In Dukas' "Ariane and Bluebeard", set melodies are avoided and everything is in plastic style of music drama, with shimmering tone color and a wealth of orchestral touches. Louis Aubert's "The Blue Forest", is an effective combination of modernity and simplicity with much use of leading motives and some fairly definite numbers. "Les Heretiques" displays enervating voluptuousness and languor in the duet. There are grave and large accents for the invocation to Venus by Daphne. The orchestral lamentation at the close is graceful and the choruses are charming, but the dialogue is wearisome. He is a disciple of Massenet in his correct portrayal of the suavity, sweetnes and fascination of women. In "Le Petite Boheme" the orchestration is rich and effective and the dramatic action is developed.
Franchetti's "Germania" is a lyric two act drama with a prologue and an epilogue, aping Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Tschaikovski. Delibes, a new dramatist, uses unusual discretion in the color expression of the orchestra but with very little acting. His modulation scheme is rich and more melodic, but it is almost as declamatory as that of Strauss. Saint Saens and Massenet are less radical with a light melodic orchestra. Massenet's music in "Le Jongleur" and "Griselidis" is not strong enough to atone for tiresome episodes in the plot. The chorus plays an important but invisible part, throughout.
The Charpentier orchestra and neither Strauss-like nor Wagnerian. His "Louise" is constructed according to Wagner but creates an atmosphere rather emphasizing themes. It has musical originality, dramatic novelty and picturesque reproductions of life, style, and a blend of romanticism and reality. He is influenced by Massenet in musical speech and orchestral style. He emphasizes the lyrical element by the use of melodic recitative rather than by aria. He develops motives for descriptive importance with polyphonic style. The individual sonority of the orchestra reduses the stress on the orchestra's departure from the Wagnerian ideas. He reduced the dependence of these ideas to a minimum, and asserted the value of reliance on the native sources of music and drama.
Bruneau was a pupil of Massenet with undistinguished melodic patterns. He followed Wagner in the close continuity of drama and accurate characterization in music, fitting a characterization for varying dramatic atmospheres. His "Kerim" displays militarism and is a contrast to the pastoral elements in "L'Attaque du Moulin". His thematic manipulation is not flexible enough but his harmonic idiom is ingenuous and true to the qualities of race and time. D'Albert's "Tiefland" has a prologue and two acts, and combines the Wagner and Puccini swift and pliant orchestra, which colors and intensifies, but dispenses with the elaboration of Wagner's symphonic chorus. Chenier's "Liberia", strange to say, has one strain repeated and repeated. Chabrier is noted for his delicate expression and his fidelity and vigor of delineation. In "Briseis" the fresh aroma of the sea is suggested by the soft singing of the sailors without any overture or prelude. Bruneau in "Zola" writes flexible music and has a capacity for unmetred prose used for vocal purposes, a caustic rugged sincerity with an element of passion and little tenderness. Charpentier's "Louise" has the quick lithe movement of the Parisian character; gay, amused and amusing.
Richard Strauss uses a more complex orchestra than Wagner and we find leading motives as in Wagner. He is one of the most severely criticized composers of modern times. He has been accused of outrageous infraction of every musical law. The mood in "Electra" is implicit in the play, but it is reinforced by Strauss' orchestration. Where Beethoven or Wagner entrances are splendid, the instrumental equivalent of Strauss grates. He is typical to the moods, etc., of the play. He uses discords to represent a mad woman, but is musically beautiful in the recognition of brother and sister and love. The chief characters are depicted by leading motives, dissonance and orchestral bewilderments, and his power of characterization is extraordinary. There are forty-five themes in "Electra". He uses different instruments to represent the different animals, etc. For instance, the grunting of the pigs is represented by six bassoons and a flute.
There are one hundred and four musicians in "Salome", with sixty strings and an organ celeste. Three men carry on an excited conversation, one in seven eighth time, one in five eighth time and one in four four time, while the orchestra continues its original tempo.
Puccini, Humperdinck and Mascagni are considered by many to be the best living composers. "Königskinder" is chiefly declamatory and never sacrfices the human voice for the orchestra, and expounds and illustrates, but never fails to support the shapely arioso by rarely defined melody.
"Conchita" by Riccardo Zandonai embraces a few fragmentary themes and the voice parts are declamatory without a melodic line or the shapeliness of an arioso. Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" shows the introduction of a new device with the performance of the orchestral interlude and division of the work into two parts, with the curtain remaining up and showing the empty stage. Both he and Leoncavello have written short operas with effective librettos, and they stand for dramatic verities. Our American composers seem to follow different schools and styles without establishing one of their own. "Mona" by Horatio Parker assigns not a motive for a label to each character but a tonality, though only one blessed with absolute pitch can appreciate this. Walter Damrosch's "Cyrano" is in a post-Wagnerian style, a sort of melodious arioso frequently broadening into definitely shaped airs, with numerous ensembles, trios, quartets and choruses and the orchestra plays an important part, being continuously melodious, but not monopolizing melodic interest with leading motives attached to characters. "The Pipe of Desire", by F. S. Converse, has passages in a later Wagnerian style, and there are four prominent motives while the orchestra is exceedingly good, especially in depicting the "Naioa" theme. Victor Herbert's music is replete with local color and drama, and the representative themes are not developed, although his music is rather light and better suited for the operetta and the salon.
Thus we see how the musical forms of the opera have changed from the older more vocal feats to the newer well developed music drama. Gluck and Wagner brought back the undying principles of dramatic truth. In the days of Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti, melody was supreme and the dramatic truth was lost sight of. In "William Tell" and "Der Freischütz" there was a step onward, and with Wagner we find a return to, or reform, of the first principles of true dramatic art as applied to the opera by the Bardi coterie. Individualism is the prevailing tendency and succes depends on the forcibleness of the characters and the development of the leitmotiv.
In our consideration of the operas, from "Rappresentatione di Anima" to "Madeleine" we find the number of characters growing larger, the orchestra more complex and perhaps usurping more time, the solo work increasing considerably, recitative increasing, ensemble almost vanishing and chorus work reduced to a minmum. The opera of the future will be a medium between Wagner and Strauss, orchestral music drama, and the Debussy incidental music, and the melodiousness of the Italian school. The most vital music dramas of the day do not abandon nor drown out the voice, nor do they cast aside all musical connections, but combine orchestra, voice and dramatic action in an artistic way.