Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

656 SPONTINI
more suited to Lieder and serious music, so she
found little favour with him, in spite of her
exquisite singing. 'II faut braver, Madame,'
shouted he, when she showed symptoms of exhaustion
at a rehearsal of the ' Vestale ; '
and
he was scarcely moved when she feinted. It
was not because he wrote unvooally, or overloaded
his voices with accompaniment, that his
parts were so trying—for he was too thorough
an Italian not to rely upon the voice for his
chief effects ; hut it was his propensity to
extreme contrasts, and his want of consideration
in rehearsing. It soon became a general complaintamong
women singers thatSpontini ruined
the voice. Seidler asked leave to retire on this
account in 1826 ; in 1823 Milder begged that
'
Olympia ' might not be given more than once
a fortnight, and Schechner refused an engagement
because she was afraid of Spontini's operas.
Even Schulz, who was devoted to him, was so
angry in March 1824 at the continual strain of
her heavy parts, as to lose her temper at rehearsal,
and speak so rudely that she would
have been punished had he not changed his
mind.
Spontini's appearance at the head of his
musicians was almost that of a general leading
an army to victory. When he glided rapidly
through the orchestra to his desk every member
of the band was in position, and on the alert to
begin. At such moments he looked an aristocrat
opera, where they long remained stock-pieces.
But their frequent repetition was more to gratify
the king than the public, and indeed the theatre
had soon to be filled by a large issue of free
admissions. Thus, for 'Olympia,' on Dec. 21,
1821, Spontini obtained from the office fifty
free tickets, besides buying twenty-five more.
In September 1824 he urged the Inteudantnot
to raise the prices for grand operas (meaning
his own), or the public would soon cease to
come at all, and begged to have ' ordinary
prices ' in large letters on the bills for the next
performance of the 'Vestalin.' A new opera
of his was however still an exciting event,
partly because of his own personality and position,
partly because the public was sure of a
splendid spectacle. He was bound to furnish
two grand operas every three years ;
' Olympia
'
I Richard Wagner's JSrinnerung an 3pontfnit 0eiammeUe
Scluiften, vol. T. p. U6 (Leipzig, FrltzBche, ^SIZ).
counted as one, and by the end of 1821 he was
thinking of the second. After much consideration
he chose the Feast of '
Roses,' from Moore's
' Lalla Eookh,' influenced, no doubt, by the
success of his earlier Festspiel, and the prospect,
welcome to a slow worker, of using portions of
his old material ;° but the subject did not seem
very congenial. The libretto was written by
Herklots, librettist to the Opera. On March
22 Spontini wrote to Briihl that he was working
17 hours a day on the first act, and that there
were only two. The iirst performance of
'Nurmahal' took place May 27,1822, in
honour of the marriage of the Princess Alexandrina
of Prussia, to whom the Emperor
dedicated the PF. score (Sahlesinger). This is
not, as has often been said, merely a revised
version of ' Lalla Eukh,' comparatively little of
that music having been used in it. The introductory
march became No. 8 of the opera
Nourmahal's song, No. 26 ; the drum chorus
of genii No. 20 ; and the ballet-muaic was
mostly retained. A song was also introduced
from his Dieux rivaux, ' ' and the ballet from
the 'Danaitdes' (Nos. 10 and 14).
The merits of the librettos of the ' Vestalin,'
' Cortez,' and
'
Olympia,' outweigh their defects.
Not so, however, that of ' Nurmahal '
; its plot
and characters are alike insipid, and it is in
fact a mere piice d'occasion. The oriental
colouring, which must have been its attraction
to the backbone, but also an autocrat who would for Spontini, still forms its sole interest. But,
insist on subjugating all other wills to his own. inferior as it is to ' Oberon,' it gives a high idea
The pedantic side of his character also came of its author's dramatic instinct, when we
out in many little traits—^he could only conduct consider the utter inability of French and Italian
from a MS. score, and his desk must be of a composers as a rule to deal with the fantastic
certain peculiar construction. His b3,ton was a and mythical. Its best numbers are the first
thick stick of ebony with a solid ivory ball at finale, the duet, No. 17, and the duet with
each end ; this he grasped in the middle with chorus. No. 20. There is a striking passage in
his whole fist, using it like a marshal's staff, i the finale—the lovers Ijang on opposite sides of
By May 14, 1821, the ' Vestalin,' ' Cortez,' the stage, and the people dancing about them
and 'Olympia' had all been produced according
to the composer's' own ideas at the Berlin dance ceases, and the voices hold on a chord of
to a bacchante-like strain, when suddenly the
the seventh on E, with an indescribable effect
of unsatisfied longing. It is a stroke of true
genius of which any German composer of the
romantic school might be proud. The duet
No. 17 contains some conventional thoughts,
but the vehemence of its passion is irresistible,
and it seems to have been the earliest instance
of a kind of sentiment first employed among
German composers by Marschner, e.g. in No.
17 of his 'Templer und Jjidin.' The spirit
chorus No. 20 has a charming sound, produced
by means entirely new ; though, compared with
Weber's tone -pictures, it strikes the hearer as
superficial. It is impossible to help this
comparison for many reasons, one being that in
No. 21 of Nurmahal ' ' one of Spontini's genii
sings, ' From Chindara's warbling fount I come. '^
A glance at the two compositions is enough to
s Weber's setting of these words was his hist composition, dated
London, May W, 1826, F. W, Jiihns, O. X. vim Weber in leinen
Werkcn, p. 409. Berlin, Schleslnger, 1871.
;