History of the Opera from its Origin in Italy to the present Time Part 25

"devoted Servants,

"GUIMARD, HEINEL," &c.

With twenty other names.

[Sidenote: GENEROSITY OF THE BALLET.]

Auguste Vestris spent and owed a great deal of money; the father honoured the engagements of the young dancer, but threatened him with imprisonment if he did not alter his conduct, and concluded by saying:--"Understand, Sir, that I will have no Guemene in _my_ family."

Although ballet dancers were important persons in those days, they were as nothing compared to the inst.i.tution to which they belonged. Figaro, in his celebrated soliloquy, observes, with reference to the great liberty of the press accorded by the government, that provided he does not speak of a great many very different things, among which the Opera is included, he is at liberty to publish whatever he likes "under the inspection of three or four censors." Beaumarchais was more serious than would be generally supposed, in including the Opera among the subjects which a writer dared not touch upon, or, if so, only with the greatest respect. Rousseau tells us in more than one place, that it was considered dangerous to say anything against the Opera; and Mademoiselle Theodore (the interesting _danseuse_ before-mentioned, who consulted the fantastic moralist on the conduct she ought to pursue as a member of the ballet), was actually imprisoned, and exiled from Paris for eighteen days, because she had ventured to ridicule the management of the Academie, in some letters addressed to a private friend. The author of the _Nouvelle Heloise_ should have warned her to be more careful.

[Sidenote: OPERA AND REVOLUTION.]

On the 12th July, 1789, the bills were torn down from the doors of the Opera. The Parisians were about to take the Bastille. Having taken it, they allowed the Academie to continue its performance, and it re-opened on the 21st of the same month. In Warsaw, during the "demonstrations" of last March, the Opera was closed. It remains closed now[67] (end of November), and will re-open--neither Russians nor Poles can say when! No one tears the bills down, because no one thinks of putting them up; it being perfectly understood by the administration, (which is a department of the Government), that the Warsaw public are not disposed at present for amus.e.m.e.nt of any kind.

In 1789, the revolutionary spirit manifested itself among the company engaged at the French Opera. An anonymous letter--or rather a letter in the name of all the company, printed, but not signed--was addressed to the administration of the theatre. It pointed out a number of abuses, and bore this epigraph, strongly redolent of the period: "_Tu dors Brutus, et Rome est dans les fers!_"

In 1790 the city of Paris a.s.sumed once more the management of the Academie, the artistic direction being entrusted to a committee composed of the chiefs of the various departments, and of the princ.i.p.al singers and dancers. One of the novelties produced was a "melodrama founded on pa.s.sages from the Scriptures," called "The Taking of the Bastille,"

written specially for Notre Dame, where it was performed for the first time, and where it was followed by a grand _Te Deum_. In this _Te Deum_ few of the lovers of the Opera could have joined, for one of the first effects of the revolution was naturally to drive the best singers and dancers away from Paris. Lord Mount Edgc.u.mbe tells us that Mademoiselle Guimard was dancing in London in 1789. Madame Huberti, who was, by all accounts, the best singer the French had ever heard at the Academie, left Paris early in 1790.

We know how injurious a distant war, a dissolution of parliament, a death in the royal family are to the fortunes of an operatic season in London. Fancy what must have been the effect of the French revolution on the Academie after 1789! The subscription list for boxes showed, in a few years, a diminution of from 475,000 _livres_ to 000,000! Some of the subscribers had gone into exile, more or less voluntary, some had been banished, others had been guillotined. M. Castil Blaze, from whose interesting works I have obtained a great number of particulars concerning the French Opera at the time of the revolution, tells us that the Queen used to pay 7,000 livres for her box. The Duke d'Orleans paid 7,000 for his own private box, and joined the Duke de Choiseul and Necker in a subscription of 3,200 francs for another. The Princess de Lamballe and Madame de Genlis gave 3,600 francs for a "post chaise;"

(there were other boxes, called "spittoons"--the _baignoires_ of the present day--"cymbals," &c.; names which they evidently owed to their position and form). On the other hand, there were 288 free admissions, of which, thirty-two were given to authors, and eight to newspapers--_La Gazette de France_, _Le Journal de Paris_, and _Le Mercure_. The remaining 248 were reserved for the Hotel de Ville, the King's Household, the actors of the Comedie Francaise, and the singers and dancers of the Opera itself.

[Sidenote: OPERA AND REVOLUTION.]

The howling of the _ca ira_ put an end for ever to the Concert Spirituel, where the Parisians for nearly eighty years had been in the habit of hearing excellent instrumental soloists, and some of the best of the Italian singers, when there was as yet no Italian Opera in Paris.

The last _concert spirituel_ took place at the theatre of the Tuileries in 1791.

Louis XVI. and his family fled from Paris on the 28th June, 1791. The next day, and before the king was brought back to the Tuileries, the t.i.tle of the chief lyric theatre was changed, and from the "Academie _Royale_" became simply the "Opera." At the same time the custom was introduced of announcing the performers' names, which was evidently an advantage for the public, and which was also not without its benefit, for the inferior singers and dancers who, when they unexpectedly made their appearance to replace their betters, used often to get hissed in a manner which their own simple want of merit scarcely justified. "_Est ce que je savais qu'on lacherait le Ponthieu?_" exclaimed an unhappy ticket-seller one evening, when an indignant amateur rushed out of the theatre and began to cane the recipient of his ill-spent money. We may fancy how Ponthieu himself must have been received inside the house.

[Sidenote: MARIE ANTOINETTE.]

By an order of the Committee of Public Safety, dated the 16th of the September following, the t.i.tle of the Opera was again changed to _Academie Royale de Musique_. This was intended as a compliment to the king, who had signed the Const.i.tution on the 14th, and who was to go to the Opera six days afterwards. On the 20th the royal visit took place.

"_Castor and Pollux_ was played," says M. Castil Blaze, "and not _Iphigenie en Aulide_, as is a.s.serted by some ill-informed historians, who even go so far as to pretend that the chorus _Chantons, celebrons notre reine_ was, as on another occasion, hailed with transports of enthusiasm, and that the public called for it a second time. The house was well filled, but not crammed[68] (_comble_), as is proved by the amount of the receipts--6,686 livres, 15 sous. The same opera of Rameau's, vamped by Candeille, had produced 6,857 livres on the 14th of the preceding June. The representation of _Castor and Pollux_ in presence of the royal family took place on Tuesday the 20th September, and not on the 21st, the Wednesday, at that time, not being an opera night. On the 19th, Monday, the people had a.s.sisted at a _special performance_ of the same work given, gratuitously, in honour of the Const.i.tution. The Royalists were present in great numbers at the representation of the 20th September, and some lines which could be applied to the Queen were loudly applauded. Marie-Antoinette was delighted, and said to the ladies who accompanied her, "You see that the people is really good, and wishes only to love us." Encouraged by so flattering a reception, she determined to go the next night to the Opera Comique, but the king refused to accompany her. The piece performed was _Les Evenements imprevus_. In the duet of the second act, before singing the words "_Ah comme j'aime ma maitresse_" Madame Dugazon looked towards the Queen, when a number of voices cried out from the pit, _Plus de maitresse! Plus de maitre! Vive la liberte!_ This cry was answered from the boxes with _Vive la reine! Vive le roi!_ Sabres and sword-sticks were drawn, and a battle began.

[Sidenote: FACTS AND COINCIDENCES.]

The Queen escaped from the theatre in the midst of the tumult. Cries of _a bas la reine!_ followed her to her carriage, which went off at a gallop, with mud and stones thrown after it. Marie Antoinette returned to the Tuileries in despair. On the first of October, fourteen days afterwards, the t.i.tle of _Opera National_ was subst.i.tuted for that of _Academie Royale de Musique_. The Const.i.tution being signed, there was no longer any reason for being civil to Louis XVI. This was the third change of t.i.tle in less than four months. The majority of the buffoons, (M. Castil Blaze still speaks), "who now write histories more or less Girondist, or romantic of the French Revolution, do not take the trouble to verify their facts and dates. I have told you simply that the dauphiness Marie Antoinette made her first appearance at the Opera on the 16th June, 1773, in company with her husband. Others, more ingenious no doubt, subst.i.tute the 21st January for the 16th June, in order to establish a sort of fatality by connecting days, months and years. To prophecy after the event is only too easy, above all, if you take the liberty of advancing by five months, the day which it is desired to render fatal. These same buffoons, (says M. Castil Blaze), who now go to the Opera on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, sometimes on Sunday, think people have done the same for the last two centuries. As they have not the slightest suspicion that the evenings of performance at the Academie Royale were changed in 1817, we find them maundering, paddling, splas.h.i.+ng about, and finally altering figures and days, in order to make the events of the last century accord with the dates of our own epoch.

That is why we are told that the Royal Family went for the last time to this theatre on Wednesday, the 21st September, 1791, instead of Tuesday, the 20th. Indeed how is it possible to go to the Opera on a Tuesday?

That is why it is stated with the most laughable aplomb, that on the 21st October, 1793, _Roland_ was performed, and on the 16th of October following, the _Siege of Thionville_, the _Offering to Liberty_, and the ballet of _Telemachus_. Each of these history-writing novelists fills or empties the house according to his political opinions; applauds the French people or deplores its blindness; but all the liberalism or sentiment manufactured by them is thrown away. Monday, the 21st of January, Wednesday the 16th of October, 1793, not being opera nights at that time, the Opera did not on those evenings throw open its doors to the public. On Tuesday, the 22nd of January, the day after the death of Louie XVI., _Roland_ was represented; the amount of the receipts, 492 livres, 8 sous, proves that the house was empty. No free admissions were given then. On Tuesday, October the 15th, 1793, the eve of the execution of Marie Antoinette, the _Siege of Thionville_, the _Offering to Liberty_, _Telemachus_, in which "_la Citoyenne Perignon_" was to appear--a forced performance--only produced 3,251 livres. On Friday, the 18th of October, the next day but one after this horrible catastrophe, _Armide_ and the _Offering to Liberty_--a forced performance and something more--produced 2,641 livres, which would have filled about a third of the house."[69]

The 10th August, 1792, was the last day of the French monarchy. On the Sunday previous, during the Vespers said at the Chapel of the Tuileries in presence of the king, the singers with one accord tripled the sound of their voices when they came to the following verse in the _Magnificat_: _Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles_.

Indignant at their audacity, the royalists thundered forth the _Domine salvum fac regem_, adding these words with increased energy and enthusiasm, _et reginam_! The greatest excitement and agitation prevailed in the Chapel during the rest of the service.

To conclude the list of musical performances which have derived a gloomy celebrity from their connexion with the last days of Louis XVI., I may reproduce the programme issued by the directors of the Opera National, on the first anniversary of his execution, 21st January, 1794.

IN BEHALF OF AND FOR THE PEOPLE,

GRATIS,

In joyful commemoration of the Death of the Tyrant,

THE NATIONAL OPERA

WILL GIVE TO DAY, 6 PLUVIOSE, YEAR II., OF THE REPUBLIC,

MILTIADES AT MARATHON,

THE SIEGE OF THIONVILLE,

THE OFFERING TO LIBERTY.

[Sidenote: REPUBLICAN CELEBRITIES.]

The Opera under the Republic was directed, until 1792, by four distinguished _sans culottes_--Henriot, Chaumette, Le Rouxand Hebert, the last named of whom had once been check-taker at the Academie! The others know nothing whatever of operatic affairs. The management of the theatre was afterwards transferred to Francur, one of the former directors, a.s.sociated with Cellerier, an architect; but the dethroned _impresarii_, accompanied by Danton and other republican amateurs, constantly made their appearance behind the scenes, and very frequently did the chief members of the company the honour of supping with them. In these cases the invitations, as under the ancient regime, proceeded, not from the artists, but from the artists' patrons; with this difference, however, that under the republic, the latter never paid the bill. There was no Duke de Bouillon now testifying his admiration of the vocal art to the tune of 900,000 francs;[70] there was no Prince de Soubise, to receive from the united ballet letters of condolence, thanks, and proposed pecuniary a.s.sistance; and if there _had_ been such an impossible phenomenon as a Count de Lauragais, what, I wonder, would he not have given to have been able to clear the _coulisses_ of such abominable intruders as the before named republican chiefs? "The chiefs of the republic, one and indivisible," says M. Castil Blaze, "were very fond of moistening their throats. Henriot, Danton, Hebert, Le Roux, Chaumette, had hardly taken a turn in the _coulisses_ or in the _foyer_, before they said to such an actor or actress: We are going to your room, see that we are received properly." A superb collation was brought in.

When the repast was finished and the bottles were empty, the national convention, the commune of Paris beat a retreat without troubling itself about the expense. You think, perhaps, that the dancer or the singer paid for the representatives of the people? Not at all; honest Mangin, who kept the refreshment room of the theatre, knew perfectly well that the actors of the Opera were not paid, that they had no sort of money, not even a rag of an a.s.signat; he made a sacrifice; from delicacy he did not ask from the artists what he would not have dared to claim from the sans culottes for fear of the guillotine."

Sometimes the executioner, who, as a public official, had a right to his entrees, made his appearance behind the scenes, and it is said that in a facetious mood, he would sometimes express his opinion about the "execution" of the music. So, I am told, the London hangman went one night to the pit of Her Majesty's Theatre to hear Jenny Lind, and on seeing the Swedish nightingale, exclaimed, breathless with admiration and excitement, "What a throat to scrag!"

[Sidenote: AGREEABLE CRITICS.]

Operatic kings and queens were suppressed by the republic. Not only were they forbidden to appear on the stage, but even their names were not to be p.r.o.nounced behind the scenes, and the expressions _cote du roi_, _cote de la reine_, were changed into _cote jardin_, _cote cour_, which at the theatre of the Tuileries indicated respectively the left and right of the stage, from the stage point of view. At first all pieces in which kings and queens appeared, were prohibited, but the dramas of _sans culottes_ origin were so stupid and disgusting, that the republic was absolutely obliged to return to the old monarchical _repertoire_.

The kings, however, were turned into chiefs; princes and dukes became representatives of the people; seigneurs subsided into mayors; and subst.i.tutes more or less synonymous, were found for such offensive words as crown, throne, sceptre, &c. In a new republican version of a lyrical work represented at the Opera Comique, _le roi_ in one well known line was replaced by _la loi_, and the vocalist had to declaim _La loi pa.s.sait, et le tambour battait aux champs._ A certain voluble executant, however, is said to have preferred the following emendation: _Le pouvoir executif pa.s.sait, et le tambour battait aux champs._

The scenes of most of the new operas were laid in Italy, Prussia, Portugal,--anywhere but in France, where it would have been indispensable, from a political, and impossible from a poetical, point of view to make the lovers address one another as _citoyen_, _citoyenne_.

On the 19th of June, 1793, the directors of the Opera having objected to give a gratuitous performance of _The Siege of Thionville_, the commune of Paris issued the following edict:

"Considering that for a long time past the aristocracy has taken refuge in the administration of various theatres;

"Considering that these gentlemen corrupt the public mind by the pieces they represent;

"Considering that they exercise a fatal influence on the revolution;