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It was not till the end of the year that I was able to finish this tremendous task, and I had to postpone the completion of the third act of Lohengrin, which I had already begun, until the New Year. The first thing to claim my attention at the beginning of the year was the production of Iphigenia.
Almost every class found some representatives in that brilliant assemblage; and each one felt keenly the privilege he enjoyed in being present on that particular occasion. But it was not altogether for the sake of the music that all Paris had flocked to the opera. The Parisians were less desirous to hear "Iphigenia," than to see the emperor, who was to be there in company with his sister.
"She ought at least to pay for the wreaths I have sold to her." "And the sixty robes she has ordered of me." "She owes money to everybody." "Who will represent Iphigenia, Electra, and Polyxena when she is gone? The handsome Polybia herself will not make such a success as she has done." "Life will be dull when her door is closed." "She was the bright star, the soft moon of the Alexandrian sky."
And now farewell, true friend and companion in my toils; for indeed I die, and Phoebus hath lied unto me, prophesying falsely." And Pylades swore to him that he would build him a tomb and be a true husband to his sister. After this Iphigenia came forth, holding a tablet in her hand. And she said, "Here is the tablet of which I spake.
Cardinal Albani and Lord Grantham were very kind to him during his stay in Rome, and Raphael Meugs advised him to make a careful tour of study through the Italian art capitals. While in Rome he painted two pictures, "Cimon and Iphigenia," and "Angelica and Medora," which were well received, and during this period he was elected a member by the Academies of Florence, Bologna, and Parma.
The priestess was no other than Iphigenia, who had been snatched away from Aulis, and, when she and the brother, whom she had left an infant, found each other out, she contrived to leave the temple by night, carrying the image of Diana with her.
Ascertaining from the prisoners who they were, Iphigenia disclosed herself to them, and the three made their escape with the statue of the goddess, and returned to Mycenae. But Orestes was not yet relieved from the vengeance of the Erinyes. At length he took refuge with Minerva at Athens. The goddess afforded him protection, and appointed the court of Areopagus to decide his fate.
This was demurred to; but it was finally arranged that they should compose an opera on the same subject. "Iphigenia in Tauris," Gluck's second "Iphigenia," produced in 1779, was such a masterpiece that his rival shut his own score in his portfolio, and kept it two years.
But when Orestes heard this, he brake in, "Where is this Iphigenia? Hath the dead come back among the living?" "Thou seest her in me. But interrupt me not.
The rock cleaved open, and the water, as it gushed from the chasm, uttered a pleasing murmur." Thus Acis was changed into a river, and the river retains the name of Acis. Dryden, in his "Cymon and Iphigenia," has told the story of a clown converted into a gentleman by the power of love, in a way that shows traces of kindred to the old story of Galatea and the Cyclops.
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