| Contents |
First evening. The first opera, a tale of the past ; Vincenza, a sentimental tale ; The vexations of Kleiner the Elder -- Second evening. The wandering harpist, a tale of today ; The performance of an oratorio ; The sleep of the just -- Third evening -- Fourth evening. A debut in Freischutz, a necrological tale ; Marescot, a study of a musical knacker -- Sixth evening. How a tenor revolves around the public, an astronomical study ; The vexations of Kleiner the younger -- Seventh evening. De Viris Illustribus Urbis Romae, a historical and philosophical study ; Vocabulary of the Roman language -- Eighth evening. Romans of the new world ; Mr Barnum ; Jenny Lind's trip to America -- Ninth evening. The Paris opera and the London opera houses: a moral study -- Tenth evening. The institution of the tack ; A victim of the tack -- Eleventh evening -- Twelfth evening. Suicide through enthusiasm, a true story -- Thirteenth evening. Spontini, a biographical sketch -- Fourteenth evening. Operas follow and resemble each other ; The criteria of beauty -- Fifteenth evening. Another vexation for Kleiner the Elder -- Sixteenth evening. Paganini, a biographical sketch -- Seventeenth evening -- Eighteenth evening. An accusation brought against the author's criticism ; His defence ; The attorney general's reply ; Documents in the case ; Analysis of Pigeon Post ; Analysis of The Lighthouse ; The representatives of the deep ; Analysis of Liletta ; Idyll ; The bewitched piano -- Nineteenth evening -- Twentieth evening. Musical studies: the London charity children at St Paul's cathedral, a choir of 6,500 voices ; The crystal palace at seven o'clock in the morning ; English musical institutions ; The Chinese singers and musicians in London; the Indians; the Highlander; the black men of the streets -- Twenty-second evening -- Twenty-third evening. Gluck and the members of the Naples conservatoire ; Durante's pronouncement -- Twenty-fourth evening -- Twenty-fifth evening. Euphonia, or the musical town, a tale of the future -- Epilogue. The farewell dinner ; Corsino's toast ; The conductor's toast ; Schmidt's toast ; The author's reply ; The end of the Kleiner brothers' vexations -- Second epilogue. Corsino's letter to the author ; The author's reply to Corsino ; The inauguration of the Beethoven statue at Bonn ; Mehul ; London again ; Mme Sontag ; Purcell's commemoration ; St James's chapel ; A fugue by Rossini ; A Mot of Heine's ; Vincent Wallace, his adventures in New Zealand. |
| Abstract |
During the performances of fashionable operas in an unidentified but "civilized" town in northern Europe, the musicians (with the exception of the conscientious bass drummer) tell tales, read stories, and exchange gossip to relieve the tedium of the bad music they are paid to perform. In this delightful and now classic narrative written by the brilliant composer and critic Hector Berlioz, we are privy to twenty-five highly entertaining evenings with a fascinating group of distracted performers. As we near the two-hundredth anniversary of Berlioz's birth, Jacques Barzun's pitch-perfect translation of Evenings with the Orchestra - with a new foreword by Berlioz scholar Peter Bloom - testifies to the enduring pleasure found in this most witty and amusing book. |
