The genius of Scandinavian musicians seems to have little in common with
the stage. The works of Hartmann and Weyse are not known beyond the
boundaries of Denmark. Of late years, however, works by August Enna, a
young Danish composer, have been performed in various German towns. 'Die
Hexe' and 'Cleopatra' won a good deal of success, but the composer's
more recent operas, 'Aucassin und Nicolette' and 'Das Streichholzmaedel,'
have met with little favour.
CHAPTER XIV
ENGLISH OPERA
BALFE--WALLACE--BENEDICT--GORING THOMAS--MACKENZIE
STANFORD--SULLIVAN--SMYTH
Soon after the death of Purcell, the craze for Italian opera seems to
have banished native art completely from the English stage. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century, the most popular form of
entertainment consisted of operas set to a mixture of English and
Italian words, but after a time the town, to quote Addison, tired of
understanding only half the work, determined for the future to
understand none of it, and these hybrid works gave place, after the
arrival of Handel, to the splendid series of masterpieces extending from
'Rinaldo' to 'Deidamia.' From time to time attempts were made to gain a
footing for English opera in London, and in 1728 'The Beggar's Opera'
achieved a triumph so instantaneous and overwhelming as seriously to
affect the success of Handel's Italian enterprise at the Haymarket
Theatre.
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