New-York tribune., 1901-02-05
MUSIC.
LA roscA" DONE INTO AN OPERA.

drama. For nearly two hundred years dIteT lJS IN
vention classic legend and ancient history provided
the stories which the opera composer laid under
tribute Very properly dramatic song occupied IT.
self the with celebration of that fahled
singer az the sound Of whose voice rivers forgot
20 and winds 10 blow" In the story of Orpheus
and Eurydiee. as told in what is set down in his
tory as the first opera. music and love were mated
and they have not yet heeH divorced though both
have undergone many and great changes Of char
scter. Love-gentle, constant chivaIrc. tried and
triumphant-has been hymned amid pictures sug-
Eested by millennium Of human happenings. and
its expression has passed through all the phases
that the development OF the direct vehicle Of
emotional utterance could place at It's servicefrom
the melodramatie strvinss of the amateurs who
stumbled upon opera in their effort 10 reanmate
the Greek drama TO the glowing scores of Richard
Wagner, in which high and profound science
Joined i'm product worthy of admiration as
any other product Of the intellect fired by inspira
tion. In the progress from Peri 10 Wagner, how
ever, despite many daring and dubious adventures
in new territories there has get been an avoidance
Of material which was in itself ugly and repulsive.
We have been asked TO contemplate the tbertinism
of Don Giovanni but AZ its worst 1t has served
only foil for the virtue Of his victims which
in the end emerged triumphant. We have seen ex-
posed the monstrous double nature Of Rigoetto but
only that the pahos of paernal love should thereby
he thrown into brighter relief We have
ventions sanctifed by nature and approved by
communal experience set ar nausht by WagHers
treatment of mythelogica tales of unspeakable
antiquity. but only that the tragedy of human
existence in It's most puissart types might he kept
before the worlds consciousness.
All this has been done while music has been de-
veloping forms of greater and greater beauty and
eloquence. For nearly two centuries progress in
operate composition wholly the musical
side. Opera not drama. but concert with stage
pictures and costumes Then. the instrumental art
having developed expressive potentalty hitherto
unknown, thoughts of it's early hand
maiden of dramatic poetry were awakened. and lit
1f,N
II occupied impotently three centuries ago. and
which We fnd II occupying potently perhaps, in the
latest opera which has presented itself tor the con
sideration Of the opera lovers Of New-York. This
opera is Signor Puccini's ''Tosca" which
brought forward by Mr.. Grsu's people at Covent
Garden last summer and produced for the first
time in America ~ the Metropolitan Opera House
last night
The relationship occupied by music 10 the drama.
that Is to the words, the pantomime and the pict-
ures Of the play in "Tosca" is that which IL Occu-
pies in melodrama-using the term in it's original
and correct sense-with the single difference that
the dialogue which Is Illustrated and mildly
pounded by the music and which the instruments
seek more less vainIy accentuate emphasizes
and intensity, is nor uttered IN the speaking but
the singing voice. Even this difference. however.
disappears at some OF the climacteric moments, and
the actors resort TO the elocutonary devices which
belong 10 the spoken drama. and foregoing pitch
and rhythm, shout whisper hiss the
words which tell Of the feelings by which they are
swayed Thus the first principle Of music which
Is melody, in Wagner as much as IL was IN Gina
rosa or Mozart, Is sacrificed for what Puccni puts
in the orchestra such moments can scarcely be
called melody under the most liberal tnterpreta-
tion Of the term. But to this we may pres
emily Quite as significant as the degradation OF
music thus illustrated is the degradation OF the
drama which has brought II about. There has
always been a restrictive and purifying quality in
melody II is that which has turned souls
sympathy with the apotheosis OF vice and pulmon-
airy tuberculosis in Verdfs "Traviata," which has
made the music of the second act and finale OF
Tristan und Isolde" the most powerful plea that
can be made for wsguers guilty lovers. Nowhere
else is the purifying and ennobng capacity OF
music demonstrated IN the death song OF
Isolde Without such pallia tion the veness hor-
ror, the hideousness OF a play Ike La Tosca" is
more objectionable IN operatic form than in the
original It's lust and cruelty are presented in
their naksdness- There Is little time 70 re-
fleet upon the workings OF perverted minds to
make psychological or physiological studies to
watch the accumulation of and their gradual
development Of effects-except IN the moments so
plentiful In Puccinis opera. in which music be-
comes hindrance and an imPsrtinence Dramatic
action cannot be promoted by music The province
ef the art is 70 develop and hx a mood or celebrate
deed Tosca sing OF her love. her jealousy
her hate. her hope; she cannot sing her frantic
EFFORTS 10 escape from the ustfuI arms OF Scarpia:
she cannot sins his murder Though Ike Deborah
she might have ehanted It's CORY glory IL So
she held il, after the faoO: nor can she sing
her own destruction In fact there next 70 moth
ing IN sardous drama At for operatic song either
in the sense that prevailed at the time of Paisieo
or prevails in the time OF Wagner-which Is now
In the opera a really m incident for the lyric
drama borrowed from Sardou Is expanded adroitIv
into scene which is both musieally and dramati-
cally effective. it Is the in which the cantata
Is sung in the Queens apartments while Scarpia is
questioning Cavadsrossi in his own. Here the set
musical composition is a background for the dra-
matte dialogue Parallel scenes provide most OF
the opportunities which Puecipi has embraced for
writing in what be called a sustained effort
outside OF the scenes between Tosca and her love
in the nFst act. Thus the first finale has pompous
church office rs its background, with toNlng bells
the booming Of cannon. the pealing OF a great
organ, through all OF which there s1rges i stream
OF orchestral melody bearing the declauatory
shreks Of Scarpia. All Of this is purely irrelevant
and external and the device Is cheap. bur 10 serves
Similar in musical purpose. but at the opposite end
OF the color scheme, is the opening the third act
The stage picture Il ono OF beauty. The fore
ground shows the platform OF the Castle of ST
Angelo. 81. Peters Cathedral and the Vatican are
visible in the background. II Is urban Rome alone
that Is visible but there sounds from the cam
pagna-the tinkling Of sheep bells the song OF a
shepherd lad minsl!ng with a strangely languorous
tragmentary orchestral song. Then there arises
from the distance $50 II ought be- but sn't the
sound or church bells. large and small. while the
orchestral song goes II is all mood music con-
cetved with no necessary relationship 70 the drama
but providing an atmosphere which is really re-
freshtng after the sup OF horrors provided by the
preceding act Therefore it be accepted crate
fully like the dance tune which Scarpia and
his associates decain before the dreadful business
Of the second begins and the piteous appeal %
tho Virgin which Tosca makes before she con-
eeives the idea of the butchery which she perpe-
trates few minutes later.
And the meiodramatic music upon which sar-