Although Holland received its strongest musical impulse from Germany, many of its early operas were French, as, for example, Guillaume de Nassau (1832, Hague) by Costard de Mézeray (d. 1887), then court-conductor; Le Bandit (1840, Hague) by the energetic Jean Bernard van Bree (d. 1857); many operas and ballets (from 1840) at Amsterdam by Anton Berlijn (d. 1870); and La siége de Leyde (1847, Hague) by the Parisian Adolphe Vogel (d. 1892).
Among Spanish composers may be named Miguel Hilario Eslava (d. 1878), choirmaster from 1832 at Seville and from 1844 at Madrid (see sec. 221), with 3 Italian operas (1841-3); Pascual Arrieta y Corera (d. 1894), from 1857 professor at the Madrid conservatory and from 1877 its director, with about 50 works (from 1845), including the ambitious Isabel la Católica (1850); Rafael José Maria Hernando, with about 15 works (from 1848); Joaquin Gaztambide (d. 1870), with 40 popular comedies (from 1850); Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (d. 1894), from 1868 professor at Madrid, with over 60 (from 1850), also very successful; Cristobal Oudrid (d. 1877), with over 30 (from 1850); Manuel Fernandez Caballero; and many others.
205. Austrian and German Opera.—The development of
opera in German during this period wholly lacked the concentration
so conspicuous in that of French opera. Austria stood
slightly apart from Germany in that its operatic styles were
more closely related to those of Italy or France, especially the
latter, though opera in German, often romantic in spirit, was
becoming more frequent. Germany was still split up into numerous
states, no one of which had absolute precedence, and
between them there was much jealousy. Musically, the foremost
countries were Saxony (including the many Saxon duchies),
Bavaria and Prussia, with Leipsic, Weimar and Dresden in the
first, Munich in the second and Berlin in the third as leading
operatic centres. But there were many others—Stuttgart and
Darmstadt in the southwest, Hamburg and Hanover in the
northwest, for example—and German influence was strong
in Holland, the Scandinavian countries, Poland and Russia.
Although the popular vogue of Italian opera continued in
many quarters, enthusiasm for the romantic treatment of German
themes or for a national comedy parallel to the French
opéra comique was increasing, and in every capital and large
city native composers were pushing into view. Many of these
doubtless represented the 'capellmeister' type of composer—well-trained,
but uninspired. The ablest successors of Weber
were Marschner and Lortzing, but even Marschner was not
