Haydn, on the other hand,
spent no time on grand opera. Through his connection with the Princes
Esterhazy, which gave him an assured income from his twenty-ninth year
to the end of his life, he was in a position to write only the style of
music to which he was best adapted by his talents and preference.
Above all other considerations, the opera must be made to pay. The
composers expected to make money from it, and its presentation was
always accompanied by enormous expense. Everything conspired to get them
to write what their audience would like, without considering too closely
whether this was the best they were capable of producing. In those times
all that people required of an opera was that it should entertain. If we
compare the best opera before Wagner's time with such works as Bach's
Grand Mass in B minor, or Beethoven's Mass in D, we will readily see
that the composers of those times put their best thought into their
sacred compositions. Bach, Protestant that he was, but with the vein of
religious mysticism strong in him, which is usually to be found in
highly endowed artistic natures (Wagner is an instance, also Liszt), was
attracted by the beautiful text of the Mass, its stateliness and
solemnity, and the world is enriched by an imperishable work of genius.
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