CHERUBINI.
From a bust by Dantan in the Carnavalet Museum, Paris.
Cherubini is not included among the composers whose originality is clearly shown in their earliest productions, and who are much more commonly found among the Germans than the Italians, since the latter write with great rapidity and spontaneity, making free use of resources already proved to be effective. The works belonging to his Italian period are after the manner of that day, and many things in his operas remind one especially of Piccini. With Cherubini, however, the execution is always more careful, the melody more noble and earnest, so that the careful observer finds in his compositions sufficient indication of an independent mind to understand why it was that from the beginning the Italian public was more startled than pleased with his music. The transition to a new style was not gradual, but sudden and surprising; in this respect he reminds one very strikingly of his younger compatriot, Spontini, in whose opera, "La Vestale," is seen an equally violent change of manner. The year 1786 marks the turning-point in the case of Cherubini, and the transitional work was a cantata called "Amphion." It was in this year that the musician made his first acquaintance with Haydn's symphonies, and the effect they produced upon him must have been positively electrifying. The orchestral treatment in "Amphion," the solo accompaniments, the interweaving of the instrumental playing with the chorus singing, everything in the whole work wears an aspect so entirely new that one may say, here the real Cherubini steps forward a finished artist. This will become evident to all from the fact that the allegro of the overture to "Anacréon," that enchanting and truly incomparable production of Cherubini's pen, is essentially composed of the orchestral introduction to "Amphion." The cantata was intended for the Loge Olympique, but was never performed either there or elsewhere. The composer therefore thought he must employ some portions of it for the opera referred to, which appeared seventeen years later. "Iphigenia in Aulis," belonging to the year 1788, shows us the new style transferred to the domain of the opera seria. This work, which has no equal among all Italian operas, had the good fortune to meet the approval of Cherubini's countrymen, who were able to take no pleasure in the music of Mozart. While in the form of the different pieces, the nature of the cadenzas, and certain other firmly established mediums of expression, the opera proclaims its relationship to the Italian school, yet in the series of beautiful melodies it contains it rises as far above Italian opera as Mozart's "Idomeneo." But how different is Cherubini's manner here from that of Mozart, of whose operas at this period he most certainly had no knowledge, having been borne wholly on the wings of his own genius in attaining the lofty height occupied by "Iphigenia." In "Démophon," his first French opera, it seems as if the composer had overtasked his strength, although the magnificent ensemble movements of the work are far superior in form to anything in the same line attempted by Gluck, with whom, in this instance, Cherubini had entered into competition. The opera is full of pathos and rich in original invention, but is not cast in the great tragic mould, and lacks the simplicity which is necessary for the production of a striking effect. "Lodoiska" is characterized by greater restraint, and is generally considered to be the musician's first dramatic masterpiece. My own preference would be for the "Iphigenia," if the libretto of that work were not so inferior. In writing "Lodoiska," Cherubini entered upon the domain of the French opéra comique, which, through its simplicity of action and its direct appeal to human emotions, affords great opportunities for dramatic effect in the hands of a skilful artist. The composer's activity in the operatic line was henceforth almost wholly confined to works of this class, among which three of the most prominent are "Elisa," "Les Deux Journées," and "Faniska." Even "Medée," that powerful musical tragedy was obliged, through pressure of circumstances, to adapt itself to the same form.
LUIGI CHERUBINI
Reproduction of lithograph by Léveille made from a painting by Ingres, 1842, now in possession of the Louvre in Paris.
In all these works the style of the master is unchanged; but inasmuch as it would exceed the limits of this article to enter upon the interesting task of analyzing the operas in detail, there is but little more to be said. That all are theatrically effective is a matter of course, since they are the work of an Italian, but they possess less of the dramatic quality in a narrower sense than the operas of Spontini, and many other less gifted composers. As a dramatic composer Cherubini was too fond of music for its own sake, and indulges too freely in elaborations of his musical themes, such as enchant his hearers in the masses in F major and D minor, but which interfere with the action in a work intended for the stage. He does not excel in portraying the more violent emotions, but surpasses all his predecessors in the representation of an intense, trembling excitement, while no more recent composer has gone beyond him in the power of awakening dramatic suspense.