OPAL 



OPERA 



imperial cabinet of Vienna contains the moat cele- 

 brated n|ial now known to exist. It ia 5 inches by 

 2J inches. The finest opals are almost all brought 

 from Cerwenitza, lietween EperieM and Kanclmu, 

 in Hangar)', where they are found disseminated as 

 alteration-products in trachyte tuff. They are 

 niiMtly very small, but even a very small opal, if 

 really beautiful, in worth four or live [Miunds ; and 

 the price increase* very rapidly with increase of 

 ire. Precious opal is found also in Saxony, in 

 South America, Ac. When the colour* are not 

 equally diffused, but in detached spot*, jewellers 

 call it Harlequin Opal. There ia a dark or blackish 

 variety, apparently tinged by oxide of iron, which 

 occasionally exhibits very beautiful reflections, and 

 is thru much prized. Girasol (q.v.) and : Cacholong 

 (q.v.) are varieties of opal. What lapidaries call 

 Prime d'Opal is porphvrite or other igneous rock, 

 containing many small amygdules of opal. It is 

 cut into slabs, and made into boxes and other 

 ornamental articles ; the stone which contains the 

 opals being often artificially blackened by boiling 

 in oil, and afterwards exposing to a moderate heat. 

 Common Ujial is semi-transparent, white, yellow, 

 green, red, or brown, and does not exhibit any play 

 of colours. It is not a rare mineral, and Ls i-lm-lly 

 fuund in veins and cavities or diffused (as an altera- 

 tion-product) through the mans of various igneous 

 rocks. Semi-opal is more opaque. Wood Opal is a 

 petrifaction, and exhibits the form and structure 

 of wood, the place of which has been taken by 

 tin- siliceous mineral. Hyalite and Menilite are 

 varieties of opal. 



O|M'rn ( Hal. Opera in Miaica, Dramma per la 

 Muttca) is a drama which is sung throughout to 

 the accompaniment of a full orchestra. The 

 various forma of aria or song, recitative or de- 

 clamation, duet, trio, &c., concerted piece or 

 instrumental interlude are used as the exigencies 

 of the situation demand. The whole is usually 

 introduced by an introduction, vortpiel, or Overture 

 (q.v.), and nit .MI one of the acte contains a ballet 

 or pantomimic dance. It is a direct development 

 from ilie discovery by the Florence Academy (see 

 Music) of Monody or the musical expression of a 

 single individuality by a single voice. As every 

 country, every school since 1600 has felt the fasci- 

 nation of the art problem, and nearly every great 

 composer has been ambitious to solve it, the opera 

 is a universal iiossession, and its range is almost 

 as wide and varied as the history of music itself. 

 Three schools may be distinguished. Italian Opera 

 is marked by its s|>ontaneity and melodious char- 

 acter, and even more by the honour of priority ; 

 llcrnutH Opera is the product of greater geniuses 

 than tin- other two schools can boast, but locks the ! 

 continuity which makes the French school so inter- 

 esting to the student. 



lliilnin fii-hool. The experiments in scena-writ- 

 ing (1682-90) culminated at Florence in the first 

 real opera, Dafne ( 1594), by Peri and Caccini, the 

 more successful Kuridire (1600), and the very 

 advanced work of Monteverde. The new depar- 

 ture in music soon spread its influence beyond 

 Florence to Venice, where Monteverde sjx-nt the 

 last thirty years of his life, and to Naples, where 

 Alewwuidro Scarlatti ( 1659-1725) took up the work 

 and founded the Neapolitan or 'bwMtval' school. 

 Scarlatti, bv the prominence he gave to melody, 

 may lie sain to be the founder of Italian opera, 

 which to this day is noted for so-called melody 

 in profusion, and the comjiarative indifference 

 to other as important qualities, such as harmony, 

 orchestration, and dramatic unity. No Italian 

 work of the I Kih century has survived save 

 ( imarnsa's // Matrimonio Segreto (1792), which, 

 very similar in style to Mozart's greater works, 

 has been overshadowed by these. The moat 



famous modern Italian composer is Hossini, a 

 brilliant vocal writer, whose charming Jlm-li- r nf 

 Senile (1816) is a model of opera ImJ/'a, and whose 

 serious opera, Wtllmm Tell (1829), also keeps a 

 place in the repertoire of the European stage. 

 liellini's Korma, La Sonnambula, Puritani, and 

 Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Lucrezia 

 Borgia still survive out of more than 100 melodious 

 works. The earlier operas of Verdi are quite Italian 

 in style (Trovatore, 1851; Traviata, 1853, <!v.c. ). 

 Aida ( 1871 ) shows a leaning to, and Otello O SS 7 ) 

 complete adhesion to the modern music drama. 

 The veteran composer at the age of eighty-eight 

 produced still another work, Falsta/ ( is'.tl ).' 



German Opera. During the 17th and early part 

 of the 18th century the opera in southern Germany 

 was purely Italian. Dresden, where Basse reigned 

 supreme, and Vienna were the two centres. It 

 was in Hamburg that the National school was 

 founded by Keyser, who wrote (1694-1734) over 

 100 operas in which a high dramatic ideal is 

 apparent. Gluck, though a German, Wongs 

 more to the school of French (irand opcia. 

 Mozart, after beating the Italians on their own 

 melodic ground in Idomeneo, Die Kiil/iihrinifi, 

 Figaro, and Don Giovanni (1781-87), wrote the 

 first national romantic opera, The Magic Flute 

 ( 1791 ). Beethoven, desiring nobler plots of a more 

 serious and moral character than had satisfied the 

 light-hearted Mozart, chose Bouillv's Leonore as the 

 foundation of his single opera Fidelio (produced 

 1805, rewritten 1814). The operas of Welier were 

 deeply imbued with the romanticism of the early 

 19th century, and in Der Freisrlmtz ( 1821 ) he uses 

 the national folklore with immense effect, To 

 this new Komantic school also belong the operas of 

 Marschner and of Spohr, the beauty of w host- 

 music is buried, like Weber's Sttn/tUftht and 

 Schubert's liosamunde, under absurd libretti. 



Melodrama in opera is an effective device which 

 originated in Germany. The singer recites his 

 part in an ordinary Rjwaking voice accompanied by 

 orchestral music, which seeks to convey the mean- 

 in \i of the situation and scene to the audience. 

 Honda first used it (Ariadne, 1774), and Mo/art, 

 who heard it in 1778, was much impressed by its 

 possibilities. The most successful example is the 

 grave-digging scene in Beethoven's Fidelia : Welier 

 in Der FreiscJiut: and Mendelssohn in A Mill- 

 Night's Dream have also used it with happy effect. 



The French Grand O/irra School is extremely 

 important, not only on account of its continuity 

 and consistence, but licoausp at various times, and 

 for various reasons, great men were attracted from 

 foreign countries to it as a centre. It was founded 

 by the Florentine Lully, reformed by the German 

 G'luck ; and Italians 'like Cherubim, S]tontini, 

 Uossini, Belgians like Gretrv, Germans like 

 Meyerbeer and Wagner have both learned from 

 it and contributed to its various stages of develop- 

 ment Lullv (born Hi.'t.'t) arrived in Paris a boy of 

 thirteen in tlie train of tle Chevalier de Guise, and 

 by his diplomatic and social, no less than by his 

 muM'-al talents, he gradually pushed his way to 

 the very summit of musical success, and lived in 

 great favour with King l.oui- XIV. In ItiT'J he 

 obtained a patent conferring the sole right of pro- 

 ducing operas in Paris, and this monopoly he held 

 till his death in ItisT. Mu-ical I'aris was sharply 

 divided l>etwoen his followers ami those of Uamcaii 

 (1683-1764), until the arrival of an Italian com- 

 pany made them unit* their ranks in opposition to 

 the foreigners. The characteristic of this French 

 school from its beginning was its attention to 

 rhetoric and dramatic requiremcnta. The tieat- 

 mentof recitative in particular has always been a 

 feature since Lully's time, and ho it wasaKo who 

 invented the overture. Gluck arrived in Paris in 



