s now one of the most popular operas in Germany. The beauties of
the score are doubly astonishing when it is remembered that when it was
written 'Die Meistersinger' had not been composed. The germs of much
that delights us in Wagner's comic opera may be found in 'Der Barbier,'
and it is certain that if Cornelius received his initial impulse from
'Lohengrin,' he himself reacted upon Wagner to a very remarkable extent.
The plot of 'Der Barbier' is long-winded and puerile, and the interest
is entirely centred in the music, Noureddin loves Margiana, the daughter
of the Cadi, and is bidden to an interview by Bostana, her _confidante_.
He takes with him Abul Hassan, a talkative fool of a barber, who watches
in the street while Noureddin visits his sweetheart. Suddenly the cries
of a slave undergoing the bastinado are heard. The barber jumps to the
conclusion that Noureddin is being murdered, summons help and invades
the house. Noureddin takes refuge from the wrath of the Cadi in a chest.
The commotion and tumult end in bringing the Caliph upon the scene, and
the unfortunate youth is discovered half dead in his hiding-place. He is
revived by the barber, and presented with the hand of Margiana. To this
silly story Cornelius wrote music of extraordinary power and beauty.
Much of it is of course light and trivial, but such scenes as that of
the Muezzin call, or the wild confusion of the last finale, are fully
worthy of the master upon whom Cornelius modelled his style. Cornelius
had a pretty gift for humorous orchestration, and his accompaniments
often anticipate the dainty effects of 'Die Meistersinger.' 'Das
Rheingold' being still unwritten in 1858, it would be too much to expect
a systematised use of guiding themes, but they are often employed with
consummate skill, and in the Muezzin scene the music of the call to
prayer forms the basis of a symphonic passage, which is thoroughly in
the style of Wagner's later works. Cornelius left two posthumous works,
'Der Cid' and 'Gunloed,' which have been produced during the last few
years. They are little more than imitations of Wagner's maturer style.
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876) was a composer whose early death cut short a
career of remarkable promise. He produced but one opera during his
lifetime, but that displayed an originality and a resource for which it
would be vain to look in the multifarious compositions of the
Kapellmeisters of the period. 'Der Widerspaenstigen Zaehmung' follows t