Scan 107
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
12 lines. Read by computer on 7 September 2026. Printed page 85. See the scan on archive.org.
1Boito
2nalist. Despite the help of Victor Hugo, he could not find an opening, so he went on to visit his sister at her quiet country home in Poland and there turned his attention again to Faust or Mefistofele, as he now called it. He intended to return to Paris in the fall but did not carry out this plan, however, for the managers, Bonola and Brunello, hearing that his opera was now nearing completion, offered to produce it at La Scala. Boito finished the work hastily and returned to Milan, which has since been his home. Mefistofele was very long and entirely different from the conventional Italian Opera, so the ardor of the immense audience, which had cheered lustily after the Prologue in the Heavens, cooled, until, before the end of the five acts, feeling had been completely reversed and pandemonium broke loose among the enraged listeners. But he did not give up on account of this failure. He changed Faust's part from barytone to tenor, greatly revised the opening scene and the Sabba Romantico in the second act, and omitted some scenes entirely. In this new form it was given with great success at Bologna, in 1875. The original score has not yet been printed, so that it is impossible to follow, in that way, the change of his ideals. It was grandly conceived, but the orchestration was weak and there were some impractical scenes, yet some critics think the original more artistic than the present form. Unlike Gounod, Boito has used Goethe's entire poem, thus subjecting himself to lack of unity of interest which is thought to be the reason that Mefistofele is being seen less and less frequently since the retirement of Christine Nilsson, whose principal piece it was and who introduced it at London in 1880.
4Boito is on admirer but not an imitator of Wagner, though his principles won him the name of the Italian Wagner, but latterly Bach has held the highest place in his esteem. He has written three other operas, Ero e Leandro, Nerone, and Orestiade, but none of them has been produced, for, as he is a critic, he seems dissatisfied with his own works. The libretto of Ero e Leandro, he gave to his friend Bottesini, who set it and it was later used, also successfully, by Mancinelli, but Boito himself used part of the music in his Ode to Art for the opening of the National Exhibition at Turin in 1882, and another theme was published as a barcarola for four voices. Boito is the author of the librettos of Faccio's Amleto, Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Palumbo's Alessandro Farnese, Dominiceto's Tram, and Verdi's Otello and Falstaff, and he also wrote the volume on Marcello in the Great Musicians' Series, edited by Hueffer. He has received the titles of Cavliere, Ufficiale and Commendatore from the Italian Government, as well as the cross of the Legion of Honor from France, but he is too modest to use them. In 1892 he was appointed Inspector General of Technical Instruction in the Conservatories and Lyceums of Italy. Also a degree was conferred upon him by Cambridge University in 1893. He has translated a number of works by Wagner, Schumann, and Rubinstein, and in 1901 published a tragedy, Nerone, possibly the libretto of his opera.
6Bond
7Bomtempo (bōm-tām'-pō), João Domingo. About 1775-1842.
8Portuguese composer, pianist, and director. He was born at Lisbon, about 1775. In 1795 he settled in Paris, and with a period of absence in London, remained at the French capital until 1820, in which year he returned to Lisbon. In his native city he founded a Philharmonic Society, was made head of the Conservatory, held the post of instructor of the Royal family and director of the Court band. He was the author of operas, church music, compositions for the piano, and of a Method for Piano.
10*Bond, Mrs. Carrie Jacobs. 1863.
11Contemporary American song-writer whose work is marked by simplicity and sympathy. On the title page of certain volumes of her songs is inscribed this phrase, "as unpretentious as the wild-rose." She publishes her own work, at the Bond Shop, Chicago, which has sent out numerous musical compositions of hers as well as some verse. Carrie M. Jacobs was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. She cannot remember the time when she could not sing; at the age of four she could pick out airs on the piano and at seven could play anything she heard. She was married to Dr. Frank Bond, in 1888, and removed to Northern Michigan. On his death, in 1895,
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