The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-19 00:00:00

pusir.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.
"IL TROVATORE."

THE victories and vicissitudes of Verdi have greatly
perplexed and sorely vexed the European musical
critics. The purists and contrapuntausts, since the
year 1842, when the name of the new composer was
first heard, have gravely assured their respective
circles that Verdi's operas were "unmitigated
trash." The verdict of condemnation has been
indeed stereotyped. For thirteen years readers of
critical organs in divers countries have been periodi-
cally told that Verdi is an impostor. And yet in
every capital in which the invectives of these classes
have been strongest Verdi's name reappears yearly
in the prospectuses of the opera managers. The
annual annihilation of Verdi has been followed by
his rapid resuscitation, to the dismay of the musical
prophets. He has certainly been the most abused
composer of any age. His triumphs have been the
greatest, and his failures the most signal, of any age or
country. What, then, is the cause of this contrarity ?
Who is right ? The public are the critics. A re-
trospective glance at Verdi's career may help the
cosmopolite amateur, who cares nothing for cliquism
and coteries, who is not blinded by bigotry, who is
not infatuated for great names, who is not bound
down entirely to schools, whose love of art is uni-
versal, to arrive at a calm and important judgment as
to Verdi's Teal pretensions. In 1842 Italy was
startled by his first work at Milan. It was the
Nabucco, known at Her Majesty's Theatre as Nino,
and at the Royal Italian Opera as Anato. Ernani
followed, and in 1844 this opera was performed at fifty
theatres in Italy at one time. The stars of Bellini
and Donizetti had set; the successor was a young
man, if not with a new school, at least with a novel
style. To Ernani succeeded speedily Lombardi,
Due Foscari, Joan of Arc, Alzera, Attila, Macbeth,
I Masnadieri, Luisa Miller, Rigoletto, and finally
Il Trovatore. The first opera produced in this
country of the above-named works was Ernani, at
Her Majesty's Theatre in 1845. The cast was not
strong, Mme. Rita, Borio, Monani (in her decline)
Botello, and Fornasori, being the chief singers ; but
Costa was the musical director, and his skill secured
a success. The next year Nino and Lombardi were
brought out. This was a disastrous epoch in lyric
annals. Puffery, premeditated impromptus, cliquism,
clacquism, corrupt criticism, reigned supreme in the
great temple of fashion, and the true votaries of lyric
art revolted at the dictatorial attempt to force public
opinion. This state of things operatical was doubt •
less a severe blow to Verdi's reputation in this
country. Ernani failed in 1847 at the Royal
Italian Opera, owing to the reaction of inordinate
praise of the new corner. His Due Foscari, although
supported by Grisi, Mario, and Ronconi, was equally
a failure. I Masnadieri, founded on Schiller's
" Rad ber," supported by Jenny Lind, Gardoni, Coletti,
and Lablache, produced in the presence of two
queens, was quite a fiasco in the same year at Her
Majesty's Theatre. Nabucco, magnificently mounted,
with Mme. Castellan, Tamberlik, and Ronconi, as
exponents, broke down at the Royal Italian Opera in
1850. Jerusalem, a refacermento of I Lombardi,
could not maintain its ground in Paris, even with
Duprez's vocal and dramatic genius. In the mean-
while Verdi held his position firmly in Italy, and
Ernani has survived all hostile criticism in Paris,
Berlin, Vienna, London, &c. Last season
Rigoletto, originally produced in Venice in March
1851, met with a genuine financial success at
the Royal Italian Opera, with Mme. Bosio,
Ronconi, and Mario, but journalism either
" hesitated dislike," or " damned with faint praise."
The artists and the amateurs established Rigo-
letto despite of adverse criticism. To close this
short summary of Verdi's ups and downs, the fact
must be recorded that he is now in Paris superin-
tending the production of his new work, The Sicilian
Vespers, for the Imperial Grand Opera, which will
be heard in a few days. Will the most perverse
detractors of Verdi venture to predict that he will be
shut out from the Royal Italian Opera for the future ?
There are the three brilliant representations already
of his Trovatore to answer the question. This opera
bas been quick in its arrival here. It was first
played at the Apollo in Rome, Jan. 19th, 1853, with
Mmes. Perico, Goggo ; Signori Baucarde, Guicciordi,
and Balderi. It was transplanted to Paris Dec.
23rd last. The cast included Mine. Frezzolini, Mme.
Borghi-Mamo, a new contralto of fame, Signor Gra-
riani, a new barytone, and M. Baucartle. The Em-
peror and Empress were present, and the reception
was rapturous. It filled the theatre to the close of
the season last March ; it saved its fallen fortunes.
Borghi-Mamo having been prevented from continu-
ing her performance of Azucena, Mme. Viardot at
five days studied the part, and created a sensation in
it equal to that she had made at the French Grand
Opera, in 1849, in Meyerbeer's Prophite. Leaving
now the historical retrospect of Verdi's singular for-
tunes, it remains to be seen whether Il Trovatore

THE PRESS.

be the transformation of his early rugged style, and
the opening of a new epoch in his artistic existence,
as it is affirmed by his adherents. The slashing and
sneering diatribes respecting the Trovatore may be
dismissed at once. They are too late. The public
has decided against the opinion of professional anti-
pathies and dislike. The connoisseurs, the habitues
of the opera, care "nothing for the cunnynge con-
trivers of wizard harmonies." They refrain from
the calculation whether Verdi is to be classed
amongst the Shakspeares and Mittens of music.
He may not be the Dante of the lyric drama. He
may be ranked as the master of historical art, the
representative of music's inelodramatic attributes.
The opera patrons and frequenters are content to
recognise in Verdi the power to depict the varied
emotions of the human heart. In the Trovatore the
auditories have been found to be spellbound by the
generally impassioned fervour of the composer's
style. His lively and passionate imagination carries
him through all defects of dramatic portraiture.
His flimsy forms and artifices, his frequent sacri-
fice of sense to sound, his barrel-organ and
quadrillish tunes, and as many more faults, defects,
sins of omission and commission, as can easily be
enumerated, are all forgotten by audiences (stern
and uncompromising professors excepted) in his
overwhelming energy, in the alternations of his
striking and picturesque accents of fear, hope, joy,
sense, and despair. Perhaps the last-mentioned
passion has never been expressed in music more
profoundly than by Verdi. True, he tries the powers
bf physical endurance of his singers to the utmost
verge; the pace is at times tremendous, killing for
the voices—that is the affair, however, of the singers,
not of the writer. It is for the interpreters to accept
or refuse the dry bones of the drama, and the music
breathed into it. Directorial despotism cannot com-
pel prima donnas and tender tenors to strain their
voices to their destruction. The sweet but som-
niferous suavity of the older masters in Italy has
given way to greater vigour of rhythm. The revolu-
tion may have diminished vocalisation in its tender •
ness, but it has increased its intensity. Of all the
objections to the Verdi school this affected com-
miseration for the singers is the most absurd. The
truth is, that inferior artists have little or no chances
of success in Verdi's operas, and hence the cry of the
inferior order of singers. But great vocalists have
been always too glad of the opportunities of display
he affords them. Grisi, Bosio, and Mario, as the
rumour runs, would have been too delighted to have
sung the parts of Azucena, Leonora, and Manrico,
but the characters had been already assigned to
Viardot, Mme. Ney, and Tamberlik, and there has
been every reason to be content with this cast. What
theatre in the world but the Royal Italian Opera can
exhibit such a double phalanx of operatic celebrities?
The first act of the Trovatore, although carefully
written, contains nothing remarkable. The explana-
tory narration of Ferrando (Tagliafico) is well
marked, and the choral responses are characteristic.
The aria dentrata of Mme. Ney has Verdi's recog
nised peculiarities in the phrasing; the admirably-
articulated shake of Mlle. Ney in the adagio tells,
and her arabesques in the commonplace caboletta
are equally well executed. The serenade of the
Troubadour is melodious and ear-catching. The trio
finale is impulsive and vigorous, but common. The
music develops itself more characteristically in the
opening gipsy chorus of the second act. The
Moorish melody of Azucena, so sad, so brooding, is
exquisitely sung by Viardot. The succeeding pas-
sages descriptive of her mother's fate, and of the
burning of her child, will never be effective, except
sung by an artist of genius. The scene, therefore,
from Viardot caused breathless attention and a
morbid sensation—the highest compliment an
audience can pay where every note, every gesture,
must be heard and watched. Strange that one of the
silliest of duets should succeed, between Azucena
and Manrico, in this intensely exciting scene. The
new barytone has the next triumph in the melody
" 11 balen del tuo sorroso," a lively cantabile, in which
Graziani is nightly encored. Some staccato choral
effocts owe their origin to a scene in Rossini's
William Tell; but the two blended subjects of
the chorus of nuns and of the Count's follow. rs are
effective. The finale of this act, in which Leonora's
abduction by the Count is prevented by the Trouba
dour, is carefully organised, but is not equal to
Verdi's usually powerful writing of a concerted piece
A soldiers' chorus in the third act is more pretty than
spirited. The seizure of Azucena by the Count's
adherents has some fine points, but the concerted
piece will always mainly depend on the histrionic
gifts of the representative of that arduous and diffi
cult part. A nicely-voiced aria for the tenor and an
elegant duettino follow, leaving the finale—one of
remarkable vigour—for Tamberlik to display his won-
drous chest-notes. With the exception of the conven-
tionalities in the duo between Leonora and the Count,
the last act is a masterpice. Anything finer or more
intensely dramatic than the two duos, first between
Leonora and Manrico, and subsequently between
Azucena and Manrico, is not to be found on the lyric

SATURDAY,

stage. In the first situation a massive tower is seen,
from the interior of which is heard the wail for the
soul of the dead. Above this undercurrent of voices,
beautifully subdued, is heard Manrico singing a last
farewell to his beloved Leonora, whilst she, outside
the dreary walls, expresses her resolve to die or to
release the prisoner. This duo is quite an inspire.
tion of genius, and in spite of its length is always
redemanded with rapture. The duo in the prison
between the Gitana and the Troubadour is most
touching. The orchestration is exquisite ; the
pianissimo passages as the doomed Azucena sinks to
sleep on her bed of straw are the perfection of vocal
writing. The last duo, between the Troubadour and
Leonora, is also in the highest order of fine feeling
and consummate musicianship. Such music as is
found in this act has been cast in no ordinary
mould. It is a grand embodiment of varying ex-
pressions, which extinguish every annoj ing sensation
at the clumsily-contrived catastrophe and its cupfull
of horrors. The poet Cammorano, who concocted
this story, after a Spanish drama by Antonio Garcia
Guttiores, died shortly after the Trovatore was pro-
duced. He seems to have written his own death-
knell. If every eulogium has been apparently
exhausted by critics on the mounting and execution
of this opera, too much has not been stated on
behalf of the directors, who have gone to every
expense in a magnificent mise en scene, to Costa
for his masterly guidance of the vocal and orchestral
forces, to Mr. Beverley for the scenery, to Mr. Hams
for the action and grouping, and to Viardot, Mlle.
Ney, Graziani, and Tamberlik, for their immense
exertions. Viardot is in excellent voice this season.
The music of Azucena suits her; she evidently likes
the part., and, consummate tragedian as she is, she
has made a great sensation in the gipsy mother.
Her make-up is a study; the statuesque management
of the drapery evinces her artistic care and feeling
for art. Mlle. Ney, as a vocalist, has won great glory
by her Leonora. She has a noble voice, and her
executive skill is of the highest order.
The Trovatore was repeated on Tuesday evening,
and on Thursday evening Purituni was performed
with the powerful cast of Bosio, Lablache, Graziani,
and that prince of tenors Mario, who, on his appear-
ance, was greeted with rounds of the most enthusi-
astic applause. He looked in excellent health, and
his voice was as sweet, fresh, and full of power
as ever. The " A to o care" and the " A una
fonte afilitto" he sang with the most exquisite
pathos and finish ; and in the duets " Ferma invan
pretendi" and " Ascosa in bianco vel" he achieved
fresh triumphs. Never, in short, had the great
tenor appeared in finer voice, or so full of vigour
and energy. Puritani is repeated tonight, and on
Thursday next Grisi's first performance of her
promised series will take place, as Leonora in
Donizetti's opera of the Favorita.