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Charles Marie Widor has recently in 'Les Pêcheurs de Saint Jean' given a worthy success to his twenty-year-old 'Maître Ambros. Navier Leroux, a pupil of Massenet, has carried on his master's traditions, somewhat Wagnerised and generally speaking brought up to date, in 'Astarté' , 'La Reine Fiammette' , 'William Ratcliff' , and 'Théodora' . Remarkable promise has been shown by Paul Dukas in 'Ariane et Barbe-Bleue' ; by Camille d'Erlanger in 'Le Fils de l'Étoile' and 'Aphrodite' ; by Georges Marty in 'Daria' ; by Georges Hüe in 'Titania' , and by Gabriel Dupont in 'La Cabrera , while a characteristic note of tender sentiment was struck by Reynaldo Hahn in 'La Carmélite' .
It was preceded by La Princesse Maleine ; L'Intruse, Les Aveugles ; and Les sept Princesses . Since its appearance Maeterlinck has published these plays: Alladine et Palomides; Intérieur; La Mort de Tintagiles: Trois petits drames pour Marionnettes ; Aglavaine et Selysette ; Ariane et Barbe-Bleue; Soeur Béatrice ; Monna Vanna ; Joyzelle . Pelléas et Mélisande, dedicated to Octave Mirbeau "in token of deep friendship, admiration, and gratitude," was first performed at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris, on May 17, 1893, with this cast: Pelléas, Mlle.
We even got so far as to hum one of Offenbach's couplets; but I must confess that our jokes were feeble, and that we did not sing the airs correctly. I even thought I discovered Levesque obstinately setting the words of "Barbe-Bleue" to one of the airs in "Il Trovatore," which rather indicated some grave preoccupation of the mind.
Chief among these are Barbe-bleue, the Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein, the Brigands and Périchole.
It is a fact that good singing in the old-fashioned sense will help nobody out in Elektra, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, Pelléas et Mélisande, or The Nightingale. These works are written in new styles and they demand a new technique. Put Mme. Melba, Mme. Destinn, Mme. Sembrich, or Mme. Galli-Curci to work on these scores and you will simply have a sad mess.
How, for example, she gives her voice the hue and colour of a jeune fille in Pelléas et Mélisande, for although Mélisande had been the bride of Barbe-Bleue before Golaud discovered her in the forest she had never learned to be anything else than innocent and distraught, unhappy and mysterious.
He made a great noise in his day, but nothing keeps his memory green except the Bobèche of Offenbach's Barbe-Bleue. Tabarin, however, has a new lease of life in two of the handy little-volumes of the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne. "Everybody knows," said Beppo, my Roman model, "that the English are mad, signor.
Many of the new operas, Carmen, La Dolores, Salome, Elektra, to name a few, call for interpretative dancing of the first order. Madama Butterfly and Lakmé demand a knowledge of national characteristics. Pelléas et Mélisande and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue require of the interpreter absolutely distinct enunciation.
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