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The death of Froufrou was a watery sight, and for any chance to weep we are many of us grateful. And yet it was a German, born in the land of Charlotte and Werther, it was Heine who remarked on the oddity of praising the "dramatic poet who possesses the art of drawing tears a talent which he has in common with the meanest onion."
Allowing for the growth of M. Meilhac's intellect during the eight or ten years which intervened between the work alone and the work with his associate, and allowing for the improvement in the mechanism of play-making, I see no reason why M. Meilhac might not have written Fanny Lear and Froufrou substantially as they are had he never met M. Halévy.
He asked to be allowed to make a few sketches of me, and after giving orders that he should be taken to a seat, I did not trouble any more about him. We had to hurry through the rehearsal in order to be at the theatre in time for the performance of Froufrou, which we were giving that night.
No doubt it will surprise some theatre-goers who are not special students of the stage to be told that the authors of Froufrou are the authors also of the Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein and of La Belle Hélène, of Carmen and of Le Petit Duc.
Marrying a reserved yet deeply-devoted husband because her sister bid her; taking into her home that sister, who had sacrificed her own love for the husband; seeing this sister straighten the household which she in her heedless seeking for idle amusement had not governed, then beginning to feel herself in danger and aware of a growing jealousy, senseless though it be, of the sister who has so innocently supplanted her by her hearth, and even with her child; making one effort to regain her place, and failing, as was inevitable, poor Froufrou takes the fatal plunge which will for ever and at once separate her from what was hers before.
Dudlay is left to us. Oh, she will always stay with us! I cannot help saying it. What a pity! What a pity!" And eight days after, on June 7, he wrote in his theatrical feuilleton, on the first performance of Froufrou: "I do not think that the emotion at any theatre has ever been so profound. "'Well, said I to Mlle.
The name of Fanny Lear may sound familiar to some readers because it was given to an American adventuress in Russia by a grand-ducal admirer. After Fanny Lear came Froufrou, the lineal successor of The Stranger as the current masterpiece of the lachrymatory drama. Nothing so tear-compelling as the final act of Froufrou had been seen on the stage for half a century or more.
I had visited fifty cities, and given 156 performances, as follows: La Dame aux Camelias . . . . 65 performances Adrienne Lecouvreur . . . . 17 " Froufrou . . . . . . . 41 " La Princesse Georges . . . . 3 " Hernani . . . . . . . 14 " L'Etrangere . . . . . . 3 " Phedre . . . . . . . 6 " Le Sphinx . . . . . . 7 " Total receipts . . . . 2,667,600 francs Average receipts . . . 17,100 "
My joy was great the following day when Jarrett arrived at my hotel perfectly furious, holding in his hand the principal newspaper of Pittsburg, in which our illustrator, who turned out to be a journalist, had written an article giving at full length an account of the dress rehearsal of Froufrou!
I was to play eight pieces: Hernani, Phedre, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Froufrou, La Dame aux Camelias, Le Sphinx, L'Etrangere, and La Princesse Georges. I ordered twenty-five modern dresses at Laferriere's, of whom I was then a customer. At Baron's I ordered six costumes for Adrienne Lecouvreur and four costumes for Hernani. I ordered from a young theatre costumier named Lepaul my costume for Phedre.
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