MODERN TENDENCIES.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) must be consid ered first of all. He began his career when Italy was still absorbing the melodic treacle that flowed from the of Donizetti and Bellini, and lie closed it two decades after Richard Wag ner had died. He was a most prolific writer and a progressive one. His early works were of the approved style of the period : then came a spell during which lie wrote what still remain his most popular works—Rigoletto, troratorr, and Lu truriata—and then lie matured into such a work as a vast improvement on all its predecessors. By this time lie had acquired a certain amount of dramatic freedom which was most valuable, added to the skill with which he wrote for the voice. After the revolutionary period in opera—the period when Wagner was alive and during much of which Verdi lived in silence—the aged Italian came forward anew with Otello, considered by some critics his great est work and certainly among the great operas. From Wagner he had learned the importance of being musically sincere to one's text at all hazards; and either by chance o• fate he was blessed with one of the best operatic texts writ ten, compiled from Shakespeare by Boito. Otello is an astounding work in many ways. It is lyric—Verdi apotheosized the voice—and force fully dramatic: as a whole it is satisfying, in parts tremendous. Still later in life lie brought forth Falstaff, a work so viable with youthful vigor that every page of it denies the number of years then piled on Verdi's head. With this he concluded his career.
Very near Verdi—his friend, and librettist in the later works—stands Arrigo Boito (1842-1. His one produced opera. lirriRtofele, was at its time full of a promise which the composer has not yet made good, although he has promised :Vero. which in 1903 was reported to be almost com pleted. A follower of Verdi was Amilcare Ponchi elli whose fame lives in La Gioconda. Then follows a list of younger composers—the school of brutal verity—Puccini, a man of much talent and great technique: Franehetti.
t;iordano, and others—to say nothing of Maseagni and Leoncavallo. r“ lb rill rust ica ita and Pagliacci, respectively, have made them known the world over. But they.all seen} to be groping.
Not only Wagner, but also Verdi, with last works. left them in a maze of theories with no settled sign post to direct is still subject to the Wagner influences. The later have done nothing startling—a. Verdi
did—but principally have followed Wagner. as Ilumperdinek. iliehard Strauss, Bungert. D'Al bert, Goldmark, Schilling, Siegfried Wagner, Weingartner, Kienzl, and others. Very recently Richard Strauss has composed a Fenernot, which has met with success, but it is scarcely possible that the form is favorable to great development. His early music-drama, Guntrain. reveals post-Wagnerian ideals. Prac tically the history of German opera closes with Wagner. The name of Johann Strauss (1825-991, a member of the celebrated hinny of dance com posers, must not be omitted. His joyous, spar kling light operas are a distinct genre—Dic Pc dermans is a masterpiece in little. It has found a large following—Von Stipp% Genr.e. and others.
The Wagner influence also pervaded France, where it brewed a tempest. The public decried it—so did some of the native composers: but others and wiser ones bowed their musical heads, accepted and for a time followed tlir• master. Of late France has developed operatic realism and has produced a school of very clever musi cians who have more technique than ideas. An exception is the Belgian—musically, France and Belgium are one—Cesar Franck (1822-9111. who was a spiritual thinker; hut his opera Habig is almost unknown. Beyer (1s23-1 has made tedious attempts to preserve the classic in opera, while Sa int -Sa.n. I i535—) and Massenet (1842—) have floundered from the school of :_\leyerbeer to the more sensational style of the younger men. Of the latter, mention must he made of Charpentier. D'Indy. Hue. I'iernt•. ).e roux, and Bruneall. Faure, and later and more important, Debussy, have written serious and intricate incidental music to accompany spoken drama. This is mere experimenting. since poetry and music must lie united by closer bonds if they are to be joined at all. Altogether the operatic situation in France is not promising. Most of the modern works are threatened with an early decline, and on the horizon there is no ti.mre promising enough to originate a new oper atic faith. The Bohemian Smetana (1624-541 and his pupil Dvoi•:ik (1841-190-M have added works of local color to opera. but nothing abso lutely revolutionary. The Polish pianist-composer Pa(14-rewski coml(osed :Mauro and two other Poles, Xavier Scharwenka and Moritz. or Moszkowski. respectively. wrote llataswintha and Boalnlil. Russia has worked long and earnestly to produce a school of national opera composers.