As for the Italians, we know that Paesiello, who was a famous intriguer against his musical rivals, was a devoted husband whose wife was an invalid and who died soon after her death.  Cherubini married Mademoiselle Cecile Turette, when he was thirty-five, and the marriage was not a success.  He left a son and two daughters.  Spontini, one of whose best operas was based on the life of that much mis-married enthusiast for divorce, John Milton, took to wife a member of the Erard family.  In the outer world Spontini was famous for his despotism, his jealousy, his bad temper, and his excessive vanity.  None of these qualities as a rule add much to home comfort, and yet, it is said that he lived happily with his wife.  We may feel sure that some of the bad light thrown on his character is due purely to the jealousy of rivals, when we consider his domestic content, his ardent interest in the welfare of Mozart’s widow and children, and the great efforts he made to secure subscriptions for the widow’s biography of Mozart.

Furthermore, Spontini in his later years, when deafness saddened his lot, deserted the halls of fame and the palaces of royalty, where he had been prominent, and retired with his wife to the little Italian village where he had been born of the peasantry.  And there he spent years founding schools and doing other works for the public good.  He died there in the arms of his wife, at the age of seventy-five; having had no children, he willed his property to the poor of his native village.

It is strange how much wrong we do to the geniuses of the second rate, when they happen to be rivals of those whom we have voted geniuses of the first rate; for the Piccinnis and the Salieris and the Spontinis, who chance to fight earnestly against Glucks, Mozarts, and others, often show in their lives qualities of the utmost sweetness and sincerity, equalling that of their more successful rivals in the struggle for existence.

For instance, there is Salieri, who was accused of poisoning Mozart, a monstrous slander, which Salieri bitterly regretted and answered by befriending Mozart’s son and securing him his first appointment.  When Salieri was young and left an orphan, he was befriended by a man, who later died, leaving his children in some distress.  Salieri took care of the family and educated the two daughters as opera singers.  His generosity was shown in numberless ways, and if by mishap he did not especially approve of Mozart, he was on most cordial terms with Haydn and Beethoven.  He gave lessons and money to poor musicians; he loved nature piously; was exuberant; was devoted to pastry and sugar-plums, but cared nothing for wine.  All I know of his married life is that when he was fifty-five he lost his son, and two years later his wife, and he was never the same thereafter.  It is a shame to slander him as men do.

THE GRAND ROSSINI