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    metended difficulties of the new work , against the unusual forms of that grand style , and the impetuous movements of that burning passion , born of the pure xays of an Italian sun . Every one wanted to retrench , to cut , prune , smooth away that proud exacting music , which wearied its interpreters by demanding ceaseless attention , tenderness , vigour , and scrupulous fidelity . Madame Branchu herself , that inspired woman , who " created" so admirably the part of Julia , confessed to me with sincere regret at her culpable want of courage , that she one day declared to Spontini , that she never should be able to learn his " unsingable recitatives . " The alterations in the instrumentation , the suppressions , restorations , and transpositions , had already cost the

    Opera administration enormous copying expenses . Without Josephine ' s indefatigable kindness and the " will" of Napoleon , who insisted that the impossible should be done , there is no doubt that La Vestale , discarded as absurd and impossible to execute , would never have seen the light . But whilst the poor , great artist was writhing under the torture inflicted on him at the Opera with such cruel pertinacity , the Conservatoire was melting the lead which , on the day of performance , it intended pouring into the victim ' s smarting wounds ; the ¦ whole raff of young contra-puntists swearing , upon the word of their masters , that Spontini did not know

    the first elements of harmony , that his vocal scoring Was , in comparison to the accompaniments , like a " handful of hairs upon a plate of soup " ( I have heard that noble comparison applied to the works of Spontini in the ranks of the Conservatoire for the space of ten yeais ) ; all these young stringers of notes , as capable of understanding and feeling what was great in music , as Messieurs , the " portiers , " their fathers , were of judging literature and philosophy , plotted together to damn La Vestale . Hisses were not allowed . The plan of yawnings and laughter was adopted , and each of the young myrmidons was to put on a nightcap at the end of the second act ,

    and pretend to fall asleep . But they dared not do it , and during the crescendo of this overwhelming chef d'ceuvre , Spontini ' s orchestra contrived to keep the sleepers awake in spite of themselves . The spirit of the Conservatoire has changed since then . A hundred performances could not satisfy the enthusiasm of the Parisians ; La Vestale was played , ill or ¦ w ell , in all the provincial theatres ; was performed in Germany ; and even filled a season at Sati Carlos , at Naples , where Madame Colbran , afterwards Madame Rossini , played the part of Julia ; a triumph of which the author was not informed till long after , and which caused him deep delight .

    Master of a position so fiercely disputed , and conscious at last of his power , Spontini was about to undertake another composition in the epic style—Electra , when the Emperor sent him word that he should like him to take as the subject of his next opera , the conquest of Mexico by Fernand Cortez ; an order which the composer hastened to obey . Nevertheless , the tragedy of Electra had struck him deeply ; the setting of it to music was one of his dearest plans , and only two years ago I heard him express regret at having abandoned it .

    I think , however , that the emperor ' s choice was fortunate for the author of La Vestale , by preventing his second attempt at the antique , and compelling hiir , ro bestow on scenes no less pathetic , but more T-iried and less solemn , that new and charming colouring , that dignified and tender expression , and those happy audacities which make the opera of Cortez . the worthy rivul of its elder sister . Tho success of the new opera was triumphant . From that day forth , Spontini , master of our first lyrical theatre , might exclaim like hi » own hero— " ( Jette terre est a moi , je nc la quittc plus ! " It was a year after the appearance of Fernand Cortez that Spontini was named director of the Italian opera . He collected an excellent troop , and it whh owing to him tlu . tthe J ) on ( liovjumi of Mozart was heard for the first time at Paris .

    Nevertheless , in spite of Spontini ' s eminent services to urt in his direction of the Italian opera , an intrigue , of which money wuh the mainspring , obli ged him to relinquish it ; moreover , Paer , who at , thut time directed the little opera bonne belonging to the court , and wa . s but little pleased at the Hiieeest * of his rival on the vast scene of the opera , affected to talk "hghtingly of him ; spoke of him an a renegade ; <; dled him Monsieur Spontin , thus frenchifying law name ; and , on many occasions , drew him into tho . se snares which the tSignor Astucio was such an 'idept , in laying . Once more free , Spontini wrote an opera , culled / Hn i / o , or Ia > lioi at . la Vf . ri , now forgotten ; then Lcs

    * ** -V tt . i' 'V 1 . 711 tit t' U 1 v .. 1 1 < i 4 < w w not tk * > .. ,. i ........ . r ; * 1 . ''<< ux nvaux , a bullet , opera , in company with 'isuls , Morton , and Kreut / . < r . When tho Ihtnaicles Was revived , Halicri , too old to leave Vienna , entr usted him with the supervision of the rehearsals ol uh wor k , authorizing him to make any clmnges and additions he might think necessary . Spontini only ••¦ red the end of IlypcrmneHtrn ' air , " I ' ar le . s •"'*« ' « rf «»»« votreJMf ,, " by adding u coda full of drn-Uc wI ) lr * t . li « t he composed for her wovorul

    exquisite pieces of dance music , and a bacchanalian song , which will live as a model of delirious transport and of the perfect expression of wild and gloomy joy . To these varied labours succeeded the composition of Olympia , a grand opera in three acts . Neither at its first production , nor at its revival in 1827 , was i able to obtafti the success which , in my opinion , it deserved . Various fortuitous causes contributed to stop its career . The state of political feeling interfered with it . The Abbe Gregoire at that time occupied the public mind , and a premeditated allusion to that famous regicide was supposed to exist in that scene in Olympia in which Statira exclaims : — " Je denonce a la terre , Et voue a sa colere I / assassin de son roi . "

    Thenceforth the liberal party became hostile to the new opera . The murder of the Duke de Berri having caused the theatre in the Rue Richelieu to be closed soon after , the performances suddenly ceased , and thus the last blow was levelled at a success which could hardly be looked upon as definitive , by abruptly turning away public attention from questions of art . When , after a lapse of eight years , Olympia was revived , Spontini , who had in the interval been appointed musical director to the King of Prussia , found a great change in the tastes and ideas of the Parisians when he returned from Berlin . Rossini had just arrived from Italy , and was powerfully patronized by M . de la Rochefoucault and all the men of influence . The dilettanti raved at the

    very name of Rossini , and tore all other composers to pieces . The music of Olympia . was sneered at as plain chaunt , and M . de la Rochefoucault refused to prolong , by a few weeks , the engagement of Madame Branchu , who alone could play the part of Statira . She performed it once on the occasion of her final benefit , and all was over . Spontini , wounded by many other acts of hostility too long to enumerate here , returned to Berlin , where his position was in every respect worthy of himself , and of the Sovereign who knew how to appreciate him .

    On . his return to Prussia he wrote for the festivals of the Court a ballet opera , called Nourmahal , the subject of which is borrowed from Moore ' s poem of Lalla Rookh . In this graceful opera he introduced his famous bacchanalian song from the Dandides , developing it , and adding to it a chorus . He afterwards rewrote the finale of the last act of Cortez , This new finale , which the Opera of Paris did not condescend to adopt when Cortez was revived there six or seven years ago , and which I have seen in Berlin , is magnificent—far superior to that known in Prance . In 1825 , Spontini produced at Berlin the

    fairy opera of Aleidor , much ridiculed by the enemies of the author , on account of the noisy instrumentation which they accused him of introducing into it , and of an orchestra of anvils , used as an accompaniment ton chorus of blacksmiths . This work is quite unknown to me . As some compensation , however , I have been able to look through the opera of Agnes de ¦ Hohenstaufen , which succeeded Aleidor , after a lapse of twelve 3 ears . This subject , of the kind called romantic , demanded an entirely different style from all those hitherto used by Spontini . He introduced into the concerted pieces some very curious combinations .

    Spontini had been induced to desire academic repose and leisure ; at first by the persecutions and enmities which were rising up against "him in Berlin ; afterwards , by : i strange disease in the organs of hearing , painful . symptoms of which he had long felt at intervals . During the periodical disturbances of an organ which he had so much used , Spontini scarcel y heard , and any isolated sound which reached his ear seemed like an accumulation of discords . Thence total impossibility to listen to music , and tho necessity of renouncing it until tho morbid period had passed away .

    Jlirt reception by the Institute was done nobly , mul , wo must say it , in a manner most honourable to French musicians . All who might have entered the lists , felt thai , they ought to make way for so glorious a name , and contented themselves by retiring from competition , and thus joining their votes to those of tho entire Academy ' of the Fine Arts . In 181 1 , Spontini married the sister of our famous pianoforte maker , Krard . The attentions which she lavished upon him contributed not : i little to soothe the irritation , and lessen the anxieties , to which his nervoun nature , and troubles only too roil , rendered him uproy during the latter years of his life . Jn 18 J 2 , ho made it loving pilgrimage to his native land , where he founded several philanthropic institutions with the fruits of his own lahom . s .

    At hint , to escape from the melancholy fancies that , oppressed him , he decided on undertaking a second journey to Majolnti . He reached it , ent < red the deserted house where , sevenf . y-two years before , he first saw tho light . ; rested there several weekn meditating on the vicissitudes of his brilliant but stormy career , and suddenly breathed his lnst , covered with glory , and Unuh-il with tho blessings of his countrymen . The circle was cloaod ; his task was

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    SAPPHO . The announcement of M . Gounod ' s new opera sent me to those poetic fragments which have been saved from the wreck of Sappho ' s genius , by grammarians and critics . O the caprices of Fame ! A poetess whose impassioned genius astonished and delighted all Greece , owes her rescue from oblivion to some plodding grammarian who cites passages of her poems because they are asynarteti verses I The pedant ! Does it not serve him right that a German commentator should indignantly prove them not to be asynarteti after all ? And yet we ought to be thankful for the blunder which saved us a fragment of Lesbian

    verse . To these fragments I turned . La Harpe , in his lively off-hand way , says there are only a dozen of her verses extant . As he had never seen them , he might as well have abstained from specifying the number . In Bergk ' s collection ( Poetee Lyrici ) , they form some five-and-twenty pages ; or , deducting half for the notes , say some dozen pages . A part , however , is so insignificant as not to count ; ) eing mere phrases , hemistichs , or single lines . In the longer fragments enough remains to justify , in some sort , her gigantic fame . Love ! love ! is

    the melodious wailing that runs through them ; love the most passionate and the most unhappy , but not , I grieve to say , always the most " proper" ! Indeed tf Lesbian love , " as the classical reader knows , is a thing to make every proper wig emulous of " the fretful porcupine ; " and Sappho , though a great genius , was a Lesbian in all the force of the term ; and some of her poems have an equivoque similar to that in Shakspeare ' s sonnets . It is difficult to convey an idea of what thg more accomplished Lesbian women were , since our word " courtezan" conveys a positively false

    impression j and although Sappho was certainly not a courtezan , she was assuredly a young lady impossible to be " received" in society . Her position belongs to Greek manners . The virtuous wife was so purely a household fixture , and Was so rigidly confined to domestic life , that any woman who shared in public life , whose intellect moved freely amidst the questions that occupied men , who possessed the accomplishments of Art , must have belonged to another class , and must have put up with the disadvantages as well as the advantages of her position .

    Lesbos was equally celebrated for its women and its wine . There the women were educated for public life ( excuse my softening the phrase ) , as they are educated for musical life in the Conservatoire of Paris . Idolaters of beauty as the Greeks were , they were still greater idolaters of intellect ; the Lesbian , therefore , placed culture even before beauty . The education of the Lesbian was twofold—gymnastics and music ; and by gymnastics the Greek meant all that concerns the body ; by music all that concerns the mind . ( See Plato ' s Republic . ) So comprehensive an

    education—embracing art , philosophy , poetry , and dancingnecessitated a sort of college for these women . There they were trained for a life of gallantry . From it they issued to become the mistresses , sometimes the wives , of the wealthy and great . The mention of Aspasia—who wrote speeches for Perieles , and whose conversation was eagerly sought by Socrates—is enough to show the field of energetic action and influence open to the Lesbian ; although , of course , many of those who came from the college remained nothing more than courtezans . I touch on these points , I cannot dwell on them . Knough has been said to indicate Sappho ' s position . Of her life little is known . There were several Sapphos , and biographical partizans have insisted upon throwing <„ , the shoulders of her namesakes every little detail of scandal which might lessen the poetess ' s fair fame . I have no objection ; provided you grant that she wan a Lesbian ; that is all I stickle for . Tradition runs that she . was loved by AIcumis , whom she slighted and was herself slighted by the beautiful Pfinon whom she loved ; and that , broken-hearted by his scorn , she threw herself from the Leucadiaa rock

    into the foaming sea . Were I a German sceptic , I should point out some improbabilities Jn this tradition . Leueadia is a long voyage from Lesbos , and if Sappho had had suicidal thoughts , she would scarcely have travelled a long journey to realize them—unless she had read George Sand , and wished to imitate Indiana J Not being a

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    Ava . 16 , 1851 . ] «!> * & $ & ** % > 781

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 781, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1896/page/17/