Even so great a musician as Alessandro Scar latti (1659-1725) could not rescue opera from its plight. Ilis one striving was to develop the musical end of the form, and in his eagnerness he neglected the dramatic entirely—just as so many other composers had done and were doing. This wretched period. which has been called the 'oratorio epoch' of opera. lasted until the stern Gluck reform set in. Italy had been too small to hold the effects of the Florentine movement, and Dresden produced a German version of battle. about 1627. The composer was Heinrich Schtitz, who hail been trained in Venice under Gabrieli, whose work was an imitation of the Italian. Nuremberg cropped up with something which purported to be more Teutonic later. This was a lyric drama called Serb-wig, by Staden (1607 55j, which proved. after all, to have little of the national in it. It was evident that Germany could not get on without Italy in matters mu sical, so it was no surprise to lied a wholesale importation of Italian composers, operas. and opera troupes into Germany about the middle of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless by 167s Hamburg had a German opera house. The open ing performances were mere farces of serious work and the scheme was too ridiculous to last. A betterment came in 1097 when Reinhard Keiser (1674.1739) produced his isnume; from then until 1734 he was actively connected with the opera. lie worked diligently to divorce opera from Italian influences aml wrote German music; but unfortunately he planned his work in the forms of the Neapolitan 'oratorio-opera.' which had no artistic excuse for existence at all. So far opera 'made in Germany' was not a sueees-, and with Keiser's death Italy again flooded the country with its musical product. The Italians also forced their way into France. Their early performanees there may be passed over, being of no great importance in themselves; but they awakened in the Frenchman's mind the possi bility of a national opera. This culminated with the accession of Louis XIV. to the throne. for he bestowed on l'ierre Perrin ( 1620-75) the right to found an academy of music. A eompany was ineorporated, and on August 19. 1671. the Aea (Miele Royale de llusique, which still exists, be gan its career with Pmnone, a mediocre pastoral. the by Ca mbert (162S-771. So here was the Italian influence dominant in France and result ing in the founding of an institution in imitation of the Florentine Camerato. Although Perrin and Cambert founded the AcadAnie Royale de Alusique, their activity at its head was short lived. The father of French opera is Lully (1633-87). Giovanni BattistaIly, a Floren tine by birth, ?tar taken to France and I:egan his Parisian career as a scullion. His violin-play ing. however, drew attention to him, and under noble patronage he began the study of music. As a musician he acquired dignity, knowledge, and power; he intrigued against Perrin and Cam bert, and in short order was the head of the .Acadtrauie. Here he ruled with a high hand, but his extraordinary and numerous talents made him a valuable person; he composed a large number of ballets, divertissements, and operas— in all of them pandering to the local taste and keeping the dramatic element well forward. Nat
urally his operas betray Italian influence. hut this is neatly modified or cleverly disguised; above all they are adapted to the stage. His principal successor—and this after a lapse of time—was Jean Philippe IZameau (1683-1704). who was a better musician, but had not so keen an eye for the dramatic end of opera, and under his reign Italian opera once again secured a hold in France. It must be recorded to the glory of French pride that the Italians did not succeed —as in Germany—in overwhelming national opera; but the taste of the musical public was divided. and afterwards—as we shall see—eul minated in the Chuck-Pieeini contest for operatic honors.
In England opera had tentative beginnings as in every other country; here it was the masque I q.v.) that gave early excuses for the employ ment of music with stage productions. lint this form was no nearer opera than the gorgeous French ballet had been and it founded no school. It remained for Henry Purcell (1658-95) to lay the corner-stone of English opera. He was probably the greatest of England's musicians— certainly the last of the great ones—and was a pupil of Pelham Homfrey. who in turn had studied under Lally. Much of his work con sists in musical settings for plays, but there is at least one real opera, /tido and "Encas. The early death of Purcell was particularly unfor tunate for England. inasmuch as there was no one to succeed him; and as art cannot remain stationary, it declined. This was the usual op portunity for Italy, whose musical scouts were constantly surveying the operatic field for fresh conquests. The most important of the invaders, however, was the German George Frederick 'Handel (1085-1759), who had become thoroughly 1GmIianized. Ile wrote and produced opera after opera until he became bankrupt, and then he turned out oratorios with equal facility. That he had dramatic ability--other than a musical one—is extremely doubtful, and his operas belong unquestionably to that dread 'oratorio-opera' style inaugurated! by Carissimi through Cesti. Handel did not have the English field to himself: his rivals were Buononeini (1660-1750) and Ariosti (1660-c.1740). The stringing of ballads —as Dr. Pepusch (1607-17.52) did in the case of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera--does not deserve serious consideration in itself, but in England it gave rise to the school of ballad opera from which nearly all later attempts at English opera stem. How widespread the influence of Italian opera was has been shown; also that it was the kernel of national opera in England, France. and Germany. Even a cursory glance into the matter will prove that in the haste to cover all available territory and in the eagerness to please the several masses the Florentine ideals were buried under the numberless mounds of failure which opera had left in its trail of popularity. A reform was imminent.