The Opera eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 339 pages of information about The Opera.

The Opera eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 339 pages of information about The Opera.

Five years elapsed between the production of ‘Orfeo’ and of Gluck’s next great opera, ‘Alceste’; but that these years were not wasted is proved by the great advance which is perceptible in the score of the later work.  The libretto of ‘Alceste’ is in many ways superior to that of ‘Orfeo,’ and Gluck’s share of the work shows an incontestable improvement upon anything he had yet done.  His touch is firmer, and he rarely shows that inclination to drop back into the old conventional style, which occasionally mars the beauty of ‘Orfeo.’  Gluck wrote a preface to the published score of ‘Alceste,’ which is one of the most interesting documents in the history of music.  It proves conclusively—­not that any proof is necessary—­that the composer had thought long and seriously about the scope of his art, and that the reforms which he introduced were a deliberate attempt to reconstruct opera upon a new basis of ideal beauty.  If he sometimes failed to act up to his own theories, it must be remembered in what school he had been trained, and how difficult must have been the attempt to cast off in a moment the style which had been habitual to him for so many years.

When ‘Alceste’ was produced in Paris in 1776, Gluck made some alterations in the score, some of which were scarcely improvements.  In his later years he became so completely identified with the French school that the later version is now the more familiar.

The opera opens before the palace at Pherae, where the people are gathered to pray Heaven to spare the life of Admetus, who lies at the point of death.  Alcestis appears, and, after an air of great dignity and beauty, bids the people follow her to the temple, there to renew their supplications.  The next scene shows the temple of Apollo.  The high priest and the people make passionate appeal to the god for the life of their king, and the oracle replies that Admetus must perish, if no other will die in his place.  The people, seized with terror, fly from the place, and Alcestis, left alone, determines to give up her own life for that of her husband.  The high priest accepts her devotion, and in the famous air ‘Divinites du Styx,’ she offers herself a willing sacrifice to the gods below.  In the original version the second act opened with a scene in a gloomy forest, in which Alcestis interviews the spirits of Death, and, after renewing her vow, obtains leave to return and bid farewell to her husband.  The music of this scene is exceedingly impressive, and intrinsically it must have been one of the finest in the opera, but it does not advance the action in the least, and its omission sensibly increases the tragic effect of the drama.  In the later version the act begins with the rejoicings of the people at the recovery of Admetus.  Alcestis appears, and after vainly endeavouring to conceal her anguish from the eyes of Admetus is forced to admit that she is the victim whose death is to restore him to life.  Admetus passionately

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The Opera from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.