What greater threat than depriving the audience of what it holds most dear?
Richard Wagner à Munich. Le premier Bavarois qui aura le malheur de bailler à mon opéra sera privé de bière pendant huit jours! /
Richard Wagner in Munich. The first Bavarian who has the misfortune of yawing during my opera will be deprived of beer for eight days!
L'Illustration, Vol. XLVI No. 1167 (8 July 1865): 28.
Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser was performed in Paris for the first time in March 1861. The critical reaction was mixed. Some critics claimed that the opera was not at all suited for French taste.
Monsieur, c’est un lit à musique : rien que du Tannhäuser, on dort parfaitement là-dedans. / Sir, this is a music bed : it plays only Tannhäuser, one sleeps perfectly in it.
L'Illustration, Vol. XLII No. 1082 (21 November 1863): 348.
Rossini's French grand opera Guillaume Tell was performed for the first time on 3 August 1829 at the Paris Opera. Its theme is based on a fourteenth-century legend at the time when Gessler, an Austrian tyrant, reigned over the canton of Uri, a region in Switzerland. A hat was placed at the top of a pole before which villagers were obliged to bow. Guillaume Tell refused to do so and as punishment was forced, with his crossbow, to shoot off an apple placed atop his son's head.
Sometimes he missed ...
Une victime de Guillaume Tell / A victim of William Tell
L'Illustration, Vol. IV No. 90 (16 November 1844): 170.
Today from Viafora’s “Gallery of Celebrities in Musical America we present the artist’s caricatures of the distinguished French composers Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns. We also include several interesting and amusing texts about them from Musical America. Why was Debussy “the most misunderstood man in the artistic world”? Why did Saint-Saëns insist on bringing his toothbrush to an evening soirée? Read on to find out!
Claude Debussy Vol. 24 No. 26 ( 28 October 1916): 7; Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2.
“Keeping in Touch with World’s Music Growth Through the Piano,” Vol. 13 No. 13 (4 February 1911): 13.
Vol. 13 No. 22 (8 April 1911): 7.
The following article was written by the soprano Maggie Teyte, whom Debussy personally chose to replace Mary Garden in the role of Mélisande for his opera, Pelléas et Mélisande.
Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2. Read more from this article by clicking here: Maggie Teyte Corrects Some False Ideas About Debussy
Below, Mary Garden, who originated the role of Mélisande, speaks about her relationship with Debussy.
Debussy playing Debussy...
A 1900 photograph of Saint-Saëns alongside Viafora's caricature of the composer as "Samson" (left) Camille Saint-Saëns. photographed by Pierre Petit (1900); (right) Vol. 25 No. 2 (11 November 1916): 7.
"Echoes of Music Abroad," Vol. 16 No. 11 (20 July 1912): 11.
Vol. 35 No. 9 (24 December 1921): 1.
Read more from this article by clicking here: "Musical World Loses Grand Old Man"
With the conclusion of this post, RIPM’s Curios, News and Chronicles signs off for a brief summer hiatus. We will be back in September with more compelling and entertaining material from the musical press. In the meantime, the staff at the RIPM Center wishes you a wonderful summer!
RIPM search tip: In the event that you wish to pursue research on these two composers, note that the name Debussy appears in the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals in 2,020 citations, and that of Saint-Saëns in 2,787 citations. In RIPM's European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), Debussy's name appears on 17,767 pages, and Saint-Saëns on 31,692 pages!
RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
Last week, we featured Gianni Viafora’s caricatures of Puccini and of Mascagni from the artist’s “Gallery of Celebrities” in Musical America. Today we showcase his drawings of two more Italian composers, Ruggiero Leoncavallo and Italo Montemezzi. We also include several texts about the composers from Musical America, a remarkable, though little-explored documentary resource, and include links to articles sampled below! Read a section of a remarkable review of Montemezzi’s now-rarely performed opera, L'amore Dei Tre Re, “one of the most deeply affecting and full-blooded scores since Wagner,” and an absolutely scathing obituary of Leoncavallo, a man whose passing was, for one writer, “of no significance to music.”
Ruggiero Leoncavallo Vol. 24 No. 11 (15 July 1916): 7; Vol. 4 No. 9 (14 July 1906): 5.
Vol. 18 No. 25 (25 October 1913): 3.
Vol. 4 No.9 (14 July 1906): 10.
Vol. 30 No. 16 (16 August 1919): 2.
“…the demise of Leoncavallo is of no significance to music. So far as he mattered artistically the man might have died a quarter of a century ago.”
Read the entire blistering obituary here: Leoncavallo Passes
Another Viafora caricature of Leoncavallo Vol. 18 No. 25 (25 October 1913): 4.
Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 3.
Read a section of this article by clicking here: Montemezzi "Success Unequivocal"
Italo Montemezzi Vol. 24 No. 23 (7 October 1916): 7; Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 3.
"Let Simplicity Be the Composer's Constant Objective, Adjures Italo Montemezzi," Vol. 31 No. 4 (22 November 1919): 3.
Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 4.
A photograph of Montemezzi (left; in red) and Viafora (right; in red) Vol. 31 No. 4 (22 November 1919): 3.
RIPM search tip: For more on Viafora and his drawings in Musical America, access the RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, as fill in the following fields: Periodical: Musical America (New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]), Keyword(s): Viafora.
RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).