Chapter VI: “la Tempesta.” “i Masnadieri.”

Though Her Majesty’s State visit to the Opera-House may be fairly said to have marked the culminating point of interest in Mdlle. Lind’s first London season, it by no means represented the last, or even the greatest of her triumphs.

But, before describing her later successes, it is necessary that we should recur, for a moment, to a subject which continued to excite the interest of the musical world, long after those whom it most intimately concerned had given up all hope of bringing it to a satisfactory conclusion.

When we last spoke of Mendelssohn’s promise to compose an Opera for Her Majesty’s Theatre, with the principal part assigned to Mdlle. Lind, and written expressly for her, it seemed just possible that the idea might be carried out and the work completed in time for performance during the season of 1847. But, as time went on, it became evident that the project must be abandoned. The difficulty with regard to the choice of a _libretto_ proved to be insurmountable. Many subjects were proposed— among others, Shakespeare’s _Tempest_—but Mendelssohn was dissatisfied with them all; and, as the season was now too far advanced to admit of farther delay, the scheme fell to the ground.

The crisis was a serious one; for, a new Opera had been formally promised to the subscribers. But, Mr. Lumley’s managerial talent never showed itself to greater advantage, than when brought face to face with some insurmountable difficulty; and the failure of his endeavours to procure a new Opera from Mendelssohn, for the season of 1847, served only to excite him to greater exertions than ever, in the cause of his beloved theatre.

If Mendelssohn could not provide him with a finished work in time for immediate production, some other composer must be found who could.

The composer fixed upon was Verdi; and the plot of Schiller’s well-known play, _Die Räuber_, was selected for the substituted work. A _libretto_, founded on this subject, had already been prepared, by the popular Italian poet, Andrea Maffei; and Verdi had fortunately completed the music in time to meet the manager’s great need of a new work—failing the production of which, he would not have fulfilled the promise made to his subscribers at the beginning of the season.

The new Opera was produced, on Thursday, the 22nd of July, under the title of _I Masnadieri_.

“The Opera was highly successful,” says the _Illustrated London News_—
the most important, and the most impartial Art-journal of the day.
“The talented _Maestro_, on appearing in the orchestra to conduct his
clever work, was received with three rounds of applause. He was called
before the curtain, after the first and third acts, and at the
conclusion of the Opera, amidst the most vehement plaudits. The house
was crowded to excess, and was honoured by the presence of Her
Majesty, Prince Albert, the Queen Dowager, and the Duchess of
Cambridge.”

Yet, in spite of the favourable tone of this, and other critiques, _I Masnadieri_, though it furnished Mdlle. Lind with the material for one of her most brilliant triumphs, was, in itself, a _fiasco_. In _La Figlia del Reggimento_, she triumphed so completely over the inherent weakness of the _libretto_ and the commonplace character of the music, that the piece retained its place on the stage as long as she herself remained to sing in it. But, in _La Figlia del Reggimento_, she represented the entire Opera. She was its life, and soul; the whole interest of it was centred in her impersonation of the little _Vivandière_; the other characters were merest puppets. The public thronged the theatre, to hear Jenny Lind—not to see Donizetti’s Opera.

In the _Masnadieri_, the case was widely different. She could have saved it, no doubt, if she could have absorbed the whole interest of the piece in her own part. But this was impossible. In so far as the plot of _Die Räuber_ is concerned, Schiller himself has invested his heroine with no predominating traits of character which could raise her to a position of all-absorbing interest in the development of his story—no strongly-marked individuality which could enable even the genius of Mademoiselle Lind to save the Opera, by clothing a comparatively colourless part with a nobler conception than it was intrinsically capable of assuming.

And so it was, that _I Masnadieri_ survived but the three representations courteously accorded to a _succès d’estime_, and furnished but a sorry substitute for the promised _Tempesta_ of Mendelssohn.