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Operas at Bonn in 1792

The fifth season began in October, 1792. Of the nine operas given before the departure of Maximilian and the company to Münster in December, “Die Müllerin” by De la Borde, “König Axur in Ormus” by Salieri, and “Hieronymus Knicker” by Dittersdorf, were the only ones new to Bonn; and in only the first two of these could Beethoven have taken part, unless at rehearsals; for at the beginning of November he left Bonn—and, as it proved, forever. Probably Salieri’s masterpiece was his last opera within the familiar walls of the Court Theatre of the Elector of Cologne.

Beethoven’s eighteenth birthday came around during the rehearsals for the first season, of this theatre; his twenty-second just after the beginning of the fifth. During four years (1788–1792) he was adding to his musical knowledge and experience in a direction wherein he has usually been represented as deficient—as active member of an operatic orchestra; and the catalogue of works performed shows that the best schools of the day, save that of Berlin, must have been thoroughly mastered by him in all their strength and weakness. Beethoven’s titanic power and grandeur would have marked his compositions under any circumstances; but it is very doubtful if, without the training of those years in the Electoral “Toxal, Kammer und Theater” as member of the orchestra, his works would have so abounded in melodies of such profound depths of expression, of such heavenly serenity and repose and of such divine beauty as they do, and which give him rank with the two greatest of melodists, Handel and Mozart.