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8/9/2019 Daniel Heartz, Garrick to Gluck
1/18
From Garrickto Gluck: The Reform of Theatre andOpera in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
Author(s): Daniel HeartzSource: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 94th Sess. (1967 - 1968), pp. 111-127Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/765880.
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2/18
From
Garrick
to
Gluck:
theReform fTheatreand Operain
the
mid-Eighteenth
entury
DANIEL
HEARTZ
La
po~sie
veut
uelque
chose
'6norme,
de
barbare t de
sauvage.
(Diderot,
De
la
Poisie
dramatique,
758)
SEVERAL
ttempts
orenovate
he
tage
ook
lace
towardshe
middle f
the
eighteenth
entury.
oldoniwas
substituting
writtenomedies
fcharacter
or
he
mprovised
nd
stereo-
typed
oles f
he
Commedia
ell'Arte.
iderot nd
Lessing
ere
introducing
erious
ontemporary
ubjects
which
perforce
affected
cting,
etting
nd costume.
ahusac,
Noverre
nd
Angiolini
ere
working,y
precept
r
example,
o
create
moredramatic allet.On English tagesGarrickwasper-
fecting
style
f
acting
hatbroke
harply
ith he
tately
declamation
nd movement
f
the
past.
All
these
nd
other
'reforms'
ame o
head n
the
decade
fter
750. propose
o
considerome f
hem
with view
o the
ight heymay
hed
on
the
celebrated
eformf
pera.x
David Garrick
made his
debut s
a
youth
f
23
in
1741,
playing
ichard II.
Charles
Macklin
had earlier
hown"
he
waytoa more aturalcting tylewith isShylock.rofiting
thereby,
arrick
ade
rapid
onquest
f
he
London
tage,
played
eighteen
haracters
n
six
months,
nd
elicited he
remarkrom
ope:
that
oung
mannever
ad
his
qual
as an
actor,
and
will
never
have
a
rival'. From
the
reigning
tragedian
ames
uinn,
n
the
ther
and,
ame
he
bserva-
tion
intended
o be
devastating):
If this
young
ellow
e
right,
hen
we have ll
been
wrong'.
art
of
the
ndignation
may
be
explained
y
the ssociation
f more
atural
cting
style ith omedy,hen onsideredlower ormf ndeavour
and
kept uite
eparate.
he
practice
n
tragedy
ad been
o
advancewith
eremony
o the
ront
f
he
tage,
trike
pose,
1
This
paper
is
a
sequel
to
'Opera
and
the
Periodization
of
I8th-century
Music',
read
at the Tenth
Congress
of the
International
Musicological
Society,
Ljubljana,
1967,
and
forms
art
of a
wider
nvestigation
f the
eighteenth-century
usical
theatre.
III
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http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Daniel Heartz, Garrick to Gluck
3/18
I
2
FROM
GARRICK TO
GLUCK
then
emain mmobilewhile
declaiming.
s
n
thearia
opera
of
Metastasio,
he
typical
tage
picture
onsisted f one
or
more
figures ooted front nd centre tage. Perhapsthe sing-song
declamation
n
tragedy
ame
closer
o
recitative han
we
now
realize. In
dress
herewas no
distinction etween
poken
nd
sung
tragedy,
he same conventional ostumes
erving
both,
regardless
of
the
subject.
Garrick
broke
away
in
several
respects,
y using
manyparts
of
the
tage,
by
speaking or
not
speaking)
while
continuing
o
act,
by varying
costume n
keeping
with the
role.
A
critic,
writing
f him
in
1742,
first
praisedhis walk and the expressive angeof his voice, then
said:
When hree r four
re on
the
tage
with
im,
e
s
attentiveo
what-
ever s
spoke,
nd never
rops
his
character
hen
e
has
finished
speech,
by
either
ooking
ontemptibly
n
an
inferior
erformer,
unnecessarily
pitting,
r
suffering
is
eyes
to
wander
hrough
he
whole
ircle
f
pectators.
is
action
orresponds
ith
he
voice,
nd
both
with he haractere
s to
play.2
In other
words e conceived
is
part
s
a
whole,
ustained
t
throughout,nd tried omaintain ramaticllusion, hich
was
evidently
nusual
n
a theatre here
he
pectators
till
passed
emarks ith he
performers.
arrick as novel
bove
all in
his
powerful
nd
varied
se of
gesture,
n
ability
hat
particularly
truck
Continental
dmirers.When
Garrick
reached aris
nhis
irst
rip
n
1751
he
soon
ell nwith ll
the
prominent
heatre
eople.
Charles
Coll records dinner
party
in
his
Journal
or
13
July
1751
I dinedyesterday,he
2th
withGarrick,heEnglishctor.He gaveus
a
scene rom ne
of
Shakespeare's
ragedies,
n
whichwe
could
easily
perceive
hatthe
great eputation
hich
he
enjoys
s
by
no
means
unjustified.
e
gave
us
a sketch
f
that
cene
where
Macbeth
hinks
he
sees a
dagger
n
the
air
leading
him
to theroom
wherehe
is
to
murder
he
King.
He
filled
s
with
error;
t s
impossible
o
paint
situation
etter,
o render
t with
morewarmth
f
feeling,
nd at the
sametime
o
remainmore
master
f
oneself.
is face
xpresses
ll
the
passions
ne after
he
other,
nd
that
without
ny
grimace,lthough
that cene s
full
of terrible
nd
tumultuous
ovements. hat he
played efore swas a kind f ragicantomimeitalicsmine], nd from
that ne
piece
would
ot
ear o ssert
hat hat
ctor
s
excellent
n
his
art.
As
to
ours,
econsiders
hem ll
bad,
fromhe
highest
o
the
owest,
and on
that
oint
we
fully greed
with
im.s
Garrick
began
his
long
tenure
s
manager-director
f
2
For
the
original
ources fthe
quotations
ee Carola
Oman,
David
Garrick,
London,
1958,
pp.
4Iff.
3
Frank
A.
Hedgcock,
A
Cosmopolitan
ctor:
David Garrick nd
His
French
Friends, ondon,
1912, pp. 109-10.
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4/18
FROM
GARIICK
TO
GLUCK
113
Drury
Lane in
1747.
He
continued
to act
frequently
nd
played
no fewer
than seventeen
Shakespearean
parts.
The
impossibly igh tandards e set himself ere mparted o the
rest of
his
company.'
A
one-time
pupil,
Thomas
Davies,
described he
goal
in his Memoirs
f
the
ife
of
David
Garrick
(1780),
writing
as follows
in the
chapter
entitled
'Stage
Reformation':
To
render the
pleasure
of theatrical
representation
omplete,
the
delusionmustbe
uniformly
upported
n
everything
hich
pertains
o
a
play.
Tis
not
sufficient
hat the author writeswith
knowledge,
nd
the
commedian acts with propriety;everythingmust contribute o the
general
deception;
dress must
mark out the
country
nd
rank
of
the
person,
he
scenery oint
out the
place
of
action,
nd the
musick
correspond
ith
he
passions
f
he haractersnd the
ncidents
f he
drama;
n short
very
ecoration ust
ontributeo throw
ight
pon
the
fable.
Without
his
niversalonsent f
he
parts,
he
pleasure
ill
be
imperfect,
nd the
spectacle eprived
f
an
essential
equisite.
To achieve
uch verisimilitude
n
production
as
a
long
struggle.
art
f
he
udience
at on
the
tage
t
Drury
ane
until hehousewasenlargedn 1762.Lightingnd scenerywere
poor
before arrick ade
mprovements
long
he ines
ofContinental
ractice.
hereas e had scorned
hedeclama-
tory
tyle
f
cting
t
the
Com6die
rangaise,
cenery,
taging
and
lighting
t
the
Opera
had
favourablympressed
im.
Fromhis
friend
he
heatre-manager
ean
Monnet e
ordered
reflector
il
amps
uch
s
he had seenused n
Castor
t
Pollux,
as well
s
scenic
esigns. eturning
o
Drury
ane after
tour
abroad n
1765-6
he
produced
he
magic
pera
Cymon
ith
splendidcenic ffects.oraceWalpoledescribednother f
his
howpieces,ing
rthur,
emarking
f
ome
f
ts
cenes-a
rustic
ridge,
Gothic hurchwith
tained
lass
window-
that
Garrick as
attempting
o
compete
ith
heParis
pera.
Whatever
arrick's
ebt
to
Continental
taging,
e
became
identifiedn
the
Continent
uring
is ifetime
ith
style
f
acting
nd
staging
f
unprecedented
ealism.
e
also
became
inseparably
dentified
ith
hakespeare.
In
mid-century
aris
he
eading laywright
as
Voltaire,whose
ragedies
ere onsidered
uperior
o those fCorneille
With
what success
is a
major
point
of
discussion
n
Kalman
Birnum,
David
Garrick, irector,
ittsburgh,
1961.
On the
crucial
question
of
lighting
t
Drury
Lane,
Birnum
ites
Ralph
G.
Allen,
The
Stage
pectacles
of
Philip
James
de
Loutherberg,
npublished
Ph.D.
Dissertation,
Yale
University,
g6o.
Loutherberg,
who
worked for
Garrick from
1772,
experimented
with
transparencies
nd was
in
the
vanguard
of
the
Continental
movement
owards
he
realistic reatment
f
stage pace.
He
was a
disciple
of Diderot.
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5/18
I
14
FROM
GARRICK TO
GLUCK
and
equal
to
Racine's.s
Following
he
model
of
these
French
classics
he
wrote
five-act
ragedies,
sing
the
same
elevated
languageand rhymedouplets, bservingheunities, nd the
'liaison des scenes'. One
of
the new
elements n
his
plays
was
the
strong
urrent
f
sensibilite'.
Audiences
wept
for
Zaire
and for the
impassioned Merope,
as
created
by
Mlle.
Dumesnil,
not to
purge
theiremotions
o
much as
to
enjoy
them.
Voltaire
sought
also to
introducemore
action
into
tragedy.
He
had
spent
three
years
n
England
(1726-9),
and
was
moved
by
what
he saw on theLondon
stage
no lessthan
by
English ibertyfthought. e had evenwritten hefirst ct of
his Brutus n
English
prose, prior
to
casting
t in
French
Alexandrines.
His
appeal
for more
stage
action
and less
recitationwas
untiring.
The action
must
be
simple
and
'vraisemblable',
he
says,
but
it must
also be
virile and
unhampered
by
the
excessive
delicacy
of
French
audiences
with
egard
o the bienseances'.
n
pursuit
f
verisimilitude
e
gave
up
author's
profits
t the
premiere
f his
Orphelin
e
la
Chine n
1755
so
that the
principals,
Mlle.
Clairon and
Le
Kain, could abandon the traditionalstage costume for
something
more
appropriate
o
the exotic
subject.
He
pro-
tested t the seats on
the
stage
of the
Comidie
frangaise,
n
abuse
finally
abolished
in
1759.
Otherwise,
the
signs
of
increasingly
rapid
change
after
1750
often
found him
unsympathetic.
What
set Voltaire
apart
from
the
younger
spirits
f he
mid-century
ay
be
summarised
n a
single
word:
Shakespeare.
He
had
rendered
his
dictum
in the
Lettres
philosophiquesu Lettresur esAnglais1734):
Shakespeare
..
had
a
genius
full
of
force
nd
fecundity,
f natural
simplicity,
f sublime
feeling,
without
he east
spark
of
good
taste or
the smallest
knowledge
f
the rules.
To
this Abbe
Prevost,
the
creator
of
Manon Lescaut and
another
nthusiastic
isitor
o
England,
gave
reply
n
1738:
Knowledge
of
the
ancients
would
have
helped
make
Shakespeare
more
correct,
but
it
may
also
be
believed
that
the
regularity
o
which
he
would
have tried
to
constrain
himself
would have caused him to
lose
something fthatwarmth, fthat mpetuosity,nd ofthatadmirable
delirium
hat hines
forth
n
his
smallest
productions.
What
was
at issue
was
no
less
than
the entire
rationalist
"
For this
summary
view of
Voltaire's
position
I
am indebted to
Jack
Vrooman,
who allowed
me
to
study
his
manuscript,
Voltaire's
Theatre:
Theory
and
Practice
from
Oedipe
o
Mirope',
which
s
in course
of
pub-
lication.As themost
nfluential ontinental
laywright
f
he
mid-century,
Voltaire
has
an
importance
or
opera
that
requires
a
study
n its own
right.
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6/18
FROM
GARRICK
TO
GLUCK
I 15
aesthetics-the
rinitarian
ogma
of
order,
larity
nd
correct-
ness.
Set aside
the
ast,
put
Shakespeare
nd
feeling
eyond
he
rules, ndyouhaveeffectivelylacedVoltaire, s hewasquick
to
realize,
n
the
position
f
a
James
Quinn.
Taste versus
enius
was
an
issue
that
agitated
ome
mighty
pens
around
I750,
a time
when
the
Encyclopidie
as
taking
shape
under
the
direction
f
D'Alembert
and
Diderot.
To
the
latter
s ascribed
n
article
on 'Genie' in
the
seventh
olume
(x757),
of which short
xcerpt
ollows:
Taste
is often
istinct
rom
enius.
Genius
s a
pure
gift
f
nature:
what
itproduces s the workofan instant;taste s theproductofstudy nd
time
and
depends
upon
the
knowledge
of a
multitude
f
rules,
either
established
r
supposed.
n
order
for
omething
o be
beautiful
ccord-
ing
to the
rules f
taste t mustbe
elegant,
finished nd
studied,
without
appearing
to
be
so.
To be
genial,
t
s
necessary
ometimes hat he
work
be
rough,craggy
nd
savage.
Genius
and
the
sublime
hine
forth
ike
lightning
n
a
dark
night
n
Shakespeare,
and
Racine is
always
beau;
Homer is
full
of
genius,
and
Virgil
of
elegance.
The rules
and
laws
of
taste
mpose
fetters
pon
the
genius.
He breaks
them to
fly
owards
the
sublime,
the
pathetic
and the
grand.
Love of the
eternal
beauty
of
nature and
the
passion
for
creating
his works fter n
indefinable
image
withinhimself hatformshis ideas of
beauty
and
expression-
these are the
ways
of
the man
of
genius.
An
augury
f
the
Romantic
view of artistic
reation,
his
key
article
represents significant eparture
from he
aesthetics
of
mitation.
he
inspiration
f
nature
s
stressed,
o
be
sure,
but
the
artist oes morethan
merely
mitate
nature:he
draws
from within
himself.
Art is
the creation
of
the
individual
imagination.
The
view is
one that Diderot was
to
expand
and refine hroughout is life,along with the idea of the
uniqueness
of the
individual
work of
art.6
Like
Voltaire,
Diderot
had
been nurtured
ery
argely
n
Englishthought.
Although
he
neverwitnessed
nglish
theatre,
xcept
n
the
person
of
Garrick,
he
read
widely,
specially
English
novels.
In
Richardson,
Fielding
and Sterne
he
divined an
art of
truth
nd
feeling
hat
could break the fetters
f
routine.He
discovered
he
superior
ruth f
the real
worldall
about
one,
and
something
till
more
mportant.
n
the
Eloge
de
Richardson
he callsPamela, larissand Grandisonhree
reat
dramas and
recommends
hem s
a
schoolof llusion or
oets, ainters
nd
musicians.
To
take
account
of such modern
ensibilities
nd
bring
them
to
bear
upon
the theatre
he
triedhis
hand
at a
domestic
tragedy
n
prose,
Le
Fils
naturel,
n
1756.
It was
published
n
February
757,
with hree
ppended
Entretiens',
*
Wladyslaw
Folkierski,
ntre
e
classicismet
e
romantisme.tude
ur
'esthitique
et
les esthiticiens
u
XVIIIe
sitcle,
racow
and
Paris,
1925,
p.
407.
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http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Daniel Heartz, Garrick to Gluck
7/18
I
6
FROM
GARRICK O
GLUCK
subtitledDorval et Moi.
The
conversations
urn
upon
the
future
f the
arts,
with
Dorval,
the bold
and
melancholy
ero
oftheplaysustaininghe criticismsfMoi', hismorecautious
interlocutor.
ccording
o Dorval the
stage
must
be
enriched
by
a
great ariety
f
new
subjects,
nd
by
taking
ull
dvantage
ofwhat
s
uniquely
heatrical.Much
ofthe
debate
hinges
pon
the difference
etween
he
tableau,
meaning
gesture
aised to
the evel
of
the
whole
stage
action,
and
the
old-fashioned
oup
de
thidtre
'
la
Crebillon,
decried
as
trite
nd too
obviously
contrived. he
plastic
hould
often
elieve he
verbal,
we are
told. And if modelsare to be taken, et us return to the
ancient
playwrights-not
or heir
upposed
ules,
ut
for
heir
spirit
f
simplicity,
orce
nd
grandeur.
Ballet
and
opera
need
regeneration
rom the
same source. The
formermust
be
conceived
s a
poem
and
carried
out in
mime
(a
scenario s
given
n
illustration).
he latterfurnishes
he
subject
for
the
climactic
part
of
the thirddebate.
It
begins
with
a
query,
Dorval
asking,
Do
you
still
believe
that the
previous
entury
left
nothing
orus
to do?'
The
question
s
really
directed o
Voltaire,whorepeatedlymaintained hat hegreatmenof the
seventeenth
entury
eftthose
who followed
nly
the sterile
glory
of
imitation.
On the
contrary,
ays
Dorval,
citing
the
followingmong
other
asks
o be
accomplished:
omestic nd
bourgeois tragedy
o be
created;
pantomime
to be
closely
linked
with
dramatic
ction;
scenery,
ostume
nd
acting
o
be
liberatedfrom
ymmetry
nd
stiffness;
allet
to
be
rendered
dramatic;
the
operatic
tage
to be
provided
withreal
tragedy.
'Whichkindoftragedywouldyou establish pon the yric
stage
' 'The
old
kind.'
Why
not
domestic
ragedy
'
'Because
tragedy,
nd
in
general
ny
work
that s to
be
sung,
mustbe
rhymed,
nd
domestic
ragedy
eems
to
excludeversification.'
'But will
the
old
tragedy ive
the
musician
ll the
resources
necessary
o
his
art?' Dorval
answers
with
question:
What
would
you say
f
gave
you
a
specimen,
ot
going
outside
ur
older
dramatic
poets,
upon
which
the
composer
ould
deploy
as
much
energy
nd richness
s
he chose?'
He then cites
the
scene from Racine's Iphiginie V.4) where Clytemnestra
imagines
he
sees
the sacrificial
nife
aised
to her
daughter's
breast.
At this ision
he cries
ut: Oh mare
infortunde
.
.
"
After
uoting
he
speech
Dorval
continues:
7
For
the entire
passage,
see
J.-G.
Prod'homme,
Diderot
et
la
Musique',
Zeitschrift
er
nternationalenusikgesellschaft,
v
(1913-I4), I6o-62.
The
English
translation
here is
mine,
after
Diderot,
Oeuvres
sthitiques,
d.
Paul
Verni&re,
aris,
I959.
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FROM
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GLUCK
117
I
find
no verses more
lyrical,
no situationbetter
suited
to
music,
in
Quinault
r
any
other
oet.
The
plight
f
Clytemnestra
ust
ear
thecry fnature rom ervery ntrails;ndthe omposer illbring
it
to
my
ars n all tsnuances. fhe
composes
t n
simple
tyle,
e
will
fillhimself
ith
he
suffering,
he
despair
f
Clytemnestra;
e
will
begin
o elaborate
nly
when
he
terrible
mages
hat bsess er
tart
pressing
n
upon
him.What
subject
or n
obbligato
ecitative,
hose
first
erses
ow
well
one
could
divide
hem
y
a
plaintive
itornello
An
example
ollows o
this
ffect.
nother hows
how the
words
f
the
speech
end
themselveso
the
multiple
rans-
positions
nd
repetitions
hat
music
equires.
Give hese
erses
to Mlle.Dumesnilnd there, r I amverymistaken,s the
disorder
hat hewould
pread.'
orval
magines
nother
ay
the
composer ight
ork,
elying
ess
upon
the
rchestra
or
expression,
n
support
f
declamatory
oice-part,
nd
more
upon
the
power
f
the
voice o
hurl
bolts
f
ightning.
till
third
possibility
ccurs to
him,
offering
convincing
demonstrationhat
for
Dorval-Diderot
herewas
no
single
way
to artistic
ruth.
Musical
ragedy
as
something
y
nature
ery
tylized.
t
required hyme,ndwas to continueo seekmodelsn the
classics,
s
well s
nspiration
n
the
delivery
f
reat
ctors.
y
admitting
hisDiderotwas
saying
hat
French
opera,
as
founded
y
Lully
nd
continued
y
Rameau,
emained
iable.
It
needed
only
to
be
freed
rom
n
over-reliance
n the
'merveilleux',
endered
ore
uman,
eturned
o
high
iterary
standard,
nd
blessed
y
the adventof
a
musical
genius.
Here
t
s
notVoltairewith
whom ebate s
oined
but
Jean-
JacquesRousseau. n
1749,
after ameaurefusedowrite hearticlesnmusic orhe
ncyclopidie,
ousseauook nthe ask
at
the
behest
f
Diderot,
nder
whose
ntellectual
pell
he,
like
so
many
others,
ad
come.
The
Encyclopedist
ilieu
provided
he
encouragement
or
him
to
writehis
Devin u
Village
n
1752,
showing
he
way
to
a
new
pastoral
indof
opdra
comique.
With
the
polemics
of the
Guerredes
Bouffons,
Rousseau and
Diderot
began
to
part company.
Along
with
Grimm,
Rousseau
had
used the
success of an
Italian
buffo
company s an occasion o attack ragidieyrique,otheoutrage
of
the
traditionalists,
ho returned the
fire.
The
genres
compared
are
too
disparate,
nterjected
Diderot,
who was
one
of
the fewto see
beyond
party.8
he
battle
of
pamphlets
8
AlfredRichard
Oliver
(The
Encyclopedists
s Critics
f
Music,
New
York,
1947,
P-
93) says
that
Diderot
was
'the
only
critic
who
saw
that both
camps
were
fumbling
n
the
dark'.
Jean
Thomas shows
that
D'Alembert
was
equally
perspicacious:
'Diderot,
les
encyclop6distes
t
le
grand
Rameau',
Revue e
Synthise,
ouvelle
Sdrie,
xxviii
(195i),
46-67.
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I
8
FROM
GARRICK TO
GLUCK
seemed to
be
subsiding
when Rousseau
took the
extreme
position
fhisLettre
ur
a
Musiquefranqaise
n
November,
753:
theFrench anguagewas insusceptiblefmusical etting,nd
vocal music
based on
it
of
necessity
acked
melody;
ergo,
French
opera
was
a
logical impossibility.
he
argument
was
hyperbolic
nd
inconsistent-Rousseau
would later
abandon
its
tenets-but
the furore
t
raised
at the
time,
nd for
long
time
thereafter,
robably ustified
t
to his
mind.9
Diderot's
affirmationf the
possibilities
n
Iphiginie
must be read as
a
retort,
f
not
a refutation. is vision
was confirmedn
any
case,
as Rousseauadmittedwhenhe toldGluck t theParistriumph
of
Iphiginie
n
Aulide
modelled
after
he same
Racine
play):
'You have realizedwhat I
held to be
impossible
o
this
very
day'.
Another
andmark
n the
way
towards
new
dramaturgy
was
passed
in
1758
with
Diderot's second
play,
Le
Pbrede
Famille,
ccompanied by
a
wide-ranging
ssay,
De la
Poisie
dramatique.
n
22
chapters
f sustained
nd
brilliant
xposition,
the
philosopher
onsiders
verything
rom
oetic ubject
down
tomaterial onditionsnthetheatre. he poetmustbanish ll
petty ntrigue,
retty
peeches,
useless
secondary
haracters,
and
otherRococo accretions.
et
the
main
charactersmeet
each other
n
direct
onfrontation,
et
them
peak
simply,
n
situations
charged
with
strong
emotion. What
critics
of
Metastasian
pera
had
begun
to
express
imidly
r
obliquely
assumes
ere
the
proportions
f
manifesto,
ffering
boldness,
a
radical
spirit
f
reform,
thorough-going
lan
to modernize
thestageand ridit ofthelastpatchesand shreds fpseudo-
Aristotelian riticism'.10
he
attack
was
not ad
hominem,
ut
upon
the earlier
eighteenth
entury's
pallid
and
debased
copies
of classical
ragedy.
et how
can
we miss
he
relevance
of
this,
not
only
o
Rameau's
poets,
but
to
Metastasio,
ven
to
Voltaire himself?
iderot
wanted
to
go
much
farther
han
Voltairehad
led,
by
renewing
he
tarknessf ncient
ragedy,
and
incorporating
ith t a more
realistic
tage
treatment.
n
the
chapter
On
Costume'
we
read:
9
On
Rousseau's
changing
deas
see
Hugo
Goldschmidt,
ie Musikdsthetik
des
r8.
Jahrhunderts,uirich
nd
Leipzig,
I915,
Chapter 5,
which
shows
that
Rousseau
could not achieve
a
consistent
position
at
any
time,
because
he had so
many
prejudices
that had
to be
rationalized.
10
R.
Loyalty
Cru,
Diderot s
a
Disciple
fEnglish
Thought,
ew
York,
1913,
p.
316.
The
ambiguous
positions
with
regard
to Metastasio of
Algarotti,
Calzabigi
and Ortes
during
the
I75os
are
discussed
by
Remo
Giazotto,
Poesia Melodrammatica
Pensiero
ritico
el
Settecento,
ilan,
1952, Chapters
5
and 6.
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FROM
GARRICK
TO GLUCK
119
the
more
serious he
genre
the
more
severity
s
required
n
dress
..
a
few
simple
draperies,
f a
plain
colour,
that
s
what s
needed,
not
all
yourbrocade and gaudyshow. Consult thepainterson thisscore. Is
there
n
artist
mong
us
so
bizarre
as
to
put
on
canvas the
meretricious
finery
we
have
seen
upon
the
stage
The
chapter
On
Scenery'
puts
this
question:
Would
you
bring
your
poets
back to
the
true
in
the
conduct
and
dialogue
of
their
pieces,
and
your
players
back
to natural
acting
and
real
declamation? Then
raise
your
voices and ask
only
that
you
be
shown
the
setting
s
it should
be.
The
penultimate
hapter,
On
Pantomime',
rings ogether
s
exemplary
models
antique
legend
and
the
English
novel
Of
a
Richardsonian
haracter
Diderot
writes,
whether
he
talksor
not,
see
him,
nd
his actions ffectme
more
than
his
words'.
So
visual
an
emphasis
annot
surprise
n
a
man
who
was the
age's
finest
rt critic.
His tastes
ran
to
the
bourgeois
realism
of
Chardin and
Greuze but
did
not
stop
there;
hungering
or
the
lost
sublimity
f
the
grand
manner,
he
undertook quarter-centuryampaigntopromote ruth nd
depth
in
historical
ainting,
which was
answered
finally y
the
appearance
of
David in the
Salon
of
1781.11
In
1760,
a
year
that
may
be
regarded
n
many respects
s
crucial,
Lessing
ranslated nd
published
both
Diderot
plays,
with
their
ccompanying
ssays,
nd a
prefatory
ncomium
saying
that
no
more
philosophical
head had dealt
with
the
theatre
ince
Aristotle.
essing
took
this s an
opportunity
o
berate
ProfessorGottsched, whose tragedies resembled
Metastasio's in
their
Arcadian
Neoclassicism. Le
Pire de
Famille
nd Le
Fils
naturelad small
uccess
n the
tage
oftheir
native
country;
as
Der
Hausvater
nd
Der
natiirlicher
ohn,
however,
hey
were
avidly
taken
up by
German
companies
and
played
often
rom
760
onwards,
not
only
in
Lessing's
Hamburg,
but
in
Frankfurt,
Nuremberg,
and at
the
xx ee Jean Seznec, Diderotand Historical Painting',Aspects ftheEight-
eenth
Century,
d.
Earl
W.
Wasserman,
Baltimore,
I965,
I29-42.
In
summary
eznec
quotes
Diderot as
saying,
If
only
a
sacrifice,
battle,
a
triumph,
public
scene
could
be
renderedwith
the
same
truth
n all
its
details
as
a domestic
cene
by
Greuze or
Chardin ' He
then
concludes:
'And
Diderot
dreams of
the
ways
of
bringing
ome
prosaic
solidity
nto
poetic
artifice.
his is
of
course
what
he
himself as
been
trying
o achieve
with
his drame
ourgeois:
o
stuff
he
emptynobility
f
classical
tragedy
with
the
ubstantial
implicity
f
everyday
ife.There we
detectone of
the
many
inkswhich
connecthis
art
criticism
withhis
attempts
t
renovating
literary
orms.'
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120
FROM GARRICK TO
GLUCK
Burgtheater
n
Vienna.*1
hey
wereoften
redited,
r
blamed,
for
openingup
the
path
to
the
Sturm
nd
Drang
theatre
f
the
1770s.
Also
falling
n
I760
was
the
publication
f
Noverre's
Lettresur
a
Danse
t
es
Ballets,
t
Lyons
nd
Stuttgart.
hese
delightfulpistles,
illed ith
ignettes
bservedt
the
opera,
are
probably
amiliar o most
and
need be but
briefly
recalled.1s
n
eloquent
lea
for ealism
n
staging,
ostume
and
setting,
hey
we
much o
the
reatises
f
1757-8.
Again
we
are
told hat he
great ainters rovided
he
xample
hat
could iberatehe tage romymmetryndfrippery;gain
that
gesture
nd
poetic ubjects
were
the meansof
trans-
forming
allet
from
decorative
o a
dramatic rt.
Tragic
pantomime
as Noverre's hief
nterest,
nd,
like
Diderot,
he
associated
t
with
lassical
ntiquity.
wo other ources
Noverre
cknowledged
ere
Cahusac,
whose heoreticalork
La
Danse
ncienne
tmoderne
as
published
n
1754,
nd
Garrick,
for
whom
he worked
t
Drury
Lane in
I755.
The
ninth etter
proposesways
of
forming
he
new breed
of
pantomimists:
Mr.
Garrick,
he celebrated
nglish
ctor,
s the
model
wish o
put
forward
..
He was so
natural,
is
expression
o
lifelike,
is
gestures,
features
nd
glances
ere
o
eloquent
nd
so
convincing,
hat
e
made
the actionclear
even
to those
who
did
not understand
word
of
English.
t
was
easy
ofollow is
meaning;
is
pathos
was
touching;
n
tragedy
e
terrified
ith
the successive
movements
ith
which
he
represented
he
most iolent
assions
..
he lacerated
he
pectator's
feelings,
ore
his
heart,
ierced
is
soul,
nd
made him
hed
tears f
blood.
In his astLetter overrencludesnappreciationfDiderot:
this
hilosopher
nd
friendf
nature,
hat
s to
ay
of
imple
ruth
nd
beauty,
who
would ubstitute
antomime
or
ffectation,
natural
voicefor he
tilted
iction
r
art,
imple
ress
or alse
uxury,
ruth
for
fable,
wit
and common
ense
for
nvolved
ialogue
nd
for
ll
ill-painted
ortraits
hich
aricature
nd
distortature.
12
Roland
Mortier,
Diderot
n
Allemagne,
aris,
1954,
P.
59-
J.
G. Robertson
shows
that
Lessing
was emboldened
by
the
treatises
fDiderot
to
disparage
Voltaire,but thathe was, as a playwright, eholdento both (Lessing's
Dramatic
Theory,
ambridge,
1939,
p.
2o6).
13
The
Letters
ere
translated
y
Cyril
Beaumont
from
he revised
dition
t
Saint
Petersburg
n
1803,
which
English
version
London,
i930)
is
quoted
here.
The
original
edition
of
1760
served
as
the basis for the
modem
edition
of Andr6 Levinson
(Paris,
1927).
There
are
many discrepancies
between
the
various
ditions;
n
the
original
Lettre
III,
for
xample,
we
read
that
Mlle.
Clairon
would
be
the first
ragic
actress
of the
universe
were
it
not
for
des
rares
et
sublimes
talents
de Mlle.
Dumesnil,
qui
remuera
infailliblement
es
coeurs
sensibles
aux accents
et au cri de
la
nature'.
The
comparison
s
lacking
n
later
editions.
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FROM
GARRICK
TO
GLUCK
121
Towards
the
conclusion
fthe
Letter
he invents
conversation
with an
actor,
who
claims that
Diderot's
plays
defied
performance:
It
would
be hard
to
find
nyone
capable
of
acting
them;
these
simultaneous cenes would
be awkward
to
render,
the
pantomimic
actionwould be
the rock
on whichthe
majority
f
actors
would
founder;
mimed scene
is the
real
difficulty-it
s
the
touch-stone
f
the true actor.
Those
unfinished
entences,
hose
sighs,
those
hardly
uttered
ounds,
demand
a
truthfulness,
oul,
expression
nd
intelligence
which few
possess;
that
simplicity
of dress
depriving
the
actor
of
embellishmentllows
him
o
be seen
s he s.
Noverre eplies: I agreethatsimplicityn anystyledemands
the
greatest
erfection
..'
While Noverre
was
putting
his ideas
into
practice
at
the
Stuttgart
pera,
reformist
orks
were
emerging
n
other
centres,
ne
of the most vital of which
was
Parma.
There,
under the brilliant
ministry
f
Du
Tillot,
a
French
troupe
for
ballet and
comic
opera
had been
working
ince
755.
Goldoni,
called to
Parma in
1756, provided
among
other
works
the
libretto fLa Buona igluola based on hisplayafter henovel
Pamela
nd
set
by
Duni),
an
epochal
work n the
way
towards
a
new sentimental
train n
opera
buffa.
As such it
is
closely
related to
the
fast-evolving
ituation
n
Paris,
where
from
1757
onwards
disciples
of Diderot
such as
Anseaume
and
Sedaine
began
providing
masterly
oems
for he
comic
operas
of
Duni,
Monsigny
nd
Philidor.
Parma also
saw
bold
experi-
ments
with erious
pera.
Starting
n
1759,
Du
Tillot
set
about
combining
Ramellian
tragidie yrique
nd
opera
eria,
to which
end heemployedhepoetFrugoni nd thecomposer ra&tta."'
Algarotti
was
directly
nvolved
with
the Parmesan
reform.
Historians
have
largely
gnored
this n
attempts
o
connect
him
with
reform
estined
o
become
morefamous.
Vienna
acquired
a
French
repertory
ompany
n
1752
and
for
twenty
years
without
interruption
witnessed
Moliere,
Racine
and
Voltaire
sharing
the
stage
with
the
latest
operas
comiques
nd ballets
from
Paris.
There was
no
permanent
companyfor talian opera between I752 and I765. Count
Durazzo
became sole
ntendant
n
1754-
With
the
encourage-
ment
of
the
all-powerful
hancellor,
Prince
Kaunitz,
he
began
to
encourage riginal
fforts
rom
he
company.
Gluck
was
engaged
from
1755
as musical
arranger
for
the
operas
14
urnishing
he
ubject
f
nother
ecture,
Operatic
nnovation
t Parma:
the
Rameau
daptations
f
Frugoni
nd
Tra&tta',
eliveredt the
Con-
vegno
ul Settecento
armense
el
20
Centenario
ella
Morte i Carlo
Innocenzo
rugoni,
ay 1967.
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13/18
122
FROM
GARRICK TO
GLUCK
comiques,
nd
given
an ever
freer
hand to
compose
his own
music.On to
the
Viennese
cene
during
he
winter
f
1760-61
droppedRanieriCalzabigi,fresh rom heoperaticwarsofa
decade
spent
n
Paris.15
he
first
rtistic vent
nvolving
his
presence
was the dramatic ballet
Le Festin
e Pierre u
Don
Juan
put
on
by
the French
troupe
n
October
1761,
with
ets
by
Giovanni
Maria
Quaglio,
choreography
by
Gasparo
Angiolini
an
emulator nd rival
of
Noverre)
and
music
by
Gluck;
Calzabigi
wrote he
programme.
year
ater
he ame
forces
rought
orth
rfeo
d
Euridice.
he
date
was
5
October.
It was, by somecharming oincidenceoffate,thebirthday
of Denis
Diderot.
As
miraculous
masterpiece
s
Orfeo
may
seem,
all
its
elements
had been
prepared-indeed,
prescribed.
French
theatre
rovided
he
ground-swell
nd the
necessary
limate
f
earnestness.
alzabigi
makes
this
clear when
upbraiding
he
Bolognese
public
for
failing
o
respond
o
the
new
conditions
demandedof
audiences:
If I made somefew ttempts t truetragedynVienna, I did itbecause
the
public
of
that
city
s
infinitely
ore
educated and
enlightened
han
ours,
and
because
when
I
put
on
Orfeo
nd
Alceste
he
public
had
been
accustomed
to French
drama
for
2o
years,
and
prized
truth,
ogic,
naturalness,
assion,
entiment,
error,
nd
compassion
o
highly
hat
in the course
of
50 performances
f
Alceste
here
was never
any
noise,
except
an
occasional
sigh,
and
handkerchiefs
ere
always
in
evidence
at this
or that
touching
cene
...
From
a
theatre
where
he
audience
sat
on
display
o
a
theatre
where
the
stage
became
all,
the
way
was
long.
A
considerable
distancewas
travelled,
n
regard
to the lyric stage, by the
Viennese
public
in
1762.
As
to
the musical
constituents
f
Orfeo,
hey
eflect
he whole
of
Gluck's
career.
Some
elements
derive
from
Italian
opera-the
language,
castrato
hero,
Sinfonia
nd
the
great
obbligato
recitative,
Che
puro
ciel'
(which
s
adapted
from
he
composer's
zio
of
1750).
More
depend
upon
what Gluck
acquired
while
working
for
15
Robert
Haas,
Gluck
nd
urazzo
im
BurgtheaterDie
Opira
Comique
n
Wien),
Leipzig, I925. The best ccountofthebackground ftheViennesereform
remains
that of
Hertha
Michel,
'Ranieri
Calzabigi
als Dichter
von
Musikdramen
und
als
Kritiker',Gluck-Jahrbuch,
v
(1918),
99-171.
She
points
out
that
Calzabigi
to
the
end
of his
life
quotes
Diderot
almost
word for
word,
while
being
careful
never
to
mention
his
name
(p.
149).
16
Corrado
Ricci,
I Teatri
i
Bologna,
ologna,
I88o,
p.
636.
The
translation
is
that of Edward
O.
D.
Downes,
The
Operas
f
ohann
Christian
achas
a
Reflection
f
he
ominant
rends
n
opera
eria,
75o-1780,
unpublished
h.D.
Dissertation,
arvard
University,
958,
.
Io4.
I
am
indebted
o the
work
of
Downes
for
timulating
everal
lines
of
investigation
hat led
to
the
present
ffort.
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14/18
FROM
GARRICK
TO
GLUCK
123
Durazzo's
French
company-composite
scenes with
chorus
and
ballet,
nstrumental
ances,
Rondeau
structures,
olk-like
'Airsnouveaux' and thevaudeville finale.But the workowes
mostof all
to
a
new
theatrical
ision,
one
which
ees
beyond
any
single
rt
to thefusion
f
the
pictorial,
estic,
erbal,
nd
musical.
Subordinating
ll
parts
of
opera
to
a
single
poetic
idea
had
been
demanded
many
times
n
the
literature,
nd
notably
n
Noverre's
loquent
LetterVIII.
It had
hardly
een
achieved
n
practice,
with
regard
to
a
serious
ubject,
before
Orfeo.
Critics
at the
time remarkedon
the
work's
organic
unity, nd in particular, heweddingofmusic to gesture.17
Like
the
very
irst
peras,
Orfeo
elebrates
he
power
of
ntique
art,
nd
in
this ense
ts
ubject
s
one
with
ts
nspiration.
or
the
work
is unthinkable
part
from
the new and
intense
scrutiny
of classical
antiquity
taking place
around
1750.18
Choice
of
the fabulous
subject
also
marks
a
return
to
seventeenth-centuryperatic
ideals
(those
still
defended,
belatedly,
y
the
proponents
f
tragidie
yrique).
o
extremely
simple
treatment
f
the
ubject
an
have had
but
few
ources
of nspiration. enuded of ntriguend secondary haracters,
denuded
of
nearly
ll
ornamental
anguage,
Orfeo
d
Euridice
seems
to
have
been
constructed
s
if n
answer
o
the
pleas
of
Diderot.
Be
that
as
it
may,
there
was
at
the time
no
msthetic
theory
more
revealing
f
the
opera
than
that
expounded
n
De
la
Poisie
dramatique.
17
As
early
as
the first
erformance
critic
praised Angiolini's
novel feat
of
'uniting horeography iththechoruses nd thestorynsuch a wayas to
give
the
performance
n
appearance
no less
splendid
than
exemplary'
(Gluck-Jahrbuch,
i
(1915),
107).
Subsequent
criticism
was
apt
to
give
the
music
credit
for
making
his
possible.
La
Harpe
called the
opera
the
first
'ofi
a
musique
ne
se
s6parait
amais
de
l'action'.
Gretry
went
even
further: c'6tait
la
musique
elle-meme
qui
6tait
devenue
l'action'.
See
Lionel
de
la
Laurencie,
Orphie
de
Gluck.Etudeet
Analyse,
aris,
1934,
PP- 97,
110o.
18
Most
commentators,
ontent to
follow each other's
example,
name
Winckelmann's
Gedanken
iber
ie
Nachahmung
er
griechischen
erke
n der
Malerei
und
Bildhauerkunst,
resden,
755,
in this
regard,forgetting
hat
priority
n
the
archaeological
pproach
lies elsewhere.Visual
experiences
such as thoseprovidedbytheRecueil 'antiquitisfCaylus (Paris,1752-67)
musthave had a
greater
mpact
upon
the theatre
han
any essay.
Dramas
in the
antique
stylebegan
duringCalzabigi's
period
of
residence
n Paris
with
Guymond
de la
Touche's
Iphiginie
n
Tauride
see
the
criticisms
f
Grimm and
Diderot in
the
Correspondance
ittiraire,
i
[1755-60], 52
i
f.).
It
should
be
recalledthat
Calzabigi
himself
as an
antiquary,
nd thathe
contributed
'Dissertazione
opra
due
marmi
figurati
ell'antica
citta
d'Ercolano'
to
the
Saggi
of
the
Etruscan
Academy
of
Cortona,
vol.
vii,
Rome,
1758.
He
was also a
connoisseur
f
English
etters nd translator
of
Milton,
Thomas
Gray,
Thomson
and Ossian
(Michel,
Ranieri
alzabigi,
p.
IIo).
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15/18
124
FROM
GARRICK
TO
GLUCK
There
was
another
personality
nvolved
n
the
creation
of
Orfeo
ho
should
be
credited,
long
withthe
producer,
oet,
composer, horeographernd designer.As far s solo singing
goes,
the
opera
s
very
nearly
one-man
how,
nd
that
man
was
originally
Gaetano
Guadagni.
Although castrato,
he
began
his career
n
comic
opera,
a fact
of
ome
nterest
n
the
light
f
repeated
ssertions
y
Algarotti,
rtes
nd
others
hat
only
n
opera uffa
ere here
talian
singers
who
could
also
act.
Burney
n
his
History
f
Music
gives
a
detailed
description
f
Guadagni:
As an actor he had no equal on any stage in Europe: his figurewas
uncommonly legant
nd
noble;
his
countenance
replete
with
beauty,
intelligence,
nd
dignity;
and
his
attitudes
nd
gestures
were
so
full
of
grace
and
propriety,
hat
they
would
have been excellent tudies
or
statuary.
But
though
his manner
of
singing
was
perfectly
elicate,
polished,
and
refined,
is voice
seemed,
at
first,
o
disappoint
every
hearer
.. The music
he
sung
was
of
the
most
imple
maginable;
a few
notes,
with
frequent
auses,
and
opportunities
f
being
iberatedfrom
the
composer
and the band were
all
he wanted.
And in
these
extemporaneous
ffusions e
proved
the inherent
power
of
melody
divorced from harmony, and unassisted even by unisonous
accompaniment.'
Burney
ad encountered
uadagni
t
Padua in
1770
and at
Munich n
1772. Writing
n his travel
diarieshe
further
confirmshe
mpression,
hich
uite
baffled
im,
f
singer
whowas
at once
ntelligent,
imple
nd dramatic. e
recalled
later
(in
the
History)
he
young
Guadagni
n
London
(1748-55),
inging
orHandel
among
thers;
elevant
o his
appearance
s
Lysander
n The
airies
t
Drury
ane
in
I755
Burneyays hat is deas f ctingwereearned rom arrick,
'who
took
reat
leasure
n
forming
im'.
In
177o
Guadagni
eturned
o
London
o
sing
Orpheus
t
the
Haymarket
heatre.
e
failed
o
please, ays Burney,
because
..
with
his determined
pirit
of
supporting
he
dignity
nd
propriety
f
his
dramatic
character,
by
not
bowing
acknowledgement,
when
applauded,
or
destroying
ll theatrical
llusion
by
returning
o
repeat
an
air...
he so much offendedndividuals,and the opera audience
in
general,
that,
at
length,
he never
appeared
without
being
hissed.
In.
Guadagni's
nsistence
pon
ustaining
ramatic
llusion
e
recognize
he
pupil
f
Garrick.
he anecdote
hows
lso
that
10
Domenico
Corri,
n
A Select ollection
f
heMost
Admired
ongs Edinburgh,
1788],
.
38-43,gives
hree
xcerpts
rom
Orfeo
ith
he ndication
sung
by
Sigr. Guadagni'.
The vocal
line
is indeed
remarkably
free of
added
ornamentation,
xcept
for
brief allies
at the
cadences,
n line
withwhat
Burney ays.
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16/18
FROM
GARRICK
TO GLUCK
125
while some
English
audiences
may
have been induced
into
pretending
hat
the
only
reality
was
on the
tage,
t the
opera
suchreformistotions ad made littleheadway.The scoreof
the
London
production,
s
printed
by
Bremner,
eveals
t
to
have been
a
pasticcio,
with
added
music
by
Christian
Bach
and
Guglielmi
on
texts
by
Bottarelli
in order to make
the
Performance
f
a
necessary
ength
for
n
evening's
ntertain-
ment'.
It
was not
simply
padding
that was added
to
the
original.
Guadagni
replaced
section fthe underworld
cene
with
his own music-the
central
cene of the
work,
with
ts
savage furies nd unprecedenteduse of dramatic chorus
Or,
if
there
were
any precedent,
t
is
perhaps
n the
fourth
ct
of
Hippolyte
t
Aricie,
hen
the chorus
reacts
to the
terrifying
storm
hat
envelops
Hippolyte,
henrelates he action
orrow-
fully
n
dialogue
with he
questioning
hadre.
The
interaction
of
suppliant
nd chorus
s more ntense n
Orfeo
nd
carried
out
to
greater
engths,
s
the
nitial
truculence
f
the
furies
s
slowly
worn
away
in
a
graduated
seriesof
responses,
while
moving
mperceptibly
rom
C
minor
to
F minor.
Guadagni
saw fit o rewrite isfinalplea, 'Men tiranne', ubstituting
pretty
ittle une
n
F
major,
omewhat
eminiscentf
Cerco
il
mio ben'
in Act
I.
What thisdoes
to the
drama can
readily
be
imagined.
Gluck
avoided F
major
throughout
he
underworld
scene
n
order
o
save
it
for he
radiant
experience
f
Elysium
greeting ye
and ear
with the
Dance
of the Blessed
Spirits.
The
'improvement'
llustrates
emarkably,
n a
negative
way,
the extent of
Gluck's
new
sense
of
time.20
What
work,
prior
to
Orfeo,had delineated differentandscapes so effectively?
Had
sustained
the
mood-painting
ver
such
long
periods?
Of
precedents
hatGluck
would have
known
here re
again
very
few,
but
Rameau
may
have
been
suggestive
n
Castor
et
Pollux,
by
playing
ff he strident
major
of the D6mons
against
the
sweet-murmuring'
lutes
n
a
G-minor
lysium.21
The
menuet-like
ir
by
Guadagni
mattered ittle
in
a
production
hat
was
mutilatedand ruined
anyway.
t
was
veryplain
(but
with
lourished
lose)
compared
with
heother
additions.The singer an hardlybe blamedfor ivinghimself
20
F.
W.
Sternfeld,
Expression
nd Revision in Gluck's
Orfeo
nd
Alceste',
Essays resented
o
Egon
Wellesz,
d.
SirJack
Westrup,
Oxford,
966,
p.
I
8:
'It is the
size
of
Gluck's
canvas
that is the
vital element.
Concertato,
tonality,
rhythm,
exture,
ffectnot
one
but
ten
numbers;
the
scena
comprises
he
first
alf
of
an
entire act.'
st
La
Laurencie,
Orphie
de
Gluck,
assembles several
eighteenth-century
assessments f
Gluck's
ndebtedness
o Rameau
(pp.
59,
91-92,
Ioi),
and
agrees
with
Abert
about
one
direct thematicresemblance
between the
two
infernal
cenes
(pp.
262-3).
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17/18
126
FROM GARRICK
TO
GLUCK
the
opportunity
or ne
more
yric
effusion',
specially
ince
t
was similar
o
other
mall
airs
in
Orfeo,
lbeit
in
the
wrong
place.
But thisraisesa
question
of some
subtlety.
o what
extent
did Gluck
originally
hape
his music
n
order
to
take
advantage
of
what
might
be
called
the
Guadagni style?
The
precise
ircumstances
urrounding
he
origins
f the
opera
still
need much clarification.
hat
Guadagni participated
arly
n
during
ts
creation
s certain.
On
8
July
1762
Zinzendorf
recorded
n
his
diary
hathe
was
at
a dinnerwith
Durazzo
and
Calzabigi
where
Guadagni
sang
Orpheus
to the
accompani-
ment ofGluck, who rendered the
furies.22
The scene described
is
suggestive.
learly,
Orfeo
ould
not have
turned ut
exactly
as
it
did
were
t not
for
he
acting
abilities
f Garrick's
upil.
The same
may
be
trueof
his vocal
peculiarities.
When
Burney
eached
Vienna
ten
years
fter he
premitre
of
Orfeo
e
sought
ut
Gluck,
who
accorded
him
what
would
now
be
called
an interview.
As
set
down
in
writing
n
The
Present
tate
of
Music
in
Germany
1773),
the
portrait
f
the
composer
s one
of
the
earliest
and most
authentic.After
praising
Gluck's
unequalled
inventionin dramatic
painting,
and
theatrical
ffects',
urney
ays:
he studies
poem
a
long
timebefore
he thinks
f
etting
t. He
considers
well the
relation
which each
part
bears
to
the
whole;
the
general
cast
of
each
character,
and
aspires
more
at
satisfying
he
mind,
than
flattering
he
ear. This
is not
only
being
a friend
o
poetry,
ut
a
poet
himself...
It seldom
happens
that a
single
air
of his
operas
can
be
taken
out
of ts niche
and
sung
singly,
withmuch
effect;
he whole
s
a
chain,
of which
a
single
detached
link
s butof small
importance.
The
concepts
come
straight
rom
Gluck-similar
language
flows rom
is own
pen.23
t
is
important
o
establish
urney's
credibility
t this
point,
ecause
what
follows
as been
subject
to
dispute.
Burney
reminds
Gluck
of his London
season
in
1745-6,
then
reports:
He
told
me
that
he owed
entirely
o
England
the
study
of
nature
in
his
dramatic
compositions'
(note
that
he does
not
say
to
English
music'
or
'to music
n
England').
The
passage
has
been
a
source
of
puzzlement
o
22
Haas,
Gluck
und
Durazzo
im
Burgtheater,
.
61.
23
For
example,
n
a
letter
f
1776:
'I
have
striven
o be
...
more
painter
and
poet
than
musician'
The
Collected
orrespondence
nd
Papers
fChristoph
Willibald
luck,
d.
H.
and
E.
H.
Mueller
von
Asow,
London,
1962,
p.
84).
Compare
a
subsequent
passage
of
Burney's
Music
in
Germany
i.
269):
'But
though
M.
Gluck
studies
imple
nature
so
much
in
his
cantilena,
r
voice-part;
yet
n
his
accompaniments,
e is
not
only
often
earned,
but
elaborate;
and
in
this
particular,
e
is
even
more
than
a
poet
nd
musician,
he
is
an
excellent
ainter;
is nstruments
requently
elineate
he
situation
of the
actor,
and
give
a
high
colouring
to
passion'
(Burney's
talics).
This content downloaded from 163.1.255.60 on Sat, 8 Nov 2014 19:24:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Daniel Heartz, Garrick to Gluck
18/18
FROM
GARRICK
TO
GLUCK
127
historians."After
mentioning
a caduta ei
Giganti
ith
which
Gluck had
only
moderate
uccess
n
London,
Burney
ontinues
bysaying:
He
then
studied
the
English
taste,
remarked
particularly
what the
audience
seemed
most
to
feel,
nd
finding
hat
plainness
nd
simplicity
had the
greatest
ffect
pon
them,
he
has,
since that
time,
ndeavored
to
write
or
he
voice
more
n the natural tones f thehuman
affections
and
passions
..
Gluck
certainly
did
not mean
London
opera
audiences,
notorious
or
their
ddictionto
the
opposite
of
plainness
nd
simplicity.He mightwell, on the otherhand, have been
speaking
of
English
theatre
n
general,
or
the
acting
of
its
foremost
xponent.25
To
a
Continental
ntellectual f
the
mid-eighteenth
entury
s sensitive
s
Gluck,
the
'English
taste'
meant
something
much wider
than
any single
art. It
meant
those
currents
manating
from
England,
often
by
intermediary
f
the
philosophes,
hat started
ransforming
ll
the
arts
around
1750.
It meant
Shakespeare
nd the
novel,
Romantic realism
and
the
sentimental
implicity
f Greek
Revival as well as
'English
gardens'.
Precisely
ecause Gluck
was
so
sensitive o
such modern
currents
f
thought
and
feeling
ould
he take
the
elements
f
older
opera,
and
make
worksthat
spoke
to
his time
as
did
hardly
any
other,
nd
which still
speak eloquently
today.
The
lecture
was concluded
by
several visual llustrations
f
changing
modes
of
operatic production
during
the
course
of
the
eighteenth
entury.
24Ernest Newman
discredits
Gluck's
statement s
mere
flattery
f
Burney
(Gluck
nd
the
Opera,
ondon,
1895, p. 27).
Rudolf
Gerberreads
the
same
as an arcane
reference
o
Handel's 'influence'
Christoph
illibald
Gluck,
Potsdam, 1930, p. 36). Alfred Einsteinrejectsboth explanations,but
offers
o alternative
Gluck,
ondon,
1936, p. 27).
25
Garrick
returned
o
London
from
season
in Dublin
on
Io
May
1746.
Between
x
and
27 June
he
appeared
as
Lear, Hamlet,
Richard
III,
Othello
and
Macbeth.
The
operatic company
t the
King's
Theatre,
for
which Gluck
was
engaged
as
musical
director,
xtended
ts
season
until
24 June.
The
prima
ballerina
who made
her debut
in
Gluck's
Artamene
(Mlle.
Violette,
alias
Eva
Weigl,
from
Vienna)
was soon
to
become
Mrs. Garrick.
For casts
of
operas
and
plays day
by
day
see The
London
Stage
z660o-8oo,
Part
3:
1729-1747,
d. Arthur
H.
Scouten,
Carbondale,
Illinois,
I96I.