New-York tribune., 1874-03-30
Oslo.
rHR NEW SCHOOL OF OPERA.

THE NEW SCHOOL OF OPERA
The audiences at the third and fourth per-
fOrmsnces OF "Lohen grin still than at the
previous and it Is beyond question
that wagner's great work has received more entnus
astc popular welcome than other produced in
New-YOrk for many years That it would be reisned
by good musicians and appreciated in the long by
ro-sous culture we have never doubted; but we
confess that not prepared for the brilliant and
apparently substantial which crowned all the
efforts Of This Ia partly owing to the
inmitaby picturesque ana beautifu Lohengrin Of Sig.
CImpann the admirable Elsa OF Mme Nilsson, and the
excellence of the other principal artists. Miss Cary,
sig. del Puentc, and Sig. innetti, rs well as the
fine spectacular effects distributed through the
evening: but there ia evidently general
hiking for the music also, together with "a remarkable
comprehension Of the theories Of art upon which
"Lohengrn" ~ constructed. The trdth IA, Theodore
Thomas and the New-YOrk Philharmonic Society have
been landing musical intelligence and eeyating musi
cal taste rapidly during the past five or SIX years that
great change the attitude OF the opera toward mu
slcal art necessity Careful observers have
long noticed that the Italian lyric stage has been losing
hold upon the best class of our people, aud that tho
true cOnnos seIrs abandoning the opera for tho SYM
phony concert have been drawing with them larger and
larger numbers both from fashionable society and from
the educated While the opera still furnished
an amusement for the rch 1t did not satisfy thoreqGiFe-
ments of that great and rapidly increasing public to
which Beethoven, Schumann. Mendelssohn, Schubert.
and Wagner were become familiar as household words
that the methods and objects OF the stage
must reformed, else there must soon DC caIlhg
or for rea! lsc side, AMI for the empty pre-
tense OF 1t the other.
We do not that because LOhengrin" has sue
ceeded so signally the reform is yot at hand Mr.
Thomas has taught to admire the extraordinary
beauties OF this opera and has played much OF H. sea-
after season. that recognize favori,e passages In
almost every scene. A familiar work of Wagner's
might not be liked well But it'll notable fact that
the same tendencies which Wagner has followed so far
toward their logical development can be more or less
distinctly traced in all the really successful composers
Of tme-nay, they characterized the lab0rs oil Gick
a hundred years ago. The essential difference between
GlucE and Wagner that the former subordinaed mu-
sic and more especially vocal display to dramatic e1-
preston, leaving the artificial and unnatural structure
of the opera Just ho found; whereas the author Of
"LOhengrin" untes music and poetry on equal terms,
and far from subordiUaing tho melody To the text.
| gives 1t greater freedom than 1t ever had before.
| Gluck however, perceived the absuriity Of
| the Italian school, wAica contentod Itself win
| a mere unneaning euphony and he gave
the aria and the rectative dramatic character so TAR
as he could within the limits Of existing operate
! forms. Weber did the same thing Mozart did 1t in
Don Giovanni" and Figaro" and though the de-
| clamatOry music or Guck, owing to special causes
which need not here analyze has retired from the
| stage to the library. Mozart aud Weber have hold
upon the popular heart which Still seems unshaken. The
| fayorIie composers OF Italy however have all lost
their popularity Rossln the greatest OF the school,
lett about forty operas ana Of these only five are now
current and only twO-"William Tell" and the " Ear-
biere retain Il high place in public favor Donzctu
wrote between sixty and seventy OF which only i've or
six fairly keep the stage and OF Bellin there Is little
or nothing left except Norma" "sonnaInbula, and
| perhaps 81 Puritaui." These three composers
gave the world about hundred successful
! Italian operas during the past sixty years.
of fhpm a
"Wliiam Tell" would now attract an audience In New
York or Londol. Paris, unless 1t served to exhibit
some popular Singer Verdi the latest composer Of the
Italian school, has shown In his recent worAs very
| strong tendency toward a more dramatic and moro
truthful styie and in Aida" he has borne unmstaka
be testimony the soundness OF Wagners principles
II is significant fact that the only composer who now
disputes with Verdi for FIRST place in popular favor
Is GounOd who departs further than any 0t tue ltaans
or Frcnchmen from the beaten path Of aria recatyc
and finale and mingrs, with much that II trivial and
unnatural great deal that is truly poetcal and dra
| matte. All these-Gluck, Weber, Mozart, Gounod. and
the later yerdi-seem have been striving for solu
ton Of the problem Of the union of poetry and music
! but IT WAS reserved for Wagner TO solve it,
III speaking Of the performance OF lisi "eeA "o nave
done scant Justice to MSS cary "o NUS %" ardious and
,a,,omIo part the admiration of all good judges and
we have omitted perhaps to make adequate mention OF
s del Puen.e who surpasses in this opera all that
he has done before Sig Nannet also deserves especial
commendaion for his correct style and noble bearing
The chorus the only part OF the company which does
not satisfy It has never been good during this sea
SON anu in Lohengrn," where most OF ITS music ia in
ak and eight parts 1t is painfully inefficient Tue or
chestra has steadily improved. 1t comprises 10 first
yiolins second vions yioas, 'ce double basses,
2futes oboes carnets, bass clarinet bassoons,
horns trumpets 3tromboues tuba harp, cymbas and
timpanl 6l performers)-d force which for ordinary
WORK would abundanty large, and well balanced For
hnua thp VII arr
their music being scored in four parts instead OF two
| SILL the band even is larger one than the
Academy mas proper accommodations for, and number
| of the olayers sit outside the rallngs.