Salvatore Auteri-Manzocchi has never repeated the
early success of 'Dolores,' and Spiro Samara, a Greek by birth, but an
Italian by training and sympathies, seems to have lost the secret of the
delicate imagination which nearly made 'Flora Mirabilis' a European
success, though his 'Martire,' a work of crude sensationalism, enjoyed
an ephemeral success in Italy. Franchetti, the composer of 'Asrael,'
'Cristoforo Colombo,' and other works, conceived upon a scale grandiose
rather than grand, appears anxious to emulate the theatrical glories of
Meyerbeer, and to make up for poverty of inspiration by spectacular
magnificence, but none of his operas has yet succeeded in crossing the
Alps.
CHAPTER XIII
MODERN GERMAN AND SLAVONIC OPERA
CORNELIUS--GOETZ--GOLDMARK--HUMPERDINCK--STRAUSS--
SMETANA--GLINKA--PADEREWSKI
The history of music furnishes more than one instance of the paralysing
effect which the influence of a great genius is apt to exercise upon his
contemporaries and immediate successors. The vast popularity of Handel
in England had the effect of stunting the development of our national
music for more than a century. During his lifetime, and for many years
after his death, English-born musicians could do little but imitate his
more salient mannerisms, and reproduce in an attenuated form the lessons
which he had taught. The effect of Wagner's music upon German opera has
been something of the same description.
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