The Standard Operaglass Part 11

{108}

In the fourth act Genoveva is being led into the wilderness by two ruffians, who have orders to murder her. Before this is done, Golo approaches her once more, showing her Siegfried's ring and sword, with which he has been bidden kill her. He tries hard to win her, but she turns from him with scorn and loathing, preferring death to dishonor.

At length relinquishing his attempts, he beckons to the murderers to do their work and hands them Count Siegfried's weapon. Genoveva in her extreme need seizes the cross of the Saviour, praying fervently, and detains the ruffians till at the last moment Siegfried appears, led by the repentant Margaretha. There ensues a touching scene of forgiveness, while Golo rushes away to meet his fate by falling over a precipice.

THE GOLDEN CROSS.

Opera in two acts by IGNAZ BRULL.

Text by MOSENTHAL.

Brull, born at Prossnitz in Moravia, Nov. 7th, 1846, received his musical education in Vienna and is well known as a good pianist. He has composed different operas, of which however the above-mentioned is the only popular one.

This charming little opera, which rendered its composer famous, has pa.s.sed beyond the frontiers of Germany and is now translated into several languages.

The text is skillfully arranged, and so combined as to awaken our interest.

{109}

The scene is laid in a village near Melun in the years between 1812 and 15.

Nicolas (or Cola) Pariset, an innkeeper, is betrothed to his cousin Therese. Unfortunately just on his wedding-day a sergeant, named Bombardon, levies him for the army, which is to march against the Russians. Vainly does Therese plead for her betrothed, and equally in vain is it that she is joined in her pleading by Nicolas' sister Christine. The latter is pa.s.sionately attached to her brother, who has. .h.i.therto been her only care. Finally Christine promises to marry any man who will go as subst.i.tute for her brother. Gontran de l'Ancry, a young n.o.bleman, whose heart is touched by the maiden's tenderness and beauty, places himself at Bombardon's disposal and receives from him the golden cross, which Christine has placed in his hands, to be offered as a pledge of fidelity to her brother's deliverer. Christine does not get to know him, as Gontran departs immediately. The act closes with Cola's marriage.

The second act takes place two years later. Cola, who could not be detained from marching against the enemy, has been wounded, but saved from being killed by an officer, who received the bullet instead. Both return to Cola's house as invalids and are tended by the two women.

The strange officer, who is no other than Gontran, loves Christine and she returns his pa.s.sion, but deeming herself bound to another, she does not betray her feeling. Gontran is about to bid her farewell, but {110} when in the act of taking leave, he perceives her love and tells her that he is the officer, who was once subst.i.tute for her brother in the war.

Christine is full of happiness; Gontran when asked for the token of her promise, tells her, that the cross was taken from him, as he lay senseless on the field of battle. At this moment Bombardon, returning also as invalid, presents the cross to Christine, and she believing that Gontran has lied to her and that Bombardon is her brother's subst.i.tute, promises her hand to him, with a bleeding heart, but Bombardon relates that the true owner of the cross has fallen on the battle-field and that he took it from the dead body. Christine now resolves to enter in a convent, when suddenly Gontran's voice is heard.

Bombardon recognizes his friend, whom he believed to be dead, everything is explained and the scene ends with the marriage of the good and true lovers.

THE TWO GRENADIERS.

Comic Opera in three acts by ALBERT LORTZING.

Text adapted from the French.

After a long interval of quiet Lortzing's charming music seems to be brought to honor again and no wonder.--The ears of the public grow overtired, or may we say over-taxed by Wagner's grand music, which his followers still surpa.s.s, though only in noise and external effects; they long for simplicity, for melody. Well, Lortzing's operas overflow with real, true, simple melody, and {111} generally in genuine good humour.--For many years only two of his operas have been performed, viz, "Undine" and "Czar and Zimmermann".--Now Hamburg has set the good example, by representing a whole cyclus (seven operas of Lortzing's), and Dresden has followed with the "Two Grenadiers."

The opera was composed in the year 1837 and is of French origin and though its music breathes German humour and naivete, the French influence may be felt clearly. The persons show life and movement, the music is light-hearted, graceful and truly comic.

The scene takes place in a little country-town, where we find Busch, a wealthy inn-keeper, making preparations for the arrival of his only son. The young man had entered a Grenadier regiment at the age of sixteen, ten years before, so the joyful event of his home-coming is looked forward to with pleasure by his father and sister Suschen, but with anxiety by a friend of hers, Caroline, to whom young Busch had been affianced before joining his regiment.

Enter two young Grenadiers from the regiment on leave, the younger of whom falls in love with Suschen at first sight. However as the elder Grenadier, Schwarzbart, dolefully remarks, they are both almost pennyless and he reflects how he can possibly help them in their need.

His meditations are interrupted by the arrival of the landlord, who, seeing the two knapsacks, and recognizing one of them as that of his son, naturally supposes the owner to be his offspring, in which belief he is {112} confirmed by Schwarzbart, who is induced to practice this deceit, partly by the desire of getting a good dinner and the means of quenching his insatiable thirst, partly by the hope of something turning up in favour of his companion in arms, Wilhelm. As a matter of fact the knapsack does not belong to Wilhelm at all. On leaving the inn, at which the banquet following the wedding of one of their comrades, had been held, the knapsacks had inadvertently been exchanged much to Wilhelm's dismay, his own containing a lottery ticket which, as he has just learnt, had won a great prize. The supposed son is of course received with every demonstration of affection by his fond parent, but though submitting with a very good grace to the endearments of his supposed sister--the maiden, with whom he had fallen in love so suddenly--he resolutely declines being hugged and made much of by the old landlord, this double-part being entirely distasteful to his straightforward nature. Nor does his affianced bride, the daughter of the bailiff, fare any better, his affections being placed elsewhere, and their bewilderment is only somewhat appeased by Schwarzbart's explanation that his comrade suffers occasionally from weakness of the brain.

In the next act Peter, a youth of marvellous stupidity and cousin of the bailiff, presents himself in a woful plight, to which he has been reduced by some soldiers at the same wedding festivities, and shortly after Gustav, the real son appears on the scene. He is a manly fellow, full of tender {113} thoughts for his home. Great is therefore his surprise at finding himself repulsed by his own father, who not recognizing him, believes him to be an impostor. All the young man's protestations are of no avail, for in his knapsack are found the papers of a certain Wilhelm Stark, for whom he is now mistaken.--When silly Peter perceives him, he believes him to be the Grenadier, who had so ill-treated him at the wedding, though in reality it was Schwarzbart.

Gustav is shut up in a large garden-house of his father's; the small town lacking a prison.

In the third act the Magistrate has found out that Wilhelm's papers prove him to be the bailiff's son, being the offspring of his first love ----, who had been with a clergyman, and who, after the death of the bailiff's wife is vainly sought for by his father. Of course this changes everything for the prisoner, who is suddenly accosted graciously by his gruff guardian Barsch, and does not know what to make of his mysterious hints.

Meanwhile Caroline's heart has spoken for the stranger, who had addressed her so courteously and chivalrously; she feels that, far from being an impostor, he is a loyal and true-hearted young fellow and therefore decides to liberate him. At the same time enter Wilhelm with Schwarzbart, seeking Suschen; Peter slips in for the same reason, seeking her, for Suschen is to be his bride. Gustav, (the prisoner) hearing footsteps, blows out the candle, in order to save Caroline from being recognized {114} and so they all run about in the dark, playing hide and seek in an infinitely droll manner. At last the bailiff, having heard that his son has been found, comes up with the inn-keeper.--The whole mystery is cleared up, and both sons embrace their respective fathers and their brides.

HAMLET.

Grand Opera in five acts by AMBROISE THOMAS.

Text taken from SHAKESPEARE by MICHEL CARRE and JULES BARBIER.

Hamlet was first reproduced in Paris in 1868, a year after the representation of Mignon, but it never reached the latter's popularity.

This is not due to the music, which is very fine, and even n.o.bler than in Mignon, but to the horrid mutilation of Shakespeare's glorious tragedy, which almost turns into ridicule the most sublime thoughts.

The text is soon explained. We find the Shakespearean name with their thoughts and deeds turned into operatic jargon.

The first act shows Hamlet's disgust and pain at his mother's early wedding with Claudius, King of Denmark, only two months after her first husband's death. Ophelia vainly tries to divert his somber thoughts, he finds her love very sweet however, and when her brother Laertes, before starting on a long journey commends her to his friends'

protection, Hamlet swears to be true to her unto death.

In the interview at midnight with his father's ghost, Hamlet experiences great revulsion of feeling, when he discovers that his mother's second {115} husband, is his father's murderer. The ghost urges Hamlet, to avenge his parent, which he swears to do.

In the second act we find Hamlet quite changed. He not only avoids his father and mother, but also shuns Ophelia, who vainly tries to understand his strange behaviour. Determined to find out the truth about Claudius' guilt, Hamlet has paid some actor, to play the old tragedy of Gonzaga's murder. When the actor pours the poison into the sleeping King's mouth Claudius sinks back half fainting, and Hamlet, keenly observant, loudly accuses him of his father's death. But he is unable to act and after the King's escape he seeks his mother's room to ponder on his wrongs. Hidden behind a pillar he overhears from Claudius' own lips that Ophelia's father, old Polonius is the King's accomplice. This destroys the last spark of his belief in humanity.

Thrusting the weeping Ophelia from him, he advises her to shut herself into convent and to bid farewell to all earthly joys. Left alone with his mother he wildly reproaches her, and at last so far forgets himself, that he is about to kill her, had not his father's ghost appeared once more, exhorting him to take vengeance but to spare his mother.

This scene is very powerful, the music of strange and weird beauty.--

In the fourth act poor demented Ophelia takes part in the plays of the village-maidens. The Swedish song she sings to them is full of sweet pathos. When her playmates leave her, she hides {116} among the willows, enticed into the water by the "Neck" (Swedish for Sirens), whose own song she has sung. Slowly floating out on the waves her voice dies away softly. With her death the interest in the opera ends; however a fifth act takes us to her grave, where the whole funeral procession arrives. The ghost once more appeals to Hamlet for vengeance, until he rouses himself and runs his sword through Claudius, after which the ghost disappears, while Hamlet is elected King of Denmark on the spot.

The audience in German theatres is spared this last piece of absurdity and the play is brought to a more appropriate close by Hamlet's stabbing himself on his bride's bier.

HANSEL AND GRETEL.

A Fairytale in three pictures by ADELHEID WETTE.

Music by ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK.

After a long period of "Sturm und Drang" we have an opera so fresh and simple, that any child will delight in it! It not only captivates children and people of simple tastes; but, the most blases must acknowledge its charms. No thrilling drama, but a simple fairytale, known in every nursery has achieved this wonder. It is a revelation.