Life of Mozart Volume 2 — CHAPTER XXV. "DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL." Part 1

(216) 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.

} (217) 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.

} (218) 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.

} (219) 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.

} (220) 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.

} (221) 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] The interest which was taken by great poets in the elevation of the vaudeville is exemplified by Goethe; after "Erwin und Elmire" and "Claudina von Villabella" were written, his intercourse with his early friend Christoph Kayser[26] (b. 1736) caused him to attempt the construction of vaudeville after the received type of the Italian operetta.

His first experiment was "Scherz, List und Rache," which he began in 1784, and sent at once to Kayser for composition;[27] the two first acts were ready the following year, and were well thought of in Weimar;[28] in Rome, whither Goethe was followed by Kayser at the end of 1787, they finished the operetta together.

[29] But Goethe thought that the operetta {DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL.

} (222) was extravagantly mounted,[30] and complains himself that a defective conception of the intermezzo had led him to spin out the trivial subject into innumerable musical pieces, which had been treated by Kayser quite after the old-fashioned models.

"Unhappily," says Goethe, "adherence to the old principles caused it to suffer from poverty of parts; it never went beyond a terzet, and one felt inclined to wish that the doctor's medical books might be endowed with life to form a chorus.

All the pains we took, therefore, to confine ourselves within narrow and simple limits went for nothing when Mozart appeared.

The 'Entführung aus dem Serail' threw all else into the shade, and our carefully worked-out piece was never heard of again at any theatre."

[31] A closer examination of Mozart's opera will make it clear to us why it threw all others into the shade.

The plot of Bretzner's[32] "Entführung aus dem Serail," written for André in 1781, is simple and in no way original:-- Constanze, the beloved of Belmont, is in the power of the Pasha Selim, who has confined her in his seraglio, and sues in vain for her love.

Belmont has been made aware of her place of confinement by Pedrillo, his former servant, who has also fallen into the hands of the Pasha, and become the overseer of his gardens; Belmont hastens to liberate his beloved.

In seeking Pedrillo he stumbles upon Osmin, overseer of the country-house in which the action takes place; and both he and Pedrillo (who is even more obnoxious to Osmin from his known love to Blondchen, Constanze's waiting-maid, whom Osmin seeks to win) are rudely repulsed by Osmin.

In the meantime Pedrillo succeeds in recommending Belmont to his master as an accomplished architect; Selim takes him into his service, and Osmin is reluctantly obliged to admit him to the country-house.

In the second act Blondchen makes short work of Osmin's arrogant jealousy in respect of her, and Constanze remains constant against the renewed attempts of the Pasha.

Hereupon Pedrillo inveigles Osmin into drinking with him, and renders him harmless by means of a sleeping potion; the freedom thus obtained is employed by the lovers in an interview at which their flight the following night is determined on.

In the third act this is put into effect.

Pedrillo {ALTERATIONS IN THE LIBRETTO.

} (223) gives the sign, Belmont escapes with Constanze; as Pedrillois carrying off Blondchen, Osmin enters still half asleep; they contrive to escape but he causes them to be pursued, and both couples are brought before the Pasha.

They are condemned to death, but the Pasha, moved at last by their self-sacrificing love and fidelity, pardons and unites them.

The original libretto is arranged for a genuine vaudeville.

All the dramatic interest lies in the spoken dialogue; the songs are, with a few exceptions, superfluous additions, and imply a very moderate amount of execution.

Mozart undertook to indicate to Stephanie where and how, in the interests of the composer, alterations should be made, and only left to him the framing of the text, with which it was not necessary to be so particular, if only the situations were well arranged in their main features.

The principal point, next to giving to the musical element of the piece its due prominence as the most fitting expression of lyric sentiment, was the proper consideration of the individualities of the performers themselves.

Fortunately this task was not complicated in the way which had so often been the case.

Madame Cavalieri was certainly more of a bravura singer than anything else, and neither her appearance nor her acting was effective; but Adamberger and Fischer were just as Mozart would have had them, both as singers and actors, and Fischer especially was an extraordinarily gifted artist.

The part of Osmin, which was created for him, shows the influence of a congenial spirit on the conceptions of the creating artist.

When Mozart was fairly embarked in the work, he wrote to his father about the libretto and the alterations already made in it (September 26, 1781):-- The opera began with a soliloquy which I have begged Herr Stephanie to turn into a little ariette, and also, instead of the two chattering together after Osmin's song, to make a duet out of the dialogue.

As we have given the part to Fischer, who has an excellent bass voice (although the Archbishop once told me he sang too low for a bass, and I assured his grace that he would sing higher next time), we must give him something to do, especially as he is such a favourite with the public.

In the original book Osmin has only one little song, and nothing else but the terzet and finale.

I have given him an aria in the first act, and he is to have another in the second.

I have trusted the aria altogether to Stephanie, the music was ready before he knew a word about it.

{DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL.

} (224) These alterations were of specially good dramatic effect in the first scene, and Osmin's song called to life the first German comic aria which deserves to be called great.

In the second act the dialogue between Blondchen and Osmin becomes a duet; on the other hand, a superfluous duet between Constanze and Blondchen is very rightly omitted.

Instead of it Constanze has the great bravura song "Mar-tem aller Arten," chiefly as a concession to the singer; for the repetition of the scene in which she scornfully rejects the Sultan's proposals is in every way superfluous.

Blondchen's second song--newly inserted--is, however, quite appropriate; in it she expresses her joy at her approaching deliverance;

so that the original duet is really embodied to a certain extent in these two songs.

But the chief alteration which Mozart contemplated was in the conclusion of the second act.

In Bretzner's text the abduction scene is treated as a grand ensemble movement, with which the third act commences.

A long and elaborate duet between Belmont and Pedrillo, who are lying in ambush, makes the beginning, and then Constanze appears and is carried off by Belmont.

After Pedrillo has climbed up to Blondchen in the window, Osmin comes out of the house still heavy with sleep; but he sees the fugitives and has them pursued and brought back by his guard; they beg for mercy, seek to regain their liberty by bribery--in vain; Osmin rages, and all the characters are in a state of excitement.

Mozart's quick eye saw that this scene, bringing together all the characters in a succession of rapidly varying and contrasting situations, forms the culminating point of the opera; he wished, therefore, that this "charming quintet, or rather finale, should be placed at the close of the second act."

He also saw that this transposition would necessitate other important alterations.

The second act could be kept together very well by the mutual understanding of the two lovers; but the third act, for which nothing was reserved but the unravelling of the knot by the clemency of the Sultan, if it was to have any substance or interest, "must be provided with an entirely new intrigue."

The difficulty {ALTERATIONS IN THE LIBRETTO.

} (225) of finding this seems to have put a stop to the alteration, and the original arrangement remained.

But for Bretzner's insignificant finale to the second act there was substituted an elaborate quartet, which expresses in music the reunion of the lovers in its various aspects of joy and jealousy, of disputes and reconciliation.

An air for Belmont precedes this; it is well-fitted for the situation, and is intended also as a concession to the singer, for in this act, where all the other characters come to the front, Belmont had originally nothing to sing but the ensemble music.

Mozart began the composition of the ensemble movement at the commencement of the third act.

The greater part of the duet between Belmont and Pedrillo before the romanze was sketched out by him in his usual way, the voices and bass written in full, the accompaniment indicated here and there.

It breaks off, however, in the middle; and Mozart appears to have purposely laid it aside, convinced that the scene must be differently treated.

[33] The ensemble was given up; Mozart saw that it would throw the whole opera out of gear, and would concentrate the interest and the action at the wrong place.

The abduction scene was confined to dialogue, only Pedrillo's romanze being left; in addition, songs for Belmont and Osmin were inserted, both highly characteristic.

The duet for Belmont and Constanze, which follows, is altered only in the words, not in the situation; the closing catastrophe it was thought well to modify.

In Bretzner's version the Pasha Selim, who is a renegade, recognises in Belmont his son, which leads to the _dénouement_;

but Stephanie makes him pardon the lovers from generosity and magnanimity, which, as a critic remarked, were the fashion of the day in Vienna.

[34] Constanze's song of gratitude at the close is very rightly omitted, and replaced by the then customary vaudeville, in which all the characters declare in turn: "Wer solche Huld vergessen kann, den seh man mit Verachtung an!

{DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL.

} (226) Mozart's father had raised objections to the libretto, and the alterations in it; he was particularly concerned that the verses were not in regular rhyme throughout.

Thereupon his son made him the following remarkable answer (October):-- Now about the text of the opera.

As far as Stephanie's work is concerned, you are quite right, but the poetry is very well suited to the character of the stupid, boorish, and malicious Osmin.

I am quite aware that the versification is not of the best; but it goes so well with my musical thoughts (which were running in my head long before) that I cannot but be pleased; and I would wager that no fault will be found in performance.

Belmont's aria, "O wie ängtslich," could scarcely be written better for the music.

Constanze's aria too is not bad, with the exception of the "Hui,"[35] and the line "Sorrow reposes in my bosom," for sorrow cannot repose.

After all, in an opera, the poetry must be the handmaid of the music.

Why do Italian comic operas always please, in spite of their wretched librettos--even in Paris, as I was witness myself?

Because the music is supreme, and everything else is forgotten.

All the more then will an opera be likely to please in which the plan of the piece is well carried out, and the words are written simply to suit the music; not turned and twisted so as to ruin the composition for the sake of a miserable rhyme, which God knows does far more harm than good in a dramatic representation.

[36] Verse, indeed, is indispensable for music, but rhyme is bad in its very nature: and poets who go to work so pedantically will certainly come to grief, together with the music.

It would be by far the best if a good composer who understands the theatre, and know-how to produce a piece, and a clever poet, could be (like a veritable phoenix), united in one; there would be no reason to be afraid as to the applause of the ignorant then.

The poets seem to me something like trumpeters, with their {MUTUAL RELATIONS OF MUSIC AND VERSE.

} (227) mechanical tricks--if we composers were to adhere so closely to our rules (which were well enough as long as we knew no better) we should soon produce music just as worthless as their worthless books."

[37] "Now I think I have talked nonsense enough for this time"--so Mozart concludes this interesting letter, as he was fond of doing when his desire to justify himself had led him into general aesthetic questions, on which he was averse to expatiating at any length.

His opinion as to the relative positions of music and poetry in operatic works is unusually interesting.

In complete opposition to Gluck, who considered music as subordinate to poetry, Mozart requires that poetry shall be the handmaid of music.

In the sense in which the context shows him to have meant it, he is undoubtedly right.

He exacts that the plan of the piece shall be well laid out; that is, that the plot shall be interesting, and shall as it proceeds afford dramatic situations fitted for musical expression.

He requires further that the words shall be written merely for the music, that is, that the poetical conceptions shall be of a kind to stimulate the composer, to elevate and support him, while allowing him perfect freedom of thought and action.

He had mentioned Osmin's song to Stephanie, and the music was ready before the latter had written a word of the poetry; the words he then prepared accorded so admirably with the musical ideas which had been running in Mozart's head, that faults here and there in the versification did not seem to him of much consequence.

The impulse he required for his musical conceptions was the representation of the dramatis persona in certain definite situations, not the verbal framing of the poet's ideas.

[38] The {DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL.

} (228) points which were contained in the verse, and influenced the construction of the musical idea, were to him co-operating but not dominating elements.

The words of an opera have a definite object; they provide foundation and support for the musical expression, and are not therefore absolutely independent, as in the drama,[39] but are obliged to recognise and respect the laws of music, as well as those of poetry.

To attain this end a compromise is as indispensable as in every other union of the sister arts.

Architecture, in her highest achievements, turns for embellishment to sculpture and painting; and no one has ever doubted that in such co-operation each art must make some concession to the other.

The architectural plan must be so conceived as to afford fitting space and position for the sculpture and painting; these, on the other hand, must be introduced with a view to the essential conditions of the building; the pediment, the arch, the metope are not freely selected forms, but constitute the limitations which arise from the necessities of the building.

The sculptor modifies his style to suit the character of the building, the painter knows how to give significance to the whole design by skilful composition and combinations of colour on the flat surface of the walls.

Doubtless architecture, with her severe laws and inflexible forms, imposes restrictions on the fancies of the artist; but who can imagine that Phidias in the sculptures of the Parthenon, Raphael in the Loggia of the Vatican, renounced their freedom of design or their independence of execution in obedience to the will of the architect?

The relation between poetry and music is of the same kind.

Mozart saw the necessity for co-operation between the musician and the poet, if the right effect was to be given in its just proportions.

The musician must be ready to "give some hints" which shall put the poet in possession of his intentions and of the conditions necessitated by the rules of his art; the poet must be "intelligent," clever, and cultivated enough to fall in with the intentions of the musician, and poet enough to retain his poetical powers in spite of these limitations.

{MUTUAL RELATIONS OF MUSIC AND VERSE.

} (229) Mozart is quite right in asserting that co-operation of this kind is the surest pledge for an altogether satisfactory opera; unhappily he is quite right also in declaring such a co-opera-tion to be attainable only by "a veritable phoenix."

To a certain degree a mutual understanding is of course indispensable, but it confines itself, as a rule, to an unwilling concession on this or the other side.

[40] Music finally assumes the mastery in opera, where it is the actual medium of expression; no one could deny that good music would make the poorest verse pass muster, whereas bad music could not be made acceptable even when "wedded to immortal verse."

But the very fact that music appeals direct to the senses gives it an advantage when opposed to poetry, which reaches the imagination through the intellect;

just as a poetical description of a work of art falls far short of the effect produced directly on the mind by contemplation of the work itself.

Music works on the sense of hearing in an as yet inexplicable manner, rousing emotions and fancies with an instantaneous power surpassing that of poetry.

Even if this be disputed, it must be allowed that music does not appeal immediately to the intellect as language does.

Even the species of music which is said to occupy the intellect most especially, viz.

, music in strict forms of counterpoint, does not do it in such a way as to enable the hearer to discover the meaning of the composition by means of its actual utterances; it exercises his intellect otherwise by rousing the desire in him to grasp and hold the artistic forms as such, and the laws upon which they depend.

[41] Music must borrow from poetry what it does not possess for itself, namely, the ability to call forth a well-defined image which shall identify itself with the sentiment evoked i by the music and give to this its exact significance.

This point is, of course, of special importance in opera, although the fact must not be lost sight of that the stage accessories {DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL.

} (230) and pantomimic representation come greatly to the aid of the music, so that it is quite possible for an audience to follow an opera with interest and gratification without understanding the language in which it is written.

This is a further proof that, important as the poetic details doubtless are, the plot and situations are the really essential points.

For the paradox that a libretto if it is to be musical cannot be poetical, but can only have certain external forms of poetic delivery, is certainly false.

The conditions of poetic delivery and musical execution are essentially the same, and a distinction between them is impossible.

But the means of delivery which the poet has at his disposal are manifold and varied, and not all applicable in the same place; if the poet is master of his art, and has a clear conception of what he is striving after, he will know what are the particular means he ought to employ to be in accord with the musical part of the work.

[42] Bretzner was very indignant at the proposed alterations in his libretto, and inserted the following notice in the "Berliner Litteratur und Theater-Zeitung" (No. 1783):-- It has pleased some hitherto unknown person in Vienna to take in hand my opera, "Belmont und Constanze," or "Die Entführung aus dem Serail," and to publish the piece in a very altered form.

The alterations in the dialogue are not considerable, and may be passed over; but the adapter has inserted a vast number of songs, the words of which are in many cases edifying and touching in the highest possible degree.

I would not willingly deprive the improver of the glory belonging to his work, and I therefore take this opportunity of specifying these inserted songs as belonging to the Vienna edition and Mozart's composition.

In conclusion, and after giving "a specimen of the improver's work from the quartet," Bretzner exclaims: "And this is called improvement!"

Nevertheless the text was improved, and although far from first-rate, it had been rendered a fairly satisfactory and practicable libretto, which has not yet been very far surpassed in the literature of German comic opera.

The plot is certainly not thrilling, but it {THE "ENTFÜHRUNG," A GERMAN OPERA.

} (231) allows the natural development of a succession of musical situations.

It was, as we have seen, Mozart's merit to recognise these in his musical representation, to make them available in such a way as to distinguish the "Entführung" from all earlier vaudevilles and operettas.

Mozart's performance was not confined to the adoption of certain ready-developed forms of Italian opera, pressed into the service of the German opera, partly from necessity, partly from the narrow principle that the songs were to be sung by personages of supposed high position.

[43] This would have been no sufficient reason for substituting the aria for the Lied; it was done to give full scope to musical construction, and to make the standard and measure of the execution to consist only in the artistic conditions of the dramatic situations, and in the nature of the musical expression.

[44]