The Mentor, No. 47, Makers of Modern Opera

MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA

By H. E. KREHBIEL

Author and Music Critic

WAGNER

VERDI

THE MENTOR

SERIAL No. 47

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS

The form of entertainment called opera had its origin a little more
than three centuries ago in an effort made by a company of scholars
and musical amateurs in Florence to rescue music from the artificiality
into which the composers, who were all churchmen, had forced it.

The Florentine group had convinced themselves by study that music
had been effectively linked with poetry and action in the Greek stage-plays,
and in striving to imitate these they created the art-form which in
time came to be called “opera”—though at first it was known by names
all more or less closely connected with the terms which the composers of
today use to describe their dramatic works,—lyric dramas, musical dramas,
and so forth. The new style quickly spread over Europe, and inasmuch
as Italy was the home of music, it retained for a time the Italian language
and the style of musical composition evolved by its creators. Soon other
nations, impelled by a desire to hear the new lyric plays, began to translate
the Italian books into their own languages. This brought with it a recognition
of the incongruity between Italian music and the French, German,
and English languages, and the dramatic poets and musicians of these
countries began to seek more satisfactory idioms in which to express
their ideals. Thus there came into existence the three great schools of
operatic composers whose latterday representatives are here considered.

GAETANO DONIZETTI

Two men mark the point of departure of the lyric drama of today
from the general style which characterized opera all the world over during
the first two centuries following
its invention. They are Verdi
(vair-dee), the Italian, and Wagner
(vahg´-ner), the German; and,
strangely enough, they were both
born in 1813. The latter exercised
an influence which was universal,
and Verdi fell under it.

GIOACHINO ROSSINI

THE GLORY OF VERDI

But neither in precept nor
in practice was the great Italian
brought to disavow the native
genius of his people. That is the
great glory of Verdi. For decade after decade he kept pace with his
German rival in the march toward truthfulness and variety of expression
in the lyric drama; but never did he forget that the first, the elemental,
appeal which music makes is through melody. His conception of melody
changed as his artistic nature grew and ripened; but song, vocal melody,
is as dominant a factor in his first successful opera, “Nabuco,” performed
in 1842, as it is in “Falstaff,” which he gave to the world fifty-one years
later. Verdi’s music illustrates every step of progress which Italian opera
has taken, from the time when Rossini overcame the taste formed by the
last masters of the eighteenth century till the advent of the impetuous
champions of realism who disputed popularity with him in the closing years
of the nineteenth. His ideals when he wrote “Oberto” in 1839 were those
of his immediate predecessors, Bellini (bel-lee´-nee) and Donizetti (don-nee-dzet´-tee);
but his voice was ruder,—so rude, indeed, as to lead Rossini (ros-see´-nee)
to describe him as a “musician with a helmet.” This rudeness
was the first expression of his desire for passionate and truthful expression,
a desire which at the height of his spontaneous creative powers reached
its finest flower in the final trio of “Il Trovatore” and final quartet of
“Rigoletto,” two examples of operatic writing which are as good
in their way as
any that French
or German opera
has to show.

VERDI’S BIRTHPLACE AND HIS HOME

It is no depreciation
of the
mature and perfect
Verdi of
“Otello” and
“Falstaff” to say
that he reached the climax of his melodic
inventiveness in “Il Trovatore”
(tro-vah-to´-re), “Traviata” (trah-vee-ah´-tah),
and “Rigoletto” (ree-go-let´-to),
and that “Aïda” (ah-ee´-dah), which
is now his most universally admired
work, is such because it is a product of
his combined melodic inspiration and
his marvelous judgment, skill, and taste,
developed by study and reflection. The
greater charm which “Aïda” exerts now
is due as much to the advanced ideals
of the public, which Wagner was largely
instrumental in creating, as to the refined
and deepened sense of dramatic propriety
and beauty which Verdi discloses in its melody, harmony, and
instrumentation.

GIUSEPPE VERDI

From a painting by Millicovitz.

LA SCALA OPERA HOUSE

Where many of Verdi’s works had their first performance.

If his mind was more impetuous in the sixth decade of the last century
than in the tenth, it was of infinitely finer fiber at the last. When his creative
impulses came to wait upon reflection his music showed much nicer
adjustment of the poetical and musical elements than had prevailed in his
works thitherto, his harmonies became richer, the blatancy of his orchestration
disappeared, and his instruments became more beautiful and
truthful associates in expression with the singers of the drama than they
had ever been. When he reached “Falstaff” and “Otello” the last bit
of slag which had vulgarized his earlier works was cast aside, and he
stepped forth as full an exemplar of national art as Wagner. In this last
incarnation of the Italian spirit he was helped by his collaborator Boito
(bo-ee´-to), a poet as well as a composer, and therefore a type of the true
dramatic artist as he existed in ancient Greece, and as Wagner conceived
him when he projected his
Artwork of the Future. It
was Verdi’s association
with Boito which was
largely responsible for the
fact that he became the
successor as he had been
the predecessor of Mascagni
(mahs-kahn´-yee).

After the death of
Verdi nobody was readier
to concede how much he
had meant to Italian art
than Mascagni, who had
been the first to profit by
the revolt against Verdi
which came with the advent of Wagner’s art in
Italy. When “Lohengrin” (lo´-en-grin) made its
way into Florence and other places many pupils
at the conservatories forsook Verdi and followed
Wagner. The effect may have been a good one.
There can scarcely be a doubt but that it was to turn his hotheaded young
countrymen back to the path which he knew to be the only correct one
for them that Verdi made his supreme effort in his last two works.
Under the new influence the young Italians
had plunged headforemost into realism of the
crassest sort, and that they might follow a
vulgar bent for lurid expression they went
to the Neapolitan slums for their subjects.

PIETRO MASCAGNI

Composer of Cavalleria
Rusticana.

RUGGIERO LEONCAVALLO

Composer of Pagliacci.

REALISM IN OPERA

Copyright, A. Dupont.

GIACOMO PUCCINI

Some of the first fruits of the tendency
toward realism are plays whose plots can
scarcely be narrated without moral and even
physical nausea. Compared with them Mascagni’s
“Cavalleria Rusticana” (kah-vahl-lay-ree´-ah
rus-tee-kah´-nah) and Leoncavallo’s
(lay-own-kah-vahl´-o) “Pagliacci”
(pahl-yah´-chee) are sweet and sane. After
the taste for hot blood had been measurably
satiated and the failure of scores of operas
in which lurid orchestration, violent shriekings,
and rough harmonies had supplanted
the old national ideal there came back again the reign of dramatic melody,
albeit in a new form, as we have it in the works of Mascagni, Leoncavallo,
and Puccini (poot-chee´-nee).

Puccini’s operas are not entirely purged of artistic coarseness (as witness
“Tosca” and “The Girl of the Golden West”); but he has been true
to his Italian mission as a melodist, and has besides widened the Italian
canvas to receive the new element of local color, which is an essential
element in “Madame Butterfly,” the most extraordinary feature of which
is the degree in which such stubborn material as Japanese melody has
been made to yield up a charm which it does not
at all possess in its native state.

GIACOMO MEYERBEER

1791-1864

Composer of Les Huguenots.

Fifty years ago, so far as Americans were
concerned, French opera was practically summed
up in “Les Huguenots” and “Faust.” Meyerbeer
(my´-er-bare) was not a Frenchman, but
the embodiment of merely sensuous tendencies
which belonged no more to one people than to
another, but which found its fittest expression
in the glamour of Parisian life. That Gounod
(goo-no´) should have prevailed against these
tendencies is to the great credit of the man and
the people from whose loins he was sprung.

GOUNOD’S MUSIC

CHARLES FRANCOIS GOUNOD

1818-1893.

Amiability was as marked a characteristic
of Gounod’s music as it was of his personality.
He was graceful and winning, but not strong.
He was an emotionalist and a mystic. When
his expression of passion ran out into ecstasy
he was at his best, and he could give expression
to an emotional state better than he could depict
its development. Essentially, therefore, he was a lyrical rather than a
dramatic composer. The two most perfect products of his genius both
disclose the climax of their beauty in scenes wherein ecstatic utterance
asserts its right. The gems in Gounod’s crown are the garden scene of
“Faust” and the balcony scene of “Roméo et Juliette.” Critics have
placed a high estimate upon the latter opera, and the lovers of sentimental
church music are fond of Gounod’s religious ballads (they are
nothing else), one or two of his masses, and the oratorio “The Redemption”;
but to the historian and the people of the future it is not likely
that he will be more than the composer of “Faust,” an opera which has
a history that is unique in operatic annals. It had been in the repertory
of the Théâtre Lyrique ten years when it was transferred to the Académie
Nationale (or Grand Opera, as it is popularly called) in 1869. When the
transfer was made it had already been performed four hundred times in Paris,
and before Gounod died in 1893 it had been performed nearly seven hundred
times more. No opera has had a record comparable with this, and there
is yet no evidence of loss of popularity in France, England, or America.

GOUNOD’S RESIDENCE IN PARIS

As a musician Gounod may be described as an eclectic. Though his
genius was essentially lyrical, his models were the kings of dramatic
music,—Mozart, Weber (vay´-ber)
and Wagner. To his love for the
first of these he raised a lovely
monument in a book on “Don
Giovanni” (jo-vahn´-nee), which
opera, he said, had influenced his
whole life like a revelation, and
had remained from the beginning
the embodiment of dramatic perfection.
He was one of the first of
Wagner’s disciples in France; but
his lyrical trend did not permit him
to follow the German poet-composer
to the logical outcome of his
theories. Wagner’s influence upon
him stopped with “Lohengrin.”
Thereafter, as Gounod himself
expressed it, he and Wagner
traveled in diametrically opposite
directions, he seeking to grow more
simple in his manner and more desirous
to achieve his ends by unaffected
means and truthfulness of feeling. At the end he was disposed to
consider Wagner an aberration of genius, a visionary haunted by the
colossal, unable longer to estimate aright his own intellectual powers,
one who had lost the sense of proportion.

So far as American people are concerned the operatic Gounod lives only
in “Faust” and “Roméo et Juliette.” There have been a few fitful
performances of “Mireille”
(mee-ray´) and “Philémon
et Baucis” (Anglicized:
fy-lee´-mon and baw´-sis);
but all the other operas
on his list are a blank.

Very different is the
case of the most popular of
his successors, Massenet
(mahs-nay´); though it
is more than likely that
he too will become a two-opera
man. Massenet
is the most popular of
Gounod’s successors, but
not the greatest. A
greater musical dramatist
than he was Bizet
(bee-zay´); a greater musician and almost also
as prolific an opera writer was, or is, Saint-Saëns
(sahng-song´). These two men are represented
in current opera lists by a single opera each; but of Massenet’s
works New Yorkers have heard no less than eleven,—“Werther” (vare-ter)
and “Manon” (mah-nong´), which are likely to endure, and “Le Cid”
(lay sid), “La Navarraise,” “Le jongleur de Notre-Dame” (translated:
The juggler of no´-tr dahm), “Thaïs” (tah-ees´), “Hérodiade,” “Sapho”
(sah-fo´), “Grisélidis,” and “Cendrillon” (sang-dri-yong´) which are not
likely to endure long.

AMBROISE THOMAS

Composer of Mignon.

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

Composer of Samson and Delilah.

LEO DELIBES

Composer of Lakmé.

THE QUALITY OF MASSENET

So many operas ought to speak well of Massenet’s
versatility, as it surely does of his productiveness
and industry; but the individuality
of this composer, which is incontestable, is an individuality
of style which leans heavily on sameness.
The French wits who thought it clever to
dub him “Mademoiselle Wagner” twenty years
ago never got the opportunity to call him Madame
Wagner. He never grew up to that estate. He
did not grow older in thought or riper in creative
ability; but only more facile in expression.

JULES MASSENET. 1842-1913

All of Massenet’s operas are essentially illustrative
of the sentimental spirit of French art.
Whether Gounod attempts to write an oratorio on
so sublime a subject as the fall and redemption
of man, or Massenet tries to picture the touching faith and piety of an
honest mountebank, it is all one: the music is bound to run out into a
strain of religious balladry. But French music as represented by Gounod
and Massenet is ingenuous also in its persistent pursuit of beauty. The
northern ideal of strength before beauty, or truth before convention, is
not for the French, with their devotion to elegance of utterance, and this
fact has saved their lyric stage from the deplorable tendency exhibited
by the most notable, and probably greatest,
German composer since Wagner, namely, Richard
Strauss (strous). Oscar Wilde, though
English, wrote his “Salomé” in French; but
it had to wait for the coming of a German for
a musical glorification of its morbid attraction
toward dead bodies. Nor
is Electra’s bestial ferocity,
as pictured by Hoffmansthal
and Strauss,
likely soon to find favor
among the French. Thus
much must be said in favor of the artistic tendency of a people who are
still willing to hark back to a miracle-tale like that of “Our Lady’s Juggler,”
or to a legend like that of “The Patient Grizel,” for operatic material.

MASSENET IN HIS STUDIO IN 1891

Between Gounod and Massenet there stands at least one French
dramatic composer who accomplished much, but promised more in respect
of the development of the lyric drama. Bizet’s “Carmen” has won
heartier recognition in Germany than even Gounod’s “Faust.” Perhaps
the qualities which conquered this distinction were against it when it
first appeared in its native land. It may have been a feeling of its approach
to an extra-national ideal which made the French people, who with
all their enthusiasm for art are yet strongly predisposed in favor of their
own ideals, scent an objectionable Teutonism in “Carmen” and give it only
tardy recognition; perhaps also more than a touch of jealous patriotism.

The Franco-Prussian War had a twofold
effect upon music in France,—it threw the
people back upon an appreciation of some of
their own composers,—Berlioz (bear-lee-oze),
for instance,—and also turned them against
not only the German, but also all of their own
composers in whom they thought they recognized
German influences. The feeling was not
only strong to taboo Wagner, but everybody in
whose music they scented Wagnerisme. Their
conception of the term was amusingly vague.
They did not recognize it in the freedom
of form manifested in “Faust”; but felt
it in the truthful and forceful dramatic expression
which marked “Carmen,” and especially
in Bizet’s use of the typical phrase,
the Leitmotiv. Wagnerism had to be purged
by time before Charpentier (shahr-pong-tee-ay) could triumph with
“Louise,” and Debussy (day-boos-see´) with “Pelléas et Mélisande”
(pale-lay-ahs´ ay may-lee-sahnd´), works in which the Wagnerian system
is much more extensively and frankly used than in “Carmen.”

GEORGES BIZET—1838-1875

Composer of Carmen.

GUSTAVE CHARPENTIER

Composer of Louise.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Composer of Pelléas et Mélisande.

THE INFLUENCE OF WAGNER

French, German, Italian, Russian, and English
composers have for half a century been
under the domination of Wagner’s influence. In
France and Italy he put
a new spirit into opera;
but the composers did
not attempt to follow him
slavishly in both practice
and precept. In Germany,
on the other hand, many
of his disciples made
the attempt and failed.
Two only have created
living works—Engelbert
Humperdinck (hoom´-per-dingk)
and Richard
Strauss. The more interesting
phenomenon of the
two is presented by Humperdinck,
who has not only
applied Wagner’s theories to the
musical score of his masterpiece,
“Hänsel und Gretel” (hen´-zel oont
gray´tel), but has extended their
application to dramatic material.

HUMPERDINCK AND
WAGNER

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK

Wagner held myth to be the best
subject for the lyric drama; Humperdinck
has extended the principle
to include fairy tales, which, in a
sense, may be said to be decayed
myths. Taking the German form of
the story of the Babes in the Wood,
he has turned it into an opera which
illustrates the methods Wagner employed
in his great mythological
tragedy, “The Nibelung’s Ring,”
and has given the methods a peculiar
charm by making his musical symbols (Leitmotiven) out of nursery
jingles and tunes like them. Notwithstanding that he was thus hewing
to a line drawn by another, the opera has a melodic fluency and
freshness which have scarcely a parallel in modern
opera. A later work “Königskinder” (Royal
Children), though full of beauty, lacks the spontaneity
and charm of its predecessor largely because
its book is stilted in language, its symbolism
too much in evidence and not sufficiently sympathetic,
and its construction faulty.

RICHARD STRAUSS

RICHARD STRAUSS

Richard Strauss reflects the tendency of the
times away from all ideal things. Physical, moral,
and mental degeneracy are the subjects which he
has attempted to glorify in “Salomé” and “Elektra,”
and shameless immorality in “Rosenkavalier”
(ro´-zen-kahv-ah-leer´). To the celebration
of such things and to the promotion of his
material interests he is prostituting the finest
musical gifts possessed by any composer known to
the present day.

Not all the men who deserve to be called
makers of modern opera have been mentioned
as yet. There are Frenchmen whose works have shown more vitality
than those of Charpentier and Debussy, though these two, representing
a more individual tendency, are generally singled out for comment
when the talk is of latter-day men.

OTHER MODERN COMPOSERS

There is still a strong feeling among the lovers of French opera
for Ambroise Thomas because of his “Mignon,”
and Delibes because of his “Lakmé” and his
ballets. The dramatic, or pantomimic, dance is
getting a stronger hold on the stage every day,
and nothing has yet been produced in this line
more graceful or in all artistic elements more elegant
than “Coppélia.” Saint-Saëns’s “Samson
et Delilah,” though better fitted for the concert-room
than the theater, has also won its way to
recognition in America and England; while Germany,
forgetting that Berlioz was pitted against
Wagner by the characteristic spirit after the
Franco-Prussian War, continues to pay deep
respect to “Benvenuto Cellini.” Wolf-Ferrari,
half German, half Italian, has fought his way to
the fore with two works in which his genius shows
at its best (“Il Segreto di Susanna” and “Le
Donne Curiose”), and lately a Russian, Moussorgsky,
has come crashing through the veneer of conventional art
with his “Boris Godounov” in a way which justifies the cry raised long
ago by this writer in the concert-room: “Beware of the Muscovite!”

ERMANO WOLF-FERRARI

Composer of The Jewels of The
Madonna.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Editorial

The new year is here and with it the
forward look. It is the time for announcements,
and the magazines of the
day are filled with them. The Mentor
Association does not lay down a definite
and fixed program for a year ahead, week
by week. It is important that our schedule
should be elastic. But we want our
readers to know the plans of The Mentor
for 1914, and so we print herewith a list
containing some of the subjects scheduled.
The articles may not appear in the
exact order of this list. Definite dates
will be announced later. We print the
list for the purpose of giving our readers
an idea of the scope and variety of the
year’s program.

Other subjects for the year are as follows:

These titles are not representative of all
the departments in the interesting course
that The Mentor is developing. Had we
four times the space we could fill it with
equally attractive features. What we
print, however, will afford some idea of
the wealth of material that has been
planned for early publication.

GIUSEPPE VERDI

ONE

The last and greatest of the old school of Italian
opera composers, and one of the most popular of all
opera composers in the world, was Giuseppe Verdi
(joo-sep´-pe ver´-dee). He was born of humble
parentage in the little Italian village of Roncole on October
10, 1813. His parents kept a tavern, which they combined
with a general village store. It was situated
in a neighborhood of ignorant laborers.
Little chance was there in that spot
for a budding genius in music. Verdi’s art
instinct had to feed on slim nourishment,
like a stray seed blown among rocks; but,
like the stray seed, his genius took root
even in that arid soil. His love of music
was shown by his following an itinerant
fiddler round the village. His father, detecting
his taste, got him a mediocre piano,
on which young Verdi practised vigorously.

When ten years old he played the organ
in the village church, and at last a
patron provided him with the means to
go to Milan. When he applied for admission
to the conservatory he was rejected,
on the score that he had no aptitude
for music. He stayed in Milan, however,
as a pupil of Vincenzo La Vigna
(vin-chen´-zo la veen´-yah), with whom he
remained until 1833. He married in 1832,
and in 1838 returned to Milan, where he
wrote his first opera, “Oberto.” This did
not prove a success; but it was the beginning
of a famous career.

Verdi’s first success was achieved in
1843, when he brought out “I Lombardi.”
It was followed the next year by “Ernani,”
and with that work his reputation was
firmly established. A number of operas
followed, some successful, others failures.
But in 1851 began the period during which
“Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” and “La
Traviata” appeared, and then all Europe
rang with his praises.

Verdi was not only the most popular
operatic composer of the nineteenth century,
but the wonder of the musical world.
His art life might be divided into three
parts. His first operas were of the old-fashioned
“honey-sweet” Italian type, in
which the airs were tunefully sentimental,
and the orchestra played a “guitar” accompaniment.

The middle period showed quite a definite
advance in dramatic vigor, in fullness
of musical expression, and in richness of
orchestral technic. Of this period “Aïda”
is a notable example. Then, in his ripe
old age, Verdi revealed an amazing growth
in musical power. He had advanced
through the years as the art of operatic
composition had advanced. His opera
“Otello” showed that he had studied and
mastered the newer works of his day, and
that he held a leading place even with
younger composers. “Falstaff,” his last
opera, was a revelation of extraordinary
fertility and virility in an artist of advanced
age. It established Verdi’s reputation
for all time as a composer of music
drama as his earliest works had shown his
skill in tuneful opera. The music score of
“Falstaff” is as free and untrammeled as
the work of any modern composer, even
Richard Wagner himself.

Verdi lived until he was eighty-eight
years old, enjoyed a happy home, quiet
pleasures, and the admiration not only of
his own country but of all the world. He
died at Milan in 1901, having left twenty-nine
operas, most of which were notably
successful.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 47
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

JULES E. F. MASSENET

TWO

Massenet, one of the most renowned French composers,
was born at Montaud, May 12, 1842. Like
nearly all French musicians, he began his study in
the French Conservatory. He was so poor in his
early days that he had to help pay his living expenses by playing
the kettledrum in a café orchestra. He carried off several
minor prizes during his student days, and
finally in 1863 secured the prize of Rome,
and this despite the fact that the head of
the conservatory at first tried to exclude
him on the ground that he had no musical
ability. On returning from Rome in 1867
he produced his first opera, a one-act affair
which achieved only moderate success.
He served in the Franco-Prussian War,
and his impressions received there found
musical expression in his study “Alsaciennes”
and his one-act opera “Navarraise.”
After that time Massenet was industrious
in composition, turning out operas
every year or so. The wonder of it is that
most of them have been successful and
are a part of the operatic repertoire today.

From 1878 to 1896 he was a professor
of composition at the Paris conservatory,
and had under his tuition a number of
pupils who have since become famous;
Charpentier, the composer of “Louise,”
was one of them. His activities may be
gathered from the fact that he has written
more than twenty operas and five oratorios,
together with incidental music to four
dramas.

In 1878 he was elected a member of the
Academy of Beaux Arts, an honor that he
won over Saint-Saëns, who is reckoned a
superior musician.

He died in Paris August 13, 1912.

Massenet has been called a puzzling
personality in modern musical history.
His subjects are chosen to suit a
Parisian public, and yet they have been
successful in foreign fields. His style has
been called “weak and sugary,” and his
music “superficially clever.” But in spite
of that Massenet’s music has lasted for
years, and, however he may be criticized,
his poetic sentiment and richly colored
orchestration are emphatically suitable to
the public taste.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 47
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

© AIMÉ DUPONT

GIACOMO PUCCINI

THREE

Giacomo Puccini (jah-ko´-mo poot-chee´-nee)
was named by the great Verdi as his probable successor.
That meant much from the lips of the
venerable master, and the years are beginning to
verify it. Puccini was born at Lucca, Italy, in June, 1858.
He came from a long line of musicians, reaching as far back
as his great-great-grandfather. In his
own immediate family of six all were devoted
to music, and Giacomo took to the
art from his earliest years. He breathed
it as he breathed the air of life. His precocity
attracted the attention of the queen
of Italy, who granted him a pension that
enabled him to enter the Conservatory of
Music at Milan.

His mind turned toward composition
from earliest years, his dominating thought
always being opera,—not old-fashioned
opera of melody and empty orchestration,
but opera of the modern sort, vibrant with
life, vigorous in dramatic expression, and
enriched with all the resources of modern
orchestration. Ponchielli (pon-kee-el´-lee)
was his chief instructor,—Ponchielli, the
composer of “Gioconda” (jo-kon´-dah),
who has been credited with inspiring the
modern Italian school of composers.

Puccini’s first opera, “Le Ville” (le veel),
was produced in 1884. It created a favorable
impression—that was all. In 1889
his opera “Edgar” appeared; but it was
not popular. Four years later, however,
“Manon Lescaut” (mah-nong´ les-ko´) was
produced. This established his success.
It required courage to go to the opera
house with a new work on Manon. Massenet’s
“Manon” was known throughout
the operatic world, where it had been
made successful by the brilliant performances
of Jean de Reszke and Sibyl Sanderson.
But Puccini’s “Manon” is of stronger
stuff, and it holds its place today against
the other.

It was the production of “La Bohème”
(bo-hame´) in Turin in 1896 that made
Puccini famous. “Tosca” followed in
1900, and in 1904 came the charming
“Madame Butterfly.” This beautiful
opera was hissed by the Italians when it
was first produced; a fact hard to understand
today, when it has become a rival of
“La Bohème” in the public’s esteem. In
1910 Puccini produced his operatic setting
of the American play, “The Girl of the Golden
West.” It was brought out in New York
with a cast of great artists, including
Caruso, Destinn and Amato. It has been
produced a number of times, and holds an
important place in the operatic repertoire.
It is not, however, generally reckoned in
popularity with “La Bohème” and “Madame
Butterfly.” These two charming
works are masterpieces of art and sentiment.

Puccini has a rare gift of melody, strong
imagination, skill in technic, and an unusual
sense of orchestral color. He is considered
the most gifted of the present
representatives of Italian operatic art.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 47
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

RICHARD STRAUSS

FOUR

No composer since Wagner’s time has been the
subject of more discussion than Richard Strauss.
He has been called the champion of the “forward
movement.” Strauss came by his musical instincts
naturally: he was the son of a horn player. His birth occurred
in 1864, and he showed himself a prodigy from an early age.
He played the piano proficiently at four
years, and produced a number of compositions
when only six. He followed his
musical studies with avidity and at the same
time was attending public school. In
1885 he began to study music regularly
under the tuition of the eminent pianist
and conductor, Hans von Bülow (bue´-low),
whom he succeeded later as head of the
Meiningen orchestra.

It was Alexander Ritter that set Richard
Strauss on the path of advanced music.
Strauss resigned his conductorship after a
few months, and in 1885 went to Italy.
Before the year was over he was appointed
third chapel master in Munich. Four
years after that he took the position of
director at Weimar. He held this post,
however, for only a brief time; for in 1894
he married Pauline de Ahna, an eminent
singer, who has accompanied him in concerts
and has rendered great service to
him by her interpretations of his songs.

For two years Strauss and his wife made
tours throughout Europe. They came to
the United States, where he gave concerts
made up of his own compositions. In
song and in opera composition he is regarded
by some as a high priest of future
art, and by others as merely a shock to
the nerves.

The productions of his new operas have
usually been the occasions of sensational
interest. “Salomé” and “Elektra” both
created a loud stir in the musical world.
Many resent the bold and radical spirit
of Richard Strauss. Perhaps we are all
too near him. His enemies, or rather his
severest critics, would say that anywhere
within hearing of his operas would be too
near. Many music students, however, find
much to interest them in his work, and
declare that Richard Strauss will come into
his own in future years. His operas, for
other reasons than their music, are not
likely to be set in the regular repertoire
of an opera season. His songs and tone
poems, however, are already an accepted
part of concert programs. In richness of
orchestration, tremendous climaxes, vivid
flashes of color, and frequent outbursts of
dramatic power, there is nothing in modern
music to place beside the tone poems of
Richard Strauss.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 47
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

CHARLES FRANCOIS GOUNOD

FIVE

Charles François Gounod, the best known
and by many the most liked of modern French composers,
was born in Paris, June 17, 1818. His father
having died when Gounod was yet very young, he
was brought up by his mother, who was an excellent pianist.
He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836, and studied there
under masters, one of them, Halévy, composer
of “The Jewess,” a successful opera
in its day. Gounod won the grand prize
of Rome in 1839. That gave him the privilege
of studying in Rome, and while there
he devoted much of his time to the study
of sacred music, especially to the works
of the old masters Palestrina and Bach.

Gounod had a strong religious tendency
from the first, which brought him at times
near to a resolution to join holy orders.
His earliest compositions were masses, and
on returning to Paris he played the organ
for sacred services in one of the leading
churches. He was turned from a serious
and religious contemplation to worldly
matters by receiving a commission to compose
an opera. This, his first operatic
composition, was “Sapho,” which was produced
in 1851. It was not very successful,
and is seldom produced; though selections
from its score are sometimes played and
sung.

After some indifferent success and several
failures Gounod brought out his opera
“Faust” in 1859. In spite of the fact that
he had chosen a subject that had been
drawn on liberally by other composers,
“Faust” was a success from the beginning,
and it is now without doubt the most popular
French work in the operatic repertoire.
It was liked at the start; but its enormous
success was not predicted then. It has
grown in the affections of the opera-going
public year by year, until today it is one
of the most prominent features of an
operatic season.

“Philémon et Baucis,” “The Queen of
Sheba,” “Roméo et Juliette,” and other
operas followed. Of these the last named
is the only one that remains a favorite
with the public. Among Gounod’s notable
compositions are two grand oratorios,
“The Redemption” and “Mors et Vita”
(Death and Life), and a number of distinguished
songs.

According to the celebrated composer
Saint-Saëns, it is in these two oratorios
that Gounod’s genius rose highest. Gounod’s
life was spent for the most part in
or near Paris, and it was in that city that
most of his great works were first produced.
He was a man of great energy, a constant
worker, both in musical composition and
in writing. He died at St. Cloud, October
18, 1893, leaving an influence on French
music that will probably never be dimmed.

Personally he was one of the most interesting
figures in the musical world,—a
man of the world, and at the same time
a student, a dreamer, and a mystic devoted
to religious exaltations.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 47
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK

SIX

Few composers have so suddenly sprung into fame
and favor as Engelbert Humperdinck. He was born
at Sigburg, Germany, in September, 1854. His
musical education began in Cologne Conservatory
under Hiller, and was continued in Munich under Lachner.
The prizes that he won at the conservatory enabled him to go
to Italy, where he met Richard Wagner at
Naples, who recognized his ability and
showed him many favors. Wagner took
Humperdinck with him to Bayreuth and
made an assistant of him. Humperdinck’s
services were most valuable in the production
of Wagner’s “Parsifal” in 1882. Subsequently
he visited France and Spain,
remaining two years in the latter country,
teaching at Barcelona.

In 1887 he returned to Cologne, and
shortly afterward taught music at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
In 1896 the emperor
secured for him an appointment as professor
in Berlin, and Humperdinck moved
there in 1900.

The compositions of Humperdinck are
not numerous. His reputation, as far as
the world at large is concerned, rests entirely
on his masterpiece, “Hänsel und
Gretel.” Besides this opera, he wrote incidental
music for “The Children of the
King,” a charming play of allegorical character,
and the “Moorish Rhapsody,” an
orchestral piece. These two and a few
other compositions are known chiefly to
music lovers, and they uphold the reputation
that Humperdinck obtained by his
“Hänsel und Gretel.”

The fairy opera, “Hänsel und Gretel,” is
known the world over, and well beloved
wherever it is heard. Its success was phenomenal
from the start, the story of the
opera being captivating, and the music
likewise. It came at a time when the
attention of the operatic world was absorbed
with some of the successors of the
well known Italian school, prominently
Mascagni and Leoncavallo. But the little
opera struck a note much higher, and so
much more beautiful that before the first
season was over the Italian composers
found their admirers listening to and singing
the music of “Hänsel und Gretel,” and
leaving their intermezzi to the street organs.
The eminent critic, Streatfeild, pronounced
Humperdinck “the first German
composer of distinct individuality since
Wagner.” The close association with
Wagner that Humperdinck enjoyed has
shown its influence on the latter’s music;
but there is a spirit and a quality in it
all his own.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 47
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.