The melodramatic incidents of the story crowd one upon another,
and in the rush and excitement of the plot the music often has to take a
secondary place. Whenever the composer has a chance he utilises it with
rare skill. There are passages in 'La Tosca' of great lyrical beauty,
but as a rule the exigencies of the stage give little room for musical
development, and a great deal of the score is more like glorified
incidental music than the almost symphonic fabric to which we are
accustomed in modern opera.
The history of 'Madama Butterfly' (1904), Puccini's latest opera, is a
strange one. At its production in Milan it was hissed off the stage and
withdrawn after a single performance. No one seems to know why it failed
to please the Scala audience, with whom Puccini had previously been a
great favourite. Possibly the unfamiliar Japanese surroundings
displeased the conservative Milanese, or the singers may have been
inadequate. At any rate, when it was revived a few months later at
Brescia, in a slightly revised form, it won more favour, and its London
appearance the following year was a brilliant triumph. Since then it has
gone the round of Europe and America, and is now probably the most
popular opera in the modern repertory. The story of 'Madama Butterfly'
is familiar to English hearers, the opera being founded upon the drama
by David Belasco, which was played here with great success some years
ago.
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