'Tancred' was sung
at Berlin by a bass voice, Weber had written violent articles not only
against the management, but against the composer, so that, when Weber
came to Paris, he did not venture to call on Rossini, who, however, let
him know that he bore him no grudge for having made these attacks; on
receipt of that message Weber called and they became acquainted.

"I asked him if he had met Byron in Venice? 'Only in a restaurant,' was
the answer, 'where I was introduced to him; our acquaintance, therefore,
was very slight; it seems he has spoken of me, but I don't know what he
says.' I translated for him, in a somewhat milder form, Byron's words,
which happened to be fresh in my memory: 'They have been crucifying
Othello into an opera; the music good but lugubrious, but, as for the
words, all the real scenes with Iago cut out, and the greatest nonsense
instead, the handkerchief turned into a billet-doux, and the first
singer would not black his face--singing, dresses, and music very good.'
The _maestro_ regretted his ignorance of the English language, and said,
'In my day I gave much time to the study of our Italian literature.
Dante is the man I owe most to; he taught me more music than all my
music-masters put together, and when I wrote my 'Otello,' I would
introduce those lines of Dante--you know the song of the gondolier.
My librettist would have it that gondoliers never sang Dante, and but
rarely Tasso, but I answered him, 'I know all about that better than
you, for I have lived in Venice and you haven't. Dante I must and will
have.'"

VI.

An ardent disciple of Wagner sums up his ideas of the mania for
the Rossini music, which possessed Europe for fifteen years, in the
following: "Rossini, the most gifted and spoiled of her sons [speaking
of Italy] sallied forth with an innumerable army of Bacchantic melodies
to conquer the world, the Messiah of joy, the breaker of thought and
sorrow. Europe, by this time, had tired of the empty pomp of French
declamation. It lent but too willing an ear to the new gospel, and
eagerly quaffed the intoxicating potion, which Rossini poured out in
inexhaustible streams." This very well expresses the delight of all the
countries of Europe in music which for a long time almost monopolized
the stage.

The charge of being a mere tune-spinner, the denial of invention, depth,
and character, have been common watchwords in the mouths of critics
wedded to other schools. But Rossini's p