Act III, played in a hunting park in Richmond forest, on the left a
small inn, opens with a song in praise of porter, the "Canzone del Porter" by _Plunkett_, "Chi mi dirà?" (Will you tell me). The pièces de résistance of this act are the "M'apparì"; a solo for _Nancy_, "Il tuo stral nel lanciar"
[Music]
(Huntress fair, hastens where); _Martha's_ song, "Qui tranquilla almen poss'io" (Here in deepest forest shadows); and the stirring quintet with chorus.
[Music]
In Act IV there are a solo for _Plunkett_, "Il mio Lionel perirà" (Soon my Lionel will perish), and a repetition of some of the sprightly music of the fair scene.
* * * * *
It is not without considerable hesitation that I have classed "Martha" as a French opera. For Flotow was born in Teutendorf, April 27, 1812, and died in Darmstadt January 24, 1883. Moreover, "Martha," was produced in Vienna, and his next best-known work, "Alessandro Stradella," in Hamburg (1844).
The music of "Martha," however, has an elegance that not only is quite unlike any music that has come out of Germany, but is typically French. Flotow, in fact, was French in his musical training, and both the plot and score of "Martha" were French in origin. The composer studied composition in Paris under Reicha, 1827-30, leaving Paris solely on account of the July revolution, and returning in 1835, to remain until the revolution in March, 1848, once more drove him away. After living in Paris again, 1863-8, he settled near Vienna, making, however, frequent visits to that city, the French capital, and Italy.
During his second stay in Paris he composed for the Grand Opéra the first act of a ballet, "Harriette, ou la Servante de Greenwiche." This ballet, the text by Vernoy and St. George, was for Adèle Dumilâtre. The reason Flotow was entrusted with only one of the three acts was the short time in which it was necessary to complete the score. The other acts were assigned, one each, to Robert Bergmüller and Édouard Deldevez. Of this ballet, written and composed for a French dancer and a French audience, "Martha" is an adaptation. This accounts for its being so typically French and not in the slightest degree German. Flotow's opera "Alessandro Stradella" also is French in origin. It is adapted from a one-act _pièce lyrique_, brought out by him in Paris, in 1837. Few works produced so long ago as "Martha" have its freshness, vivacity, and charm. Pre-eminently graceful, it yet carries in a large auditorium like the Metropolitan, where so many operas of the lighter variety have been lost in space.
Charles François Gounod
(1818-1893)
The composer of "Faust" was born in Paris, June 17, 1818. His father had, in 1783, won the second prix de Rome for painting at the École des Beaux Arts. In 1837, the son won the second prix de Rome for music, and two years later captured the grand prix de Rome, by twenty-five votes out of twenty-seven, at the Paris Conservatoire. His instructors there had been Reicha in harmony, Halévy in counterpoint and fugue, and Leseur in composition.
Gounod's first works, in Rome and after his return from there, were religious. At one time he even thought of becoming an abbé, and on the title-page of one of his published works he is called Abbé Charles Gounod. A performance of his "Messe Solenelle" in London evoked so much praise from both English and French critics that the Grand Opéra commissioned him to write an opera. The result was "Sapho," performed April 16, 1851, without success. It was his "Faust" which gave him European fame. "Faust" and his "Roméo et Juliette" (both of which see) suffice for the purposes of this book, none of his other operas having made a decided success.
"La Rédemption," and "Mors et Vita," Birmingham, England, 1882 and 1885, are his best-known religious compositions. They are "sacred trilogies." Gounod died, Paris, October 17, 1893.
In Dr. Theodore Baker's _Biographical Dictionary of Musicians_ Gounod's merits as a composer are summed up as follows: "Gounod's compositions are of highly poetic order, more spiritualistic than realistic; in his finest lyrico-dramatic moments he is akin to Weber, and his modulation even reminds of Wagner; his instrumentation and orchestration are frequently original and masterly." These words are as true today as when they were written, seventeen years ago.
FAUST
Opera, in five acts, by Gounod; words by Barbier and Carré. Produced, Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, March 19, 1859, with Miolan-Carvalho as _Marguerite_; Grand Opéra, Paris, March 3, 1869, with Christine Nilsson as _Marguerite_, Colin as _Faust_, and Faure as _Méphistophélès_. London, Her Majesty's Theatre, June 11, 1863; Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, July 2, 1863, in Italian, as "Faust e Margherita"; Her Majesty's Theatre, January 23, 1864, in an English version by Chorley, for which, Santley being the _Valentine_, Gounod composed what was destined to become one of the most popular numbers of the opera, "Even bravest heart may swell" ("_Dio possente_"). New York, Academy of Music, November 26, 1863, in Italian, with Clara Louise Kellogg (_Margherita_), Henrietta Sulzer (_Siebel_), Fanny Stockton (_Martha_), Francesco Mazzoleni (_Faust_), Hannibal Biachi (_Méphistophélès_), G. Yppolito (_Valentine_), D. Coletti (_Wagner_). Metropolitan Opera House, opening night, October 22, 1883, with Nilsson, Scalchi, Lablache, Campanini, Novara, Del Puente.
CHARACTERS
FAUST, a learned doctor _Tenor_ MÉPHISTOPHÉLÈS, Satan _Bass_ MARGUERITE _Soprano_ VALENTINE, a soldier, brother to Marguerite _Baritone_ SIEBEL, a village youth, in love with Marguerite _Mezzo-Soprano_ WAGNER, a student _Baritone_ MARTHA SCHWERLEIN, neighbour to Marguerite _Mezzo-Soprano_
Students, soldiers, villagers, angels, demons, Cleopatra, Laïs, Helen of Troy, and others.
_Time_--16th Century.
_Place_--Germany.
Popular in this country from the night of its American production, Gounod's "Faust" nevertheless did not fully come into its own here until during the Maurice Grau régime at the Metropolitan Opera House. Sung in French by great artists, every one of whom was familiar with the traditions of the Grand Opéra, Paris, the work was given so often that William J. Henderson cleverly suggested "Faustspielhaus" as an appropriate substitute for the name of New York's yellow brick temple of opera; a _mot_ which led Krehbiel, in a delightful vein of banter, to exclaim, "Henderson, your German jokes are better than your serious German!"
Several distinguished singers have been heard in this country in the rôle of _Faust_. It is doubtful if that beautiful lyric number, _Faust's_ romance, "Salut! demeure chaste et pure" (Hail to the dwelling chaste and pure), ever has been delivered here with more exquisite vocal phrasing than by Campanini, who sang the Italian version, in which the romance becomes "Salve! dimora casta e pura." That was in the old Academy of Music days, with Christine Nilsson as _Marguerite_, which she had sung at the revival of the work by the Paris Grand Opéra. The more impassioned outbursts of the _Faust_ rôle also were sung with fervid expression by Campanini, so great an artist, in the best Italian manner, that he had no Italian successor until Caruso appeared upon the scene.
Yet, in spite of the _Faust_ of these two Italian artists, Jean de Reszke remains the ideal _Faust_ of memory. With a personal appearance distinguished beyond that of any other operatic artist who has been heard here, an inborn chivalry of deportment that made him a lover after the heart of every woman, and a refinement of musical expression that clarified every rôle he undertook, his _Faust_ was the most finished portrayal of that character in opera that has been heard here. Jean de Reszke's great distinction was that everything he did was in perfect taste. Haven't you seen _Faust_ after _Faust_ keep his hat on while making love to _Marguerite_? Jean de Reszke, a gentleman, removed his before ever he breathed of romance. Muratore is an admirable _Faust_, with all the refinements of phrasing and acting that characterize the best traditions of the Grand Opéra, Paris.
Great tenors do not, as a rule, arrive in quick succession. In this country we have had two distinct tenor eras and now are in a third. We had the era of Italo Campanini, from 1873 until his voice became impaired, about 1880. Not until eleven years later, 1891, did opera in America become so closely associated with another tenor, that there may be said to have begun the era of Jean de Reszke. It lasted until that artist's voluntary retirement. We are now in the era of Enrico Caruso, whose repertoire includes _Faust_ in French.
Christine Nilsson, Adelina Patti, Melba, Eames, Calvé, have been among the famous _Marguerites_ heard here. Nilsson and Eames may have seemed possessed of too much natural reserve for the rôle; but Gounod's librettists made _Marguerite_ more refined than Goethe's _Gretchen_. Patti acted the part with great simplicity and sang it flawlessly. In fact her singing of the ballad "Il était un roi de Thulé" (There once was a king of Thule) was a perfect example of the artistically artless in song. It seemed to come from her lips merely because it chanced to be running through her head. Melba's type of beauty was somewhat mature for the impersonation of the character, but her voice lent itself beautifully to it. Calvé's _Marguerite_ is recalled as a logically developed character from first note to last, and as one of the most original and interesting of _Marguerites_. But Americans insisted on Calvé's doing nothing but _Carmen_. When she sang in "Faust" she appeared to them a _Carmen_ masquerading as _Marguerite_. So back to _Carmen_ she had to go. Sembrich and Farrar are other _Marguerites_ identified with the Metropolitan Opera House.
Plançon unquestionably was the finest _Méphistophélès_ in the history of the opera in America up to the present time--vivid, sonorous, and satanically polished or fantastical, as the rôle demanded.
Gounod's librettists, Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, with a true Gallic gift for practicable stage effect, did not seek to utilize the whole of Goethe's "Faust" for their book, but contented themselves with the love story of _Faust_ and _Marguerite_, which also happens to have been entirely original with the author of the play, since it does not occur in the legends. But because the opera does not deal with the whole of "Faust," Germany, where Gounod's work enjoys great popularity, refuses to accept it under the same title as the play, and calls it "Margarethe" after the heroine.
As reconstructed for the Grand Opéra, where it was brought out ten years after its production at the Théâtre Lyrique, "Faust" develops as follows:
There is a brief prelude. A _ff_ on a single note, then mysterious, chromatic chords, and then the melody which Gounod composed for Santley.