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Méhul's curious experiments in orchestration, and the solemn splendour of Mozart's Egyptian mysteries, alike show the influence of the romantic spirit as surely as the weirdest piece of diablerie ever devised by Weber or his followers.
We also used to have dramatic recitals which were excellent both for the performers and the audiences as they gave works which were not in the usual repertoire. In these recitals they gave Méhul's Joseph, which had disappeared from the stage for a long time.
The Consul Bonaparte had neither forgotten nor pardoned Cherubini's answer; and, despite his fondness for Italian music, he was resolved to give to Mehul the position vacated by Paesiello. Josephine approved entirely of this choice, and, in order to witness Mehul's joy, she invited him to Malmaison, that the consul might there inform him of his appointment.
Méhul's last and greatest work, 'Joseph, is still performed in France and Germany, though our national prejudices forbid the hope that it can ever be heard in this country except in a mutilated concert version. The opera follows the Biblical story closely, and Méhul has reproduced the large simplicity of the Old Testament with rare felicity.
In Germany it met with instant and extended success, and it is one of the few French operas of the old school which still continue to be given on the German stage. In England it is now frequently sung as an oratorio. It is on this remarkable work that Méhul's lasting reputation as a composer rests outside of his own nation.
Musical students rank the instrumental parts of this opera with the organ music of Bach, the choral fugues of Handel, and the symphonies of Beethoven, for beauty of form and originality of ideas. On its first representation, on the 13th of March, 1797, one of the journals, after praising its beauty, professed to discover imitations of Méhul's manner in it.
Méhul's comic operas are often deficient in sparkle, but their musical force and the enchanting melodies with which they are begemmed have kept them alive, and several of them 'Une Folie, for instance, and 'Le Trésor Supposé' have been performed in Germany during the last decade, while 'L'Irato, a brilliant imitation of Italian opera buffa, has recently been given at Brussels with great success.
This score, which recalls by its charm and melodic simplicity Mehul's 'Joseph, but with more tenderness and modern feeling, is certainly a masterpiece." But alas, hard times came upon the Franck family. The rich pupils, who formed the young men's chief clientèle, all left Paris, alarmed by the forebodings of the revolution of 1848. Just at this most inopportune moment, César decided to marry.
So it came about that La Juive is the only opera in which the grey-bearded old father is played by the principal tenor, whilst the lover is the light tenor. Mehul's Biblical Joseph and his Brethren is the one opera in which there are no female characters, though "Benjamin" is played by the leading soprano.
He raised the standard of the chorus, stimulated the actors, inspected the stage furnishings and costumes, and stamped harmony of feeling, harmony of understanding, and harmony of effort upon the first work undertaken a performance of Mehul's "Joseph in Egypt." Nor did he confine his educational efforts to the people of the theatre.
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