Favourite operas from Mozart to Mascagni : their plots, history and music . by the attempts to rescue her, but is himself cap-tured. Act 4.—Leonora visits Manrico in prison. Sheoffers to marry the Count as the condition ofManricos release, meaning all the time to take poisonin preference to surrendering herself to the refuses liberty on these terms. The Countsends him to the scaffold; and only after the execu-tion does he learn from Azucena that he has sacrificedhis long-lost brother. The music of ** II Trovatore has been describedas often distressingly simple and t
Favourite operas from Mozart to Mascagni : their plots, history and music . by the attempts to rescue her, but is himself cap-tured. Act 4.—Leonora visits Manrico in prison. Sheoffers to marry the Count as the condition ofManricos release, meaning all the time to take poisonin preference to surrendering herself to the refuses liberty on these terms. The Countsends him to the scaffold; and only after the execu-tion does he learn from Azucena that he has sacrificedhis long-lost brother. The music of ** II Trovatore has been describedas often distressingly simple and tawdry; and un-doubtedly it does show a falling off from the promiseof Rigoletto. But Mr. Louis Elson, an Americanwiiter, has probably best answered this objection bypointing to its direct melodic and dramatic force; afeature which deserves far more praise than somecritics are willing to accord to a work of the purelytuneful school that once inspired a thousand barrelorgans. After all, ** magnificent tunes are not to be sneered at. Verdis music was meant to please a 80. One price there is—one I knowAnd that to you I offer IL TROVATORE public wholly childlike in its emotions and impulses,and it achieved, as it still achieves, that Counts great bass aria II Balen, the bright Anvil Chorus of the gipsies, Manricos spirited air**Di Quella Pira, his tender duet with Azucena,the great ** Miserere, and the effective prison scene,these are not made of the stuff that is found inWagner; but, as Mr. Elson says, they are whollygood and appropriate in their own fluent way, andeven the classicist must acknowledge their directmelodic charm. A space of nearly two years elapsed between theperformance of ** Rigoletto and II Trovatore,which was first produced in Rome, at the ApolloTheatre, on January 19, 1853. It evoked frenziedexcitement. The eagerness of the Roman public tohear it was extraordinary. On the eve of the per-formance, the Tiber had risen in flood and invadedthe whole
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectoperas, bookyear1910
