TERCENTENARY SHAKESPEAREAN SUPPLEMENT OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY. MARCH 26, 1916. MUSIC IN THE PLAYS, AND THE PLAYS IN MUSIC

.Antcmio Sramd Cdlve as Ophelia Scotti *HOTo © By AIME DUPONT AS Id^O PHOTO © By Italian opera, upon my violently excited MtSHKIN senses." Of the score only one or two short extracts, and of the libretto nothing, have feeen published, although most of the scraps, even, of his other early efforts, have been religiously put into print. Wag- " " £composers; but not one has been The Place It Held in His Mind and the able to make for it a musical setting that has long kept alive. ? The most significant la Verdi's, which he wrote in 1847 to a Place He Has Filled in Its History libretto by Francesco Piave, who pur- veyed librettos for a number of his operas, " Written for The New York Times Including " Rigoletto " and La Traviata." By Richard Aldrich Verdi rewrote the opera for performance *in Paris in 1865. It had- not been very successful before, and was not successful lived at a period and I'll dance to it." Unfortunately, she then in its new form. M " when England was one of the most did not sing it; and the original words of Among other attempts at a Macbeth song, partly consequence French composer Ch£lard in SHAKESPEAREmusical nations of Europe. Not the as a of her that of the neglect, are now 1827 only because the libretto only unknown. is notable did the England of that period Many other songs are mentioned and was wrttten by Rouget de l'lsle, who produce composers ranked among the quoted in the plays. The inference is ob- gained immortality as the author of " La greatest, but the and knowledge vious that they were all familiar to the Marseilaise." Jove of " " audiences, Otello seems to have had only music?a practical and often advanced and that refer- Verdi's ences to them were found apt and sug- one predecessor, also emanating from Italy technical knowledge?was widely spread gestive. Gi-u-lia. <3>risi ds and enjoying a large measure of favor in among people of all classes, high and low. Shakespeare calls for songs to be sung Pes clemorLd, its day. That was Rossini's. It was first Every person claiming any title to educa- in the course of many of his plays. They (F-MOM THt yytNOiLl. produced in Naples in 1816, less than a are too frequent many are too 1 year "II Barbiere di Siviglla." The tion or social prominence was expected to and of them COlL£Cr/OAf) after well known to need more than instancing; principal soprano part was written for be able to take his part in extemporaneous such as the " Willow " song in " Othello," Mme, Colbran, whom he afterward mar- part singing; he was also expected to be " O Mistress Mine" in " Twelfth Night," Doppler, and thus presented by Sir George ried. The opera became greatly popular " " " able to play at sight, and even to impro- It Was a Lover and His Lass in As Grove; and seemed destined at one time to outlive You Like It," " Where the Bee Sucks" " Returning from a Sunday stroll with " The Barber," which has Just celebrated vise according to the of " rules counter- in The Tempest." There are many some friends through the village of its hundredth birthday. It was consid- point, performances stringed " in on instru- more. It is likely that Shakespeare wrote Wlihring, he saw a friend sitting at a ered to have very dramatic music"; ments. many of these verses to tunes already in table In the beer garden of one of the some compared it favorably, In part at " " " Women of the upper classes were gen- existence and popular at the time; but taverns. The friend, when they joined him, least, with Don Giovanni and Fidelio," the investigators cer- a Shakespeare operas erally expert practitioners upon the vir- have not arrived at had volume of on the table. but it differed?how much are apt tainty on this point. Schubert seized it and began to read; but to differ!?from Shakespeare. lago was a ginals, a smaller-sized harpsichord; the Unfortunately there are only six songs before he had turned over many pages quite subordinate character and Roderigo spinet and harpsichord were no strangers of which we can be at all sure that we pointed to ' Hark, Hark the Lark,' and ex- a prominent one. The instrumentation possess in most houses. Pepyss diary gives an the music exactly as it was sung claimed: ' Such a lovely melody has come was thought to be shockingly noisy: and in the plays in Shakespeare's my head, some illustration of how much a gentleman of a time. The into if I had but muslo the' easygoing dramatic standards of its Globe Theatre was burned in 1613, and paper.' Some one drew a few staves on time are illustrated by the anecdote of a generation or two later than Shakespeare'a were fare, there, with it lost most of the performing the back of a bill of and amid listener whom the denouement of the opera including garden, " time concerned himself with music. Pepys manuscripts, the music of the the hubbub of the beer that beau- caused to cry out in excitement, Good was, as he calls himself, a " lover of songs. tiful song, so perfectly fitting the words, God! the is murdering the soprano! " Only one songs by so tenor a happy accompani- " " hardly ex of his class of was skillful and in the Merry ap- Musique"; but he was an composer whose fame has endured. That ment, came into perfect existence." The Wives of Windsor has to opera in ceptional case?he was far less an excep- is Thomas Morley, distinguished as a pealed strongly constructors of writer Hardly less popular and widely beloved the comic vein, many of whom have at- case a man of madrigals, the M " M " tional than such would be in who is the author of " than the Seranade is Who is Sylvia? tempted it. The liveliest of all of Fal- England or today. music of "It Was a Lover and His " America " from The Two Gentlemen of Verona." predecessors is Otto Nicolai's Lass in "As It," appearing staff s" knowledge You Like in The third of Schubert's Shakespearean set- " Windsor," This universal and love of 44 the Merry Wives of which the first book of his Ayres or Little Short tings, drinking song, " Come, among people England?that published the Thou can almost lay claim to the title of a real music the of Songs," in 1600. Robert Johnson, Vine," " Monarch of the from Antony and Shakespearean opera, ft is not unknown is, among the audiences who listened to a composer and lute player of the early Cleopatra," is much inferior to its com- to New York in recent years. Shakespeare's plays produced seventeenth century, wrote music for panions, and is correspondingly when he ?' little Where the Bee Sucks" " We are to have this season at the Metro- ?are and Full known. them reflected in the plays them- " politan, promises kept, an opera Fathom Five" in The Tempest," prob- operatic librettists, if are It is natural that the on Taming selves. There are few of them that do ably for performance in the play in Shake- an tribe, based "The of the Shrew": insatiable rummaging through " not contain some reference, often many speare's lifetime. The other four that are all the world's literature for their material, Hermann Goetz's Der Widerspftnstigen to contemporaneous Z&hmung," which has also been heard in and copious references, to music; some supposed be and to should repeatedly have laid violent hands sung now possess New York already. The title of another figurative frequent have been as we them upon the plays. These have served as a mention of music; pun- " " " " Capricciosa Cor- are the Willow song in Othello," O basis for more operas than the works of all one is preserved, "La Many M composed Martin y ning allusions to musical terms. of Mistress Mine" in Twelfth Night," both the other great poets put together. retta." in 1785 by one passages Soler, once a rival of Mozart, such are elaborated and have by unknown composers; "Lawn as White Shakespeare, however, has had his revenge considered more than passing significance in the play. as Driven Snow" from " The Winter's of almost all of of which the chief point of interest is that " the librettists and compos- Thus, passage recorders," " was by Lorenzo da Ponte, who the about the Tale," and Take O Take, Those Lips ers. quality the libretto " The and substance of the upon immortality through the three in which Hamlet turns Rosencrantz Away," from Measure for Measure," plays have shown themselves to tasted of Guildenstern; the be some- Mozart, who and punning contest in these two being variously attributed to thing that rarely plant librettos he wrote for and " Taming has failed to the years, died, The of the Shrew," Act 11., be- both John Wilson and Robert Johnson. or speedy lived his last and was buried Baptlsta; seeds of more less death in any tween Hortensio and Lorenzo s Musical settings of the songs in the perversion In New York. " of them. Not till the true spirit exquisite passages The Merchant plays simply legion in of are in later years, and of the lyric drama came to the conscious- A certain interest attaches to Hector Venice," Including " the allusion to the the list of them grows with every year ness of Berlioz's one Shakespearean opera, Bea- " both composer and librettist was Pythagorean music of the spheres "; and passes. that Shakespeare's songs have it possible to make a Shakespearean opera trice et Benedict." It is, of course, based numerous others of a similar sort will been always a strong temptation to com- that on " Much Ado About Nothing." Berlioz occur to had the breath of life in it and that most lovers of Shakespeare. It posers. and began to be, of course, as any indig- was one of the few Frenchmen of his time hardly to through any was in essential other than an is possible read of soon as they were known. Naturally Eng- nity a masterpiece. who really understood and admired Shake- comedies, to the plays, especially the without lish composers turned to them first. This by speare. Shakespeare was, indeed, one of coming achievement was made an Ital- on such. Henry Purcell, besides his complete opera ian. with the invaluable and indispensable his passions; and to be one of Berlioz's suggest " These facts two things. One is based on Shakespeare, The Fairy Queen," aid of another Italian, both of whom as- passions meant something. He himself that " the incessant allusions to music and adapted from A Midsummer Night's spirit meaning arranged the libretto. It must be said, puns involving similated the and of technical terms, which have Dream," composed much incidental music Shakespeare as no other dramatic com- however, that, notwithstanding his rever- to be explained in the notes for modern for the plays, as for " Mac beth " and for poser ence for Shakespeare, he departed widely perfectly and librettist before them had ever readers, must have been clear Shadwell's versions and tinkerings of done. They were Giuseppe Verdi and Ar- from his play. He reduced all the sub- Intelligible " " " " to the contemporary " " and audi- Timon of Athens" and The Tempest." rigo Boito; and their Joint works, Otello ordinate characters to mere feeders for ences. The other is that Shakespeare's From the latter we possess the familiar and ** Falstaff," the two principals, and introduced a new " are today the only Shake- musical allusions show the same range of songs, Sands," Come Unto These Yellow spearean operas really represent AJcLa, cgs one, intended to burlesque his redoubtable " that in Otello, knowledge and accuracy as has been and, chorus, Leo aw Fre.riC.es no- Full Fathom Five." for the lyric significance enemy. F6tis. But the opera has made " drama the full of ticed in regard to so many other technical Hark, Hark, Dogs the Watch Bark." their great prototypes. Desdemona. in Otello very little stir upon the musical waters, subjects Humfrey &y in other branches of art and John Banister and Pelham found trying PHOTO WHITE even in the great patriotic Berlioz cult may It Is not from want of that in- science. Some of his puns be far- inspiration in Shakespeare even earlier. numerable masterpieces in Shakespearean that has arisen in France since 1871. Sir fetched; discouraging, merely considered To enumerate even the most noted com- operas have been composed. Charles V. Stanford has added to the not The first " puns. they faulty posers settings wus once performed soon gained great popularity, ow- " as But never show a and the favorite of Shake- a great appears Hamlet" that in 1830. It Shakespeare operas a Much Ado About of number to have been 44 knowledge. a " technical Music had place spearean songs from that time to this Fairy Queen," Germany- The one Hamlet" that is still ing partly to the singing in it of Giuditta Nothing" that was produced at Covent " on important myriad Henr.v Purcell's based and an one, in the would be to set up a catalogue. Dr. " Night's known is that of Ambroise Thomas, a Pasta, for whom, though a soprano, Garden, in London, some years ago, and " A Midsummer Dream." The 44 days, " mind of Shakespeare. Thomas Augustine Arne, composer of libretto was adapted by an anonymous French Hamlet," whose libretto by Bar- curiously enough as it seems in these has left no sign. At least twenty Tem- " Among among things, responsible many part " the musical allusions in Shake- Rule Britannia," other writer, opera was played bier and Carr6, for things the of Romeo was written, and of pest operas, all forgotten, might be speare are naturally not a con- and the first in few to wrote many, some of which are still sung. 1602. peculiarity of the kind, is a shocking and foolish per- Grisi as Giulietta and Rubini as Tebaldo, enumerated. temporary songs. Henry One of the libretto is considerably prominent Mistress Ford, in the Sir R. Bishop, most famous, per- that single Shakespeare version of the great tragedy. It has been a character jnore The orchestral works, overtures, tone " not a line as wrote Merry Wives of Windsor," observes that haps, as the composer of the melody of it appears heard in New York as lately as 1912, not in the opera than in the play. In that poems, and other symphonic illustration* " Home, Home," with Purcell's music. The score operatic Falstaffs disposition and the truth of his Sweet was remarkably in- was lost in 1700, and reward was offered because any one wanted to hear it, but historic and momentous season of of Shakespeare that have had a more or keep writing plays. a it, 1826, words "do no more adhere and dustrious in music for the for it in that year. because Titta Ruffo wanted to sing and ' when Manuel del Popolo Garcia less prominent place in modern music are By an extraordinary " provided " York, pace than the Hundredth Psalm to the Sir Arthur Sullivan music for turn of events, baritone's operas are not abundant. It brought his family to New and with many. Some of the most familiar may ' " " it was found in the library M Tempest," Calvfi, tune of Green Sleeves.' Later in the The The Merchant of Ven- of the Royal Academy of Music in London is a soprano's opera, too, and Emma them Italian opera for the first time in be named, as Tschaikowsky's "Romeo and play upon to " World, among many same Falstaff calls the sky ice," the Merry Wives of Windsor." in 1901, and it has since published. in a Btlll memorable year, found in it a the New he produced, Juliet" and "Hamlet" overtures, (also in- . " " been to tune ' 44 44 e by thunder the of Green Sleeves.'" Henry VIII.," Macbeth." Mendels- Perhaps the first of long and venture- congenial opportunity, as did earlier Chris- other things, a Romeo Giulietta" cidental music to "Hamlet";) his "Tem- meant 44 new courtly 44 a one The tune is A sonet sohn's music for A Midsummer Night's some line of musicians outside of England tine Nilsson and other great sopranos. Bellini's master, Niccoia Zingarelli, of pest" fantasia; Berlioz's "King Lear" Lady Sleeves," a song is, course, " of the Green of Dream" of better known than to evolve a real opera from a play of Better known to operagoers of the pres- whose titles to fame is that he was the overture and his elaborate Romeo and Henry VIII.'s reign, immensely popular any other incidental music for Shakespeare. Shakespeare's was day. favorite composer of Napoleon. The libretto Juliet " symphony, with solos and choruses; " Francesco Gasparini, ent and somewhat less injurious to then and later. In Much Ado About Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Stanford who composed an opera, " the source from which it is derived, is of this opera, in accordance with a custom Liszt's symphonic poem " Hamlet," " Ambleto." which Nothing" says may recent years M 44 entirely obsolete, " Beatrice that she have in added to the list of owes its origin to Hamlet." It was first Gounod's Rom£o et Juliette," the libretto not then Bellini after- Dvorak's Othello" overture, Elgar's cry * Heigh for a Shakespeare songs. use of, unchanged, " " " sit in a corner and ho heard in 1705 in Italy and was one of the of which was written by the same ruth- ward made for his. Falstaff." Joachim's Hamlet overture, " " " Husband'"; and there is another mirthful A few of the most beautiful and most pieces produced in London by Handel in less pair of collaborators. Barbier and Richard Wagner wrote a Shakespearean MacDowell'p Hamlet" and Ophelia reference in the play to this old tune. famous Shakespeare songs have come to the course of his disastrous experiences Carr£. This is not yet ancient history, opera, though the world has not been al- symphonic poems, David Stanley Smith's " " Heart's Ease is urgently called for from us from Germany. Haydn, whose visits there an operatic manager. though to acquainted it since " Prince Hal." that has been played here " as Another it has not been in the list of the lowed become with the musicians in the fourth act of Romeo to England brought English verses to his " ?so spelled Metropolitan Opera single " Winter; Paine'p " Amleto" this time, and one House for some four its performance. This opera, Das this John K. "As You and Juliet" by Peter; another old tune attention, set music for She Never Told of a number from Italy In the early eight- years; but the glory that was shed upon Liebesverbot," was a version of " Measure Like It " overture and his symphonic poem that goes back at least to the middle of Her Love," which is not among the better eenth century?was by Domenico Scar- it in the days of Jean and Edouard de for Measure." freely treated. As in all his on " The Tempest," Richard Strauss's sym- the sixteenth century. Twice the tune of known of his English songs. It need latti. It was first given Reszke, of Mme. Melba, of Mme. Eames, lyrio dramas, himself the phonic poem on " Macbeth," Felix Wein- " in Rome in 1715; other he wrote harm," " Whoop, do me no is mentioned in hardly be said that two of the most per- and though its composer is known to all not to go back further, does not seem libretto. The opera was finished in 1836, gartner's on King Lear," and Coleridge- " " ' A Winter's Tale." Malvolio's a Peg-a- fect of Shakespeare settings are Schu- musical amateurs as likely restored. 23 years old and was mu- Taylor's on " Othello." Among the curios- " the composer of to be when he We,'" probably was Ramsey' and ' Three Merry Men Be bert's. Best known is Hark. harpsichord music More than almost other play of of a theatre at Magdeburg. itles, scarcely more, may be mentioned the " " that still lives and is any sical director Toby Twelfth Night," Lark," that wonderful " " 14 " " says Sir Belch in Hark the sweet enjoyed, Amleto has long since gone to Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet" offers There was one disastrous performance fact that William Shakespeare wrote an referring to two well-known old songs. In air with admirable rich words to it"; that the Umbo that was awaiting operatic 6peratic material appetizing the com- there, opera shelved. orchestral overture called " After Seeing 44 44 other to and then the was Much Ado About Nothing" Margaret very excellent, good-conceited thing," as " Hamlets." poser and librettists; they years spoke Rossi Play Hamlet.'" William Shake- 44 and have not He himself in later of its 1 proposes to Beatrice to clap us into Cloten calls it, when he persuades Imogen Max Maretzek, still remembered in New neglected it. The last 44 Romeo and Juliet" weakness; of the "reflex of modern speare is a well-known teacher of singing 'Light o' Love'; that goes without a bur- to sing it. Unforgettable, too. is the story York as an operatic manager in that preceded Gounod's 44 1 Capuletti is, In London. 44 the free- was ed French "?that the modern French of ? sing or you it origin, as by booting " den "?chorus refrain do of its told Schubert's friend days of Italian opera, composed a 1 Montecchi of Bellini, first disclosed in 1836--" and, as concerns the melody, of Copyright, 1916, by The New York Times Company