232 ON THE PRESENT STATE OP THE OPERA IN LONDON. 



this will take effect. Supposing that the management were to de- 

 volve on more competent hands than those of a mere adventurer 

 ignorant of music and careless of the interests of the drama, whose 

 sole object is to draw money from his subscribers and to expend lit- 

 tle on their gratification, it must still remain evident to those who 

 are acquainted with the habitual indifference of the audience to the 

 higher beauties of a composition, and their blind enthusiasm for 

 their favourite performers, that they are far from having attained 

 the degree of musical cultivation requisite to enable them to give in 

 their adhesion to the principle that ideas are superior to manner. 

 But if the higher orders are content to remain stationary, why 

 should not the rest of the nation advance ? Fidelio has been appre- 

 ciated in London, it has even been received with greater enthusiasm 

 than on the continent. Let Drury Lane give Idomeneo ; it might 

 then claim the credit of having introduced to the English public 

 two of the noblest musical dramas in existence. The example 

 would probably be no more followed in this case than it was in that 

 of Fidelio ; and if the subscribers to the opera choose to pay largely 

 for the privilege of listening nightly to the same undramatic operas, 

 truly they have a right to the indulgence of this taste, while poorer 

 and wiser audiences will probably prefer a more moderate expendi- 

 ture, and receiving in return excellence and variety. 



The widely extended celebrity of the dramatic works on which 

 the fame of JVIozart principally rests, may possibly be considered as 

 having rendered unnecessary the foregoing short and imperfect ana- 

 lysis. No doubt every musician has studied Mozart ; but this arti- 

 cle is written, not for the learned, but for the ignorant — for those 

 who, although they may boast an expensive musical education, are, 

 notwithstanding, entitled to no higher appellation than that of 

 smatterers. And so numerous, in the present defective state of in- 

 struction, is the class coming under this denomination, that it 

 includes nearly every unprofessional person who learns music. The 

 true musician is aware that the majority of those who talk of Han- 

 del, Haydn, Mozart, &c., possess a very vague and indefinite idea of 

 their respective styles, and employ these great names principally 

 with the view of displaying their own would-be learning. How 

 rare in society is the performance of one of Mozart's songs ! and 

 how seldom, in comparison with the productions of Bellini and his 

 congeners, is one to be found in a lady's collection ! And when at 

 length it is brought forward, endless apologies are considered neces- 

 sary to excuse the introduction of such old-fashioned stuff. Those 

 who at present speak in ignorance of Mozart, I would strongly 



