509 
O P E R A. 
companied with the regular refponfes of fymphony. To 
hear Caefar, Scipio, or Macbeth, when forming plans to 
enfure victory, or hatching plots of treafon and murder, 
talking in recitative and keeping time with fiddles, would 
furely difgult every perfon whofe lenfe had not all eva¬ 
porated in found ; but, when the fubjeCt reprefented na¬ 
turally admits of mufic in real life, we can fuppofe an 
opera to afford to perfons of tafte one of the mod exquifite 
and refined entertainments of which human nature is 
capable. 
The firft Englifh mufical drama which could properly 
be called an opera, i. e. which was wholly fung in recita¬ 
tive for the dialogue, and meafured melody for the airs, 
wasArfinoe, a tranflation from an Italian opera of the 
fame name. It was firft performed at Drury-lane, in 
1705, by fubfcription. The next attempt was Camilla, 
which met with more fuccefs, and indeed long continued 
in favour with the mufical public. In thefe operas, and 
in fotne others that followed them, the fingers, as well as 
the language, were all Englifn. The next ftep was the in¬ 
troduction of Italian fingers. The opera was now in two 
languages; the fingers of each nation keeping to their 
mother-tongue: and “this confufion of tongues ,” Dr. 
Burney obferves, “ concerning which Mr. Addifon is fo 
pleafant in the Spectator, feems to have been tolerated 
with great good-nature by the public ; who, in mufic as 
well as words, feemed to care much lefs about what was 
fung than how it was fung.” At length, in 1710, the 
Italian opera took poffeftion of the ftage in form, under 
the title of Almaheide ; this opera being, for the firft 
time, “ wholly Italian, in poetry, mufic, and performance.” 
This drama was followed by Hydafpes; an opera, which, 
though its mufic.has long been configned to oblivion, 
will continue to amufe, as long as our language lafts, by 
the exquifite humour in which Addifon has pickled and 
embalmed the lion, and delivered it up, in fine preferva- 
tion, to the ysAw? carp£i-& j , the “ inextinguijhable laughter," 
of pofterity. Though Addifon was one of the oppofers 
of the Italian opera, yet his own Englifli opera of Rofa- 
mond did not fucceed. The only opera written after the 
Italian manner, that keeps its place on our ftage, is the 
Artaxerxes of Dr. Arne. For further particulars on the 
fubjeCt, fee the article Music, vol.xvi. p. 303-5. 
In Schlegel’s Leisures on Dramatic Art, we find the 
following apology for the abfurdities of the opera : In 
tragedy, the chief article is the poetry, and every other 
thing is fubordinate to it; but, in the opera, the poetry is 
merely an acceffary, the means of connecting the different 
parts together; and it is almoft buried under itsaffociates. 
The belt prefcription for the compofition of the text of an 
opera, is to give a poetical Iketch, which may be after¬ 
wards failed up and coloured by the other arts. This 
anarchy of the arts, where mufic, dancing, and decoration, 
endeavour to iurpafs each other by the 1110ft profufe dis¬ 
play of dazzling charms, conftitutes the very effcnce of 
the opera. What fort of opera-mufic would it be where 
the words lliould receive a mere rhythmical accompani¬ 
ment of the fimpleft modulations f The fantaftic magic of 
the opera confifts altogetherin the luxurious competition 
of the different means, and in the perplexity of an over¬ 
flowing fuperfluity. This would at once be deftroyed by 
an approximation to the feverity of the ancient tafte in 
any one point, even in that of coftume; for the contrail 
would render the variety in all the other departments 
quite infupportable. The coftume of the opera ought to 
be dazzling, and overladen with ornaments ; and hence 
many things which have been cenfured as unnatural, fuch 
as exhibiting heroes warbling and trilling in the excels of 
defpondency, are perfectly juftifiable. This fairy world 
is not peopled by real men, but by a fingularkind of ting¬ 
ing creatures. Neither is it any difadvantage to us, that 
the opera is conveyed in a language which is not gene¬ 
rally underltood ; the text is altogether loft in the mufic ; 
and the language the molt harmonious and mufical, and 
Vol, XVII. No. 1194. 
which contains the greatefl number of open vowels and 
diftinCt accents for recitative, is therefore the bed.” This 
is certainly a juft account of that fplendid exhibition, the 
Italian opera ; but the feelings of the-Englilh people muff 
undergo fome very elaborate procefs (metaphyfical or 
practical) before they are thoroughly reconciled to this 
union of different elements, the confiltency and harmony 
of which depend on their contradiction and difcord. 
An opera without finging rnuft be a very ftrange and a 
very dull “ work ;” yet, fome yearsvigo, the grand opera, 
or academy of mufic, at Paris, obtained a decree that the 
a&ors of the opera comique, a kind of minor theatre, 
lliould not fing. As this interdiction, if it had been con¬ 
tinued, would have deftroyed that fort of entertainment 
altogether, a fcheme was deviled, which was equally droll 
and ingenious. The. prohibition being confined to the 
aftors, the auditors were at liberty to fing as much as they 
pleafed ; the former, therefore, contented themfelves with 
i'peaking the dialogue in profe, and, when a fong was to 
be introduced, the w’ords were exhibited on a placard, 
with an indication of the air to which it was to be fung, 
and the audience fang it in chorus, while the performers 
fupplied tbeneceffary geftures. Sofingularan exhibition 
drew crowds to the theatre ; and the grand opera (hortly 
afterward withdrew its prohibition. Monthly Rev. vol. 
Ixviii. 
As we gave the hiftory of the opera in England under 
the article Music, fo we defcribed the building where 
this falhionable amufement is exhibited under London, 
vol. xiii. p. 569. and there, by a fort of prophetical fore¬ 
boding, we mentioned its “ begun, never to be finijhed, 
Doric front.” Certainly, that fpecimen was admired by 
every lover of pure and claftical architecture; but was 
abandoned, as we obferved, on account of the “want of 
that grand mobile, money.” This fine-qua-non engine 
appears to have been fince more powerfully fet to work, 
by means of fpeculation among bricklayers, mafons, car¬ 
penters, and, above them all, architects ; and the Opera- 
houfe has lately affumed a very different appearance from 
what it exhibited when our article London was printed. 
A continued periftyle of the Doric order furrounds three 
of the fides of the paralellogram upon which the houfe 
Hands, and forms a very elegant piazza, with fliops of all 
defcriptions, not badly reprc-fenting the famous Palais- 
royal at Paris. A proportionable bannifter, or attic, 
crowns the periftyle; and the reft of the building above 
prefents well-proportioned windows, with tablets and pe¬ 
diments, agreeable to the ftriCt rules of the adopted order 
of architecture. The corners at top are in the fliape of 
Italian loggie as to their roofs; and the tout-enfemble 
graces the entrance of Pall-Mall. It is a pity, however, 
that the periftyle (hould have encroached upon the breadth 
of the ftreef, having nothing farther to correfpond with 
it. But this unfeeinly part of the plan could not be 
avoided, on account of the extent of the premiles which 
the theatre occupies. The obnoxious and filthy lane at 
the weft has been moft comfortably converted into an ar¬ 
cade ; and indeed, in rainy weather, the colonnade of the 
opera-houle will become a neat and falhionable prome¬ 
nade for the beaux and belles, previoufly to their entrance 
into the temple of the mufes and the graces. A molt 
magnificent chandelier has been lately let down from the 
centre of the roof; and, like the fun whofe radiated head 
forms-the centre at bottom, has fuperfeded the ufe of 
inferior luminaries. It is lighted with gas; and pours 
fuch a body of light, aided and multiplied by thoufands 
of prifmatical drops of cut-glafs, that the whole houfe is 
illumined moft powerfully by it. It was defigned and 
executed by Mr Collins, at his glafs-manufaCtory near 
Temple Bar; and reflects as much credit upon the in¬ 
ventor as it does fplendor upon the interior of the theatre. 
OP'ERABLE, adj. [from operor, Lat.] To be done ; 
practicable. Not in ufe. —Being uncapable of operable 
circumltances, or rightly to judge the prudentialiiy of 
6 O affairs, 
