Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/517

OPERA. copies of which are preserved in most of the larger European Libraries, both public and private, though very few were ever published—a circumstance the more to be regretted, since the freshness of their Melodies rarely fails to attract attention, even at the present day. It would be difficult, for instance, to find, in a composition of any date, a more delicious phrase than the following:—

The most talented of Scarlatti's contemporaries were, among Neapolitans, Alessandro Stradella and Francesco Rossi; in Venice, Antonio Caldara and Antonio Lotti; in Bologna, Antonio Perti, Francesco Pistocchi, and Giovanni Maria Buononcini; and, in Vicenza, Domenico Freschi. But for his untimely death, Stradella's genius would undoubtedly have entitled him to take rank as the founder of an original and highly characteristic School. As it was, he lived but to compose one single Opera, 'La Forza dell' Amor paterno,' the Libretto of which was printed at Genoa in 1678. Rossi, though born in Naples, wrote chiefly for Venice, where he met with very great success. Lotti produced eighteen successful Operas in that city, between the years 1683 and 1717; and one in Dresden. Caldara enriched the Venetian School with five, besides writing many more for Vienna, founded for the most part upon the Libretti of Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio. The greater number of Freschi's works were also written for Venice; but his famous 'Berenice' was first performed at Padua, in 1680, the year in which Scarlatti made his first appearance in Rome, with a mise en scene which exceeded in magnificence anything that had ever been previously attempted. Among the attractions mentioned in the printed book of the Opera, we find Choruses of 100 Virgins, 100 Soldiers, and 100 Horsemen in iron armour; besides 40 Cornets, on horseback; 6 mounted Trumpeters; 6 Drummers; 6 Ensigns; 6 Sackbuts; 6 Flutes; 12 Minstrels, playing on Turkish and other Instruments; 6 Pages; 3 Sergeants; 6 Cymbaleers; 12 Huntsmen; 12 Grooms; 12 Charioteers; 2 Lions, led by 2 Turks; 2 led Elephants; Berenice's Triumphal Car, drawn by 4 Horses; 6 other Cars, drawn by 12 Horses; 6 Chariots, for the Procession; a Stable, containing 100 living Horses; a Forest, filled with Wild-boar, Deer, and Bears; and other scenic splendours, too numerous to mention in detail, but highly significant, as indicative of a condition of the Drama in which, notwithstanding an honest desire on the part of many a true Artist to attain æsthetic perfection, the taste of the general public was as yet unable to soar above the vulgarities of a frivolous peep-show. To so great an extent was this absurdity carried, that Pistocchi's 'Leandro' (1679) and 'Girello' (1682) were performed in Venice by Puppets, and Ziani's 'Damira placata' by mechanical Figures, as large as life, while the real Singers officiated behind the scenes. Concerning the influence of such vanities upon the future prospects of Art we shall have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter.

The, though very nearly synchronous with the Fourth, differs from it in so many essential characteristics, that it may be said to possess, not merely a history, but an Art-life peculiar to itself. The scene of its development was Paris, to which city its leading spirit, Giovanni Battista Lulli, was brought from Florence in the year 1646, in the character of Page to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Niece of Louis XIV. For the personal history of this extraordinary genius we must refer our readers to pp. 172-174 of the present volume; all that concerns us here is his influence upon the Musical Drama. Removed from Italy at the age of 13, he brought none of its traditions to France, and was thus left to form a School—for he did nothing less—by the aid of his own natural talent alone. He has not, indeed, escaped the charge of plagiarism; and it is well known that he profited not a little by the study of such works of Cavalli and Cesti as he could obtain in Paris: but the assertion that he imitated the forms invented by the great leaders of the Venetian School, from inability to strike out new ones for himself, is equally inconsistent with the known conditions under which his Operas were produced, and the internal evidence afforded by a careful analysis of the works themselves. The French Grand Opera was no importation from foreign parts. It had an independent origin of its own; and is as clearly traceable to the Ballet, as its Italian sister is to Classical Tragedy. As early as the year 1581, a