Operas Every Child Should Know Part 34

"Very well, very well, I'll go first--but what's to be done with us now?" Tamino only pointed to heaven, which was very depressing to one of Papageno's temperament.

"You think so!" Papageno asked. "If it is to be anything like that, I think it more likely to be a roasting. No matter!" Nothing mattered any longer to Papageno, and so he went out as Tamino desired, and the scene changed.

_Scene IV_

Sarastro and his priests were in a vault underneath one of the temples. There they sang of Tamino's wonderful fort.i.tude and then said:

"Let him appear!" And so he did. "Now, Tamino, you have been a brave man till now; but there are two perilous trials awaiting you, and if you go through them well--" They didn't exactly promise that all should be plain sailing after that, but they led the youth to infer as much, which encouraged him. "Lead in Pamina," the order then was given, and she was led in.

"Now, Pamina, this youth is to bid thee a last farewell," Sarastro said.

Pamina was about to throw herself into her lover's arms, but with amazing self-control Tamino told her once more to "Stand back." As that had gone so very well, Sarastro a.s.sured them they were to meet again.

"I'll bear whatever the G.o.ds put upon me," the patient youth replied.

Then he said farewell and went out, while Papageno (who if he ever did get to Heaven, would surely do so by hanging on to Tamino's immaculate coat-tail) ran after him, declaring that he would follow him forever--and not talk. But it thundered again, and Papageno shrunk all up.

Then, while the speaker chided him for not being above his station, Papageno said that the only thing he really wanted in this world or the next was a gla.s.s of wine: he thought it would encourage him.

"Oh, well, you can have that," the speaker a.s.sured him, and immediately the gla.s.s of wine rose through the floor. But he had no sooner drunk that than he cried out that he experienced a most thrilling sensation about his heart. It turned out to be love; just love! So at once, the matter being explained to him, he took his chime of bells, played, and sang of what he felt. The moment he had fully expressed himself, the old water lady came in.

"Here I am, my angel," she said.

"Good! You are much better than n.o.body," Papageno declared.

"Then swear you'll be forever true," she urged.

"Certainly--since there is no other way out of it." And it was no sooner said than the old lady became a most entrancing young one, about eighteen years old.

"Well, may I never doubt a woman when she tells me her age again!"

Papageno muttered, staring at her. As he was about to embrace her, the speaker shouted:

"Away; he isn't worthy of you." This left Papageno in a nice fix, and both he and the girl were led away as the Genii appeared.

The Genii began to sing that Pamina had gone demented, and no wonder.

She almost at once proved that this was true, by coming in carrying a dagger; and she made a pa.s.s at the whole lot of them. No one could blame her. She thought each of them was Tamino.

"She's had too much trouble," the penetrating Genii declared among themselves. "And now we'll set her right." They were about to do so when she undertook to stab herself, but they interfered and told her she mustn't.

"What if Tamino should hear you! It would make him feel very badly,"

they remonstrated. At once she became all right again.

"Is he alive? Just let me look at him, and I'll be encouraged to wait awhile." So they took her away to see Tamino.

Then two men dressed in armour came in and said:

He who would wander on this path of tears and toiling, Needs water, fire, and earth for his a.s.soiling,

which means nothing in particular. Although "a.s.soiling" is an excellent old English word.

Then Tamino and Pamina were heard calling to each other. She entreated him not to fly from her, and he didn't know what he had better do about it, but the matter was arranged by somebody opening some gates and the lovers at once embraced. They were perfectly happy, and there seemed to be a mutual understanding between them that they could wander forth together. They did so, and wandered at once into a mountain of fire, while Tamino played entertainingly upon his flute.

Soon they wandered out of the fire, and embraced at leisure. Then they wandered into the water, and Tamino began again to play upon his flute, the water keeping clear of the holes in a wonderful way. After they got out of the woods--the water, rather,--they embraced as usual, and the gates of the temple were thrown open and they saw a sort of Fourth-of-July going on within. Everything was very bright and high-coloured. This would seem to indicate that their trials were over and they were to have their reward. Then the scene changed.

_Scene V_

Papageno was playing in a garden, all the while calling to his Papagena. He was really mourning for his lost love, and so he took the rope which he used as a girdle and decided to hang himself. Then the Genii, whose business it seemed to be to drive lovers to suicide and then rescue them just before life was extinct, rushed in and told him he need not go to the length--of his rope.

"Just ring your bells," they advised him; and he instantly tried the same old effect. He had no sooner rung for her than she came--the lovely Papagena! They sang a joyous chorus of "pa-pa-pa-pa" for eight pages and then the Queen of the Night and Monostatos, finding that matters were going too well, appeared. They had come to steal the temple.

"If I really get away with that temple, Pamina shall be yours," she promised Monostatos,--which would seem to leave Pamina safe enough, if the circ.u.mstances were ordinary. Nevertheless it thundered again.

n.o.body in the opera could seem to stand that. The Queen had her three ladies with her, but by this time one might almost conclude that they were no ladies at all. The thunder became very bad indeed, and the retinue, Monostatos, and the Queen sank below, and in their stead Sarastro, Pamina, and Tamino appeared with all the priests, and the storm gave way to a fine day.

Immediately after that, nothing at all happened.

SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN

Sir Arthur Sullivan was a man of many musical moods and varied performances, yet his surest fame, at present, rests upon his comic operas.

Perhaps this is because he and his workfellow, Gilbert, were pioneers in making a totally new kind of comic opera. "Pinafore" may not be the best of these works, "Mikado" may be better; but "Pinafore" was the first of the satires upon certain inst.i.tutions, social and political, which delighted the English-speaking world.

Music and words never have seemed better wedded than in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The music is always graceful, gracious, piquant, and gaily fascinating. The story has no purpose but that of carrying some satirical idea, and the satire is never bitter, always playful.

Sullivan's versatility was remarkable, his work ranging from "grave to gay, from lively to severe," and his was a genius that developed in his extreme youth. Many anecdotes are told of this brilliant composer, and all of them seem to ill.u.s.trate a practical and resourceful mind, while they show little of the eccentricity that is supposed to belong to genius. It was Sir Arthur Sullivan who first popularized Schumann in England. Potter, head of the Royal Academy in London in 1861, had known Beethoven well, and had never been converted to a love of music less great than his--nor was his taste very catholic--and he continually regretted Sullivan's championship of Schumann's music.

But one day Sullivan, suspecting the academician didn't know what he was talking about, asked him point-blank if he had ever heard any of the music he so strongly condemned. Potter admitted that he hadn't.

Whereupon Sullivan said, "Then play some of Schumann with me, Mr.

Potter," and, having done so, Potter "blindly worshipped" Schumann even after.

Frederick Crowest tells this story in his "Musicians' Wit, Humour, and Anecdote":

"The late Sir Arthur Sullivan, in the struggling years of his career, once showed great presence of mind, which saved the entire breakdown of a performance of 'Faust.' In the midst of the church scene, the wire connecting the pedal under Costa's foot with the metronome stick at the organ, broke. Costa was the conductor. In the concerted music this meant disaster, as the organist could hear nothing but his own instrument. Quick as thought, while he was playing the introductory solo, Sullivan called a stage hand. 'Go,' he said, 'and tell Mr. Costa that the wire is broken, and that he is to keep his ears open and follow me.' No sooner had the man flown to deliver his message than the full meaning of the words flashed upon Sullivan. What would Costa, autocratic, severe, and quick to take offence, say to such a message delivered by a stage hand? The scene, however, proceeded successfully, and at the end Sullivan went, nervously enough, to tender his apologies to his chief. Costa, implacable as he was, had a strong sense of justice, and the great conductor never forgot the signal service his young friend had rendered him by preventing a horrible _fiasco_."

There are numberless stories of his suiting his composition to erratic themes. Beverley had painted borders for a woodland scene. Sullivan liked the work and complimented Beverley, who immediately said: "Yes, and if you could compose something to fit it now." Instantly, Sullivan, who was at the organ, composed a score within a few minutes which enraptured the painter and which "fitted" his borders.

Again: A dance was required at a moment's notice for a second _danseuse_, and the stage manager was distracted. "You must make something at once, Sullivan," he said. "But," replied the composer, "I haven't even seen the girl. I don't know her style or what she needs."

However, the stage manager sent the dancer to speak with Sullivan, and presently he called out: "I've arranged it all. This is exactly what she wants: Tiddle-iddle-um, tiddle-iddle-um, rum-tirum-tirum--sixteen bars of that; then: rum-tum-rum-tum--heavy you know--" and in ten minutes the dance was made and ready for rehearsal.

H.M.S.[B] "PINAFORE"

The Right Honourable Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B. First Lord of the Admiralty.

Captain Corcoran Commanding H.M.S. _Pinafore_.

Ralph Rackstraw Able seaman.

d.i.c.k Deadeye Able seaman.