve
here quite as well as a paraphrase; so I quote (with an avowal of
gratitude for the privilege to the publishers):--

Paisiello gave his consent to the use of the subject, believing that
the opera of his young rival would assuredly fail. At the same time
he wrote to a friend in Rome, asking him to do all in his power to
compass a fiasco for the opera. The young composer's enemies were
not sluggish. All the whistlers of Italy, says Castil-Blaze, seemed
to have made a rendezvous at the Teatro Argentina on the night set
down for the first production. Their malicious intentions were
helped along by accidents at the outset of the performance. Details
of the story have been preserved for us in an account written
by Signora Giorgi-Righetti, who sang the part of Rosina on the
memorable occasion. Garcia had persuaded Rossini to permit him to
sing a Spanish song to his own accompaniment on a guitar under
Rosina's balcony in the first act. It would provide the needed local
color, he urged. When about to start his song, Garcia found that he
had forgotten to tune his guitar. He began to set the pegs in the
face of the waiting public. A string broke, and a new one was drawn
up amid the titters of the spectators. The song did not please the
auditors, who mocked at the singer by humming Spanish fiorituri
after him. Boisterous laughter broke out when Figaro came on the
stage also with a guitar, and "Largo al factotum" was lost in the
din. Another howl of delighted derision went up when Rosina's
voice was heard singing within: "Segui o caro, deh segui così"
("Continue, my dear, continue thus"). The audience continued "thus."
The representative of Rosina was popular, but the fact that she
was first heard in a trifling phrase instead of an aria caused
disappointment. The duet, between Almaviva and Figaro, was sung amid
hisses, shrieks, and shouts. The cavatina "Una voce poco fà" got a
triple round of applause, however, and Rossini, interpreting the
fact as a compliment to the personality of the singer rather than
to the music, after bowing to the public, exclaimed: "Oh natura!"
"Thank her," retorted Giorgi-Righetti; "but for her you would not
have had occasion to rise from your choir." The turmoil began again
with the next duet, and the finale was mere dumb show. When the
curtain fell, Rossini faced the mob, shrugged his shoulders, and
clapped his hands to show his contempt. Only the musicians and
singers heard the second act, the din being incessant from beginning
to end. Rossini remained imperturbable, and when Giorgi-Rhigetti,
Garcia, and Zamboni hastened to his lodgings to offer their
condolences as soon as they could don street attire, they found him
asleep. The next day he wrote the cavatina "Ecco ridente in cielo"
to take the place of Garcia's unlucky Spanish song, borrowing the
air from his own "Aureliano," composed two years before, into
which it had been incorporated from "Ciro," a still earlier work.
When night came, he feigned illness so as to escape the task of
conducting. By that time his enemies had worn themselves out. The
music was heard amid loud plaudits, and in a week the opera had
scored a tremendous success.

And now for the dramatic and musical contents of "Il Barbiere." At
the very outset Rossini opens the door for us to take a glimpse at
the changes in musical manner which were wrought by time. He had
faulted Paisiello's opera because in parts it had become antiquated,
for which reason he had had new situations introduced to meet the
"modern theatrical taste"; but he lived fifty years after "Il
Barbiere" had conquered the world, and never took the trouble to
write an overture for it, the one originally composed for the opera
having been lost soon after the first production. The overture which
leads us into the opera nowadays is all very well in its way and a
striking example of how a piece of music may benefit from fortuitous
circumstances. Persons with fantastic imaginations have rhapsodized
on its appositeness, and professed to hear in it the whispered
plottings of the lovers and the merry raillery of Rosina, contrasted
with the futile ragings of her grouty guardian; but when Rossini
composed this piece of music, its mission was to introduce an
adventure of the Emperor Aurelian in Palmyra in the third century of
the Christian era. Having served that purpose, it became the prelude
to another opera which dealt with Queen Elizabeth of England, a
monarch who reigned some twelve hundred years after Aurelian. Again,
before the melody now known as that of Almaviva's cavatina (which
supplanted Garcia's unlucky Spanish song) had burst into the
efflorescence which now distinguishes it, it came as a chorus from
the mouths of Cyrus and his Persians in ancient Babylon. Truly,
the verities of time and place sat lightly on the Italian opera
composers of a hundred years ago. But the serenade which follows the
rising of the curtain preserves a custom more general at the time of
Beaumarchais than now, though it is not yet obsolete. Dr. Bartolo,
who is guardian of the fascinating Rosina, is in love with her, or
at least wishes for reasons not entirely dissociated from her money
bags to make her his wife, and therefore keeps her most of the time
behind bolts and bars. The Count Almaviva, however, has seen her on
a visit from his estates to Seville, becomes enamoured of her, and
she has felt her heart warmed toward him, though she is ignorant of
his rank and knows him only under the name of Lindoro. Hoping that
it may bring him an opportunity for a glance, mayhap a word with his
inamorata, Amaviva follows the advice given by Sir Proteus to Thurio
in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona"; he visits his lady's chamber
window, not at night, but at early dawn, with a "sweet concert," and
to the instruments of Fiorello's musicians tunes "a deploring dump."
It is the cavatina "Ecco ridente in cielo." The musicians, rewarded
by Almaviva beyond expectations, are profuse and long-winded
in their expression of gratitude, and are gotten rid of with
difficulty. The Count has not yet had a glimpse of Rosina, who is
in the habit of breathing the morning air from the balcony of her
prison house, and is about to despair when Figaro, barber and
Seville's factotum, appears trolling a song in which he recites his
accomplishments, the universality of his employments, and the great
demand for his services. ("Largo al factotum dello città.") The
Count recognizes him, tells of his vain vigils in front of Rosina's
balcony, and, so soon as he learns that Figaro is a sort of man
of all work to Bartolo, employs him as his go-between. Rosina
now appears on the balcony. Almaviva is about to engage her in
conversation when Bartolo appears and discovers a billet-doux which
Rosina had intended to drop into the hand of her Lindoro. He demands
to see it, but she explains that it is but a copy of the words of an
aria from an opera entitled "The Futile Precaution," and drops it
from the balcony, as if by accident. She sends Bartolo to recover
it, but Almaviva, who had observed the device, secures it, and
Bartolo is told by his crafty ward that the wind must have carried
it away. Growing suspicious, he commands her into the house and
goes away to hasten the preparations for his wedding, after giving
orders that no one is to be admitted to the house save Don Basilio,
Rosina's singing-master, and Bartolo's messenger and general
mischief-maker.

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