The Music of Spain

by Carl Van Vechten

[P. 70.] George Henry Lewes gives some account of the drama in Spain, touching on the zarzuela, in Chapter XIV of "On Actors and the Art of Acting."

[P. 70.] "the Italian opera": In Gautier's day Bellini was the favourite composer (see P. 215, "Voyage en Espagne").

John Hay writes in "Castilian Days" (1871): "It (Madrid) has a superb opera house, which might as well be in Naples, for all the national character it has; the Court Theatre, where not a word of Castilian is ever heard, nor a strain of Spanish music.... The champagny strains of Offenbach are heard in every town of Spain oftener than the ballads of the country. In Madrid there are more pilluelos who whistle Bu qui s'avance than the Hymn of Riego. The Cancan has taken its place on the boards of every stage in the city, apparently to stay; and the exquisite jota and cachucha are giving way to the bestialities of the Casino Cadet."

It is well to remember in this connection that the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and Covent Garden Theatre in London "might as well be in Naples" too, "for all the national character" they have. Our symphony orchestras, too, perform works by native composers as infrequently as those in Madrid.

[P. 75.] To fill in the period between 1850-70 four names, inadvertently omitted from the original text of "Spain and Music," are necessary, those of Joaquín Gaztambide, Emilio Arrieta, Baltasar Saldoni, and Francisco A. Barbieri. Joaquín Gaztambide, born February 7, 1822, was a pupil of the Madrid Conservatory, and conductor of the "Pensions" concerts at the Conservatory. He was the composer of at least forty zarzuelas of which some of the titles follow: La Cisterna Encantada, La Edad en la Boca, Matilda y Malek Adel, El Secreto de la Reina, Las Señas del Archiduque, and El Valle de Andorra. He died March 18, 1870.

Emilio Arrieta, born October 21, 1823, was a pupil of the Milan Conservatory from 1842 until 1845. Many of the best Spanish musicians have received their training outside of Spain. His first opera, Ildegonda, was produced at Milan. He returned to Spain in 1848. In 1857 he became a teacher of composition in the Madrid Conservatory and later became director of that institution. He died February 11, 1894. The extensive list of his zarzuelas and operas (there are about fifty altogether) includes the following titles: La Conquista de Granada, La Dama del Rey, De Madrid à Biarritz, Los Enemigos Domesticos, La Tabernera de Londres, Un Viaje á Cochinchina, and La Vuelta del Corsario.

Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, born at Madrid, August 3, 1823, studied in the Conservatory there and after a varied career as member of a military band, a theatre orchestra, and an Italian opera troupe, became secretary and chief promoter of an association for instituting a Spanish national opera and encouraging the production of zarzuelas, in opposition to the Italian opera. Gloria y Peluca (1850), Jugar con Fuero (1851) were the first of these zarzuelas, of which he wrote seventy-five in all. He was also a teacher and a critic. He died in Madrid, February 19, 1894.

Baltasar Saldoni (1807-1890), born at Barcelona and educated at the monastery of Montserrat, was organist and teacher as well as composer. His works include a symphony for orchestra, military band and organ, A mi patria, a Hymn to the God of Art, operas and zarzuelas, and a great quantity of church and organ music.

[P. 76.] "Felipe Pedrell": El Último Abencerraje was sung in Italian when it was produced in Barcelona in 1874. Quasimodo is an operatic version of Victor Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris." Mazeppa (after Byron) is in one act as is Tasso; Cleopatra is in four acts. Los Pireneos is the first part of a triptych of which La Celestina is the second. The three parts are named respectively, Fatherland, Love, and Faith. So far as I know the third part has not yet appeared. La Matinada is called "a musical landscape," for solo, chorus, and an invisible orchestra.