1788 Bonno's as choirmaster, acquiring a unique prestige and influence which he retained for a generation. From the start he had attracted Gluck's interest became his pupil, and brought out Les Danaides (1784, Paris) under the shelter of Gluck's name. From this time he wrote frequently for the Vienna stage and occasionally for that of Paris, as Tarare (1787), but after 1792 produced few new operas. Most of his 40 operas were very successful for a time, since they were less strenuous and novel than Gluck's. His relations with Mozart were not altogether cordial, and he is supposed to have stood in the way of the latter's due recognition at court. His long career made him an interesting link between the Haydn-Mozart period and that of Beethoven and Schubert, both of whom profited by his advice or instruction.
Matthias Kamienski (d. 1821), born in Hungary in 1834 and educated at Vienna, settled early at Warsaw, becoming the first composer of opera in Polish (from 1775).
Vincenzo Righini (d. 1812), a Bolognese, and pupil of Bernacchi and Martini, was noted first as a tenor and from 1776 as an opera-writer at Prague. From 1780 he was teaching and conducting at Vienna, from 1788 was choirmaster at Mayence, and from 1793 at Berlin on a large salary. His originality and vigor were slight, but several of his 20 operas were popular, like Tigrane (1799) and Gerusalemme liberata (1802). His ablest work was a Missa solenne (1790).
Peter von Winter (d. 1825), was born at Mannheim in l754 and brought up there as a violinist, going with the orchestra to Munich in 1778 and becoming in 1788 its conductor. He was a pupil of Vogler and later of Salieri. Beginning opera-writing as early as 1776, he was in much request at Munich, Vienna, Venice and many other cities, writing in all some 40 entertaining works, most of them originally in German, of which Das unterbrochene Opferfest (1796, Vienna) and Marie van Montalban (1798, Munich) were the most famous. Das Labyrinth (1794, Vienna) is on a text (by Schikaneder) which is a pendant to Mozart's Magic Flute. He disliked clavier-composers, and early took a prejudice to Mozart that he often expressed. He was a prolific sacred and instrumental writer, leaving many oratorios and cantatas, masses and motets, and several symphonies, including the Schlacht-Symphonie (1814) for chorus and orchestra. He had a certain gift for choral effects, but lacked learning and inspiration.
Vicente Martin y Solar (d. 1810), a Spaniard who made a name in Florence and Turin as an opera-writer (from 1776), went thence to Vienna, where for a time he outshone all rivals, even Mozart himself, and in 1788-1801 was in honor at St. Petersburg. Of his about 20 comic operas, the chief were Una cosa rara (1786) and L'arbore di Diana (1787).
Among the further writers appearing before 1800, several are named under the next period (see Chapter XXVI.).
155. Operatic Progress in France.—Just after 1750 the French
musical drama entered upon a period of debate and contention
that was extreme enough at one or two points to become notorious.
The struggle over the Buffonists in the fifties was ostensibly
between Italian and French ideas of comic opera, and the
