The Complete Opera Book Part 2

_Iphigenie_ is the daughter of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. Agamemnon was slain by his wife, Clytemnestra, who, in turn, was killed by her son, _Orestes_. _Iphigenie_ is ignorant of these happenings. She has been a priestess of Diana and has not seen _Orestes_ for many years.

Act I. Before the atrium of the temple of Diana. To priestesses and Greek maidens, _Iphigenie_ tells of her dream that misfortune has come to her family in the distant country of her birth. _Thoas_, entering, calls for a human sacrifice to ward off danger that has been foretold to him. Some of his people, hastily coming upon the scene, bring with them as captives _Orestes_ and _Pylades_, Greek youths who have landed upon the coast. They report that _Orestes_ constantly speaks of having committed a crime and of being pursued by Furies.

Act II. Temple of Diana. _Orestes_ bewails his fate. _Pylades_ sings of his undying friendship for him. _Pylades_ is separated from _Orestes_, who temporarily loses his mind. _Iphigenie_ questions him.

_Orestes_, under her influence, becomes calmer, but refrains from disclosing his ident.i.ty. He tells her, however, that he is from Mycenae, that Agamemnon (their father) has been slain by his wife, that Clytemnestra's son, _Orestes_, has slain her in revenge, and is himself dead. Of the once great family only a daughter, Electra, remains.

Act III. _Iphigenie_ is struck with the resemblance of the stranger to her brother and, in order to save him from the sacrifice demanded by _Thoas_, charges him to deliver a letter to Electra. He declines to leave _Pylades_; nor until _Orestes_ affirms that he will commit suicide, rather than accept freedom at the price of his friend's life, does _Pylades_ agree to take the letter, and then only because he hopes to bring succour to _Orestes_.

Act IV. All is ready for the sacrifice. _Iphigenie_ has the knife poised for the fatal thrust, when, through an exclamation uttered by _Orestes_, she recognizes him as her brother. The priestesses offer him obeisance as King. _Thoas_, however, enters and demands the sacrifice. _Iphigenie_ declares that she will die with her brother. At that moment _Pylades_ at the head of a rescue party enters the temple.

A combat ensues in which _Thoas_ is killed. _Diana_ herself appears, pardons _Orestes_ and returns to the Greeks her likeness which the Scythians had stolen and over which they had built the temple.

Gluck was sixty-five, when he brought out "Iphigenie en Tauride." A contemporary remarked that there were many fine pa.s.sages in the opera.

"There is only one," said the Abbe Arnaud. "Which?"--"The entire work."

The mad scene for _Orestes_, in the second act, has been called Gluck's greatest single achievement. Mention should also be made of the dream of _Iphigenie_, the dances of the Scythians, the air of _Thoas_, "De noirs pressentiments mon ame intimidee" (My spirit is depressed by dark forebodings); the air of _Pylades_, "Unis des la plus tendre enfance" (United since our earliest infancy); _Iphigenie's_ "o malheureuse (unhappy) Iphigenie," and "Je t'implore et je tremble" (I pray you and I tremble); and the hymn to Diana, "Chaste fille de Latone" (Chaste daughter of the crescent moon).

Here may be related an incident at the rehearsal of the work, which proves the dramatic significance Gluck sought to impart to his music.

In the second act, while _Orestes_ is singing, "Le calme rentre dans mon coeur," (Once more my heart is calm), the orchestral accompaniment continues to express the agitation of his thoughts.

During the rehearsal the members of the orchestra, not understanding the pa.s.sage, came to a stop. "Go on all the same," cried Gluck. "He lies. He has killed his mother!"

Gluck's enemies prevailed upon his rival, Piccini, to write an "Iphigenie en Tauride" in opposition. It was produced in January, 1781, met with failure, and put a definite stop to Piccini's rivalry with Gluck. At the performance the prima donna was intoxicated. This caused a spectator to shout:

"'Iphigenie en Tauride!' allons donc, c'est 'Iphigenie en Champagne!'"

(Iphigenia in Tauris! Do tell! Shouldn't it be Iphigenia in Champagne?)

The laugh that followed sealed the doom of the work.

The Metropolitan production employs the version of the work made by Richard Strauss, which involves changes in the finales of the first and last acts. Ballet music from "Orfeo" and "Armide" also is introduced.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756-1791)

The operas of Gluck supplanted those of Lully and Rameau. Those of Mozart, while they did not supplant Gluck's, wrested from them the sceptre of supremacy. In a general way it may be said that, before Mozart's time, composers of grand opera reached back to antiquity and mythology, or to the early Christian era, for their subjects. Their works moved with a certain restricted grandeur. Their characters were remote.

Mozart's subjects were more modern, even contemporary. Moreover, he was one of the brightest stars in the musical firmament. His was a complete and easy mastery of all forms of music. "In his music breathes the warm-hearted, laughter-loving artist," writes Theodore Baker. That is a correct characterization. "The Marriage of Figaro" is still regarded as a model of what a comic grand opera, if so I may call it, should be. "Don Giovanni," despite its tragic _denouement_, sparkles with humour, and _Don Giovanni_ himself, despite the evil he does, is a jovial character. "The Magic Flute" is full of amusing incidents and, if its relationship to the rites of freemasonry has been correctly interpreted, was a contemporary subject of strong human interest, notwithstanding its story being laid in ancient Egypt. In fact it may be said that, in the evolution of opera, Mozart was the first to impart to it a strong human interest with humour playing about it like sunlight.

The libretto of "The Marriage of Figaro" was derived from a contemporary French comedy; "Don Giovanni," though its plot is taken from an old Spanish story, has in its princ.i.p.al character a type of libertine, whose reckless daring inspires loyalty not only in his servant, but even in at least one of his victims--a type as familiar to Mozart's contemporaries as it is to us; the probable contemporary significance of "The Magic Flute" I have already mentioned, and the point is further considered under the head of that opera.

For the most part as free from unnecessary vocal embellishments as are the operas of Gluck, Mozart, being the more gifted composer, attained an even higher degree of dramatic expression than his predecessor. May I say that he even gave to the voice a human clang it hitherto had lacked, and in this respect also advanced the art of opera? By this I mean that, full of dramatic significance as his voice parts are, they have, too, an ingratiating human quality which the music of his predecessor lacks. In plasticity of orchestration his operas also mark a great advance.

Excepting a few works by Gluck, every opera before Mozart and the operas of every composer contemporary with him, and for a considerable period after him, have disappeared from the repertoire. The next two operas to hold the stage, Beethoven's "Fidelio" (in its final form) and Rossini's "Barber of Seville" were not produced until 1814 and 1816--respectively twenty-three and twenty-five years after Mozart's death.

That Mozart was a genius by the grace of G.o.d will appear from the simple statement that his career came to an end at the age of thirty-five. Compare this with the long careers of the three other composers, whose influence upon opera was supreme--Gluck, Wagner, and Verdi. Gluck died in his seventy-third year, Wagner in his seventieth, and Verdi in his eighty-eighth. Yet the composer who laid down his pen and went to a pauper's grave at thirty-five, contributed as much as any of these to the evolution of the art of opera.

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

Opera in four acts by Mozart; words by Lorenzo da Ponte, after Beaumarchais. Produced at the National Theatre, Vienna, May 1, 1786, Mozart conducting. Academie de Musique, Paris, as "Le Mariage de Figaro" (with Beaumarchais's dialogue), 1793; as "Les Noces de Figaro" (words by Barbier and Carre), 1858. London, in Italian, King's Theatre, June 18, 1812. New York, 1823, with T. Phillips, of Dublin, as _Figaro_; May 10, 1824, with Pearman as _Figaro_ and Mrs.

Holman, as _Susanna_; January 18, 1828, with Elizabeth Alston, as _Susanna_; all these were in English and at the Park Theatre. (See concluding paragraph of this article.) Notable revivals in Italian, at the Metropolitan Opera House: 1902, with Sembrich, Eames, Fritzi Scheff, de Reszke, and Campanari; 1909, Sembrich, Eames, Farrar, and Scotti; 1916, Hempel, Matzenauer, Farrar, and Scotti.

CHARACTERS

COUNT ALMAVIVA _Baritone_ FIGARO, his valet _Baritone_ DOCTOR BARTOLO, a Physician _Ba.s.s_ DON BASILIO, a music-master _Tenor_ CHERUBINO, a page _Soprano_ ANTONIO, a gardener _Ba.s.s_ DON CURZIO, counsellor at law _Tenor_ COUNTESS ALMAVIVA _Soprano_ SUSANNA, her personal maid, affianced to FIGARO _Soprano_ MARCELLINA, a duenna _Soprano_ BARBARINA, ANTONIO's daughter _Soprano_

_Time_--17th Century.

_Place_--The Count's chateau of Aguas Frescas, near Seville.

"Le Nozze di Figaro" was composed by Mozart by command of Emperor Joseph II., of Austria. After congratulating the composer at the end of the first performance, the Emperor said to him: "You must admit, however, my dear Mozart, that there are a great many notes in your score." "Not one too many, Sire," was Mozart's reply.

(The anecdote, it should be noted, also, is told of the first performance of Mozart's "Cos Fan Tutte.")

No opera composed before "Le Nozze di Figaro" can be compared with it for development of ensemble, charm and novelty of melody, richness and variety of orchestration. Yet Mozart composed this score in a month.

The finale to the second act occupied him but two days. In the music the sparkle of high comedy alternates with the deeper sentiment of the affections.

Michael Kelly, the English tenor, who was the _Basilio_ and _Curzio_ in the original production, tells in his memoirs of the splendid sonority with which Benucci, the _Figaro_, sang the martial "Non piu andrai" at the first orchestral rehearsal. Mozart, who was on the stage in a crimson pelisse and c.o.c.ked hat trimmed with gold lace, kept repeating _sotto voce_, "Bravo, bravo, Benucci!" At the conclusion the orchestra and all on the stage burst into applause and vociferous acclaim of Mozart:

"Bravo, bravo, Maestro! Viva, viva, grande Mozart!"

Further, the _Reminiscences_ of Kelly inform us of the enthusiastic reception of "Le Nozze di Figaro" upon its production, almost everything being encored, so that the time required for its performance was nearly doubled. Notwithstanding this success, it was withdrawn after comparatively few representations, owing to Italian intrigue at the court and opera, led by Mozart's rival, the composer Salieri--now heard of only because of that rivalry. In Prague, where the opera was produced in January, 1787, its success was so great that Bondini, the manager of the company, was able to persuade Mozart to compose an opera for first performance in Prague. The result was "Don Giovanni."

The story of "Le Nozze di Figaro" is a sequel to that of "The Barber of Seville," which Rossini set to music. Both are derived from "Figaro" comedies by Beaumarchais. In Rossini's opera it is _Figaro_, at the time a barber in Seville, who plays the go-between for _Count Almaviva_ and his beloved _Rosina_, _Dr. Bartolo's_ pretty ward.

_Rosina_ is now the wife of the _Count_, who unfortunately, is promiscuous in his attentions to women, including _Susanna_, the _Countess's_ vivacious maid, who is affianced to _Figaro_. The latter and the music-master _Basilio_ who, in their time helped to hoodwink _Bartolo_, are in the service of the _Count_, _Figaro_ having been rewarded with the position of valet and majordomo. _Bartolo_, for whom, as formerly, _Marcellina_ is keeping house, still is _Figaro's_ enemy, because of the latter's interference with his plans to marry _Rosina_ and so secure her fortune to himself. The other characters in the opera also belong to the personnel of the _Count's_ household.

Aside from the difference between Rossini's and Mozart's scores, which are alike only in that each opera is a masterpiece of the comic sentiment, there is at least one difference between the stories. In Rossini's "Barber" _Figaro_, a man, is the mainspring of the action.

In Mozart's opera it is _Susanna_, a woman; and a clever woman may possess in the role of protagonist in comedy a chicness and sparkle quite impossible to a man. The whole plot of "Le Nozze di Figaro"

plays around _Susanna's_ efforts to nip in the bud the intrigue in which the _Count_ wishes to engage her. She is aided by the _Countess_ and by _Figaro_; but she still must appear to encourage while evading the _Count's_ advances, and do so without offending him, lest both she and her affianced be made to suffer through his disfavour. In the libretto there is much that is _risque_, suggestive. But as the average opera-goer does not understand the subtleties of the Italian language, and the average English translation is too clumsy to preserve them, it is quite possible--especially in this advanced age--to attend a performance of "Le Nozze di Figaro" without imperilling one's morals.

There is a romping overture. Then, in Act I, we learn that _Figaro_, _Count Almaviva's_ valet, wants to get married. _Susanna_, the _Countess's_ maid, is the chosen one. The _Count_ has a.s.signed to them a room near his, ostensibly because his valet will be able to respond quickly to his summons. The room is the scene of this Act. _Susanna_ tells her lover that the true reason for the _Count's_ choice of their room is the fact that their n.o.ble master is running after her. Now _Figaro_ is willing enough to "play up" for the little _Count_, if he should take it into his head "to venture on a little dance" once too often. ("Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino!")

[Music]

Unfortunately, however, _Figaro_ himself is in a fix. He has borrowed money from _Marcellina_, _Bartolo's_ housekeeper, and he has promised to marry her in case of his inability to repay her. She now appears, to demand of _Figaro_ the fulfilment of his promise. _Bartolo_ encourages her in this, both out of spite against _Figaro_ and because he wants to be rid of the old woman, who has been his mistress and even borne him a son, who, however, was kidnapped soon after his birth. There is a vengeance aria for _Bartolo_, and a spiteful duet for _Marcellina_ and _Susanna_, beginning: "Via resti servita, madama brillante" (Go first, I entreat you, Miss, model of beauty!).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photo by White

Hempel (Susanna), Matzenauer (the Countess), and Farrar (Cherubino) in "Le Nozze di Figaro"]

The next scene opens between the page, _Cherubino_, a boy in love with every petticoat, and _Susanna_. He begs _Susanna_ to intercede for him with the _Count_, who has dismissed him. _Cherubino_ desires to stay around the _Countess_, for whom he has conceived one of his grand pa.s.sions. "Non so piu cosa son, cosa faccio"--(Ah, what feelings now possess me!). The _Count's_ step is heard. _Cherubino_ hides himself behind a chair, from where he hears the _Count_ paying court to _Susanna_. The voice of the music-master then is heard from without. The _Count_ moves toward the door. _Cherubino_, taking advantage of this, slips out from behind the chair and conceals himself in it under a dress that has been thrown over it. The _Count_, however, instead of going out, hides behind the chair, in the same place where _Cherubino_ has been. _Basilio_, who has entered, now makes all kinds of malicious remarks and insinuations about the flirtations of _Cherubino_ with _Susanna_ and also with the _Countess_. The _Count_, enraged at the free use of his wife's name, emerges from behind the chair. Only the day before, he says, he has caught that rascal, _Cherubino_, with the gardener's daughter _Barbarina_ (with whom the _Count_ also is flirting). _Cherubino_, he continues, was hidden under a coverlet, "just as if under this dress here." Then, suiting the action to the words, by way of demonstration, he lifts the gown from the chair, and lo! there is _Cherubino_. The _Count_ is furious. But as the page has overheard him making love to _Susanna_, and as _Figaro_ and others have come in to beg that he be forgiven, the _Count_, while no longer permitting him to remain in the castle, grants him an officer's commission in his own regiment. It is here that _Figaro_ addresses _Cherubino_ in the dashing martial air, "Non piu andrai, farfallone amoroso" (Play no more, the part of a lover).

Act II. Still, the _Count_, for whom the claims of _Marcellina_ upon _Figaro_ have come in very opportunely, has not given consent for his valet's wedding. He wishes to carry his own intrigue with _Susanna_, the genuineness of whose love for _Figaro_ he underestimates, to a successful issue. _Susanna_ and _Figaro_ meet in the _Countess's_ room. The _Countess_ has been soliloquizing upon love, of whose fickleness the _Count_ has but provided too many examples.--"Porgi amor, qualche ristoro" (Love, thou holy, purest pa.s.sion.) _Figaro_ has contrived a plan to gain the consent of the _Count_ to his wedding with _Susanna_. The valet's scheme is to make the _Count_ ashamed of his own flirtations. _Figaro_ has sent a letter to the _Count_, which divulges a supposed rendezvous of the _Countess_ in the garden. At the same time _Susanna_ is to make an appointment to meet the _Count_ in the same spot. But, in place of _Susanna_, _Cherubino_, dressed in _Susanna's_ clothes, will meet the _Count_. Both will be caught by the _Countess_ and the _Count_ thus be confounded.