Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/519

OPERA. no dramatic Composer of the 17th century has left behind him so great a number of works, the beauty of which time has no power to destroy, as Henry Purcell. In all essential points, he was immeasurably in advance of the age in which he lived. His Melodies sound as fresh to-day as they did when they were first written; and for the best of all possible reasons. Apart from their skilful construction, which betrays the hand of the accomplished Musician in every bar, they are pervaded throughout by a spontaneity of thought which can never grow old. Springing directly from the depths of the Composer's heart, they never fail to find, in the hearts of their hearers, a response over which the tyranny of fashion can exercise no influence. It is not surprising that their author should have created his own model, instead of following the example of the French or Italian Composers. The idea of English Opera was suggested neither by the Ballet nor the Tragedy. It was the legitimate offspring of the Masque; and the Masque, in England at least, was very far from presenting the characteristics of a true Lyric Drama. Its Music was, at first, purely incidental—as much so as that introduced into the Plays of Shakespeare. It is true, that as early as 1617 Nicolo Laniere set an entire Masque of Ben Jonson's to Music, in the Stilo recitative, and may therefore justly claim the credit of having composed the first English Opera, though he was by birth an Italian. But the practice was not continued. The Music written by Henry Lawes for Milton's 'Comus,' in 1634, is far less dramatic than Lock's 'Macbeth'; and it was really Purcell who first transformed the Masque into the Opera; or rather, annihilated the one, and introduced the other in its place: and this he did so satisfactorily, that, measuring his success by the then condition of Art in France and Italy, he left nothing more to be desired. His Recitative, no less rhetorically perfect than Lulli's, was infinitely more natural, and frequently impassioned to the last degree; and his Airs, despite his self-confessed admiration for the Italian style, shew little trace of the forms then most in vogue, but breathing rather the spirit of unfettered National Melody, stand forth as models of refinement and freedom. Purcell's dramatic compositions are very numerous, and it is not improbable that many of them have been lost. The names have been preserved of 'Dido and Æneas' (1677), 'Abelazor' (ib.) [App. p.735 "(1675), 'Abdelazar' (1677)"], 'Timon of Athens' (1678), 'The Virtuous Wife' (1680), 'Theodosius' (ib.), 'The Indian Queen,' 'Dioclesian, or the Prophetess' (1690), Dryden's 'Tempest' (ib.), 'King Arthur' (1691), 'Amphitrion' (ib.) [App. p.735 "1690"], 'The Gordian Knot untied' (ib.), 'Distressed Innocence' (ib.), 'The Fairy Queen' (1692), 'The Old Bachelor' (1693), 'The Married Beau' (1694), 'The Double Dealer' (ib.), 'Don Quixote' (ib.) [App. p.735 "1695"], and 'Bonduca' (1695). Of these, some were complete Operas; some, Plays with Incidental Music; and some, dramatic pieces for which he wrote only the Overtures and Act Tunes. The complete Score of 'Dioclesian' was published in 1691, with a dedication to Charles Duke of Somerset. A splendid edition of 'King Arthur' was published by the Musical Antiquarian Society. MS. Scores of 'Dido and Æneas,' 'Bonduca,' 'Timon of Athens,' 'Dioclesian,' and 'A Second Interlude,' will be found in the Dragonetti Collection, in the British Museum; and a large selection of Songs and other pieces from the entire series are preserved in a work called '../Orpheus Britannicus/,' published by the Composer's widow in 1698, and now becoming scarce. It would be difficult to point to a finer example of his style than the following enchanting Melody from 'King Arthur':

What Lulli did for France, and Purcell for England, Reinhard Keiser, the leading Composer of our, did for Germany. The Opera was first imported into that country from Italy in 1627, when Rinuccini's 'Dafne,' translated into German by Martin Opitz, and set to Music by Heinrich Schütz, was performed at Torgau, on the occasion of the marriage of George II, Landgraf of Hesse, with the sister of the Elector of Saxony. At Regensburg, the Musical Drama made its first appearance with Benedetto Ferrari's 'L'Inganno d'Amore,' in 1653. Antonio Draghi's 'Alcindo,' and 'Cloridia,' were produced in 1665 at Vienna; and Giulio Riva's 'Adelaida Regia Principessa di Susa,' at Munich. But all these last-named works were sung in Italian. The true cradle of the German Opera, despite its transient success at Torgau, was Hamburg; in which city Johann Theile produced his 'Adam und Eva'—the first 'Singspiel' ever publicly performed in the German language—in 1678. This was followed, in the same year, by 'Orontes'; and from that time forward the Hamburg Theatre retained