Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/167

Rh 20th of October, 1749, in connection with his Attilio Regolo; a letter to which we may usefully refer the reader. Never did poet supervise more closely the work of the composer—or determine, beforehand, with greater definiteness the musical form adapted to each scene.

After a somewhat lengthy preamble, exquisite in its courtesy, in which Metastasio apologises for offering advice to Hasse, he begins by explaining the characters of his drama:—Regulus, the Roman hero, superior to human passions, equable and serene. … "I should find it displeasing," he says, "if his singing, and the music that accompanies it, were ever hurried, save in two or three passages of the work. …" "The Consul Manlius, a great man, too inclined to emulation; Hamilcar, an African who understands nothing of the Roman maxims of honesty and justice, but who finally comes to envy those who believe in them; Barcé, a beautiful and passionate African woman, of an amorous nature, solely pre-occupied with Hamilcar." … etc. "Such are, generally speaking, the portraits which I have endeavoured to draw. But you know that the brush does not always follow the outline conceived by the mind. It is for you, no less excellent as an artist than perfect as a friend, to clothe my characters with such masterly skill that they shall possess a marked individuality; if not by reason of the outlines of their features, at least by reason of their garments and adornments."

Then, having laid stress on the importance of the recitatives "enlivened by the instruments,"