Marschner, Weber’s Successor.—Weber’s legitimate successor in the romantic opera was Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861). He had been associated with Weber as assistant conductor at the opera in Dresden, and a strong friendship existed between them. Weber’s influence, however, was wide and far-reaching; it extended beyond the opera. Marschner’s sphere was practically confined to the stage, which he enriched with a series of strongly characterized works mainly of a gloomy, uncanny nature. He shows but little of the genial art with which Weber avails himself of the supernatural merely as a background for the doing and striving of his characters, and thus never compromises the human interest they have for us. Marschner makes it the salient characteristic of his strongest works. In these his principal Dramatis Personæ are demons and evil spirits who tempt and torment the innocent and loving. His first romantic opera was Der Vampyr (1825) composed to a text prepared from Byron’s poem, “Lord Ruthven,” which is founded upon a Scotch legend. Notwithstanding the repulsive nature of the subject, its powerful treatment brought it immediate success in Germany and a little later in England. It was followed by Der Templar und die Jüdin (The Templar and the Jewess), a version of Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” This, however, met with less success than Der Vampyr or its successor, Hans Heiling, Marschner’s masterpiece.
The Spieloper.—The Romantic school had a strong influence in the development of a form known as the Spieloper (literally play-opera), which occupies a place between the works we have been considering and the Singspiel. As thoroughly German as the latter, it shows more finish and greater elaboration of musical effect. Though essentially romantic in the freedom of its scope and choice of means, its real sphere is neither the heroic nor the mystic; it concerns itself rather with the lighter aspects of life, those which require no exalted powers of imagination or wide culture to appreciate—humor, good cheer, the merriment and mirth of the people in holiday mood. Albert Lortzing (1803-1851) is accepted as the creator of this type, of which his most popular opera, Zar und Zimmermann (Czar and the Carpenter), is the best known example.
Influence of the Romantic Opera.—The value of the application of all the resources of music to the unfettered delineation of feeling and emotion in all their phases inaugurated by the romantic opera can hardly be over-estimated. From the opera it has won its way into absolute music, creating new and original forms. The change it has wrought in the progress and development of the art in general is only second to the revolution occasioned by the birth of the opera itself, three centuries ago. The impulse of the romantic movement in music is far from being exhausted at the present day. On the contrary, it seems to have gathered strength and if it has reached its culmination, as some would have us believe, the signs are not yet apparent to an unprejudiced observer.
Questions.
What was the Romantic Movement? Its effect on music?
Tell about the Romantic Opera.
Who was the founder of the Romantic Opera?
Give an account of Weber’s operas.
Contrast the use of Recitative and Dialogue in opera.
What is the Melodrama?