His scores would not sound very elaborate
nowadays, nor do his melodies appear unusually tortuous or exacting, but
he insisted upon violent contrasts from his singers as well as from his
orchestra, and the great length of his operas, a point in which he
anticipated Meyerbeer and Wagner, probably reduced to exhaustion the
artists who were trained on Gluck and Mozart. 'La Vestale' was followed
in 1809 by 'Fernand Cortez,' and in 1819 by 'Olympie,' both of which
were extremely successful, the latter in a revised form which was
produced at Berlin in 1821. Spontini's operas are now no longer
performed, but the influence which his music exercised upon men so
different as Wagner and Meyerbeer makes his name important in the
history of opera.
Although Paris was the nursery of all that was best in opera at this
period, to Germany belongs the credit of producing the one work dating
from the beginning of the nineteenth century which deserves to rank with
the masterpieces of the previous generation--Beethoven's 'Fidelio.'
Beethoven's (1770-1827) one contribution to the lyric stage was written
in 1804 and 1805, and was produced at Vienna in the latter year, during
the French occupation. The libretto is a translation from the French,
and the story had already formed the basis of more than one opera;
indeed, it was a performance of Paer's 'Eleonora' which originally led
Beethoven to think of writing his work.
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