THE ITALIAN OPERA.
THE Italian Opera, of late years a very meagre topic for musical
'criticism, is now become almost a barren one. To notice it were only to record the reiteration of stale operas by the same singers. in this dearth of intelligence — in the absence of any thing noticeable — suppose we relieve the blank by a "retrospective review," and contrast the design and former management of the Italian Operahouse with its present state and character.
Italian operas had been for some preceding years gradually finding a permanent footing in this country, though under a succession of incom- petent managers, when, in 1720, a plan being formed for supporting them with spirit and splendour, a fund of 50,0001. was raised, and the establishment, which was called "the Royal Academy of Music," was placed under the control of a Governor, Deputy Governor, and twenty Directors—in which number were included the Dukes of NEWCASTLE and PoteriAND, Lords I3entasturox and STANHOPE, and other noblemen and gentlemen distinguished for their love of the fine arts. The first and most obvious care of the Directors was to place the management of the theatre in efficient hands ; and to HANDEL this important trust was committed. BUONONCINI was also invited to England as composer, in addition to HANDEL. It is not necessary to detail the disputes which dissolved the connexion between HANDEL and the Directors ; but during the time of its continuance, the finest operas that supplied the different European theatres were composed in London, and produced there under the direction of their author. Two new operas, sometimes three or four, were written by HANDEL alone every year front 1722 to 1736. The secession of this great master produced no change of system in the ma- nagement, of which the principal object was to engage the most eminent composers to devote their talents to the Italian Operahouse of London : and accordingly, GALUPPI, PORPORA, HASSE, PAILIDIES, J. C. BACK, VENTO, GEMINIANI, GIAIUMNI, GUGLIELMI, SACCHINI, and CHERURINI, in the course of about fifty years resided successively in London, each being employed in the service of this establishment. Vhile thus managed and controlled, the Operahouse fulfilled its design, and was the worthy and appropriate resort of taste, elegance, and decency. Every thing about it bore the stamp of respectability, judgment, and liberality. The finest composers in Europe were ren- dered tributary to the entertainment of an audience over which decorum and refinement presided. "The boxes," says an old subscriber, "were _filled exclusively with the higher classes of society, all, without ex- ception, in the full dress then universally worn. The audiences thus assembled presented a finer spectacle than any other theatre in Europe, and used to astonish the foreign performers." Now let us turn to the Operahouse as it is—no longer under the control of men of character, station, and taste, but the mere speculation of a French adventurer, whose dealings with his performers, with his subscribers, and the public, are too well known, and all of the same kind. Under the dictation of this mercenary quack, no composer of any eminence will ever place himself; and the Italian masters who so long guided the destiny and brightened the career of our Operahouse, have no successors. Here is the season now advanced to May, and not a single new opera is even promised. The musical attraction at this theatre is made to centre, and in fact does centre, in the singers. Singers, like actors, are but the means of producing a certain end. The end at Covent Garden, for example, is the drama—the means, the performers employed in its representation ; the end is Prospero, Lear, or Macbeth—the agent, MACREADY. It is not merely to exhibit hilself, but to exhibit SHAKSPERE through himself, that MACREADY'S efforts are directed. He might have a certain audience, for a few nights, if he were to get up The Flying Dutchnum instead of The Tempest, and exchange his Prospero for Vander- decken—but not the same audience. • Covent Garden habitually contains the most refined and polished assemblage of hearers in the Metropolis. In the Italian Operahouse, the true end and purpose of such a theatre are utterly disregarded. It is no longer an exhibition of music, but a mere display of the vocal agility of certain performers, exhibited in the same form and exercised on the same passages. How would this be tolerated in any other art ? What should we say of a painter who could draw only a single landscape or face—of a poet who should employ the same phrases, epithets, and rhymes, in all his verses—or an orator who had but a single speech ? The charm of variety, which music equally with every art, is able to unfold, is, practically, banithed from the Operahouse. The end is wholly lost sight of, and the Susit- SeEnE of music is dethroned in favour of its FITZBALL.
The system of management before the curtain is of a piece with that on the stage. Year after year the pit is lessened in order to augment the number of stalls ; performers are driven from their seats and deprived of their salaries, that their places may be occu- pied by auditors ; payers are made to supersede players. The pit and gallery are periodically furnished with clacqueurs, and the most depraved characters find ready admittance into either. Nor are such to be found here alone : the, boxes, once the resort of rank and character, are now let to the highest bidder, of whatever calling or reputation,—their habitual and nightly use being to accomplish an assig- nation or carry on an intrigue. The benefits are so in name only— scarcely a single performer has any real interest in the receipts of a benefit. The public think they are patronizing a favourite singer by purchasing his tickets or attending the house on these occasions: no such thing—the name of the artist is only used as a lure, and the proceeds find their way into the pocket of M. LAPORTE. Zrenerzr, in his last enagagement, stipulated for a real benefit : we believe he never received a shilling of what was taken at the door—we know he had not, a very. short time before he left England, and that his attorney had then vainly attempted to obtain his money.
Lord MOUNT EDGECUNIDE, a frequenter of the Operahouse for half a century, and no mean judge of what he heard there, published a few years since his Musical Reminiscences; which he sums up with a re- view of the Opera management- " The design of this establishment is wholly changed; its audience are of a totally different description ;_ its character is degraded, its comfort entirely lost. The pit has long ceased to be the resort of ladies of fashion, and latterly, by the innovations introduced, is no longer agreeable to the former male fre- quenters of it. Those who pay for admission, if they chance to arrive late at the theatre, find the seats occupied by the manager's or the singer's partisans, by holders of orders and cheap admissions ; while the boxes, frequently filled by occasional hirers, afford no retreat to those who would visit the friends to whom they properly belong. Most improper company is sometimes to be seen in the principal tiers ; and tickets, bearing the names of ladies of the highest class, have been presented by those of the lowest. The whole system is radically haul: and nothing can restore the Opera in this country to its former respectability, or the performances to that excellence which a public paying no dearly has a right to expect, but a total reformation—an entire change of all who have any control over the affairs of the theatre."
These, be it remembered, are not the words of a disappointed parti- san or an unsuccessful opponent, but of an experienced find (as his book proves him to be) competent judge—of a man attached by habit and choice to the Italian Opera as um amusement—moving in the high- est circles of fashion ; and thus in every way competent to form and to give an impartial and accurate opinion of it as it was and as it is. The conclusion to which Lord Moray Entmetoeur. comes is this—" Curio- sity, within the last few years, has sometimes drawn me thither, but the probability is that I shall never witness the performance of another opera."
And A
this feeling of disgust is shared alike by the respectable portion of the public, whether musical or otherwise. Scarcely a decent female dares to frequent the pit of the Operahouse ; and the repetition of Lucia di Lammermoor and I Puritani is not very likely to attract musical hearers—who seek entertainment, not annoyance, and who only go where entertainment can be found. Any person conversant with the faces of those who frequent Metropolitan musical society, public and private, will seek for such in vain at the Operahouse. Three or four lilacs in the course of the last season, at the rare performance of one of CIMAROSA'S or MOZART'S operas, they were visible, but these were the few exceptions. The audience is wholly changed. The appear- ance and conversation of many who frequent it would justify a suspi- cion that the refuse of the neighbouring gamblinghouses and brothels is emptied into the pit; that French gamesters. French milliners, and French swindlers, make it their place of resort—many to follow their own busi- ness, others the avocation in whieh the manager employs them. De- cency of character, dress, or deportment, would be unsuitable for such an office ; and the probability is that the French pickpocket, who was taken in this theatre a short time since, was one of M. LAPORTE'S clac- perms. Such is the present state of the Italian Opera in London.
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