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The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly — 2.1894

DOI Artikel:
Willeby, Charles: The composer of "Carmen"
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21215#0079
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By Charles Willeby

75

score. Then there came a time when the Opera Comique, truly
one of the most good-natured of institutions in its own peculiar
way, so far belied its reputation as to tire of this idling on the
part of M. Duprato. So the work passed on to Bizet. He
suggested change of title, and " Namouna " became " Djamileh."
But it remained nevertheless the poem of Musset.

"Je vous dirais qu' Hassan racheta Namouna

Qu'on reconnut trop tard cette tete adoree

Et cette douce nuit qu'elle avait esperee

Que pour prix de ses maux le ciel la lui donna.

Je vous dirais surtout qu' Hassan dans cette affaire
Sentit que tot ou tard la femme avait son tour
Et que l'amour de soi ne vaut pas l'autre amour."

There you have the whole story. It is but an etat d'äme—a little
love scene, simple enough in a way, yet so delicate and so füll of
colour. It was a matter of " atmosphere," not of structure, a
masterpiece of style rather than of Situation ; and from its first
rehearsal as an opera it was doomed. In truth, these rehearsals
were amusing. There was old Avocat—they used to call him
Victor—the typical regisseur of tradition; a man who could teil
of the fremieres of " Pre-aux-Clercs " and " La Dame Blanche,"
and, what is more, expected to be asked to teil of them. From Iiis
corner in the wings he listened to the music of this " Djamileh,"
his face expressive of a pity far too keen for words. But it was a
matter of minutes only before his pity turned to rage, and eventu-
ally he stumped off to his sanctum, banging his door behind him
with a vehemence that augured badly for poor Bizet. As for
De Leuven, his co-director : had he not written " Postillon de

Lonjumeau " ?
 
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