II
There is a middle world of music that touches, on its one side, the more elevated regions of art, while, on the other, it does not lose its hold on the larger world of popular taste. This is the world of comic opera—using the term in its general sense of a stage piece with music of a lighter variety.
The American public was early taught to appreciate this form of artistic amusement; the history of opera in this country shows a continuous record of the production of such works in all the larger cities. Important agencies in the popularizing of comic opera were the early performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, the brilliant seasons of French and Viennese opera at the Casino Theatre in New York, and the excellent services of the Bostonians in presenting ideally some of the most charming of the standard répertoire, besides revealing the merit of our native composers, in giving with success some of the first American comic operas to reach public hearing.
Up to the time of the Bostonians' championship of the American light opera composer there has been but an occasional performance of some work of local interest. Julius Eichberg is generally accredited with being America's first comic opera composer, his fame resting largely on a popular work entitled 'The Doctor of Alcantara' that was produced in Boston in 1862. Eichberg could be called an American composer only in that an American city happened to be the scene of his activities. There is nothing about his work to give it any special significance as American.
In fact, as we look over the entire product of our light opera composers, we are forced again to deplore the lack of a distinctive vein or local sense that would put the national seal on America's many and notable achievements in this field. Even England, whose cultivated art is almost as devoid of a national feeling as is America's, has, in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, works of a truly national significance. Mr. Krehbiel has observed that George Ade has the requisite equipment of an American Gilbert, but that as yet there has not been found the composer who could be his Sullivan.
To assert convincingly America's claims to having contributed largely and valuably to the world's comic operas we have only to put forward these names: Reginald de Koven, Victor Herbert, and John Philip Sousa. The first name in this group is of one who is perhaps more closely identified with the comic opera stage than any other living composer. Reginald de Koven was born in 1861 at Middletown, Conn. After graduating at Oxford University in 1880 he began his career as a musician by studying in several European cities. The studies which were to bear the greatest fruit were those pursued under that master of comic opera, Suppé. On returning to America Mr. de Koven resided for some years in Chicago, where he did musical journalism and wrote the experimental scores that preceded his first and greatest success, 'Robin Hood.' Mr. de Koven's career since coming into the fame to which this work has brought him has been too familiar to need recounting. He is as well known for his songs as for his operas and his place in the lists of American lyricists is noted in Chapter XII.
If any of our younger composers of comic opera are possessed of an artistic ideal, doubtless in nine out of ten cases it is to write an opera that shall combine the sterling worth of good music with telling popular qualities in the measure that 'Robin Hood' does it. It is too late a day to write either a description or analysis of a work every page of which is familiar to the great majority of our music-loving public. It alone, of all the successes of past years, survives in the popular affection; and it is reassuring to those who fear an ultimate total depravity of taste that his work of charming grace and color can still hold the boards. 'Robin Hood' was the third opera which de Koven wrote. It was produced in 1890 by the Bostonians. Its success was not at first marked, but it did not take long for it to find its place, and it is estimated that the work now has over three thousand performances to its credit.
De Koven in this appealing work has successfully simulated the hale and hearty style of the English ballad and the idyllic simplicity of the country dance and pastoral scene. With these qualities he has combined the richer warmth of a glowing romantic melodiousness and a graceful and lilting gaiety after methods of the Viennese and French schools. Vocally stirring and effective in both its solo parts and ensembles, colorful if not brilliant in its orchestration, 'Robin Hood' is a masterpiece of its genre. Withal de Koven is always natural and spontaneously straightforward—traits that have laid him open to the accusation of persistent plagiarism. Mr. de Koven does at times employ themes that suggest other works, but this is true of many another composer whose integrity is unquestioned, and there is much truth in Mr. Hughes' designation of de Koven as 'the best abused composer in America.'
Since the success of 'Robin Hood' Mr. de Koven has been in the unfortunate position of a man attempting to repeat a success along similar lines. Once only has he made any near approach to it and that in his seventh opera, 'Rob Roy' (produced in 1894). There is in this score much of the same freshness that characterizes 'Robin Hood,' and its melodies are not too reminiscent of the earlier works. The same cannot be said of many of de Koven's other operas, for in his less inspired moments the composer's heartiness becomes a rather too square pomposity and his lighter moments often descend to a banality unworthy of his best style. The following are among the other operas of de Koven, with the dates of their productions: 'The Begum' (1887), 'Don Quixote' (1889), 'The Fencing Master' (1892), 'The Knickerbockers' (1893), 'The Algerian' (1893), 'The Tsigane' (1895), 'The Mandarin' (1896), 'The Paris Doll' (1897), 'The Highwayman' (1897).