CHAPTER IX.

"LA GAZZA LADRA": THE CONTRALTO VOICE.

The Patriarch of Moscow, arrayed in all his splendour, was about to lay the foundation stone of a new church, when his consecrated trowel, formed of massive gold, could nowhere be found. Dreadful things happened. No one could say what had become of the precious instrument. The question was put to the nobles, the merchants were put to the question, the peasants were knouted and sent to Siberia; still the golden trowel was not forthcoming.

At last the Tsar died of grief; the great bell of Ivan Velikoi, the sound of which is never heard except on the most solemn occasions, was about to be tolled, when the aged bell-ringer, on ascending the tower, was much startled at startling a magpie which had turned the sacred belfry into a receptacle for stolen goods. In the midst of the hoard accumulated by the thievish bird, which included a fur cap, a wooden spoon, a pair of goloshes, a hymn-book, and a tenpenny nail, the long-lost golden trowel was discovered.

The Patriarch, now advanced in years, laid the foundation stone of the new church. He then pronounced a curse, the terms of which are unfit for publication, on the magpies of Moscow, and forbad them to approach the holy city within a distance of forty versts. Accordingly, no magpie is ever seen in Moscow--except, of course, on the stage, when "La Gazza Ladra" is performed.

Wherever the legend on which the story of the Maid and the Magpie may have come from--and its birthplace is doubtless much further east than Moscow--the drama or melodrama of domestic, military, and judicial interest on which Rossini's "Gazza Ladra" is founded, belongs, like the dramatic originals of "Il Barbiere" and "La Cenerentola," to the French. The French playwrights, if not good librettists themselves, are certainly cunning contrivers of plots on which good libretti may be founded. "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," are both derived from Beaumarchais; "La Cenerentola" from Etienne; "La Sonnambula" from Scribe; "Lucrezia Borgia," "Ernani," and "Rigoletto," from Victor Hugo. "Linda di Chamouni" is only "La Grace de Dieu;" "La Gazza Ladra," "La Pie Voleuse" in another form. If there should ever be a recognised national division of literary labour in the world, England, considering how much the works of Richardson, Fielding, Scott, Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray have been read on the continent, may perhaps supply the novels; but the French already write plays in every shape for the whole world.

Mademoiselle Jenny Vertpré was acting with great success in "La Pie Voleuse," when Paer, happening to see the piece, was struck with its capabilities for musical setting, bought the book, made notes in the margin with a view to its conversion into an opera, and forwarded it to his librettist. The librettist thought, with Paer, that the subject was excellent for music; but he preferred to treat it for Rossini, who seems to have profited by the treachery of Paer's poet in ordinary.

The story of the Maid and the Magpie does not in the present day seem to have been worth quarrelling about; nor, for that matter, did it lead to any positive dispute. Only Rossini constructed a fine musical work on a dramatic scaffolding furnished by Paer, who had no more wish to help him to a plot than one rival generally has to assist another, especially when the aid is to come from the less successful of the two.

The same Paer, composer of "Agnese" and several works which were very popular during his lifetime, was more unfortunate still with a libretto which he did make into an opera, and which Beethoven nevertheless adopted for his "Fidelio."

"I have seen your piece," said Beethoven to Paer, with cruel thoughtlessness, "and think of setting it to music!" Thus, Paer's "Leonora, ossia l'amore conjugale" came to be overshadowed by the superior presence of Beethoven's great work.

"La Gazza Ladra" belongs neither to opera seria nor to opera buffa; nor can it be classed with those operas of mezzo carattere, "Il Barbiere," and "La Cenerentola." It is a domestic drama set to music--very inferior, as to the subject, to its successors in the same style, "La Sonnambula," and "Linda di Chamouni."

The heroine of each of these dramas is the victim of a slight mistake. Whether 'tis nobler to be suspected of carrying on an intrigue with a village count or of stealing a silver spoon, may be left to the decision of those prima donnas who have represented both _Ninetta_ and _Amina_; but the story of "La Sonnambula" is certainly both more probable, and more pleasing, than that of "La Gazza Ladra," which Rossini does not seem to have been able to treat seriously. The plot is so badly woven in "La Gazza Ladra" that it scarcely hangs together at all. We feel almost from the beginning that everything can be explained at any moment if _Ninetta_ will only give herself the trouble to speak.

_Fernando_ cannot say a word in defence of his daughter, though it is to save her that he has given himself up to the authorities. If _Ninetta_ will make no statement, it is for fear of compromising her father--who, however, by his own act is already as much compromised as he well can be.

In "La Sonnambula," on the other hand, appearances are entirely against the unfortunate _Amina_, who, to the last moment, is entirely unable to explain her conduct.

In "La Gazza Ladra" Rossini makes some amends to the contralto voice for dethroning it from the highest position, formerly assigned to it in serious opera. Before Rossini's time, when a soprano and a contralto part were introduced together, the former was for the primo uomo (sopranist), the latter for the prima donna. We have seen that Rossini after writing one part for a sopranist (Velluti in "Aureliano"), never wrote a second. Taking his prima donnas as he found them, he continued to compose the principal female part for the contralto, and dispensed with the soprano, except where, as in "L'Italiana," he found it convenient to introduce a soprano voice merely for the sake of the concerted pieces.

In writing "La Gazza Ladra" for the company of La Scala at Milan, he found two female vocalists to whom he could with advantage give leading parts: one a soprano, or mezzo-soprano, as she would now be called, Madame Theresa Belloc; and the other a contralto, Mademoiselle Galianis. The former was the prima donna; for the latter Rossini composed the charming part of _Pippo_--the first secondary auxiliary part for the contralto which occurs in opera.

_Pippo_, then, was the first of that interesting tribe of rich-voiced hermaphrodites for whom so many charming melodies were to be written. The humble _Pippo_ was the precursor of the picturesque _Malcolm Graeme_, of the chivalrous _Arsace_, of the impulsive _Maffeo Orsini_, of the courteous _Urbano_; as Mademoiselle Galianis was the forerunner of Pisaroni, of Brambilla, and of Alboni. In the present day, for sound commercial reasons, no singer will remain a contralto who can possibly become a soprano; and, whether it be an effect or a cause, since "Linda di Chamouni" (1842), the class of parts represented by the above-named types has received no addition.

Contraltos for the representation of interesting adolescents were so rare when "La Gazza Ladra" was first produced, that in most companies the part of _Pippo_ was assigned to a baritone or bass.

In bringing out "La Gazza Ladra" at Milan, Rossini was somewhat in the same position as when, four years previously, he had produced "Tancredi" at Venice. The Milanese had not considered "Il Turco in Italia," which Rossini wrote for La Scala in 1814, quite good enough for them. This had not prevented Rossini (who must have been a better judge of his own music than the Milanese public) from prefixing the overture written for "Il Turco in Italia" to "Otello," nor from transferring several pieces from the body of that work to "La Cenerentola." Still the Milanese, jealous of the public of Rome, for whom "Il Barbiere" and "La Cenerentola" had been composed, and of that of Naples, where "Otello" had recently been produced, fancied themselves slighted, and seem to have gone to the first representation of "La Gazza Ladra" with the determination to stand no trifling from the composer.

* * * * *

Rossini attacked them at once at the very beginning of the overture with a roll of the drum--or rather of two drums, one at each end of the orchestra--which they could not say had been heard before either at Rome, at Venice, or at Naples. The audience could not but be attentive, and continuing to listen, could not but be delighted. The freshness and beauty of the melodies, the brilliancy and sonority of the instrumentation, the happy verve which animates the whole work, produced their natural effect.

It cannot be said, however, that Rossini's overture was applauded without a single dissentient voice. One young man in the pit--a student of music, and a pupil of Rolla, the leader of the orchestra--went almost into convulsions on hearing the drums, and wished to take summary vengeance on the composer who had ventured to introduce such instruments into an operatic orchestra. The youthful conservative, with all the ardour of an Italian revolutionist, swore that he would have Rossini's blood, and went about with a stiletto in the hope of meeting him.

The master of this vehement orchestral purist warned Rossini that he meant mischief; but Rossini was so much amused at the idea of any one wishing to assassinate him because in an overture of a military character he had introduced a couple of drums, that he got Rolla to bring him and the young man together. Then in a humble tone he set forth his reasons for introducing the instruments which had so irritated the student's susceptible ears, and ended by promising never to offend in a similar manner again. For which, or better reasons, Rossini never afterwards began an overture with a duet for drums.

The overture of "La Gazza Ladra" is still the most popular in Italy of all Rossini's overtures, and it formed an essential part of the programme at all the commemorative performances given throughout Italy after the composer's death. When it was executed for the first time it caused raptures of enthusiasm. The audience rose, applauded, called out to the composer, after the queer Italian fashion, and continued to applaud for several minutes.

They had now quite forgotten their predetermination to be severe; they were only too grateful to Rossini for the pleasure he had afforded them. The reconciliation was perfect. The public was prepared to be enchanted with everything; the introduction was very much admired, and _Ninetta's_ cavatina, the celebrated

"Di piacer mi balza il cor"

obtained as much applause as the overture itself.

Madame Belloc had sung her air a second time, and it was being called for again, when Rossini, from his place in the orchestra, appealed to the audience to allow the performance to proceed, saying that the part of _Ninetta_ was very heavy, and that Madame Belloc, if called upon to repeat her solos, might be unable to get through it. This protest against the encore system found rational listeners, and the opera went on without further interruption.

Rossini had particularly counted on the success of the prayer for three voices--

"Oh, nume benefico!"

and he was not deceived in his expectation. The success of a prayer for three voices in Winter's recently produced opera of "Maometto" is said to have determined Rossini to introduce a concerted _preghiera_ of his own in "La Gazza Ladra." It was a novelty in those days to see operatic characters address a formal invocation to Heaven. Now it is the first thing that occurs to them when they are in trouble.

A dozen operas might be mentioned in which one or more of the personages, and generally a whole crowd, fall down on their knees before the audience and begin to pray. In "La Gazza Ladra" there are two prayers; the one just mentioned, in the _terzetto_, and _Ninetta's_ prayer in the scene of her condemnation. Rossini, when he _did_ take an idea from another composer, appropriated it so thoroughly that it belonged to him for ever afterwards. He practised in music the precept enjoined by Voltaire in literature,--not to rob without killing. Mosca's _crescendo_ ceased to belong to Mosca when it had once been adopted by Rossini; and Winter, after the trio of "La Gazza Ladra," and above all, the _preghiera_ in "Mosè," could no longer pass, even in Italy, as the inventor of stage praying.

But were it not that the prayer in Winter's "Maometto," produced at Milan just before "La Gazza Ladra," is known to have made a distinct impression on Rossini, and to have induced him to order a prayer forthwith from his own librettist, there would be no reason at all why the prayer in "La Gazza Ladra" should be attributed to Winter, considering that a much better model of the same operatic form already existed in the "trio of masks" in "Don Giovanni."

Once more let it be remarked that almost everything new in Rossini was already old in Mozart. But apart from his own endless verve, gaiety, and melodic inventiveness, what really does belong to Rossini in the matter of operatic forms is the _preghiera_ for a whole body of voices, as first introduced in "Mosè."