Italy, the birth-place of opera--Purcell and opera--English people and opera--Charles II. and his court--Italian opera--Its popularity--Managers and great singers--Royal Opera--Dr. Richter--Opera in English--Dr. Richter and English singers--Mr. Thomas Beecham and opera in English--Alfred Bunn and his efforts--"Bohemian Girl"--Louisa Pyne and William Harrison--The Pyne family--G. A. Macfarren--Carl Rosa Company--His distinguished artists--Madame Valleria and Mr. Ludwig--British composers and opera--Goring Thomas' "Esmeralda"--Lack of national feeling--Mr. D'Oyly Carte--Royal English opera--"Ivanhoe"--Eugène Oudin--Remarkable cast of singers--Difficulties attached to opera in English--State aid--Is it to be expected?--Musical comedy--Its popularity--A successful manager--Basis of the plea for State aid--A suggestion.
Opera, as we know it to-day, is a creation subsequent to the Reformation. Like oratorio, the country of its birth was Italy, and similarly, its origin was connected with the miracle plays of the ancient Church. On its introduction to England, Purcell, with his restless genius, was quick to perceive the possibilities it opened out to the imaginative musician, and it was not long before he was testing his powers in the new field of labour. Unhappily, however, his life was too short to permit him to make any effective appeal on its behalf to the English people, and it soon became looked upon by them, simply, as a diversion of a foreign court or the amusement of an aristocracy, with either of whom they were in little sympathy. So far as the masses of people are concerned, nothing has happened since those days, to materially alter the situation.
Opera remains a source of entertainment to the wealthy, or a luxury to the middle-classes. In early Puritan times it was regarded with particular horror, but as time passed, it became rather to be looked upon with indifference, since it so evidently made little impression on the common people. It is not difficult to suggest a cause for the hostility with which it was early regarded. Opera came, first, prominently into notice in the reign of Charles II., and as he was a great patron of all foreign inventions, he naturally bestowed his patronage, and probably ostentatiously, on this one. Thus it would be associated in the minds of the people with the hideous immorality of that wretched monarch and his court.