"I give you my word of honour," said Devismes, "that your opera shall be put into rehearsal and brought out as soon as it is finished, and before Gluck's."
Piccinni went home, and at once set to work.
He had just finished his two first acts when he heard that Gluck had come back from Germany with his Iphigenia in Tauris completed. However, he had received the director's promise that his Iphigenia should be produced first, and, relying upon Devismes's word of honour, Piccinni merely resolved to finish his opera as quickly as possible, so that the management might not be inconvenienced by having to wait for it, now that Gluck's work, which was to come second, was ready for production.
Piccinni had not quite completed his Iphigenia, when, to his horror, he heard that Gluck's was already in rehearsal! He rushed to Devismes, reminded him of his promise, reproached him with want of faith, but all to no purpose. The director of the Opera declared that he had received a "command" to produce Gluck's work immediately, and that he had nothing to do but to obey. He was very sorry, was in despair, &c.; but it was absolutely necessary to play M. Gluck's opera first.
THE TWO IPHIGENIAS.
Piccinni felt that he was lost. He went to his friends, and told them the whole affair.
"In the first place," said Guinguenée, the writer, "let me look at the poem?" The poem was not merely bad, it was ridiculous. The manager had taken advantage of Piccinni's ignorance of the French language to impose upon him a libretto full of absurdities and common-places, such as no sensible schoolboy would have put his name to. Guinguenée, at Piccinni's request, re-wrote the whole piece—greatly, of course, to the annoyance of the original author.
In the meanwhile the rehearsals of Gluck's Iphigenia were continued. At the first of these, in the scene where Orestes, left alone in prison, throws himself on a bench saying "Le calme rentre dans mon cœur," the orchestra hesitated as if struck by the apparent contradiction in the accompaniment, which is still of an agitated character, though "Orestes" has declared that his heart is calm. "Go on!" exclaimed Gluck; "he lies! He has killed his mother!"
The musicians of the Académie had a right, so many at a time, to find substitutes to take their places at rehearsals. Not one profited by this permission while Iphigenia was being brought out.
The Iphigenia in Tauris is known to be Gluck's masterpiece, and it is by that wonderful work and by Orpheus that most persons judge of his talent in the present day. Compared with the German's profound, serious, and admirably dramatic production, Piccinni's Iphigenia stood but little chance. In the first place, it was inferior to it; in the second, the public were so delighted with Gluck's opera that they were not disposed to give even a fair trial to another written on the same subject. However, Piccinni's work was produced, and was listened to with attention. An air, sung by Pylades to Orestes, was especially admired, but on the whole the public seemed to be reserving their judgment until the second representation.