It is not probable that Mozart obtained any share of the rich profits which accrued from the production of his opera on these various stages. He was even cheated out of the production of a clavier score. "Now it has come to pass exactly as I foretold to my son," wrote L. Mozart to his daughter (December 16, 1785); "the 'Entführung aus dem Serail' has appeared in clavier score at Augsburg, and has also been printed at Mayence. Since March, when he began it, my son has not found time to finish it. He has lost his time, and Torricella (who was to publish it at Vienna) his profits."[ 68 ]
CHAPTER XXV. "DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL."
THE gradual decline of the German festival and "spektakel" operas was consummated in 1742, when Gottsched, DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL. who had waged incessant war against them throughout his career, had the satisfaction of chronicling the opera of "Atalanta," in Dresden, as the last of its kind[ 1 ] but they were succeeded by a sort of aftergrowth in the form of the operetta.[ 2 ] The theatrical managers could not altogether dispense with similar means of attraction, and attempts were made to introduce the musical intermezzo, together with the now fairly well-established ballet. In 1743 Schonemann produced in Berlin Coffey's "Devil to Pay" ("Der Teufel ist los"), adapted by Von Barck, with the English melodies;[ 3 ] but this attempt, as well as the performance of Schürer's vaudeville "Doris," in Dresden, in 1747,[ 4 ] remained without result. In 1752 Koch, of Leipzig, who had had recourse to the performance of Italian intermezzi,[ 5 ] commissioned Chr. Fel. Weisse to make a new adaptation of Coffey's "Devil to Pay, or the Bewitched Wives," which was set to music by Standfuss, the assistant-manager of Koch's company.[ 6 ] Gottsched and his wife renewed the old strife against this attempt, but were completely defeated.[ 7 ] The second part of the opera "Der Teufel ist los"—"Der Lustige Schuster"—was produced by Koch, in 1759, at Lubeck.[ 8 ] But not until his return to GERMAN OPERETTA. Leipzig, in 1765, did he give his serious attention to vaudeville. Weisse revised his old opera of "Der Teufel ist los," which, with partially new music by Hiller, was performed in 1766, and received with fresh applause.[ 9 ] Koch found in Joh. Ad. Hiller what had always hitherto been wanting, viz., a composer of good musical and general education, having a decided talent for light, easy, and characteristic music (more especially comic music), and full of zeal for the elevation of the national art. He endeavoured to make another step in advance, and by the composition of Schieb-ler's romantic poem of "Lisuart and Dariolette" (performed November 25, 1766) to lay the foundation of serious German opera.[ 10 ] Educated in the tradition of Hasse and Graun, with the additional influence of Ph. Em. Bach, he followed with interest the attempts to gain favour for Italian music in Paris by reconciling it with the demands of French taste; and he wished to establish a national German opera on the same principles. He denied that the German language was unfitted for song, if only the poet would take the trouble of accommodating it to the music, and if artists were trained for German singing with as much care as for Italian. Since German taste was more Italian than French, but the French were superior to the Italians in dramatic treatment, a French plan in Italian form was most likely to be approved of by Germans.[ 11 ] The insufficient appointments of the Leipzig stage must, however, have dissuaded him from any idea of a grand opera. To this was added his connection with Weisse, who during his residence in Paris had taken a lively interest in the comic opera, and had exerted himself to transplant it into Germany.[ 12 ]
His first opera, "Lottchen am Hofe," after "Ninette ä la Cour," and "Die Liebe auf dem Lande," after "Annette et DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL. Lubin" and "La Clochette," had so great a success in 1767 and 1768 that they prepared the way for other similar attempts.[ 13 ] These simple dramas, which occupied the mind without exerting it, and moved the feelings without unduly exciting them, were so much in keeping with Weisse's own nature that he was able to give them characteristic and appropriate form. They opened a field, too, for Hiller's simple hearty spirit, embodied in a popular form, which made his style appeal at once to the multitude; while an endeavour after higher things would only have turned him into an imitator of Hasse. A rapid succession of operas by Weisse and Hiller, which were received with unanimous approbation, and spread with incredible rapidity, soon established a definite type of German operetta, and raised up a host of imitators. The interest of the public, especially in North Germany, was almost exclusively confined to operetta,[ 14 ] so that in Berlin, for instance, during the years 1781-83, 117, 141, and 151 operettas were performed.[ 15 ] This implies an extraordinary production. Besides translations from French operettas by Duni, Philidor, Monsigny, Grétry, and Italian intermezzi, there were innumerable German vaudevilles, for the most part also founded on foreign originals.[ 16 ] Some idea may be formed of the fertility of these composers, by the fact that between 1765 and 1785, Hiller composed 13 operas, Wolf 18, Neefe 10, Holly 13, André 22, Schweitzer 16, Stegmann 10, G. Benda 8; to whom may be added a host of other less productive and less celebrated composers.
This activity had indeed drawbacks, for it was practised with great ease, and many amateurs of very inferior musical education intruded themselves among the operatic musicians.[ 17 ] The careless dilettantism of the poet went hand in hand GERMAN OPERETTA. with that of the composer. A host of unskilful verse-makers allied themselves with Weisse, Michaelis, and Gotter, and threatened to degrade the operetta to the lower level of the opera buffa. A further drawback consisted in the very defective performances, which in most instances resulted from the insufficient powers of the operetta companies.
"We must remember," says Reichardt, in his "History of the Comic Opera," "how much Hiller was hampered by the miserable state of our operatic companies. He was fully aware of this, and what I admire in him is that he never lost sight of the fact that he was writing, not for singers, but for actors, who had scarcely music enough in them to sing over their wine." The state of things had not altered much since Hiller began to write. The Italian operas alone were supported by the courts; the German operettas remained in the hands of private speculators; who did not possess the means of attracting vocalists of artistic cultivation. No singer of any reputation would have thought it consistent with his dignity to appear in German vaudeville. The vaudeville, therefore, remained in the hands of actors, who had seldom any vocal powers and still seldomer any but a superficial cultivation, but who willingly appeared in operettas on account of the high fees[ 18 ] and great applause they might reckon upon. Reichardt gives an appalling description of the German opera in Berlin in 1774; he heard one of Hiller's operas "sung by a wide-mouthed, screeching woman, and a lover with a voice like a night-watchman," and that before an audience which had "the reputation of very refined taste";[ 19 ] he was no better pleased at Leipzig.[ 20 ] Müller says of a performance of Wolf's "Treuen Kohler" at Dresden in 1776: "As only two of all the performers were at all musical, you may imagine how the opera was DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL. rendered." It is conceivable, therefore, that the growing partiality for German opera was regarded with disfavour by earnest men, as prejudicial alike to the dramatic interests which were still struggling to assert themselves in Germany,[ 21 ] and to the artistic development of operatic music proper.[ 22 ] The actor Müller, during his professional tour in 1776, made himself acquainted with the views of competent judges as to the admissibility of German operettas; the different opinions which he collected are characteristic enough. Lessing—who held the union of poetry and music as the most perfect in existence, "so that nature herself appears to have destined them not so much for union as to be considered as one and the same art"[ 23 ]—was against vaudevilles. "They are the ruin of our stage. Such works are easily written; every comedy affords material to the author; he scatters a few songs about, and the thing is done. Our new dramatic poets find this a far easier task than writing a good character piece." Gleim was even more violently opposed to vaudeville than Lessing, and gave Müller an epigram upon the
"Witch":—
Die, schlau wie
Schlang' und Krokodill,
Sich schleicht in aller
Menschen Herzen
Und drinnen sitzt, als wie ein
Huhn Auf seinem
Nest, und lehrt:
Nur klcine Thaten thun
Und über grosse
Thaten scherzen!"
Weisse smiled when Müller repeated the lines to him, and declared himself, as became the founder of German opera, in its favour. He was too modest, however, to maintain that operettas were dramatic works of art, or to hope thereby to raise the taste of his countrymen; he could only disclaim all intention of degrading it or of doing more than encouraging GERMAN OPERETTA. German people to come together, and providing pleasant and popular entertainments for them when they did so.[ 24 ] Gotter preserved a discreet neutrality on the subject, since he had had a direct interest in more than one operatic libretto; he would not declare for either side, and was of opinion that variety was the root of all pleasure. Wieland was more explicit, and declared that the national stage could only be rendered of importance by German music; comic and serious German vaudevilles were wanted, but good poets would soon come forward to supply the need. He was not only able to point to his own "Alceste," and the success it had obtained; he had developed his views on the cultivation of German vaudeville with a lively acknowledgment of the achievements of Schweitzer, and he possessed genuine feeling and interest for music. Even a musician like Reichardt declared himself against the operetta, but thought as it was there it ought at least to be improved, and made as useful as possible.[ 25 ]
