ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 207 



may possibly meet the views of each party, and thus lead to the set- 

 tlement of this much-disputed question. 



Several of the melodies of Bellini may be classed among the love- 

 liest that ever flowed from musician's pen ; clear, graceful, and vo- 

 cal, and particularly adapted to the kind of voice or even individual 

 singer for whom they were written, and combining, in many in- 

 stances, the character of recitative with that of the genuine opera. 

 The performer appears to be declaiming rather than singing, as in 

 Vie?i diletto (Puritani), and in the first part of the duet // rival saU 

 var. Who that has heard Malibran or Grisi give utterance to the 

 impassioned strain of joy and thanksgiving, but will feel the thrill- 

 ing effect of the energy which the master has thrown into the me- 

 lody. Bellini is here truly dramatic, and displays genius of no 

 common order. Had his scientific attainments equalled his natural 

 abilities, his works might have ranked with the first productions of 

 the present day ; unfortunately, however, his education and train- 

 ing were lamentably defective. According to the pernicious custom 

 universally prevalent in Italy, Bellini had been introduced exclu- 

 sively to the works of his immediate predecessors, or, to speak more 

 correctly, his musical acquaintance was confined to Rossini. From 

 a model of this description it was not probable that he would acquire 

 either contrapuntal correctness, skill in managing a subject, variety 

 of modulation, or effective and clear instrumentation. As in lite- 

 rature a good style is not to be acquired by the imitation or exclu- 

 sive study of one author, so in music the power of producing ori- 

 ginal ideas with the connection and coherence requisite to form a 

 great work cannot exist without an extensive and intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the sacred and the secular works of the greatest masters. 

 To the neglect of this maxim may be attributed the paucity of really 

 original productions : modern composers have played some of the 

 flimsy effusions of their cotemporaries, studied the rules of thorough 

 bass, and they imagine that inspiration will accomplish the rest. 

 The biographies of Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, show how 

 different was the course pursued by men possessing the highest na- 

 tural genius, men whose names are immortal : of the works of 

 these master spirits, with perhaps the exception of a few of Mozart's 

 songs, Bellini was evidently ignorant. Neither in the Italian con- 

 servatories is the inferiority of the examples atoned for by a judi- 

 cious and profound study of the principles of harmony. From these 

 causes may be traced that one-sided acquaintance with the art dis- 

 played in his works ; hence arises his inability to treat a serious sub- 

 ject in an appropriate, sustained, and lofty style. The two princi- 



