The Complete Opera Book Part 54

_Time_--Reign of Henry IV.

_Scene_--Windsor.

Note. In the Shakespeare comedy _Anne Ford_ is _Anne Page_.

Shakespeare's comedy, "The Merry Wives of Windsor," did not have its first lyric adaptation when the composer of "Rigoletto" and "Ada,"

influenced probably by his distinguished librettist, penned the score of his last work for the stage. "Falstaff," by Salieri, was produced in Vienna in 1798; another "Falstaff," by Balfe, came out in London in 1838. Otto Nicolai's opera "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is mentioned on p. 80 of this book. The character of _Falstaff_ also appears in "Le Songe d'une Nuit d'ete" (The Midsummer Night's Dream) by Ambroise Thomas, Paris, 1850, "where the type is treated with an adept's hand, especially in the first act, which is a masterpiece of pure comedy in music." "Le Songe d'une Nuit d'ete" was, in fact, Thomas's first significant success. A one-act piece, "Falstaff," by Adolphe Adam, was produced at the Theatre Lyrique in 1856.

The comedy of the "Merry Wives," however, was not the only Shakespeare play put under contribution by Boto. At the head of the "Falstaff"

score is this note: "The present comedy is taken from 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and from several pa.s.sages in 'Henry IV.' by Shakespeare."

Falstaff, it should be noted, is a historic figure; he was a brave soldier; served in France; was governor of Honfleur; took an important part in the battle of Agincourt, and was in all the engagements before the walls of Orleans, where the English finally were obliged to retreat before Joan of Arc. Sir John Falstaff died at the age of eighty-two years in county Norfolk, his native s.h.i.+re, after numerous valiant exploits, and having occupied his old age in caring for the interests of the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to the foundation of which he had largely contributed. To us, however, he is known almost wholly as an enormously stout comic character.

The first scene in the first act of the work by Boto and Verdi shows _Falstaff_ in a room of the Garter Inn. He is accompanied by those two good-for-nothings in his service, _Bardolph_ and _Pistol_, ragged blackguards, whom he treats with a disdain measured by their own low standards. _Dr. Cajus_ enters. He comes to complain that _Falstaff_ has beaten his servants; also that _Bardolph_ and _Pistol_ made him drunk and then robbed him. _Falstaff_ laughs and browbeats him out of countenance. He departs in anger.

_Falstaff_ has written two love letters and despatched them to two married belles of Windsor--_Mistress Alice Ford_ and _Mistress Meg Page_, asking each one for a rendezvous.

The scene changes to the garden of _Ford's_ house, and we are in presence of the "merry wives"--_Alice Ford_, _Meg Page_, and _Mistress Quickly_. With them is _Anne Ford_, _Mistress Ford's_ daughter.

Besides the garden there is seen part of the Ford house and the public road. In company with _Dame Quickly_, _Meg_ has come to pay a visit to _Alice Ford_, to show her a letter which she has just received from _Falstaff_. _Alice_ matches her with one she also has received from him. The four merry women then read the two letters, which, save for the change of address, are exactly alike. The women are half amused, half annoyed, at the pretensions of the fat knight. They plan to avenge themselves upon him. Meanwhile _Ford_ goes walking before his house in company with _Cajus_, young _Fenton_ (who is in love with _Anne_), _Bardolph_, and _Pistol_. The last two worthies have betrayed their master. From them _Ford_ has learned that _Falstaff_ is after his wife. He too meditates revenge, and goes off with the others, except _Fenton_, who lingers, kisses _Anne_ through the rail fence of the garden, and sings a love duet with her. The men return. _Fenton_ rejoins them. _Anne_ runs back to her mother, and the four women are seen up-stage, concocting their conspiracy of revenge.

The second act reverts to the Garter Inn, where _Falstaff_ is still at table. _Dame Quickly_ comes with a message from _Alice_ to agree to the rendezvous he has asked for. It is at the Ford house between two and three o'clock, it being Ford's custom to absent himself at that time. _Falstaff_ is pompously delighted. He promises to be prompt.

Hardly has _Dame Quickly_ left, when _Ford_ arrives. He introduces himself to _Falstaff_ under an a.s.sumed name, presents the knight with a purse of silver as a bait, then tells him that he is in love with _Mistress Ford_, whose chast.i.ty he cannot conquer, and begs _Falstaff_ to lay siege to her and so make the way easier for him. _Falstaff_ gleefully tells him that he has a rendezvous with her that very afternoon. This is just what _Ford_ wanted to know.

The next scene takes place in _Ford's_ house, where the four women get ready to give _Falstaff_ the reception he merits. One learns here, quite casually from talk between _Mistress Ford_ and _Anne_, that _Ford_ wants to marry off the girl to the aged pedant _Cajus_, while she, of course, will marry none but _Fenton_, with whom she is in love. Her mother promises to aid her plans.

_Falstaff's_ arrival is announced. _Dame Quickly_, _Meg_, and _Anne_ leave _Mistress Ford_ with him, but conceal themselves in readiness to come in response to the first signal. They are needed sooner than expected. _Ford_ is heard approaching. Quick! The fat lover must be concealed. This is accomplished by getting him behind a screen. _Ford_ enters with his followers, hoping to surprise the rake. With them he begins a search of the rooms. While they are off exploring another part of the house the women hurry _Falstaff_ into a big wash basket, pile the soiled clothes over him, and fasten it down. Scarcely has this been done when _Ford_ comes back, thinking of the screen. Just then he hears the sound of kissing behind this piece of furniture. No longer any doubt! _Falstaff_ is hidden there with his wife. He knocks down the screen--and finds behind it _Anne_ and _Fenton_, who have used to their own purpose the diversion of attention from them by the hunt for _Falstaff_. _Ford_, more furious than ever, rushes out. His wife and her friends call in the servants, who lift the basket and empty it out of the window into the Thames, which flows below. When _Ford_ comes back, his wife leads him to the window and shows him _Falstaff_ striking out clumsily for the sh.o.r.e, a b.u.t.t of ridicule for all who see him.

In the third act _Dame Quickly_ is once more seen approaching _Falstaff_, who is seated on a bench outside the Garter Inn. In behalf of _Mistress Ford_, she offers him another rendezvous. _Falstaff_ wants to hear no more, but _Dame Quickly_ makes so many good excuses for her friend that he decides to meet _Mistress Ford_ at the time and place asked for by her--midnight, at Herne's oak in Windsor forest, _Falstaff_ to appear in the disguise of the black huntsman, who, according to legend, hung himself from the oak, with the result that the spot is haunted by witches and sprites.

_Falstaff_, in the forest at midnight, is surrounded by the merry women, the whole _Ford_ entourage, and about a hundred others, all disguised and masked. They unite in mystifying, taunting, and belabouring him, until at last he realizes whom he has to deal with.

And as it is necessary for everything to end in a wedding, it is then that _Mistress Ford_ persuades her husband to abandon his plan to take the pedantic _Dr. Cajus_ for son-in-law and give his daughter _Anne_ to _Fenton_.

Even taking into account "Otello," the general form of the music in "Falstaff" is an innovation for Verdi. All the scenes are connected without break in continuity, as in the Wagnerian music-drama, but applied to an entirely different style of music from Wagner's. "It required all the genius and dramatic experience of a Verdi, who had drama in his blood, to succeed in a lyrical adventure like 'Falstaff,'

the whole score of which displays amazing youthfulness, dash, and spirit, coupled with extraordinary grace." On the other hand, as regards inspiration pure and simple, it has been said that there is not found in "Falstaff" the freshness of imagination or the abundance of ideas of the earlier Verdi, and that one looks in vain for one of those motifs _di prima intenzione_, like the romance of _Germont_ in "La Traviata," the song of the _Duke_ in "Rigoletto," or the "Miserere" in "Il Trovatore," and so many others that might be named.

The same writer, however, credits the score with remarkable purity of form and with a _sveltesse_ and lightness that are astonis.h.i.+ng in the always lively attraction of the musical discourse, to say nothing of a "charming orchestration, well put together, likeable and full of coquetry, in which are found all the brilliancy and facility of the Rossini method."

Notwithstanding the above writer's appreciative words regarding the instrumentation of "Falstaff," he has fallen foul of the work, because he listened to it purely in the spirit of an opera-goer, and judged it as an opera instead of as a music-drama. If I may be pardoned the solecism, a music-drama "listens" different from an opera. A person accustomed only to opera has his ears c.o.c.ked for song soaring above an accompaniment that counts for nothing save as a support for the voice.

The music-lover, who knows what a music-drama consists of, is aware that it presents a well-balanced score, in which the orchestra frequently changes place with the voice in interpreting the action. It is because in "Falstaff" Verdi makes the orchestra act and sing--which to an opera-goer, his ears alert for vocal melody, means nothing--that the average audience, expecting something like unto what Verdi has given them before, is disappointed. Extremists, one way or another, are one-sided. Whoever is able to appreciate both opera and music-drama, a catholicity of taste I consider myself fortunate in possessing, can admire "Rigoletto," "Il Trovatore," and "La Traviata"

as much as the most confirmed devotee of opera; but can also go further, and follow Verdi into regions where the intake is that of the pure spirit of comedy at times exhaled by the voice, at times by the orchestra.

While not divided into distinct "numbers," there are pa.s.sages in "Falstaff" in which Verdi has concentrated his attention on certain characteristic episodes. In the first scene of the first act occurs _Falstaff's_ lyric in praise of _Mistress Ford_, "O amor! Sguardo di stella!" (O Love, with star-like eyes). I quote the beautiful pa.s.sage at "Alice e il nome" (And Alice is her name).

[Music: (Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)]

The same scene has the honour monologue from "King Henry IV.," which is purely declamatory, but with a remarkably vivid and characteristic accompaniment, in which especially the ba.s.soons and clarinets comment merrily on the sarcastic sentences addressed to _Bardolph_ and _Pistol_.

In the second scene of Act I, besides the episodes in which _Mistress Ford_ reads _Falstaff's_ letter, the unaccompanied quartet for the women ("Though shaped like a barrel, he fain would come courting"), the quartet for the men, and the close of the act in which both quartets take part, there is the piquant duet for _Anne_ and _Fenton_, in which the lovers kiss each other between the palings of the fence.

From this duet I quote the amatory exchange of phrases, "Labbra di foco" (Lips all afire) and "Labbra di fiore" (Lips of a flower) between _Anne_ and _Fenton_.

[Music: (Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)]

As the curtain falls _Mistress Ford_ roguishly quotes a line from _Falstaff's_ verses, the four women together add another quotation, "Come una stella sull'immensita" (Like some sweet star that sparkles all the night), and go out laughing. In fact the music for the women takes many a piquant turn.

[Music: (Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)]

In Act II, the whole scene between _Falstaff_ and _Dame Quickly_ is full of witty commentary by the orchestra. The scene between _Falstaff_ and _Ford_ also derives its significance from the instrumentation. _Ford's_ monologue, when he is persuaded by _Falstaff's_ boastful talk that his wife is fickle, is highly dramatic. The little scene of _Ford's_ and _Falstaff's_ departure--_Ford_ to expose his betrayal by his wife, _Falstaff_ for his rendezvous with her--"is underscored by a graceful and very elegant orchestral dialogue."

The second scene of this act has _Dame Quickly's_ madcap narrative of her interview with _Falstaff_; and _Falstaff's_ ditty sung to _Mistress Ford_, "Quand'ero paggio del Duca di Norfolk" (When I was page to the Duke of Norfolk). From the popular point of view, this is the outstanding musical number of the work. It is amusing, pathetic, graceful, and sad; irresistible, in fact, in its mingled sentiments of comedy and regret. Very brief, it rarely fails of encores from one to four in number. I quote the following:

[Music: Quand'ero paggio del Duca di Norfolk ero sottile, sottile, sottile,

(Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)]

The search for _Falstaff_ by _Ford_ and his followers is most humorously treated in the score.

In Act III, in the opening scene, in which _Falstaff_ soliloquizes over his misadventures, the humour, so far as the music is concerned, is conveyed by the orchestra.

From _Fenton's_ song of love, which opens the scene at Herne's oak in Windsor forest, I quote this expressive pa.s.sage:

[Music: (Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)]

Another delightful solo in this scene is _Anne's_ "Erriam sotto la luna" (We'll dance in the moonlight).

[Music: (Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)]

There are mysterious choruses--sibilant and articulately vocalized--and a final fugue.

Arrigo Boto, 1842-

MEFISTOFELE

(MEPHISTOPHELES)

Opera in four acts; words and music by Arrigo Boto, the book based on Goethe's _Faust_. Produced, without success, La Scala, Milan, March 5, 1868; revised and revived, with success, Bologna, October 4, 1875. London, Her Majesty's Theatre, July 1, 1880. New York, Academy of Music, November 24, 1880, with Campanini, Valleria, Cary, and Novara; and Metropolitan Opera House, December 5, 1883, Campanini, Nilsson, Trebelli, and Mirabella. Revivals: Metropolitan Opera House, 1889 (Lehmann); 1896 (Calve); 1901 (Margaret McIntyre, Homer, and Plancon); 1904 (Caruso and Eames); 1907 (Chaliapine); later with Caruso, Hempel, Destinn, and Amato.

Manhattan Opera House, 1906, with Renaud. Chicago Opera Company, with Ruffo. The singer of _Margaret_ usually takes the part of _Elena_ (Helen), and the _Martha_ also is the _Pantalis_.

CHARACTERS

MEFISTOFELE _Ba.s.s_ FAUST _Tenor_ MARGHERITA _Soprano_ MARTHA _Contralto_ WAGNER _Tenor_ ELENA _Soprano_ PANTALIS _Contralto_ NERENO _Tenor_

Mystic choir, celestial phalanxes, cherubs, penitents, wayfarers, men-at-arms, huntsmen, students, citizens, populace, townsmen, witches, wizards, Greek chorus, sirens, nayads, dancers, warriors.

_Time_--Middle Ages.