Études, Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Krakowiak--The
technique of the Romantic period--"Idiomatic" pianoforte
music--Development of the instrument--The Pedal and its use--Liszt and
his Hungarian Rhapsodies. _Page 154_


[Sidenote: CHAP. VII.]

_At the Opera_

Instability of popular taste in respect of operas--Our lists seldom
extend back of the present century--The people of to-day as
indifferent as those of two centuries ago to the language used--Use
and abuse of foreign languages--The Opera defended as an art-form--Its
origin in the Greek tragedies--Why music is the language of emotion--A
scientific explanation--Herbert Spencer's laws--Efforts of Florentine
scholars to revive the classic tragedy result in the invention of the
lyric drama--The various kinds of Opera: _Opera seria_, _Opera buffa_,
_Opera semiseria_, French _grand Opéra_, and _Opéra
comique_--Operettas and musical farces--Romantic Opera--A popular
conception of German opera--A return to the old terminology led by
Wagner--The recitative: Its nature, aims, and capacities--The change
from speech to song--The arioso style, the accompanied recitative and
the aria--Music and dramatic action--Emancipation from set forms--The
orchestra--The decay of singing--Feats of the masters of the Roman
school and La Bastardella--Degeneracy of the Opera of their
day--Singers who have been heard in New York--Two generations of
singers compared--Grisi, Jenny Lind, Sontag, La Grange, Piccolomini,
Adelina Patti, Nilsson, Sembrich, Lucca, Gerster, Lehmann, Melba,
Eames, Calvé, Mario, Jean and Edouard de Reszke--Wagner and his