e
speech and song," outraging probability in a far higher degree than the
opera properly so called, and singularly destructive of that illusion or
deception in which the pleasure derived from dramatic representations
principally consists. Music is in itself no mean vehicle of expression;
but, when connected with speech or language, it gives a vast additional
force and power to the expression of the particular passion or feeling
which the words themselves contain. It appears, as one listens to an
opera, as if the music were but a portion, or a necessary component part
of the language of the beings who move before us on the scene. We learn
to deem it part of their very nature and constitution; and it appears,
that, through any other than the combined medium of speech and song, the
passions, we see exhibited in such intensity, could not be adequately
expressed. The breaking up of this illusion by the intervention of mere
dialogue, is absolutely painful; there is a sudden sinking from the
ideal to the real, which shocks the sense, and at once destroys the
fabric of the imagination. Rousseau says of the lyric drama, that "the
melodies must be separated by speech, but speech must be modified by
music; the ideas should vary, but the _language_ should remain the same.
This language once adopted, if changed in the course of a piece, would
be like speaking half in French and half in German. There is too great a
dissimilarity between conversation and music, to pass at once from one
to the other; it shocks both the ear and probability. Two characters in
dialogue ought either to speak or sing; they cannot do alternately one
and the other. Now, recitative is the means of union between melody and
speech by whose aid, that which is merely dialogue becomes recital or
narrative in the drama, and may be rendered without disturbing the
course of melody." Recitative is peculiarly adapted to the expression of
strong and violent emotion. The language of the passions is short,
vivid, broken, and impetuous; the most abrupt transitions and
modulations which are observed in nature, may be noted down in
recitative. Writing recitative is but committing to paper the accent and
intonation, in short, the _reading_ of the language to be delivered by
the performer; and the composer may almost be considered as a master of
elocution, writing down that reading of a passage which he thinks may
best express the passion or the sentiment of the words. The effect