Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-02-08

bringing the best music to the people as
a whole, upon whom in the end the en-
tire musical fabric must rest.
d oSsINTS opera, The Barber of Sc
1eville," which was given by the Met
ropolitan Opera Company last Tuesday
evening, Is not only a comedy In itself.
but the circumstances of its composition
had some aspects almost as funny as
some OF the scenes In the opera. The
composer claimed that he wrote the
opera In thirteen days. and II was GER
tainly composed. rehearsed. staged and
performed within a month of the time
when he began work on 1t.
Naturally, when working at such
speed, Rossini did not hesitate to Dor
row from other composers as well as
from previous works of his own. With
characteristic carelessness he lost the
overture which he had written for Il
and, instead Of rewriting IL, he simply
substituted the overture from his opera
"Elisabetta" and It has remained there
ever since. Garcia sang the part Of
Almavfva and In the scene beneath the
balcony OF Rosina, at the opening per-
formance, introduced a Spanish aria of
MS own. 1t was rank failure, and
before the second performance Of the
opera Rossini composed the beautiful
cavatina, "Ecco ridente Il cielo," really
the finest melody in the opera. taking
the tune from the opening chorus of his
own "Aureliano." which in turn was
taken bodily from his own oratorio
Giro in Babilonia."
MUCH speculation has been INDUCED
AV1 in as to why sopranos are allowed
to choose their own selections in the
famous Lesson Scene" Rossini origi-
nally wrote trio for this number for
Rosina, Bartolo and the disguised Alma
viva. but in some way II was lost and
the indignant composer refused to write
another one. leaving the luckiess Rosina
of the moment. who happened to be
Nine. Giorgi Righetti. to choose what
ever she wanted. She selected a number
In which she scored an enormous sue
cess. and the procedure took so well
with the audience that, even after the
! opera was pronounced success, Rossin
did not write anything for the missing
number.
But these were not all of the compost.
ton stunts" to which The Barber
was destined The air of Berta was
suggested, to- put 1t mildly, by a Rus
sian melody which Rossini had heard a
lady sing in Rome and he put it into
tne opera at her request While the frs
eight measures of the tuneful trio II
the last act. "Zitti. zitti piano, piano,
| are taken note for note from Simon.
air in Haydn's oratorio THE Creation.
Perhaps having scored so great a sue
cess with one Of his own oratorio melo
dies. Rossini thought he would see how
one of Haydn's would work. 1t worked
we'll When the opera was completed
Rossinl received $500 for the work
| There Is no record that out of It he pait
| any royalties to the other composers [,
whom he was indebted for their invol
untary assistance.
1t was day of rapid operatic com
position, but Rossni's feat Of compos
ing work of this length in thirteei
days seemed to be regarded as some
thing extraordinary and word of it wa
f-carried to Donizetti. That prolific an,
speedy composer shifted and responded
very likely. Rossini is so lazy"
But then Donizetti had at that tim
written the libretto himself compose,
the music. conducted the rehearsals an,
given one performance of a little two
act opera which he composed for som
| friends of his who owned a falling thea
tire, all In a space of nine days. How
ever. he acted in a good cause and tn
work saved the theatre of his friend
by Its success. Incidentally, only a few