Scan 71
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
6 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 51. See the scan on archive.org.
1Messager
21874 he became organist at Saint-Sulpice, and he afterward was organist at St.-Paul-St.-Louis and maître de chapelle at Sainte-Marie des Batignolles. In 1876 he was awarded gold medal by the Société des Compositeurs for a symphony in four movements which Édouard Colonne directed at the Châtelet concerts, and his cantata for chorus and orchestra entitled Prométhée enchainé won second Premier prize at a Concours de la Ville de Paris. In 1883 he made his debut as an operatic composer by finishing François les Bas-bleus which Firnini Bernicot left incomplete at his death. Two years later his own three-act operetta, La Fauvette du Temple was successfully produced at the Folies-Dramatiques and during that same year came his first pronounced success, La Béarnaise, a three-act operetta, which was introduced at the Bouffes Parisiens, and in October, 1886, was given at the Prince of Wales Theatre, in London, with Marie Tempest and Florence St. John in leading roles. The three-act comic opera, La Basoche, which appeared at the Opéra Comique in 1890 was immensely successful, and in 1891 was translated into English by Sir Augustus Harris and Eugene Oudin, and given at the Royal English Opera, with Esther Pallister, Ben Davies and David Bispham, then a debutant, as the chief singers. La Basoche is delightfully tuneful and is written in the brilliant, sparkling style characteristic of Parisian comic opera. His next interesting opera was a lyric comedy on the subject, Madame Crysanthème from Pierre Loti's novel, and this appeared in the Theatre Lyrique in 1893. Other compositions to be performed during that year were the ballet, Scaramouche and the operetta, Miss Dollar, both played at the Nouveau Theatre. In 1894 he wrote Mirette for the Savoy Theatre, London; in 1895 he composed Le Chevalier d'Harmontel, given at the Opéra Comique; in the following year Les Petites Michus was played at Bouffes Parisiens.. In 1898 Carré gave him the position of conductor of orchestra at the Opéra Comique and Véronique was played at the Bouffes Parisiens. Une Aventure de la Guimart was performed at the Opéra Comique in 1900 and Les Dragons de l'Imperatrice came out at the Varietes in 1905. In 1901 Messager succeeded Maurice Grau as artistic director of Royal Opera at Covent Garden and up to the present time, 1908, still fills that position. He is married to Hope Temple, a popular song-writer.
4Metastasio (mā-täs-tä'-zī-ō), Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura. 1698-1782.
5Italian poet, who won glory for his country in her time of deepest degradation, and distinction for himself, by perfecting the musical drama, invented by Zeno, and raising it to a recognized literary form. He was born at Rome and was the son of Trapassi, a very humble man in the service of the Pope, who did his best to educate his precocious child. The boy was adopted by a famous lawyer, Gravina, who heard him singing in the street. He changed his name to Mestastasio the Greek form of Trapassi, and had him thoroughly instructed in literature, philosophy and the law. Gravina's death in 1718 left him in fairly good circumstances, but through his own extravagance and the schemes of his rivals he lost all he had and was obliged to go to Naples to escape his creditors. There he found employment with a lawyer, Castagnola, who strictly forbade him to have anything to do with literary pursuits. Secretly he produced a masque, The Garden of Hesperides, which attracted the attention of the singer, Maria Bulgarini, called La Romanina, who at once became his patroness and took him into her household. His first great success, the production of his Deserted Dido in 1734, was largely due to her performance. The piece was almost a parody on Virgil, but the public was wildly enthusiastic over it and the receipts from it were sufficient to pay Metastasio's Roman debts. In 1729 Emperor Charles VI. sent for him to take Zeno's place as Court poet at Vienna and he went after bidding farewell to La Romanina, who wished to follow him. She died suddenly soon afterwards, possibly by some unnatural means, for Metastasio had soon become attached to Countess Althan at Vienna. His career as Court poet was brilliant and he remained a favorite showered with honors until the close of his romantic life, the only interruption of his work being the Austrian war of succession
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