Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/52

 44 GLUCK the music must be to the poetry what liveliness of color and a happy mixture of light and shade M feri fruitless and u.-n iirranged tawing, whii-h serve only to add life to the figures without injuring the outlines. I have therefore taken care not to interrupt the actor in the fire of his dialogue, and compel him to wait for the performance of some long tedious ritornello, or m the midst of a phrase suddenly hold him fast at some favorable vowel sound, that he may have opportunity by some long passage to ex- hibit his voice, or to make him wait while the orchestra gives him time to get breath for some long fcrmate. Nor have I thought myself at liberty to hurry over the second part of an aria, wh'-ii" perhaps this is just the most passionate and important part of the text, and this only to allow the customary repetition of the words four times; and just as little have I allowed myself to bring the aria to an end where there was no pause in the sense, just to gain an op- portunity for the singer to show his skill in varying a passage. Enough ; I wished to ban- ish all those abuses against which sound com- mon sense and true taste have so long contend- ed in vain. I am of opinion that the overture .should prepare the auditors for the character of the action which is to be presented, and hint at the progress of the same ; that the instru- ments must be ever employed in proportion only to the degree of interest and passion ; and the composer should avoid too marked a dis- parity in the dialogue between air and recita- tive, in order not to break the sense of a pe- riod, or interrupt in a wrong place the energy of the action. Further, I considered myself bound to devote a great share of my pains to the attainment of a noble simplicity ; therefore I also avoided an ostentatious heaping up of difficulties at the expense of clearness ; I have not valued in the least a new thought if it was not awakened by the situation and did not give the proper expression. Finally, I have even Mipelled to sacrifice rules to the improve- ment of the effect." In 1769 Gluck produced a third opera in the new style, Paride ed Elena, but it became popular only with musicians, and has in late years never been revived. In that yrar ho was called to Parma to compose festi- val music for the marriage of the grand duke to Maria Amalia, daughter of Maria Theresa. Instead of a long opera, divided into acts, four short one-act pieces were prepared, Le feste di Apollo^ LAtto di Baud e Filemone, ISAtto (TAriiteo, and for the fourth the Orfeo given in seven scenes, with the greatest success. For several years afterward he remained in Vienna, enjoying great social distinction, but composing u' for the stage. His next great effort was the Iphigenie en Aulide, which after many struggles and the removal of innumerable ob- stacles was finally, through the influence of Marie Antoinette, produced on April 19, 1774, royal opera in Paris, whither Gluck had gone in the previous summer. It was followed by an embittered warfare between the adhe- rents of the old school, then chiefly represented at Paris by Piccini, and the converts to the new ideas of Gluck. A catalogue of the wri- tings of the Gluckists and Piccinists on the two sides of this question would fill one of our pages. The final result was the complete vic- tory of Gluck. The composer followed up the Iphigenie with the Orfeo ed Euridice, adapted to the French stage, with the very material alteration of changing the part of Orpheus to that of a tenor, to suit the voice of Legros, there being no contralto adequate to it. The success of the work was as striking in Paris as in Vienna and Turin. In February, 1775, Gluck produced VArbre enchante, in one act, at Ver- sailles, a work of no great importance, and written merely for a festival given by Marie Antoinette to her young brother Maximilian. In August his Cythere assiegee was produced at the academy, but met with no distinguished success. Meantime he was zealously engaged upon three works, an adaptation of Alceste to the Prussian stage, and the operas Roland and Armide, texts by Quinault. Roland he laid aside on hearing that it had also been intrusted to Piccini, and wrote a sharp letter to Bailly du Rollet, which, without the consent of the writer, was printed in the Annee litteraire, and enraged the Piccinists. Early in 1776 Gluck was again in Paris with his Alceste. It was produced, and hissed off the stage. The unlucky composer, who had been behind the scenes, rushed from the opera house, and meet- ing a friend threw himself into his arms in tears. As this ill success was mostly owing to cabals among the singers and the personal ef- forts of Gluck's opponents, and as the compo- ser had influence enough to insure its repeti- tion, it made its way with the public, and soon took its place only below the Iphigenie and the Orfeo. The war of the wits and critics was, however, more bitter than ever. Gluck him- self seems to have been not a little embittered, and his polemical writings are often excessive- ly keen. In the midst of his ill success with the Alceste came the news that his niece Ma- rianne, whose ill health had caused him this time to visit Paris alone, had been carried off at the age of 16 with the smallpox. Upon her the childless musician had lavished all a fa- ther's love. She had been a pupil of Millico, and when but a child, as Burney records, was already a songstress of wonderful powers. It was not until Sept. 23, 1777, that the Armide, text by Quinault, from Tasso, was produced. It was rather coldly received, but is by many considered the greatest composition of Gluck, and by others only inferior to his later work, the Iphigenie en Tauride. Gluck returned to Vienna to work upon a new text, Iphigenie en Tauride, by a young poet named Guilbard. In November, 1778, he was so far advanced with it that he returned to Paris, where on May 18, 1779, it was produced. Like Haydn's " Creation," written when he was nearly 70 years of age, this opera of Gluck, written at