Measured by the Italian standard, the one composer in the period now under consideration to be counted with Verdi was Amilcare Ponchielli (d. 1886), who was trained at Milan. While a student he wrote an operetta (1851) and while organist at Cremona undertook opera (1856). His general fame, however, did not come till later, with I promessi sposi (revised, 1872, Milan), I Lituani (1874), La gioconda (1876), Il figliuol prodigo (1880) and Marion Delorme (1885), besides other music. In originality he did not rank high.
Here may well be added the Brazilian Antonio Carlos Gomez (d. 1896), a pupil of Rossi at Milan, who produced in Italy or at Rio de Janeiro several works (from 1861), including Il Guarany (1870, Milan), Salvator Rosa (1874, Venice), Maria Tudor (1877, Milan) and Lo schiavo (1889, Rio).
204. Development of the Opéra Comique.—The form of opera for which French composers have shown a spontaneous and unwearied capacity is the opéra comique, the nature of which, however, has not been constant. At its outset, it was in part an adaptation of the not over-refined Italian opera buffa to the gay and witty taste of France, in part an evolution from the only half-musical vaudeville, and in part, too, a light application of some technical methods found in non-Italian forms of serious opera. In the hands of Boieldieu and Auber the type became distinct and so satisfactory that it not only led onward to the modern French opera, but more or less influenced all but the most strenuous tragic opera everywhere (see sec. 177).
Largely because of its adaptable nature, it was open to the influence of somewhat delicate poetic tendencies and even of vigorous imagination. Hence, as time went on and the usual range of social topics became somewhat exhausted, the opéra comique often acquired a sentiment and fancy that were not its original characteristics. Out of it grew the modern French romantic opera. From about 1860 its distinctness as a type steadily diminished, for in technical methods it approximated the grand opera, and in substance and structure it was more romantic than merely diverting. Meanwhile, however, the old craving for amusement pure and simple was satisfied by the rise of the brief, captivating operetta of the Offenbach type.
The progress of the opéra comique through the middle of the century was not dominated by any one composer, though Auber continued to be one of its leading exemplars. Neither did it call out any composer of first-rate genius. But in their respective ways there were several able contributors, like Halévy,
