Part 11 (1/2)
The two great artists did not have to be urged Then an unheard of thing happened As he never had a written prograed so that they believed that the duet was his own It is easy to iine the success of the piece under these conditions When the encore was over, Rossini tooket away A procession of fawning admirers passed in front of him Ah! Master! What a masterpiece!
Marvellous!
And when the victie in praise, Rossini replied, quietly:
”I agree with you But the duet wasn't entleenuity tells reat reat e his works, which ritten, as he said hier exist
”I areat _crescendo_ in my works But if I hadn't put the _crescendo_ into my works, they would never have been played at the Opera”
In our day the public are slaves I have read in the programme of one house, ”All marks of approbation will be severely repressed” Formerly, especially in Italy, the public was hts were up, a great overture with a _crescendo_ was as necessary as cavatinas, duets and enseers and not to be present at an opera In reat step forward towards realise de Corinthe_ (not to hts which have not been surpassed in spite of the poverty of the o has victoriously deenius and wealth in thee to ular pianists at Rossini's The others were Stanzieri, a char man of whom Rossini was very fond and who lived but a short tireat artist One or the other of us would often play at the evening entertainht pieces for the piano which the Master used to write to take up his tiers, when Rossini did not do so himself He accompanied them admirably for he played the piano to perfection
[Illustration: M that Patti sang for Rossini the first ti the aria from _Le Barbier_, he said to her, after the usual co?”
I saw him three days afterwards and he hadn't cooled off even then
”I am fully aware,” he said, ”that arias should be embellished That's what they are for But not to leave a note of them even in the recitatives! That is too much!”
In his irritation he co this aria which ritten for a contralto and did not sing what had been written for the sopranos at all
On the other hand the diva was irritated as well She thought the matter over and realized that it would be serious to have Rossini for an enemy
So some days later she went to ask his advice It ell for her that she took it, for her talent, though brilliant and fascinating, was not as yet fully for the arias from _La Gaza Ladra_ and _Semiramide_, with the master as her accompanist And she combined with her brilliancy the absolute correctness which she always showed afterwards
Much has been written about the premature interruption of Rossini's career after the appearance of _Guillaume Tell_ It has been compared with Racine's life after _Phedre_ The failure of _Phedre_ was brutal and cruel, which was added to by the scandalous success of the _Phedre_ of an unworthy rival Racine's friends, the Port Royalists, did not hesitate to make the most of the opportunity ”You've lost your soul,”
they told him ”And now you haven't even success” But later, when he took up his pen again, he gave us two masterpieces in _Esther_ and _Athalie_
Rossini was accustomed to success and it was hard for him to run into a half-hearted success when he knew he had surpassed hiy of Hippolyte Bis, one of the librettists But _Guillaume Tell_ had its admirers from the start
I heard it spoken of constantly in my childhood If the work did not appear on the bills of the Opera, it furnished the amateurs with choice bits
In my opinion, if Rossini committed suicide as far as his art was concerned, he did so because he had nothing more to say Rossini was a spoiled child of success and he could not live without it Such unexpected hostility put an end to a strea
The success of his _Soirees Musicales_ and his _Stabat_ encouraged hiht co which may be compared to the last vibrations of a sound, as it dies away
Later--much later--came _La Messe_ to which undue importance has been attributed ”_Le Passus_,” one critic wrote, ”is the cry of a stricken spirit” La Messe is written with elegance by an assured and expert hand, but that is all There are no traces of the pen which wrote the second act of _Guillaume Tell_
Apropos of this second act, it is not, perhaps, generally known that the author had no idea of ending it with a prayer Insurrections are not usually begun with so serious a song But at the rehearsals the effect of the unison, _Si parreat that they did not dare to go on beyond it So they suppressed the real ending, which is now the brilliant entrancing end of the overture This finale is extant in the library at the Opera It would be an interesting experiive this beautiful act its natural conclusion
CHAPTER XIX
JULES MassENET