"The construction of these newly-invented pieces is essentially different from the old. The dialogue, which used to be carried on in recitative, and which, in Metastasio"s operas, is often so beautiful and interesting, is now cut up (and rendered unintelligible if it were worth listening to) into _pezzi concertati_, or long singing conversations, which present a tedious succession of unconnected, ever-changing motives, having nothing to do with each other; and if a satisfactory air is for a moment introduced, which the ear would like to dwell upon, to hear modulated, varied, and again returned to, it is broken off, before it is well understood, by a sudden transition in an entirely different melody, time, and key, and recurs no more, so that no impression can be made, or recollection of it preserved. Single songs are almost exploded.... Even the _prima donna_, who formerly would have complained at having less than three or four airs allotted to her, is now satisfied with having one single _cavatina_ given to her during the whole opera."
In "Otello," Rossini introduced his operatic changes to the Italian public, and they were well received; yet great opposition was manifested by those who clung to the time-honoured canons. Sigismondi, of the Naples Conservatory, was horror-stricken on first seeing the score of this opera. The clarionets were too much for him, but on seeing third and fourth horn-parts, he exclaimed, "What does the man want? The greatest of our composers have always been contented with two. Shades of Pergolesi, of Leo, of Jomelli! How they must shudder at the bare thought! Four horns! Are we at a hunting-party? Four horns!
Enough to blow us to perdition!" Donizetti, who was Sigismondi"s pupil, also tells an amusing incident of his preceptor"s disgust. He was turning over a score of "Semiramide" in the library, when the _maestro_ came in and asked him what music it was. "Rossini"s," was the answer.
Sigismondi glanced at the page and saw 1. 2. 3. trumpets, being the first, second, and third trumpet parts. Aghast, he shouted, stuffing his fingers in his ears, "One hundred and twenty-three trumpets! _Corpo di Cristo!_ the world"s gone mad, and I shall go mad too!" And so he rushed from the room, muttering to himself about the hundred and twenty-three trumpets.
The Italian public, in spite of such criticism, very soon accepted the opera of "Otello" as the greatest serious opera ever written for their stage. It owed much, however, to the singers who ill.u.s.trated its roles. Mdme. Colbran, afterwards Rossini"s wife, sang Desdemona, and David, Otello. The latter was the predecessor of Rubini as the finest singer of the Rossinian music. He had the prodigious compa.s.s of three octaves; and M. Bertin, a French critic, says of this singer, so honourably linked with the career of our composer, "He is full of warmth, _verve_, energy, expression, and musical sentiment; alone he can fill up and give life to a scene; it is impossible for another singer to carry away an audience as he does, and, when he will only be simple, he is admirable. He is the Rossini of song; he is the greatest singer I ever heard." Lord Byron, in one of his letters to Moore, speaks of the first production at Milan, and praises the music enthusiastically, while condemning the libretto as a degradation of Shakespeare.
"La Cenerentola" and "La Gazza Ladra" were written in quick succession for Naples and Milan. The former of these works, based on the old Cinderella myth, was the last opera written by Rossini to ill.u.s.trate the beauties of the contralto voice, and Madame Georgi-Righetti, the early friend and steadfast patroness of the musician during his early days of struggle, made her last great appearance in it before retiring from the stage. In this composition, Rossini, though one of the most affluent and rapid of composers, displays that economy in art which sometimes characterised him. He introduced in it many of the more beautiful airs from his earlier and less successful works. He believed on principle that it was folly to let a good piece of music be lost through being married to a weak and faulty libretto. The brilliant opera of "La Gazza Ladra," set to the story of a French melodrama, "La Pie Voleuse," aggravated the quarrel between Paer, the director of the French opera, and the gifted Italian. Paer had designed to have written the music himself, but his librettist slyly turned over the poem to Rossini, who produced one of his masterpieces in setting it. The audience at La Scala received the work with the noisiest demonstrations, interrupting the progress of the drama with constant cries of "_Bravo! Maestro!_" "_Viva Rossini!_"
The composer afterwards said that acknowledging the calls of the audience fatigued him much more than the direction of the opera. When the same work was produced four years after in London, under Mr.
Ebers"s management, an incident related by that _impresario_ in his _Seven Years of the King"s Theatre_, shows how eagerly it was received by an English audience:--
"When I entered the stage door, I met an intimate friend, with a long face and uplifted eyes. "Good G.o.d! Ebers, I pity you from my soul.
This ungrateful public," he continued. "The wretches! Why! my dear sir, they have not left you a seat in your own house." Relieved from the fears he had created, I joined him in his laughter, and proceeded, a.s.suring him that I felt no ill towards the public for their conduct towards me."
Pa.s.sing over "Armida," written for the opening of the new San Carlo at Naples, "Adelaida di Borgogna," for the Roman Carnival of 1817, and "Adina," for a Lisbon theatre, we come to a work which is one of Rossini"s most solid claims on musical immortality, "Mose in Egitto,"
first produced at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1818. In "Mose," Rossini carried out still further than ever his innovations, the two princ.i.p.al roles--_Mose_ and _Faraoni_--being a.s.signed to ba.s.ses. On the first representation, the crossing of the Red Sea moved the audience to satirical laughter, which disconcerted the otherwise favourable reception of the piece, and entirely spoiled the final effects. The manager was at his wit"s end, till Tottola, the librettist, suggested a prayer for the Israelites before and after the pa.s.sage of the host through the cleft waters. Rossini instantly seized the idea, and, springing from bed in his night-shirt, wrote the music with almost inconceivable rapidity, before his embarra.s.sed visitors recovered from their surprise. The same evening the magnificent _Dal tuo stellato soglio_ ("To thee, Great Lord") was performed with the opera.
Let Stendhall, Rossini"s biographer, tell the rest of the story--"The audience was delighted as usual with the first act, and all went well till the third, when, the pa.s.sage of the Red Sea being at hand, the audience as usual prepared to be amused. The laughter was just beginning in the pit, when it was observed that Moses was about to sing. He began his solo, the first verse of a prayer, which all the people repeat in chorus after Moses. Surprised at this novelty, the pit listened and the laughter entirely ceased. The chorus, exceedingly fine, was in the minor. Aaron continues, followed by the people.
Finally, Eleia addresses to Heaven the same supplication, and the people respond. Then all fall on their knees and repeat the prayer with enthusiasm; the miracle is performed, the sea is opened to leave a path for the people protected by the Lord. This last part is in the major. It is impossible to imagine the thunders of applause that resounded through the house; one would have thought it was coming down. The spectators in the boxes, standing up and leaning over, called out at the top of their voices, "_Bello, bello! O che bello!_"
I never saw so much enthusiasm nor such a complete success, which was so much the greater, inasmuch as the people were quite prepared to laugh.... I am almost in tears when I think of this prayer. This state of things lasted a long time, and one of its effects was to make for its composer the reputation of an a.s.sa.s.sin, for Dr. Cottogna is said to have remarked--"I can cite to you more than forty attacks of nervous fever or violent convulsions on the part of young women, fond to excess of music, which have no other origin than the prayer of the Hebrews in the third act, with its superb change of key."" Thus, by a stroke of genius, a scene which first impressed the audience as a piece of theatrical burlesque, was raised to sublimity by the solemn music written for it.
M. Bochsa some years afterwards produced "Mose" as an oratorio in London, and it failed. A new libretto, however, "Pietro L"Eremito,"[G]
again transformed the music into an opera. Ebers tells us that Lord Sefton, a distinguished connoisseur, only p.r.o.nounced the general verdict in calling it the greatest of serious operas, for it was received with the greatest favour. A gentleman of high rank was not satisfied with a.s.suring the manager that he had deserved well of his country, but avowed his determination to propose him for membership at the most exclusive of aristocratic clubs--White"s.
"La Donna del Lago," Rossini"s next great work, also first produced at the San Carlo during the Carnival of 1820, though splendidly performed, did not succeed well the first night. The composer left Naples the same night for Milan, and coolly informed every one _en route_ that the opera was very successful, which proved to be true when he reached his journey"s end, for the Neapolitans on the second night reversed their decision into an enthusiasm as marked as their coldness had been.
Shortly after this Rossini married his favourite _prima donna_, Madame Colbran. He had just completed two of his now forgotten operas, "Bianca e Faliero" and "Matilda di Shabran," but did not stay to watch their public reception. He quietly took away the beautiful Colbran, and at Bologna was married by the archbishop. Thence the freshly-wedded couple visited Vienna, and Rossini there produced his "Zelmira," his wife singing the princ.i.p.al part. One of the most striking of this composer"s works in invention and ingenious development of ideas, Carpani says of it--"It contains enough to furnish not one but four operas. In this work, Rossini, by the new riches which he draws from his prodigious imagination, is no longer the author of "Otello," "Tancredi," "Zoraide," and all his preceding works; he is another composer, new, agreeable, and fertile, as much as at first, but with more command of himself, more pure, more masterly, and, above all, more faithful to the interpretation of the words. The forms of style employed in this opera, according to circ.u.mstances, are so varied, that now we seem to hear Gluck, now Traetta, now Sacchini, now Mozart, now Handel; for the gravity, the learning, the naturalness, the suavity of their conceptions, live and blossom again in "Zelmira." The transitions are learned, and inspired more by considerations of poetry and sense than by caprice and a mania for innovation. The vocal parts, always natural, never trivial, give expression to the words without ceasing to be melodious. The great point is to preserve both. The instrumentation of Rossini is really incomparable by the vivacity and freedom of the manner, by the variety and justness of the colouring." Yet it must be conceded that, while this opera made a deep impression on musicians and critics, it did not please the general public. It proved languid and heavy with those who could not relish the science of the music and the skill of the combinations. Such instances as this are the best answer to that school of critics, who have never ceased clamouring that Rossini could write nothing but beautiful tunes to tickle the vulgar and uneducated mind.
"Semiramide," first performed at the Fenice theatre in Venice on February 3, 1823, was the last of Rossini"s Italian operas, though it had the advantage of careful rehearsals and a n.o.ble caste. It was not well received at first, though the verdict of time places it high among the musical masterpieces of the century. In it were combined all of Rossini"s ideas of operatic reform, and the novelty of some of the innovations probably accounts for the inability of his earlier public to appreciate its merits. Mdme. Rossini made her last public appearance in this great work.
FOOTNOTE:
[G] The same music was set to a poem founded on the first crusade, all the most effective situations being dramatically utilised for the Christian legend.
IV.
Henceforward the career of the greatest of the Italian composers, the genius who shares with Mozart the honour of having impressed himself more than any other on the style and methods of his successors, was to be a.s.sociated with French music, though never departing from his characteristic quality as an original and creative mind. He modified French music, and left great disciples on whom his influence was radical, though perhaps we may detect certain reflex influences in his last and greatest opera, "William Tell." But of this more hereafter.
Before finally settling in the French capital, Rossini visited London, where he was received with great honours. "When Rossini entered,"[H]
says a writer in a London paper of that date, "he was received with loud plaudits, all the persons in the pit standing on the seats to get a better view of him. He continued for a minute or two to bow respectfully to the audience, and then gave the signal for the overture to begin. He appeared stout and somewhat below the middle height, with rather a heavy air, and a countenance which, though intelligent, betrayed none of the vivacity which distinguishes his music; and it was remarked that he had more of the appearance of a st.u.r.dy beef-eating Englishman than a fiery and sensitive native of the south."
The king, George IV., treated Rossini with peculiar consideration. On more than one occasion he walked with him arm-in-arm through a crowded concert-hall to the conductor"s stand. Yet the composer, who seems not to have admired his English Majesty, treated the monarch with much independence, not to say brusqueness, on one occasion, as if to signify his disdain of even royal patronage. At a grand concert at St.
James"s Palace, the king said, at the close of the programme, "Now, Rossini, we will have one piece more, and that shall be the _finale_."
The other replied, "I think, sir, we have had music enough for one night," and made his bow.
He was an honoured guest at the most fashionable houses, where his talents as a singer and player were displayed with much effect in an unconventional, social way. Auber, the French composer, was present on one of these occasions, and indicates how great Rossini could have been in executive music had he not been a king in the higher sphere.
"I shall never forget the effect," writes Auber, "produced by his lightning-like execution. When he had finished I looked mechanically at the ivory keys. I fancied I could see them smoking." Rossini was richer by seven thousand pounds by this visit to the English metropolis. Though he had been under engagement to produce a new opera as well as to conduct those which had already made him famous, he failed to keep this part of his contract. Pa.s.sages in his letters at this time would seem to indicate that Rossini was much piqued because the London public received his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, with coldness. Notwithstanding the beauty of her face and figure, and the greatness of her style both as actress and singer, she was p.r.o.nounced _pa.s.see_ alike in person and voice, with a species of brutal frankness not uncommon in English criticism.
When Rossini arrived in Paris he was almost immediately appointed director of the Italian Opera by the Duc de Lauriston. With this and the Academie he remained connected till the revolution of 1830. "Le Siege de Corinthe," adapted from his old work, "Maometto II.," was the first opera presented to the Parisian public, and, though admired, did not become a favourite. The French _amour propre_ was a little stung when it was made known that Rossini had simply modified and reshaped one of his early and immature productions as his first attempt at composition in French opera. His other works for the French stage were "Il Viaggio a Rheims," "Le Comte Ory," and "Guillaume Tell."
The last-named opera, which will ever be Rossini"s crown of glory as a composer, was written with his usual rapidity while visiting the chateau of M. Aguado, a country-seat some distance from Paris. This work, one of the half-dozen greatest ever written, was first produced at the Academie Royale on August 3, 1829. In its early form of libretto it had a run of fifty-six representations, and was then withdrawn from the stage; and the work of remodelling from five to three acts, and other improvements in the dramatic framework, was thoroughly carried out. In its new form the opera blazed into an unprecedented popularity, for of the greatness of the music there had never been but one judgment. Fetis, the eminent critic, writing of it immediately on its production, said--"The work displays a new man in an old one, and proves that it is in vain to measure the action of genius," and follows with--"This production opens a new career to Rossini," a prophecy unfortunately not to be realised, for Rossini was soon to retire from the field in which he had made such a remarkable career, while yet in the very prime of his powers.
"Guillaume Tell" is full of melody, alike in the solos and the ma.s.sive choral and ballet music. It runs in rich streams through every part of the composition. The overture is better known to the general public than the opera itself, and is one of the great works of musical art.
The opening andante in triple time for the five violoncelli and double ba.s.ses at once carries the hearer to the regions of the upper Alps, where, amid the eternal snows, Nature sleeps in a peaceful dream. We perceive the coming of the sunlight, and the hazy atmosphere clearing away before the new-born day. In the next movement the solitude is all dispelled. The raindrops fall thick and heavy, and a thunderstorm bursts. But the fury is soon spent, and the clouds clear away. The shepherds are astir, and from the mountain-sides come the peculiar notes of the "Ranz des Vaches" from their pipes. Suddenly all is changed again. Trumpets call to arms, and with the mustering battalions the music marks the quickstep, as the shepherd patriots march to meet the Austrian chivalry. A brilliant use of the violins and reeds depicts the exultation of the victors on their return, and closes one of the grandest sound-paintings in music.
The original cast of "Guillaume Tell" included the great singers then in Paris, and these were so delighted with the music, that the morning after the first production they a.s.sembled on the terrace before his house and performed selections from it in his honour.
With this last great effort Rossini, at the age of thirty-seven, may be said to have retired from the field of music, though his life was prolonged for forty years. True, he composed the "Stabat Mater" and the "Messe Solennelle," but neither of these added to the reputation won in his previous career. The "Stabat Mater," publicly performed for the first time in 1842, has been recognised, it is true, as a masterpiece; but its entire lack of devotional solemnity, its brilliant and showy texture, preclude its giving Rossini any rank as a religious composer.
He spent the forty years of his retirement partly at Bologna, partly at Pa.s.sy, near Paris, the city of his adoption. His hospitality welcomed the brilliant men from all parts of Europe who loved to visit him, and his relations with other great musicians were of the most kindly and cordial character. His sunny and genial nature never knew envy, and he was quick to recognise the merits of schools opposed to his own. He died, after intense suffering, on November 13, 1868. He had been some time ill, and four of the greatest physicians in Europe were his almost constant attendants. The funeral of "The Swan of Pesaro," as he was called by his compatriots, was attended by an immense concourse, and his remains rest in Pere-Lachaise.
FOOTNOTE:
[H] His first English appearance in public was at the King"s Theatre, on the 24th of January 1824, when he conducted his own opera, "Zelmira."
V.
Moscheles, the celebrated pianist, gives us some charming pictures of Rossini in his home at Pa.s.sy, in his diary of 1860. He writes--"Felix [his son] had been made quite at home in the villa on former occasions. To me the _parterre salon_, with its rich furniture, was quite new, and before the _maestro_ himself appeared we looked at his photograph in a circular porcelain frame, on the sides of which were inscribed the names of his works. The ceiling is covered with pictures ill.u.s.trating scenes out of Palestrina"s and Mozart"s lives; in the middle of the room stands a Pleyel piano. When Rossini came in he gave me the orthodox Italian kiss, and was effusive of expressions of delight at my reappearance, and very complimentary on the subject of Felix. In the course of our conversation he was full of hard-hitting truths on the present study and method of vocalisation. "I don"t want to hear anything more of it," he said; "they scream. All I want is a resonant, full-toned voice, not a screeching voice. I care not whether it be for speaking or singing, everything ought to sound melodious.""
So, too, Rossini a.s.sured Moscheles that he hated the new school of piano-players, saying the piano was horribly maltreated, for the performers thumped the keys as if they had some vengeance to wreak on them. When the great player improvised for Rossini, the latter says, "It is music that flows from the fountain-head. There is reservoir water and spring water. The former only runs when you turn the c.o.c.k, and is always redolent of the vase; the latter always gushes forth fresh and limpid. Nowadays people confound the simple and the trivial; a _motif_ of Mozart they would call trivial, if they dared."
On other occasions Moscheles plays to the _maestro_, who insists on having discovered barriers in the "humoristic variations," so boldly do they seem to raise the standard of musical revolution; his t.i.tle of the "Grand Valse" he finds too una.s.suming. "Surely a waltz with some angelic creature must have inspired you, Moscheles, with this composition, and _that_ the t.i.tle ought to express. t.i.tles, in fact, should pique the curiosity of the public." "A view uncongenial to me,"
adds Moscheles; "however, I did not discuss it.... A dinner at Rossini"s is calculated for the enjoyment of a "gourmet," and he himself proved to be the one, for he went through the very select _menu_ as only a connoisseur would. After dinner he looked through my alb.u.m of musical autographs with the greatest interest, and finally we became very merry, I producing my musical jokes on the piano, and Felix and Clara figuring in the duet which I had written for her voice and his imitation of the French horn. Rossini cheered l.u.s.tily, and so one joke followed another till we received the parting kiss and "good night." ... At my next visit, Rossini showed me a charming "Lied ohne Worte," which he composed only yesterday; a graceful melody is embodied in the well-known technical form. Alluding to a performance of "Semiramide," he said, with a malicious smile, "I suppose you saw the beautiful decorations in it?" He has not received the Sisters Marchisio for fear they should sing to him, nor has he heard them in the theatre; he spoke warmly of Pasta, Lablache, Rubini, and others, then he added that I ought not to look with jealousy upon his budding talent as a pianoforte-player, but that, on the contrary, I should help to establish his reputation as such in Leipsic. He again questioned me with much interest about my intimacy with Clementi, and, calling me that master"s worthy successor, he said he should like to visit me in Leipsic, if it were not for those dreadful railways, which he would never travel by. All this in his bright and lively way; but when we came to discuss Chevet, who wishes to supplant musical notes by ciphers, he maintained, in an earnest and dogmatic tone, that the system of notation, as it had developed itself since Pope Gregory"s time, was sufficient for all musical requirements. He certainly could not withhold some appreciation for Chevet, but refused to indorse the certificate granted by the Inst.i.tute in his favour; the system he thought impracticable.
"The never-failing stream of conversation flowed on until eleven o"clock, when I was favoured with the inevitable kiss, which on this occasion was accompanied by special farewell blessings."
Shortly after Moscheles had left Paris, his son forwarded to him most friendly messages from Rossini, and continues thus--"Rossini sends you word that he is working hard at the piano, and, when you next come to Paris, you shall find him in better practice.... The conversation turning upon German music, I asked him "which was his favourite among the great masters?" Of Beethoven he said, "I take him twice a-week, Haydn four times, and Mozart every day. You will tell me that Beethoven is a Colossus who often gives you a dig in the ribs, while Mozart is always adorable; it is that the latter had the chance of going very young to Italy, at a time when they still sang well." Of Weber he says, "He has talent enough, and to spare" (_Il a du talent a revendre, celui-la_). He told me in reference to him, that, when the part of "Tancred" was sung at Berlin by a ba.s.s voice, Weber had written violent articles not only against the management, but against the composer, so that, when Weber came to Paris, he did not venture to call on Rossini, who, however, let him know that he bore him no grudge for having made these attacks; on receipt of that message Weber called and they became acquainted.
"I asked him if he had met Byron in Venice? "Only in a restaurant,"
was the answer, "where I was introduced to him; our acquaintance, therefore, was very slight; it seems he has spoken of me, but I don"t know what he says." I translated for him, in a somewhat milder form, Byron"s words, which happened to be fresh in my memory--"They have been crucifying Oth.e.l.lo into an opera; the music good but lugubrious, but, as for the words, all the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the greatest nonsense instead, the handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, and the first singer would not black his face--singing, dresses, and music very good." The _maestro_ regretted his ignorance of the English language, and said, "In my day I gave much time to the study of our Italian literature. Dante is the man I owe most to; he taught me more music than all my music-masters put together, and when I wrote my "Otello," I would introduce those lines of Dante--you know the song of the gondolier. My librettist would have it that gondoliers never sang Dante, and but rarely Ta.s.so, but I answered him, "I know all about that better than you, for I have lived in Venice and you haven"t.
Dante I must and will have."""
VI.
An ardent disciple of Wagner sums up his ideas of the mania for the Rossini music, which possessed Europe for fifteen years, in the following--"Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her sons [speaking of Italy] sallied forth with an innumerable army of Bacchantic melodies to conquer the world, the Messiah of joy, the breaker of thought and sorrow. Europe, by this time, had tired of the empty pomp of French declamation. It lent but too willing an ear to the new gospel, and eagerly quaffed the intoxicating potion, which Rossini poured out in inexhaustible streams." This very well expresses the delight of all the countries of Europe in music which for a long time almost monopolised the stage.
The charge of being a mere tune-spinner, the denial of invention, depth, and character, have been common watchwords in the mouths of critics wedded to other schools. But Rossini"s place in music stands unshaken by all a.s.saults. The vivacity of his style, the freshness of his melodies, the richness of his combinations, made all the Italian music that preceded him pale and colourless. No other writer revels in such luxury of beauty, and delights the ear with such a succession of delicious surprises in melody.
Henry Chorley, in his _Thirty Years" Musical Recollections_, rebukes the bigotry which sees nothing good but in its own kind--"I have never been able to understand why this [referring to the Rossinian richness of melody] should be contemned as necessarily false and meretricious--why the poet may not be allowed the benefit of his own period and time--why a lover of architecture is to be compelled to swear by the _Dom_ at Bamberg, or by the Cathedral at Monreale--that he must abhor and denounce Michael Angelo"s church or the Baths of Diocletian at Rome--why the person who enjoys "Il Barbiere" is to be denounced as frivolously faithless to Mozart"s "Figaro"--and as incapable of comprehending "Fidelio," because the last act of "Otello"
and the second of "Guillaume Tell" transport him into as great an enjoyment of its kind as do the duet in the cemetery between Don Juan and Leporello and the "Prisoners" Chorus." How much good, genial pleasure has not the world lost in music, owing to the pitting of styles one against the other! Your true traveller will be all the more alive to the beauty of Nuremberg because he has looked out over the "Golden Sh.e.l.l" at Palermo; nor delight in Rhine and Danube the less because he has seen the glow of a southern sunset over the broken bridge at Avignon."
As grand and true as are many of the essential elements in the Wagner school of musical composition, the bitterness and narrowness of spite with which its upholders have pursued the memory of Rossini is equally offensive and unwarrantable. Rossini, indeed, did not revolutionise the forms of opera as transmitted to him by his predecessors, but he reformed and perfected them in various notable ways. Both in comic and serious opera, music owes much to Rossini. He subst.i.tuted genuine singing for the endless recitative of which the Italian opera before him largely consisted; he brought the ba.s.s and baritone voices to the front, banished the pianoforte from the orchestra, and laid down the principle that the singer should deliver the notes written for him without additions of his own. He gave the chorus a much more important part than before, and elaborated the concerted music, especially in the _finales_, to a degree of artistic beauty before unknown in the Italian opera. Above all, he made the operatic orchestra what it is to-day. Every new instrument that was invented Rossini found a place for in his brilliant scores, and thereby incurred the warmest indignation of all writers of the old school. Before him the orchestras had consisted largely of strings, but Rossini added an equally imposing element of the bra.s.ses and reeds. True, Mozart had forestalled Rossini in many if not all these innovations, a fact which the Italian cheerfully admitted; for, with the simple frankness characteristic of the man, he always spoke of his obligations to and his admiration of the great German. To an admirer who was one day burning incense before him, Rossini said, in the spirit of Cimarosa quoted elsewhere, "My "Barber" is only a bright farce, but in Mozart"s "Marriage of Figaro" you have the finest possible masterpiece of musical comedy."
With all concessions made to Mozart as the founder of the forms of modern opera, an equally high place must be given to Rossini for the vigour and audacity with which he made these available, and impressed them on all his contemporaries and successors. Though Rossini"s self-love was flattered by constant adulation, his expressions of respect and admiration for such composers as Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, and Cherubini, display what a catholic and generous nature he possessed. The judgment of Ambros, a severe critic, whose bias was against Rossini, shows what admiration was wrung from him by the last opera of the composer--"Of all that particularly characterises Rossini"s early operas nothing is discoverable in "Tell;" there is none of his usual mannerism; but, on the contrary, unusual richness of form and careful finish of detail, combined with grandeur of outline.
Meretricious embellishment, shakes, runs, and cadences are carefully avoided in this work, which is natural and characteristic throughout; even the melodies have not the stamp and style of Rossini"s earlier times, but only their graceful charm and lively colouring."