The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-10 00:00:00

WEBER ON MEYERBEER.

The high-souled, lamented \Veber felt a considerable
share of jealousy of what he considered a leaning in his
friend and fellow-student Meyerbeer towards the style
of Rossini, whom he held in no very high veneration,
Musically speaking. In a letter to Gottfreid Weber he
thus expresses his doubts and fears—" Meyerbeer ist
gang Italien verfallen," (is becoming lialianized)—
Where will be now all our brilliant anticipations?" He
afterwards wrote "Meyerbeer departs for Trieste to pro-
duce his Crociato ; he will return to- Berlin afterwards,
,_where it is possble he may write a German opera!
tileaven grant he may. I have made several appeals to
Ilia conscience!" The future is well known. The
Crociato became eminently successful because Meyer-
beer had engrafted on the German scientific school the
BYmpathetic and flowing form of melody which dis-
tinguishes that of the Italian. And from that time he
oecame famous. The French then sought and obtained
the aid of his talents, and the Robert le Diable was all
that could satisfy and please his particular and not
catlilY pleased friend.

THE LEGEND OF SAINT CECILIA.
St. Cecilia, among Christians,is esteemed the patroness
Saint of music, for the reason whereof, it is necessary to
refer to her history as traditionally handed down; the
notaries of the Roman church having, in the first in-
.stance, written it in their archives, from which it was
vtranscribed into the Golden Legends and other similar
~v(loks. The story relates that she was a Roman lady
born of a noble tamily about the year 225 A.C.; that
notwithstanding her having ben converted to chris-
'4ltity, her parents co.npelled her to wed a young Ro.
I'l4n noble named Valerianus, a Pagan, who, on his
'Wedding-night was given to understand by his bride that
she,c was nightly visited by an angel and that he must
forbear to approach her otherwise he would be destroyed.
otaewhist troubled at such a revelation, Valerianus de-
sired to see his angel-rival, but his sposa replied," that it
Was quite impossible, unless he were baptized and became
cOnvert to christianity." To this he consented, when,
returning to his wife, he found her in her closet at
I?ayers, and by her side, in the shape of a beautiful
37°110g man, the angel clothed in the radiant brightness
of the shining skies. After some conversation with the
leavenly visitor, Valerianus told him he had a brother,
'Tiberius, whom he greatly wished to become a partaker
'of the grace which he himself had received. The angel
" that his desire should be gratified ; and that
very shortly both brothers should be crowned with mar-
tyrdom." Upon this the angel vanished, but soon atter-
'Wards proved the sincerity of his promise. Tiberius was
tconverted, and after undergoing persecution was at length
"With his brother Valerianus beheaded. Cecilia was
offered her life upon condition that she would sacrifice
at the altars of the Roman deities, but she unshrinkingly
:refused, upcn which she was thrown into a cauldron of
boiling water and thus, scalded to death, perished.
Other authorities, however, affirm that she was stifled in
dry bath—i. e. en enclosure from whence all air is
*Xcluded, and beneath which burns a slow fire, under
the excruciating torture of which she expired. The
tradition concerning this distinguished martyr adds
that it was on account of her great excellence in music,
that she was was honoured by the visits of the angel •
that he was attracted from his celestial abode by the
oweetness of her melody, and that the transcendant
beauty displayed by her vocal and instrumental powers
`e4tised her to be styled The Patroness of Music and
-Musicians !

Thou GUGLIELMI.
gh a most profound musician, and gifted with
treat dramatic conception, Guglielmi was stated to have
een indolent, avaricious, and self-opinionated and ego-
Vliioal to the extreme. In every new opera that bore
r,B, name attached thereto as its composer he would
11 Write two or three entire pieces, leaving the re-
citatives and concerted pieces to be supplied by his
Pils—sometimes even by the Neapolitan copyists.
hen he was engaged to produce "at Bella Napoli" his
I3Pere. buffd, Adalinda, he resorted to this shift, and
;741. consequence, the opera on its first representation
,ktte, as it merited, condemned ; indeed so general had
me dissatisfaction become about the middle of the
een
-nu act, that the manager was compelled to render
eessity a virtue by yielding to the popular demon-
tration, and the curtain fell amid a torrent of hisses
~eh as rarely proceed save from a Neapolitan auditory,
~ Yells of the " lazzarone," et hoc omne genus, being
',,nctly indescribable, while the ladies were only too
the to quit the theatre. Guglielmi after the close of
itie Performance invited some friends to sup with him,
f order to concoct a cabal whereby to reverse the raja-
vi:nune of that night; he prepared a new trzzetto, by
TiTch he hoped, more especially, to accomplish this.
th a next morning he repaired to the Café del Vennrano,
L:11 the chief rendezvous of the cognoscenti. There, as
IN. expected, he found the impresa7 io of the Teatro
hill.°7o- Saluting him, he drew a roll of music from
Do- Pocket, and presenting it to him with an amusingly
via, Puns said, " There, Signor! there is that which
Ei.j) 'et all things to rights agaiu—Adaiinda will be in
;*.o°cl health to-night! Hand me over seventy ducats,
the I'm content !'"ffie manager glanced at the title of
h„ manuscript and lead " Vega mano sospirata a post-
i.4_lll°ll% turz,,tto of Adalinda." Well knowing the peculiar
tiracter of he accepted the piece, ordered
k,eeper of the cafe-to pay the composer the sum spe-
ae."2o, called a relharsal, and pioduced the opera the
m'a evening, with the new addition. The extraordinary