He was an infant prodigy, whose musical genius revealed itself in his earliest childhood. He began to play the piano at the age of three, and at seven he knew twenty-four of Bach's fugues by heart.
His fame began to be spoken of during his tours in Spain and all over America, where he appeared not only as virtuoso on the piano and on the violin, but also as director in difficult orchestral pieces.—When he was thirteen he devoted himself entirely to the violin and to composition, both of which studies occupied his early years completely.
Acté was produced at Barcelona in 1903, and its first performance out of Spain took place in Dresden on January 24th 1908.
It was received with general approval, due, it must be confessed, not so much to its dramatic effect as to its gorgeous and artistic staging. Though the opera shows great talent, fine orchestration, a distinct sense of local colour and some beautiful melodies, it lacks depth and dramatic power.—
It is more like one of those old stage operas of Verdi and Bellini, though it does not imitate them and contains, Wagner like, a number of leading motives. The same want is also to be found in the libretto, which fails to show us Nero, the many-sided; depicting him almost exclusively as a lover.—But considering the composer's youth, (he was just nineteen, when he wrote Acté), it promises much and is well worth hearing—and seeing.
The scene is laid in Rome during the reign of Nero.
The first Act takes place in the Palatine, where Agrippina, Nero's mother, is haunted by evil forebodings, suggested by the story of Clytemnestra's fate, sung by a chorus of her attendants.
Nero appears, and seeing his mother restless and uneasy, tries to soothe her with assurances of his filial devotion. Agrippina reminds him of all she has done for him, and how she has committed crimes to pave his way to the throne.—To reassure her, he begs her to ask any favour she desires. On this she demands his separation from the Greek slave Acté, whom he has freed, and whom he loves to distraction, Acté being in fact the only woman he ever loved.