Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/180

168 the trio in 'Otello'; the delightful stretto of the finale, the duet 'Zitto, zitto,' the sestet 'Quest' è un nodo avvilupato'—a truly admirable morceau—and various other incidental passages, originally belonged to the 'Turco in Italia'; and the humorous duet 'Un segreto' is evidently modelled on that in Cimarosa's 'Matrimonio.' Such repetitions answered their purpose at the moment, but while thus extemporising his operas Rossini forgot that a day would arrive when they would all be published, and when such discoveries as those we have mentioned, and as the existence of the principal motif of the duet of the letter in 'Otello' in the Agitato of an air from 'Torvaldo e Dorliska,' would inevitably be made. As he himself confessed in a letter about this time, he thought he had a perfect right to rescue any of his earlier airs from operas which had either failed at the time or become forgotten since. Whatever force there may be in this defence, the fact remains that 'Cenerentola' and the 'Barber' share between them the glory of being Rossini's chefs d'œuvre in comic opera.

From Rome he went to Milan, to enjoy the triumph of the 'Gazza ladra,' libretto by Gherardini which was brought out in the spring of 1817 at the Scala. The dignified martial character of the overture, and the prodigious rolls of the drum, produced an immense effect; and the same may be said of all the numbers which are concerned with strong emotion:—give the public a strong impression, and it will not stop to discriminate. Nor did the Milanese, at these early representations, find any difference between the really fine parts of the opera and those which are mere remplissage—of which the 'Gazza ladra' has several. Nor would any one have noticed, even had they had the necessary knowledge, that in the first duet and the finale—as was the case also in the finale to the 'Cenerentola'—Rossini had borrowed an effect from the Poco adagio of Mozart's Symphony in C (Köchel, 425) by maintaining a sustained accompaniment in the wind while the strings and the voices carry on the ideas and the ornaments.

From Milan he returned to Naples, and produced 'Armida' during the autumn season, a grand opera in 3 acts, with ballet, which was mounted with great splendour, and enjoyed the advantage of very good singers. The duet 'Amor, possente Nume!'—which was soon to be sung though the length and breadth of Italy, the air 'Non soffiro l'offensa,' the incantation scene, the chorus of demons, and the airs de ballet, would alone have been sufficient to excite the Neapolitans; but these were not the only pieces applauded, and the remarkable trio 'In quale aspetto imbelle,' written for three tenors with extraordinary ease, a pretty chorus of women 'Qui tutto è calma,' and a scena with chorus, 'Germane a te richiede'—afterwards employed in the French version of 'Moïse' all deserve mention.

This fine work had hardly made its appearance before Rossini had to dash off two more—'Adelaide di Borgogna,' sometimes known as 'Ottone Rè d'Italia,' and an oratorio 'Mosè in Egitto.' 'Adelaide' was produced at the Argentina at Rome, in the Carnival of 1818, was well sung and warmly received. 'Mosè' was written for the San Carlo at Naples, and brought out there in Lent with an excellent cast—Isabella Colbran, Benedetti, Porto, and Nozzari. Here for the first time Rossini was so much pressed as to be compelled to call in assistance, and employed his old and tried friend Carafa in the recitatives and in Pharaoh's air 'Aspettar mi.' The scene of the darkness was another step onwards, and the whole work was much applauded, with the exception of the passage of the Red Sea, the representation of which was always laughed at, owing to the imperfection of the theatrical appliances already spoken of. At the resumption of the piece, therefore, in the following Lent, Rossini added a chorus to divert attention from the wretched attempt to represent the dividing waves, and it is to the sins of the Neapolitan stage machinists that we owe the universally popular prayer 'Dal tuo stellato soglio,' which is not only in itself a most important piece of music, but shows the value which Rossini attached to the rest of the work, which is indeed one of his very finest.

As some relaxation after this serious effort he undertook, in the summer of 1818, a one-act piece, 'Adina, o il Califfo di Bagdad,' for the San Carlos Theatre, Lisbon; and immediately after, 'Ricciardo e Zoraide' for San Carlo, Naples, which was sung to perfection at the autumn season there by Isabella Colbran, Pisaroni (whose excessive plainness was no bar to her splendid singing), Nozzari, Davide, and Cicimarra. Davide's air, the trio, the duet for the two women, and that of the two tenors, were all applauded to the echo.

'Ricciardo' was extraordinarily full of ornament, but 'Ermione,' which was produced at San Carlo in the Lent of 1819, went quite in the opposite direction, and affected an unusual plainness and severity. The result showed that this was a mistake. Though splendidly sung, 'Ermione' was not so fortunate as to please, and the single number applauded was the one air in which there was any ornamentation. So much for the taste of Naples in 1819! An equally poor reception was given to a cantata written for the re-establishment of the health of the King of Naples, and sung at the San Carlo Feb. 20, 1819. It consisted of a cavatina for Isabella Colbran, and an air with variations, which was afterwards utilised in the ballet of the 'Viaggio a Reims.' The piece was hastily thrown off, and was probably of no more value in the eyes of its author than was an opera called 'Eduardo e Cristina' which was brought out at the San Benedetto, Venice, this same spring, and was in reality a mere pasticcio of pieces from 'Ermione,'