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Ava. 16, 1851.] * ©t» * %ta*iV* 781
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Ctjt 5Uta.
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SAPPHO. The announcement of M. Gounod's ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Spontini. Hy Hector Bekliojz. (Translate...
nretended difficulties of the new work , against the unusual fo rms of that grand style , and the impetuous movements of that burning passion , born of the pure rays of an Italian sun . Every one wanted to retrench , to cut , prune , smooth away that proud exacting music , which wearied its interpreters by demanding ceaseless attention , tenderness , vigour , and scrupulous fidelity . Madame Branchu herself , that inspired woman , who " created" so admirably the part of Julia , confessed to me with sincere regret at her culpable want of courage , that she one day declared to Spontini , that she never should be able to learn his " unsingable recitatives . " The alterations in
the instrumentation , the suppressions , restorations , and transpositions , had already cost the Opera administration enormous copying expenses . Without Josephine ' s indefatigable kindness and the " will" of Napoleon , who insisted that the impossible should be done , there is no doubt that La Vestale , discarded as absurd and impossible to execute , would never have seen the light . But whilst the poor , great artist was writhing under the torture inflicted on him at the Opera with such cruel pertinacity , the Conservatoire was melting the lead which , on the day of performance , it intended pouring into the victim ' s smarting wounds ; the whole raff of young contra-puntists swearing , upon
the word of their masters , that Spontini did not know the first elements of harmony , that his vocal scoring was , in comparison to the accompaniments , like a ' ? handful of hairs upon a plate of soup" ( I have heard that noble comparison applied to the works of Spontini in the ranks of the Conservatoire for the space of ten yeais ) ; all these young stringers of notes , as capable of understanding and feeling what was great in music , as Messieurs , the " portiers , " their fathers , were of judging literature and philosophy , plotted together to damn La Vestale . Hisses were not allowed . The plan of yawnings and laughter was adopted , and each of the young myrmidons was
to put on a nightcap at the end of the second act , and pretend to fall asleep . But they dared not do it , and during the crescendo of this overwhelming chef d ' ceuvre , Spontini ' s orchestra contrived to keep the sleepers awake in spite of themselves . The spirit of the Conservatoire has changed since then . A hundred performances could not satisfy the enthusiasm of the Parisians ; La Vestale was played , ill or well , in all the provincial theatres ; was performed in Germany ; and even filled a season at San Carlos , at Naples , where Madame Colbran , afterwards Madame Rossini , played the part of Julia ; a triumph of which the author was not informed till long after , and which caused him deep delight .
Master of a position so fiercely disputed , and conscious at last of his power , Spontini was about to undertake another composition in the epic style—Electra , when the Emperor sent him word that he should like him to take as the subject of his next opera , the conquest of Mexico by Fernand Cortez ; an order which the composer hastened to obey . Nevertheless , the tragedy of Electra had struck him deeply ; the setting of it to music was one of his dearest plans , and only two years ago I heard him express regret at having abandoned it .
I think , however , that the emperor ' s choice was fortunate for the author of La Vestale , by preventing his second attempt at the antique , and compelling him to bestow on scenes no less pathetic , but more T tried and Iobs solemn , that new and charming colouring , that dignified and tender expression , and those happy audacities which muke the opera of Cortez the worthy rival of its elder Bister . The success of the now opera was triumphant . From that day forth , ( Spontini , master of our iirst lyrical theatre , might exclaim like his own hero— " ( Jette terre est h moi , je no la quitte plus ! " It was a year after the appearance of Fernand Cortez that Spontini was named director of the Italian opera , lie collected an excellent troop , and it was owing to him that the Don Giovanni of Mozart was heard for the first time at 1 'arin .
Nevertheless , in spite of Spontini ' s eminent services to art in his direction of the Italian opera , an intrigue , of which money Avas the mainspring , obliged him to relinquish it ; moreover , I ' aer , who at that time directed tin : little opera lumNt : belonging to 11 n ; court , and wan but littlo pleased at the success of bin rival on the vast scene of the opera , affected to talk slightingly of him ; npoke of him jim a renegade ; 'idled him Monsieur Spontin , thus frenchifying his mime ; and , on many occasions , drew him into those snares which the Signor Astucio was such an udept in laying .
Once- more free , Spontini wrote an opera , called I'Hat / it , or La Uoi ct la I'dri , now forgotten ; then I as Ittc . n . i ; riuau . v , a ballet opera , in company with 1 •¦ rsuiH , Her ton , and Kroutzer . When the Dandide . was revived , ttalieri , too old to leave Vienna , en-JiUHicd him wilh the supei vision of the reheanmla of us work , authorizing him to make any chunges and 'Klditioim lu ; might think necessary . Spontini only 'Utered the t , nd of IlyperinncHtia ' s air , " Par l-. s iarmtla aont outreJille , " by milling a coda lull of < lraiUc B I it . But lie composed for her Hoyorul
exquisite pieces of dance music , and a bacchanalian song , which will live as a model of delirious transport and of the perfect expression of wild and gloomy joy . To these varied labours succeeded the composition of Olympia , a grand opera in three acts . Neither at its first production , nor at its revival in 1827 , was it able to , obtain the success which , in my opinion , it deserved . Various fortuitous causes contributed to stop its career . The state of political feeling interfered with it . The Abbe Gregoire at that time occupied the public mind , and a premeditated allusion to that famous regicide was supposed to exist in that scene in Olympia in which Statira exclaims : — " Je denonce a la terre , Et voue a , sa colere L ' assasBin de son roi . "
Thenceforth the liberal party became hostile to the new opera . The murder of the Duke de Berri having caused the theatre in the Rue Richelieu to be closed soon after , the performances suddenly ceased , and thus the last blow was levelled at a success which could hardly be looked upon as definitive , by abruptly turning away public attention from questions of art . When , after a lapse of eight years , Olympia was revived , Spontini , who had in the interval been appointed musical director to the King of Prussia , found a great change in the tastes and ideas of the Parisians when he returned from Berlin . Rossini had 3 * arrived from Italy , and was
powerfully patronized by M . de la Rochefoucault and all the men of influence . The dilettanti raved at the very name of Rossini , and tore all other composers to pieces . The music of Olympia was sneered at as plain chaunt , and M . de la Rochefoucault refused to prolong , by a few weeks , the engagement of Madame Branchu , who alone could play the part of Statira . She performed it once on the occasion of her final benefit , and all was over . Spontini , wounded by many other acts of hostility too long to enumerate here , returned to Berlin , where his position was in every respect worthy of himself , and of the Sovereign who knew how to appreciate him .
On his return to Prussia he wrote for the festivals of the Court a ballet opera , called Nourmahal , the subject of which is borrowed from Moore ' s poem of Lalla Roohh . In this graceful opera he introduced his famous bacchanalian song from the Dandides , developing it , and adding to it a chorus . He afterwards rewrote the finale of the last act of Cortez . This new finale , which the Opera of Paris did not condescend to adopt when Cortez was revived there six or seven years ago , and which I have seen in Berlin , is magnificent—far superior to that known in France . In 1825 , Spontini produced at Berlin the
fairy opera of Aleidor , much ridiculed by the enemies of the author , on account of the noisy instrumentation which they accused him of introducing into it , and of an orchestra of anvils , used as an accompaniment to a chorus of blacksmiths . This work is quite unknown to me . As some compensation , however , I have been able to look through the opera of Agnes de Hohenstaufen , which succeeded Alcidor , after a lapse of twelve 5 ears . This subject , of the kind called romantic , demanded an entirely different style from all those hitherto used by Spontini . He introduced into the concerted pieces some very curious combinations .
Spontini had been induced to desire academic repose and leisure ; at first by the persecutions and enmities which were rising up against him in Berlin ; afterwards , by a strange disease in the organs of hearing , painful symptoms of which he had long felt at intervals . During the periodical disturbances of an organ which he had so much used , Spontini scarcely heard , and any isolated sound which reached his ear seemed like an accumulation of discords . Thence total impossibility to listen to music , and the necessity of renouncing it until the morbid period had passed away .
His reception by the Institute was done nobly , and , we must say it , in a manner most honourable to French musicians . All who might have entered the lists , felt Jhat they ought to make way for so glorious a name , and contented themselves by retiring from compelition , and thus joining their votes to those of the entire Academy of the Fine Arts . In 1811 , Spontini married the sister of our famous pianoforte maker , Krard . The attentions which nho lavished upon him contributed not a little to soothe the irritation , and lessen the anxieties , to which Ins nervoiiH nature , mid troubles only too real , rendered him a prey during the latter yearn of his life . In 1812 , he made a loving pilgrimage to his native land , where ho founded several philanthropic institutions with the fruits of his own labours .
At last , to escape from the melanchol y fancies tluvt oppressed him , he decided on undertaking a second journey to Majolati . He reached it , entered the deserted house where , Hoventy-two years before , he fii-Ht Raw the light ; rented there several weekn , meditating on the vicissitudes of his brilliant but stormy career , and nuddenly breathed his last , covered with glory , ami loaded with the bleHsiuga of his countrymen . The circlo wu » closed ; his taek wua ended .
Ava. 16, 1851.] * ©T» * %Ta*Iv* 781
Ava . , 1851 . ] * © t » * % ta * iV * 781
Ctjt 5uta.
Ctjt 5 Uta .
Sappho. The Announcement Of M. Gounod's ...
SAPPHO . The announcement of M . Gounod ' s new opera sent me to those poetic fragments which have been saved from the wreck of Sappho ' s genius , by grammarians and critics . O the caprices of Fame ! A poetess whose impassioned genius astonished and delighted all Greece , owes her rescue from ohlivion to some plodding grammarian who cites passages of her poems because they are asynarteti verses ! The pedant ! Does it not serve him right that a German commentator should indignantly prove them not to be asynarteti after all ? And yet we ought to be thankful for the blunder which saved us a fragment of Lesbian
verse . To these fragments I turned . La Harpe , in his lively off-hand way , says there are only a dozen of her verses extant . As he had never seen them , he might as well have abstained from specifying the number . In Bergk ' s collection ( Poeta Lyrici ) , they form some five-and-twenty pages ; or , deducting half for the notes , say some dozen pages . A part , however , is so insignificant as not to count j being mere phrases , hemistichs , or single lines . In the longer fragments enough remains to justify , in some sort , her gigantic fame . Love ! love ! is
the melodious wailing that runs through them ; ove the most passionate and the most unhappy , but not , I grieve to say , always the most " proper" ! Indeed ' Lesbian love , " as the classical reader knows , is a thing to make every proper wig emulous of " the fretful porcupine ; " and Sappho , though a great genius , was a Lesbian in all the force of the term ; and some of her poems have an equivoque similar to that in Shakspeare's sonnets . It is difficult to convey an idea of what the more accomplished Lesbian women were , since our word " courtezan" conveys a positively false
impression ; and although Sappho was certainly not a courtezan , she was assuredly a young ladyimpossible to be " received" in society . Her position belongs to Greek manners . The virtuous wife was so purely a household fixture , and was so rigidly confined to domestic life , that any woman who shared in public life , whose intellect moved freely amidst the questions that occupied men , who possessed the accomplishments of Art , must have belonged to another class , and must have put up with the disadvantages as well as the advantages of her position .
Lesbos was equally celebrated for its women and its wine . There the women were educated for public life ( excuse my softening the phrase ) , as they are educated for musical lite in the Conservatoire of Paris . Idolaters of beauty as the Greeks were , they were still greater idolaters of intellect ; the Lesbian , therefore , placed culture even before beauty . The education of the Lesbian was twofold—gymnastics and music ; and by gymnastics the Greek meant all that concerns the body ; by music all that concerns the mind . ( See Pluto ' s Republic . ) So comprehensive an
education—embracing art , philosophy , poetry , and dancingnecessitated a sort of college for these women . There they were trained for a life of gallantry . From it thoy issued to become the mistresses , sometimes the wives , of the wealthy and great . The mention of Aspasia—who wrote . speeches for Pericles , and whose conversation was eagerly sought by Socrates—is enough to show the field of energetic action and influence open to the Lesbian ; although , of course , many of those who came from the college remained nothing- more than courtezans .
I touch on these points , I cannot dwell on them . Knough has been said to indicate Sappho ' s position . Of her life little is known . There were several Sapphos , and biographical parti / ans have insisted upon throwing- on the shoulders of her namesakes every little detail of scandal which mi ght lessen the poetess ' s fair fame . [ have no objection ; provided you grant that she wan . 1 Lesbian ; that in all I stickle for . Tradition runs that she was loved by AIc . imis , whom she . slighted and was herself sli ghted by the beautiful 1 'liaon whom she loved ; and that , broken-hearted by his scorn , , she threw herself from the Leucadiaii rock
into the foaming sea . Were ; I a German sceptic , I should point out . some improbabilities in thin tradition . Leucadia is a long voyage from Lcsbo . w , and if Sappho had had suicidal ihoughls , hIh : would scarcely have travelled a long journey to realize ( hem—unless . she luul read George Sand , and wished to imitate Indiana ! Not being a
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081851/page/17/
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