The Opera | Page 7

him he learnt to prefer
mere musical beauty to dramatic truth. Those of his operas which
remain to us show a far greater command of orchestral and vocal
resource than Monteverde or Cavalli could boast, but so far as real
expression and sincerity are concerned, they are inferior to the less
cultured efforts of the earlier musicians. It would be idle to attempt an
enumeration of the Venetian composers of the seventeenth century and
their works. Some idea of the musical activity which prevailed may be
gathered from the fact that while the first public theatre was opened in
1637, before the close of the century there were no less than eleven
theatres in the city devoted to the performance of opera alone.
Meanwhile the enthusiasm for the new art-form spread through the
cities of Italy. According to an extant letter of Salvator Rosa's, opera
was in full swing in Rome during the Carnival of 1652. The first opera
of Provenzale, the founder of the Neapolitan school, was produced in
1658. Bologna, Milan, Parma, and other cities soon followed suit.
France, too, was not behindhand, but there the development of the art
soon deserved the name a new school of opera, distinct in many
important particulars from its parent in Italy. The French nobles who
saw the performance of Peri's 'Euridice' at the marriage of Henry IV.
may have carried back tales of its splendour and beauty to their own
country, but Paris was not as yet ripe for opera. Not until 1647 did the
French Court make the acquaintance of the new art which was
afterwards to win some of its most brilliant triumphs in their city. In
that year a performance of Peri's 'Euridice' (which, in spite of newer
developments, had not lost its popularity) was given in Paris under the
patronage of Cadinal Mazarin. This was followed by Cavalli's 'Serse,'
conducted by the composer himself. These performances quickened the
latent genius of the French people, and Robert Cambert, the founder of
their school, hastened to produce operas, which, though bearing traces

of Italian influence, were nevertheless distinctively French in manner
and method. His works, two of which are known to us, 'Pomone' and
'Les Peines et les Plaisirs de l'Amour,' were to a certain extent a
development of the masques which had been popular in Paris for many
years. They are pastoral and allegorical in subject, and are often merely
a vehicle for fulsome adulation of the 'Roi Soleil.' But in construction
they are operas pure and simple. There is no spoken dialogue, and the
music is continuous from first to last. Cambert's operas were very
successful, and in conjunction with his librettist Perrin he received a
charter from the King in 1669, giving him the sole right of establishing
opera-houses in the kingdom. Quarrels, however, ensued. Cambert and
Perrin separated. The charter was revoked, or rather granted to a
new-comer, Giovanni Battista Lulli, and Cambert, in disgrace, retired
to England, where he died. Lulli (1633-1687) left Italy too young to be
much influenced by the developments of opera in that country, and was
besides too good a man of business to allow his artistic instinct to
interfere with his chance of success. He found Cambert's operas
popular in Paris, and instead of attempting any radical reforms, he
adhered to the form which he found ready made, only developing the
orchestra to an extent which was then unknown, and adding dignity and
passion to the airs and recitatives. Lulli's industry was extraordinary.
During the space of fourteen years he wrote no fewer than twenty
operas, conceived upon a grand scale, and produced with great
magnificence. His treatment of recitative is perhaps his strongest point,
for in spite of the beauty of one or two isolated songs, such as the
famous 'Bois épais' in 'Amadis' and Charon's wonderful air in 'Alceste,'
his melodic gift was not great, and his choral writing is generally of the
most unpretentious description. But his recitative is always solid and
dignified, and often impassioned and pathetic. Music, too, owes him a
great debt for his invention of what is known as the French form of
overture, consisting of a prelude, fugue, and dance movement, which
was afterwards carried to the highest conceivable pitch of perfection by
Handel.
Meanwhile an offshoot of the French school, transplanted to the banks
of the Thames, had blossomed into a brief but brilliant life under the
fostering care of the greatest musical genius our island has ever

produced, Henry Purcell. Charles II. was not a profound musician, but
he knew what sort of music he liked, and on one point his mind was
made up--that he did not like the music of the elderly composers who
had survived the Protectorate, and came forward at his restoration to
claim the posts