New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-10-10
MUSICAL COMMENT.
-,,ouAs GRAY AND HIS MUSIC-OPERA
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
RINALDO DI CAPUA AND
LEONARDO vINCL
Ill.

.. aoes not seem altogether right that n man
..,,ng the name Of Rinaldo di Capua should
=. a, eighteenth century musician. The
..ror Of romance goes out from the name. 1t
.tee one think OF knights In shining steel. OF
,o,ghty paladins, Of joustings and Journeys
Nd of dolorous strokes: also Of melodious min
.,-e,s decorous damsels, Of hawking and harp
ing and nuptals with great mobiles. We hear
p,na,do and think of him who was the Achilles
:, the Christian army that delivered Jerusalem;
ma hear Capua and dream of the luxures which
.rst threw down the stern manhood Of Hannibal.
Vet after all, Rinaldo di Capua was only a COM
,oeer albeit Economically born and sturdy
Lnight in Apollo's Court. The handbooks know
little about him. Sir George Groves great die
t,onary nothing at all. Yet his music rang
pleasantly in the public ear 80 years ago. We
onen one OF the thlckest Of Gray's manuscript
volumes more than half expecting to see an
o;r from an opera entitled "Gerusalemme Lib
erata" Orlando Furioso." "ArnIda," or even q
"Rinaldo" such as Handel composed. Alas, the
airs which Gray has preserved are taken from
a "Demetrio" and a "VologesO'-one surely. the
other probably a Russian opera
II is Dr. Burney who tells us most about RI
naldo di Capua He visited the composer In
the European continent in search Of materials
for his great history of music Rinaldo. ne tells
US in his Present State Of Music in France and
Italy" "a journal Of that tour. was the natural
,0n of a person Of very nigh rank in the Neapol
itan country. At first he only studied music
as an accomplishment. but his father having
left him but a small fortune and 1t being soon
dissipated, he turned to the art a means Of
livelihood, composing his first opera at Vienna
when ne was seventeen years old Burney for
gets 10 tell us that he was born at Capua which
fact explains his name; being a natural son, he
was not permitted to take the name Of his
father, and had to take that OF the city in which
he was born, the city whose luxuriousness was
the undoing Of Hannibal All Of Rinaldo's
operas are as dead as he. Menders German
musical lexicon says that only six Of them are
known. the score Of one Of the SIX entitled La
Zingara," having been found in Burney's IL
brary. Neither Of the two works from which
Gray quoted is mentioned by Mendel In Bur-
ney's day Rinado accredited with the in
vention Of accompanied recitatives, but this dis
tinction the great historian denied to him after
he found specimens Of that device in the music
Of Aessandro Scarlatti. Rinaldo did not himself
pretend to the invention. "lAll that he claims"
says Burney, us the being among the first who
introduced long retornelos or symphonies into
the recitatives OF strong passion and distress
which express initiate what 1t would be
ridiculous for the voice to attempt There are
many fine scenes Of this kind In his works. and
Hasse Galuppi. Jomelli, Piccini and Sacchini
have been very happy in such interesting and
often sublime compositions"
Burney 1t may be guessed from this last re-
mark was thoroughly mbued with the musical
spirit OF his time. He had lived through the
period described az that Of Gray's early
tvty had himself composed dramatic music
few years after Gray came back from Italy, and
had heard and praised the operate gospel
proclaimed by Gluck. But for him there
no absurdity archasm IN the style OF COM
position pursued by his favorite writer's.
Throughout: the eighteenth century the chief
dramatic poets of Italy were Apostolic ZenO and
Metastasio The latter in particular was so much
admired for the limpidity and beauty Of his
poetry that mis- opera books were composed over
and over again by the musicians Of his time
His "Artaserse' set less than forty
times. and mis- "Adriano In Siria' twentysix
Even Mozart resorted TO him fer his "Clemenza
di Tito" of the composers represented in
Gray's collection, we find that Hasse and Sarro
set his "Didone abbandonata," Leo his 'Siface."
Vinci and Hasse his "Siroe" Vinci his "Catone
In Utica" Vnci and Hasse his "Senramide"
(Gluck and Meyerbeer also set this book. but
Rossini's lbretto is the work OF RossD, Vinci
and Hasse his "Alcssandro nell Indie" Vinc,
Hasse and Galuppi his "Artaserse" and Hasse
alone his "Adrano in Sra "Ezo," "Olimpi-
ade' "Demofoonte," la Clemenza di Tito"
"Achille In sciro," Giro riconoscinto." "Antig-
LEroe," "Nitetti" "Alcide," III Trionfo di
Celia" "Fgeria." "ROmolo' ed "ErsilO" Par