But in Italy itself, where the language was understood, the opera was less artificial. At the outset the subjects had been classical; very naturally, indeed, the record starts with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Then they became antique—historical. But it made no difference whether the hero was a god, a demi-god, an ancient monarch, or a man of war. It was his business to run about the stage, generally in disguise, and sing elaborate tunes in an unsexed voice. A hard and fast formula governed the construction of operas down almost to the Mozart period, the period from which present, popular and practical knowledge may be said to date. The plot had to be classical; there had to be six characters and six only (three women and three men) ; occa sionally a woman might take a man's part, but many of the men sang with women's voices; there were three acts and in each of the three each character sang an air ; there were five varieties of airs, but each kind had the da capo; that is, after it had been finished the singer returned to the beginning and sang the first part over again, this time with such embellish ments as he or she could invent. The various kinds of arias were designed to display the capacity of the singers in the sustained style, their ability to sustain long notes, to declaim the words rapidly and expressively, to sing long flourishes (" divisions," they were called in England) brilliantly, and. in general, to unfold the whole art of beautiful singing as such.
Naturally, when such notions prevailed, the singer be came the dominating figure in the operatic world, and the dramatist dropped completely out of sight. In a way it may be said that the reform inaugurated by Gluck, of which the Wagnerian art work was the final fruition (for there has been no essential progress since " Parsifal "), was the com poser's emancipation of himself from the tyranny of the singer and an unconscious ebullition of the old spirit which, in the first instance, had created the lyric drama. In a pre face to his "Alceste," Gluck laid down a statement of his reformatory strivings. He wished to reduce music to its
true function as the helpmeet of poetry, to make the over ture a sort of argument of the play and to strive for beautiful simplicity. The words must sound to all whose historical knowledge of the opera is bounded by the last century like an utterance of Wagner's. The principles which actuated this master musical dramatist have been often set forth, but they may be again set forth, probably with profit. Wagner, like Gluck, started with the proposition that in the opera, music had usurped a place which did not belong to it; it was designed (he might have quoted the Florentines), to be a means and it had become an end. In the drama is found a composite form, embracing poetry, music, panto mime and scenery. Each of these factors is contributory to the whole sum, and they ought, therefore, to co-operate on a basis of mutual dependence or interdependence, the inspira tion and aim of all being dramatic expression. Music, therefore, must be subordinated to the text which gives rational expression to the dramatic idea and aim, not to exalt itself, but to raise the word to a higher power by giving it greater emotional vitality than it possesses in itself. So, also, it ought to vivify the pantomime and accompany the stage pictures. In order to do this, it had to be relieved of the shackles of form which had been placed on it when it was the servant of beauty merely, so that it might move unimpeded along with the other factors. So the distinction between recitatives and arias, all set forms, indeed, were abolished and an endless strain of music flowing along the lines of the drama took their places. An exalted form of speech is borne along on a flood or orchestral music, which, quite as much as song, action and scenery, concerns itself with the exposition of the drama. And this flood of music, whether it be vocal or instrumental, has for its themes melodic phrases which are identified with the material and spiritual agencies that are employed in the development of the play.