Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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wine from the cellar, which it is difScult to
helieve was in its first form applied to the
taking of the Trooad^ro ! Adolphe Nourrit,
who was not only a great artist, but a poet of
very considerable dramatic power, was privately
of much assistance to Kossini in the adaptation
of his old music to the new words, and in the
actual mounting of the piece in which he was
to take so important a share. ' Le Comte Ory
was produced at the Academic, August 20, 1828,
and the principal characters were taken by Mme.
Damoreau-Cinti, Miles. Jawurek and Mori,
Adolphe Nourrit, Levasseur, and Dabadie. The
Introduction is based on the old song which
gives its name to the piece. The best thing in
the second act is boiTowed from the Allegretto
scherzando of Beethoven's Eighth Symphony.
Rossini was at that time actually engaged with
Habeneck, the founder of the Conoerte of the
Conservatoire, and his intimate friend, in studying
the Symphonies of Beethoven ; and it is
easy to understand how impossible it must
have been to forget the fresh and graceful
movement referred to.
The study of Beethoven was at any rate not
a bad preparation for the very serious piece of
work which was next to engage him," and for a
158 EOSSINI ROSSINI
—;
'
great portion of which he retired to the chateau
of his friend Aguado the banker at Petit-Bourg.
Schiller had recently been brought into notice
in France by the translation of M. de Barante ;
and Rossini, partly attracted by the grandeur
of the subject, partly Inspired by the liberal
ideas at that moment floating through Europe,
was induced to choose the Liberator of the Swiss
Cantons as his next subject. He accepted a
libretto offered him by Etienne Jouy, Spontini's
old librettist, who in this case was associated
with Hippolyte Bis. Their words, however,
were so unmusical and unrhythmical, that
Rossini had recourse to Armand Marrast, at
that time Aguado's secretary, and the whole
scene of the meeting of the conspirators—one
of the best in operatic literature, and the only
thoroughly satisfactory part of the book of
'
Guillaurae Tell '—was rewritten by him, a fact
which we are glad to make public in these
pages.
This grand opera, undoubtedly Rossini's
masterpiece, was produced at the Academic on
August 3, 1829, with the following cast:
Arnold, Nourrit ; Walter Fiirst, Levasseur
Tell, Dabadie ;
Ruodi, A. Dupont ; Rodolphe,
Massol ; Gessler, Provost ; Leutold, PrevOt
Mathilde, Damoreau-Cinti ; Jemmy, Dabadie ;
Hedwige, Mori.
'Teir has now become a study for the
musician, from the first bar of the overture to
the storm scene and the final hymn of freedom.
The overture is no longer, like Rossini's former
ones, a piece of work on a familiar, well-worn
pattern, but a true instrumental prelude, which
would be simply perfect if the opening and the
—;
fiery peroration were only as appropriate to the
subject as they are tempting to the executant.
We find no absurdities like those in Moise '
'
no song of thanksgiving accompanied by a brilliant
polonaise, no more oabalettas, no more
commonplace phrases or worn-out modulations
in short, no more padding of any kind. True,
it would not be difficult to criticise the length
of the duet in the second act, which recalls the
duet in 'Semiramide,' and breathes rather the
concert-room than the stage—or the style of the
finale of the third act, which is not appropriate
to the situation.
The spectacle of a great master at the zenith
of his glory and in the very prime of life- thus
breaking with all the traditions of his genius
and appearing as in a second avatar is Indeed a
rare and noble one. The sacrifice of all the
means of effect by which his early popularity
had been obtained, is one which Rossini shares
with Gluck and Weber, but for which our former
experience of his character would hardly have
prepared us. He seems at length to have discovered
how antagonistic such effects were to
the simplicity which was really at the base of
the great musical revolution effected by him
but to discover, and to act on a discovery, are
two different things, and he ought to have full
credit for the courage and sincerity with which,
at his age, he forsook the flowery plains in which
his genius had formerly revelled, for loftier and
less accessible heights.
But the career thus splendidly inaugurated
was not destined to be pursued ; circumstances,
political and domestic, stopped him on the
threshold. He was anxious to visit once more
the city in which his beloved mother died in
1827, and where his father, who had soon tired
of Paris, was awaiting him. With this view
he resigned his office as inspector of singing in
France, and made an arrangement with the
Government of Charles X., dating from the
beginning of 1829, by which he bound himself
for ten years to compose for no other stage but
that of France, and to write and bring out an
opera every two years, receiving for each such
opera the sum of 15,000 francs. In the event
of the Government failing to carry out the
arrangement he was to receive a retiring pension
of 6000 francs.
'
Guillaume Tell ' was thus to
be the first of a series of five operas.
After a serenade from the opera orchestra,
Rossini, therefore, left Paris for Bologna. Here
he was engaged in considering the subject of
' Faust,! with a view to his next work, when he
received the sudden news of the abdication of
Charles X., and the revolution of July 1830.
The blow shattered his plans and dissipated his
fondest hopes. He flattered himself that he had
regenerated the art of singing in France. What
would beeome of it again under a king who could
tolerate no operas but those of Grttry ? Anxious
to know if his friend Lubbert was still at the