Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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ROSSINI
ROSSINI
more morement, variety, colour, combination,
and (it must be allowed) noise, than any of his
predecessors had done, though never so as to
drown the voices. In Gei-many the orchestra
was well understood before the end of the- 18th
century ; and we must not forget that—not
to speak of Mozart's operas of ' Fidelio ' or of
Cherubini's masterpieces—before the production
of the 'Barbiere' (1816), eight of Beethoven's
Symphonies were before the world. But in
Italy instrumentation was half a century behind,
and certainly none ofEossini's predecessors in that
country ever attempted what he did in his best
operas, as for instance in tlaa finale to 'Semiramide'
(1823), where the employment of the
four horns and the clarinets, and the astonishingly
clever way in which the orchestra is
handled geperally, are quite strokes of genius.
The horns are always favourites of his, and are
most happily used throughout ' Guillaume Tell,'
where we may point to the mixture of pizzicato
and bowed notes in the Chorus of the first act,
the harp and bell in the Chorus of the second
act, and other traits in the Conspiracy scene as
marks of real genius, for the happy and picturesque
effects produced by very simple means.
Rossini had further, like all the great masters,
a strong feeling for rhythm, as the most powerful
of all aids to interest and success, and was
fond of quick movements and of triple time.'
But an excessive love of jewels is apt to lead to
the use of sham diamonds, and his incessant
pursuit of effect led him to excessive ornamentation,
to noise, and to a passion for attractive
forms rather than for the feeling which should
lie at the root of them. Much of this, however,
was atoned for in his early operas by his
masterly way of writing for the voices, by the
strength of his melody, the copious flow of his
ideas, and the irresistible contagion of his good
spirits, especially in comic opera. Having thus
secured bis position in public favour, his next
step— a very legitimate one— was to satisfy
the demands of his own taste and conscience.
During this second period the subjects of his
operas increase in interest. In Mose ' ' he deals
with the religious sentiment. In the Donna
'
del Lago ' he rivals Walter Scott on his own
field ; and in Semiramide ' ' he has recourse to
oriental history in his endeavour to give an
independent value to his drama. During this
period his melodies drop .some of their former
voluptuous character, but in return are more
pathetic and more full of colour, though still
wanting in tenderness and depth.
Lastly, in his Paris operas, and especially in
'Guillaume Tell,' the influence of French taste
makes itself strongly felt, and we find a clearness,
a charm, a delicacy in the small details,
a sense of proportion and of unity, a breadth
of style, an attention to the necessities of the
1 The English reader will find these points happily touched on
ia Suthetland Edwards's Higtory of the Opera, chap. xvi.
stage, and a dignity, which raise this epoch of
his career far higher than either of the others.
Eossiui's music, as we have already said, has
been very differently estimated. Ingres, in
whose view honesty in art held almost as high
a place as genius or originality, has called it
'the music of a dishonest (malkonnite) man.'
Berlioz would gladly have burnt it all, and
Rossini's followers with it.^ On the other
hand, Schubert, though fully alive to his
weaknesses, as his caricatures of Rossini's overtures
show, and with every reason to dislike
him from the fact that the Rossini /wrore kept
Schubert's own works off the stage—contrasts
his operas most favourably with the rubbish
'
which filled the Vienna theatres at that time,
and calls him emphatically ' a rare genius.
'His instrumentation,' he continues, 'is often
extremely original, and so is the voice-writing,
nor can I find any fault with the music (of
" Otello "), if I except the usual Italian gallopades
and a few reminiscences of " Tancredi." '
*
Mendelssohn, too, as is well known, would allow
no one to depreciate Rossini. Even Schumann,
so intolerant of the Italian School, is enthusiastic
over one of his operas, and calls it ' real,
exhilarating, clever music' Such exaggerations
as those of Ingres and Berlioz are aa bad as
intentional injustice ; it is better to recollect the
very difficult circumstances which surrounded
an Italian composer eighty years ago, and to endeavour
to discover why music which was once
so widely worshipped has now gone out of
fashion. Is it the fault of his librettos ? No
doubt he would have been wiser to stick to
comic subjects, like that of the 'Barbiere,' and
to have confined himself for his librettos to the
pbets of his own family. Is it the elaborate
ornamentation of much of his music ? No
doubt ornamented music decays sooner than
that of a plainer style, and it is always dangerous,
though tempting, to adopt the fashionable
forms. But one main reason is to be found in
the -deterioration of the art of singing ; the
Paris opera can now boast neither 'tenor deforce'
nor ' t&ordegrace ; '
and the revival of the ' Comte
Ory'(ou Oct. 29, 1880) showed conclusively
the mediocrity of the singers at the Academic.
In fact Rossini is now expiating his fault in
having demanded too much from his singers.*
Some feeling of remorse on this head seems to
have prompted his efforts to improve the art of
singiiig both in Paris and Bologna. Indeed so
keenly alive was he to the tendencies which
a Berlioz, Memoiret, chap. xiv. The abuse of the bmtale ' grosse
eaisse do Rossini ' sounds oddly from Berlioz's pen.
3 Letter in Kreissle's lAfe of Schubert, chap. Til.
4 It is amusing to find Rossini accused ill his own time, as were
both Beethoven and Wagner, of being a destroyer of the voice.
The correspondent of the Allg. ilueik, Zeitung, writing from
Venice in April 1819, mentions a certain Countess Dieterichstein
at Borne, who pronounced that his passages were so straining and
ruinous for both throat and chest tliat if he wrote operas for ten
years longer there would be no more singers left in Italy. Oiorgi.'
continues the correspondent, ' for whomhe wrote the *' Cenerentola,"
is already completely ruined.' [It is perhaps only fair to remind
the reader that since the above article wae written there have been
many singers at the Paris Op4rA and elsewhere fully capable of
performing Rossini's operas if the public wanted them ]