Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (smart ebook reader .txt) 📕

Important A Thing The Quality Of The Opera-Book Is To The Composer Of

The Score. These Earlier Librettos Were Admirably Made: They Are Models

Of What A Comic Opera-Book Should Be. I Cannot Well Imagine A Better Bit

Of Work Of Its Kind Than The _Belle Helene_ Or The _Grande Duchesse_.

Tried By The Triple Test Of Plot,  Characters And Dialogue,  They Are

Nowhere Wanting. Since Mm. Meilhac And Halevy Have Ceased Writing For M.

Offenbach They Have Done Two Books For M. Charles Lecoq--The _Petit Duc_

And The _Grande Demoiselle_. These Are Rather Light Comic Operas Than

True _Operas-Bouffes_,  But If There Is An Elevation In The Style Of The

Music,  There Is An Emphatic Falling Off In The Quality Of The Words.

From The _Grande Duchesse_ To The _Petit Duc_ Is A Great Descent: The

Former Was A Genuine Play,  Complete And Self-Contained--The Latter Is A

Careless Trifle,  A Mere Outline Sketch For The Composer To Fill Up. The

Story--Akin In Subject To Mr. Tom Taylor'S Fine Historical Drama

_Clancarty_--Is Pretty,  But There Is No Trace Of The True Poetry Which

Made The Farewell Letter Of Perichole So Touching,  Or Of The True Comic

Force Which Projected General Bourn. _Carmen_,  Which,  Like _Perichole_,

Owes The Suggestion Of Its Plot And Characters To Prosper Merimee,  Is

Little More Than The Task-Work Of The Two Well-Trained Play-Makers: It

Was Sufficient For Its Purpose,  No More And No Less.

Of All The Opera-Books Of Mm. Meilhac And Halevy,  That One Is Easily

First And Foremost Which Has For Its Heroine The Helen Of Troy Whom

Marlowe'S Faustus Declared

            Fairer Than The Evening Air,

  Clad In The Beauty Of A Thousand Stars.

In The _Belle Helene_ We See The Higher Wit Of M. Meilhac. M. Halevy Had

Been At The Same College With Him,  And They Had Pored Together Over The

Same Legends Of Old Time,  But Working Without M. Meilhac On _Orphee Aux

Enfers_,  M. Halevy Showed His Inferiority,  For _Orphee_ Is The

Old-Fashioned Anachronistic Skit On Antiquity--Funny If You Will,  But

With A Fun Often Labored,  Not To Say Forced--The Fun Of Physical

Incongruity And Exaggeration. But In The _Belle Helene_ The Fun,  Easy

And Flowing,  Is Of A Very High Quality,  And It Has Root In Mental,  Not

Physical,  Incongruity. Here Indeed Is The Humorous Touchstone Of A Whole

System Of Government And Of Theology. And,  Allowing For The Variations

Made With Comic Intent,  It Is Altogether Greek In Spirit--So Greek,  In

Fact,  That I Doubt Whether Any One Who Has Not Given His Days And Nights

To The Study Of Homer And Of The Tragedians,  And Who Has Not Thus Taken

In By The Pores The Subtle Essence Of Hellenic Life And Literature,  Can

Truly Appreciate This French Farce. Planche'S _Golden Fleece_ Is In The

Same Vein,  But The Ore Is Not As Rich. Frere'S _Loves Of The Triangles_

And Some Of His _Anti-Jacobin_ Writing Are Perhaps As Good In Quality,

But The Subjects Are Inferior And Temporary. Scarron'S Vulgar Burlesques

And The Cheap Parodies Of Many Contemporary English Play-Makers Are Not

To Be Mentioned In The Same Breath With This Scholarly Fooling. There Is

Something In The French Genius Akin To The Greek,  And Here Was A Gallic

Wit Who Could Turn A Hellenic Love-Tale Inside Out,  And Wring The

Uttermost Drop Of Fun From It Without Recourse To The Devices Of The

Booth At The Fair,  The False Nose And The Simulation Of Needless

Ugliness. The French Play,  Comic As It Was,  Did Not Suggest Hysteria Or

Epilepsy,  And It Was Not So Lacking In Grace That We Could Not Recall

The Original Story Without A Shudder. There Is No Shattering Of An

Ideal,  And One Cannot Reproach The Authors Of The _Belle Helene_ With

What Theophrastus Such Calls "Debasing The Moral Currency,  Lowering The

Value Of Every Inspiring Fact And Tradition."

Surpassed Only By The _Belle Helene_ Is The _Grande Duchesse De

Gerolstein_. It Is Nearly Fifteen Years Since All The World Went To

Paris To See An Exposition Universelle And To Gaze At The "Sabre De Mon

Pere," And Since A Russian Emperor,  Going To Hear The Operetta,  Said To

Have Been Suggested By The Freak Of A Russian Empress,  Sat Incognito In

One Stage-Box Of The Little Varietes Theatre,  And Glancing Up Saw A

Russian Grand Duke In The Other. It Is Nearly Fifteen Years Since The

Tiny Army Of Her Grand-Ducal Highness Took New York By Storm,  And Since

American Audience After Audience Hummed Its Love For The Military And

Walked From The French Theatre Along Fourteenth Street To Delmonico'S To

Supper,  Sabring The Waiters There With The Venerated Weapon Of Her Sire.

The French Theatre Is No More,  And Delmonico'S Is No Longer At That

Fourteenth-Street Corner,  And Her Highness Mademoiselle Tostee Is Dead,

And M. Offenbach'S Sprightly Tunes Have Had The Fate Of All Over-Popular

Airs,  And Are Forgotten Now. _Ou Sont Les Neiges D'Antan?_

It Has Been Said That The Authors Regretted Having Written The _Grande

Duchesse_,  Because The Irony Of History Soon Made A Joke On Teutonic

Powers And Principalities Seem Like Unpatriotic Satire. Certainly,  They

Had No Reason To Be Ashamed Of The Literary Quality Of Their Work: In

Its Class It Yields Only To Its Predecessor. There Is No Single Figure

As Fine As Calchas--General Boum Is A Coarser Outline--But How Humorous

And How Firm Is The Drawing Of Prince Paul And Baron Grog! And Her

Highness Herself May Be Thought A Cleverer Sketch Of Youthful Femininity

Than Even The Hellenic Helen. It Is Hard To Judge The Play Now. Custom

Has Worn Its Freshness And Made It Too Familiar: We Know It Too Well To

Criticise It Clearly. Besides,  The Actors Have Now Overlaid The Action

With Over-Much "Business." But In Spite Of These Difficulties The Merits

Of The Piece Are Sufficiently Obvious: Its Constructive Skill Can Be

Remarked; The First Act,  For Example,  Is One Of The Best Bits Of

Exposition On The Modern French Stage.

Besides These Plays For Music,  And Besides The More Important Five-Act

Comedies To Be Considered Later,  Mm. Meilhac And Halevy Are The Authors

Of Thirty Or Forty Comic Dramas--As They Are Called On The English

Stage--Or Farce-Comedies In One,  Two,  Three,  Four,  And Even Five Acts,

Ranging In aim From The Gentle Satire Of Sentimentality In _La Veuve_ To

The Outspoken Farce Of The _Reveillon_. Among The Best Of The Longer Of

These Comic Plays Are _Tricoche Et Cacolet_ And _La Boule_. Both Were

Written For The Palais Royal,  And They Are Models Of The New Dramatic

Species Which Came Into Existence At That Theatre About Twenty Years

Ago,  As M. Francisquc Sarcey Recently Reminded Us In His Interesting

Article On The Palais Royal In _The Nineteenth Century_. This New Style

Of Comic Play May Be Termed Realistic Farce--Realistic,  Because It

Starts From Every-Day Life And The Most Matter-Of-Fact Conditions; And

Farce,  Because It Uses Its Exact Facts Only To Further Its Fantasy And

Extravagance. Consider _La Boule_. Its First Act Is A Model Of Accurate

Observation; It Is A Transcript From Life; It Is An Inside View Of A

Commonplace French Household Which Incompatibility Of Temper Has Made

Unsupportable. And Then Take The Following Acts,  And See How On This

Foundation Of Fact,  And Screened By An Outward Semblance Of Realism,

There Is Erected The Most Laughable Superstructure Of Fantastic Farce. I

Remember Hearing One Of The Two Great Comedians Of The Theatre Francais,

M. Coquelin,  Praise A Comic Actor Of The Varietes Whom We Had Lately

Seen In a Rather Cheap And Flimsy Farce,  Because He Combined "La Verite

La Plus Absolue Avec La Fantasie La Plus Pure." And This Is The Merit Of

_La Boule_: Its Most Humorous Inventions Have Their Roots In The Truth.

Better Even Than _La Boule_ Is _Tricoche Et Cacolet_,  Which Is The Name

Of A Firm Of Private Detectives Whose Exploits And Devices Surpass Those

Imagined By Poe In america,  By Wilkie Collins In england,  And By

Gaboriau In France. The Manifold Disguises And Impersonations Of The Two

Partners When Seeking To Outwit Each Other Are As Well-Motived And As

Fertile In comic Effect As Any Of The Attempts Of Crispin Or Of Some

Other Of Regnard'S Interchangeable Valets. Is Not Even The _Legataire

Universel_,  Regnard'S Masterpiece,  Overrated? To Me It Is Neither Higher

Comedy Nor More Provocative Of Laughter Than Either _La Boule_ Or

_Tricoche Et Cacolet_; And The Modern Plays,  As I Have Said,  Are Based

On A Study Of Life As It Is,  While The Figures Of The Older Comedies Are

Frankly Conventional. Nowhere In Regnard Is There A Situation Equal In

Comic Power To That In The Final Act Of The _Reveillon_--A Situation

Moliere Would Have Been Glad To Treat.

Especially To Be Commended In _Tricoche Et Cacolet_ Is The Satire Of The

Hysterical Sentimentality And Of The Forced Emotions Born Of Luxury And

Idleness. The Parody Of The Amorous Intrigue Which Is The Staple Of So

Many French Plays Is As Wholesome As It Is Exhilarating. Absurdity Is A

Deadly Shower-Bath To Sentimentalism. The Method Of Meilhac And Halevy

In Sketching This Couple Is Not Unlike That Employed By Mr. W.S. Gilbert

In _H.M.S. Pinafore_ And _The Pirates Of Penzance_. Especially To Be

Noted Is The Same Perfectly Serious Pushing Of The Dramatic Commonplaces

To An Absurd Conclusion. There Is The Same Kind Of Humor Too,  And The

Same Girding At The Stock Tricks Of Stage-Craft--In _H.M.S. Pinafore_ At

The Swapping Of Children In The Cradle,  And In _Tricoche Et Cacolet_ At

The "Portrait De Ma Mere" Which Has Drawn So Many Tears In Modern

Melodrama. But Mm. Meilhac And Halevy,  Having Made One Success,  Did Not

Further Attempt The Same Kind Of Pleasantry--Wiser In This Than Mr.

Gilbert,  Who Seems To Find It Hard To Write Anything Else.

As In The _Chateau A Toto_ Mm. Meilhac And Halevy Had Made A Modern

Perversion Of _Dame Blanche_,  So In _La Cigale_ Did They Dress Up Afresh

The Story Of The _Fille Du R'Egiment_. As The Poet Asks--

  Ah,  World Of Ours,  Are You So Gray,

    And Weary,  World,  Of Spinning,

  That You Repeat The Tales To-Day

    You Told At The Beginning?

  For Lo! The Same Old Myths That Made

    The Early Stage-Successes

  Still Hold The Boards,  And Still