Works
De Lara was a moderately prolific composer, producing a total of 13 operas, 67 vocal art songs, and a small amount of chamber music. His musical style was highly eclectic, although the influences of Jules Massenet and Camille Saint-Saëns are readily apparent within his operas. Musicologist Nigel Burton wrote, "His style may be said to have developed, but it never really settled down." The somewhat erratic side to his writing was a weakness and a strength. The fluctuating musical vocabulary in his writing enabled him to create any attitude, emotion, or impression at a moment’s notice, but at times the musical effects seem out of place or without cause; a criticism also made of Meyerbeer. Critics have also commented on de Lara's tendency towards over sentimentality. As one critic said, "at the moments when the music should attempt to rise to dramatic greatness, it degenerates into synthetic posturings." However, de Lara by all accounts had a wonderful musical ear and at his best he is a fine composer. Perhaps de Lara's strongest area was his skill at orchestration which was both tasteful and highly creative at the same time.
Read more about this topic: Isidore De Lara
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“It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any other place.”
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“Again we mistook a little rocky islet seen through the “drisk,” with some taller bare trunks or stumps on it, for the steamer with its smoke-pipes, but as it had not changed its position after half an hour, we were undeceived. So much do the works of man resemble the works of nature. A moose might mistake a steamer for a floating isle, and not be scared till he heard its puffing or its whistle.”
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