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This actor made his first appearance in the character of Achille in the tragedy of Iphigenie en Aulide by RACINE. He was not the Achilles of Homer, nor even that of the piece, or at best he represented him in miniature.
With the exception of one only, all the works of GLUCK have remained as stock-pieces, and are played from time to time. They are five in number; namely, Iphigenie en Aulide, Iphigenie en Tauride, Orphee et Euridice, Armide, and Alceste. That which could not maintain its ground, and consequently fell, was Narcisse.
Yet Boito was his own poet, master of the situation so far as all parts of his work were concerned, and might have consulted historical accuracy in a department in which Gluck once found that he was the slave of his ballet master. Gluck refused to introduce a chaconne into "Iphigenie en Aulide." "A chaconne?" cried the composer. "When did the Greeks ever dance a chaconne?"
He is a man with a passion, so much the better for him! I missed you very much at Madame Viardot's a fortnight ago. She sang Iphigenie en Aulide. I can not tell you how beautiful it was, how transporting, in short how sublime. What an artist that woman is! What an artist! Such emotions console one for life. Well! and you, dear good master, that play that they talk about, is it finished?
There all artists and authors of France were encouraged and patronized—with the exception of Voltaire; the queen refused to patronize a man whose view upon morality had caused so much trouble. Music and the drama received especial protection from her. The triumph of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide, in 1774, was the first victory of Marie Antoinette over the former mistress and the Piccini party.
Yet another and quite different question: Should you be inclined to undertake in connection with "Alceste," "Orphee," "Armide," and "Iphigenia en Tauride," by Gluck, a similar task to that which you have already performed for "Iphigenie en Aulide," and what sum would you expect by way of honorarium?
It was at this period that Cherubini became acquainted with the works of Haydn, and learned from him how to unite depth with lightness, grace with power, jest with earnestness, and toying with dignity. A short visit to Italy for the carnival of 1788 resulted in the production of the opera of "Ifigenia in Aulide" at La Scala, Milan.
So when Alceste had provided her last soprano song, and the singer was looking for "Ifigenia in Aulide," Adrian felt at liberty to say that old Mrs. Picture's ideas about possession were very funny and interesting. "Isn't it curious?" said Gwen. "She really believes it all, you know, like Gospel. All that about the devil that had possession of her husband!
She had "created" Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide and the composer had said of her, "If it had not been for the voice and elocution of Mlle. Arnould, my Iphigénie would never have been performed in France." In her youth she had interested not only Marie Antoinette but also the King, and she had been the object of Mme. de Pompadour's suspicion and Mme. du Barry's rage.
In RACINE'S, the parts of Athalie and of Phedre in the tragedies of the same name, of Agrippine in Britannicus, of Clitemnestre in Iphigenie en Aulide, and of Roxane in Bajazet. In VOLTAIRE'S, those of Merope and Semiramis; and, lastly, that of Medee in the tragedy by LONGEPIERRE.
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