The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-24 00:00:00

FRENC

ICALS.

GRAND OPERA.—The theatrical event of the
week is the reproduction of " Gluck's " Alceste."
It made a short apparition on the same stage five
years ago, and it now again appeals to, I regret to
say the word, the patience of a Parisian audience.
Some fifty years agii, (it is nearer a hundred) musi-
cians spoke of a Gluckist with the sort of a pitying
smile with which men in general nowadays listen
to a profession of liegelianism. Notwithstanding
the favour of Marie Antoinette, Gluck, who was an
odious coxcomb, had even fewer admirers in his
lifetime than Wagner, who is the continuer of his
school, has now. But he battled bravely for his
idea, pleading his cause in the numerous prefaces
which are prefixed to his various works. At the
end of a hundred years he might boast, if he could
return with Alceste from Hades, that he enjoys all
the honour that he is ever likely to attain. His
works have, unconsciously perhaps to the authors
themselves, influenced the French school of music,
and even iu his own time had some effect in check-
ing the prevailing effeminacy and triviality of the
Italian opera, which only after this produced the
great masters whose works me the glory of that
stage. So far he was happier than Hegel, who in
his last years acknowledged that he had met with
but one man who had understood his system, and he
had misunderstood it, and who would not find even
that one man if he returned now. Gluck's system
has been at least partially understood, and even
adopted, by those who least admire him. He is not
and never can be popular, at least with the ordinary
frequenters of the opera, who go there not for en-
joyment but for excitement. It cannot be denied
that his splendid bursts of passion, love, piety, and
terror are accompanied by passages monotonous and
sometimes tiresome at a first hearing, although on
a better acquaintance there are found to be beauties
as well as reason even in these. To enjoy thoroughly
the music of Gluck one must sit down to it as a
scholar would to a tragedy of Sophocles to whose
genius Gluck's music is more akin- than to the
polished verses of Euripides. One must be pre-
pared not only to give oneself up to the pleasure of
hearing, but also to take the trouble of listening. As
in some of Haydn's quartette, to miss a single pas-
sage destroys all the enjoyment of those which fol-
low, but it is difficult to give such sustained atten-
tion when cribbed, cabined, and confined in the
narrow space to which the rise of rental in Paris has
reduced the stalls of the Academy of Music. With a
young gentleman on one side whose restless opera-
glass ranges constantly from one box to another, and
an old gentleman on the other whose measure was cer-
tainly not taken for his stall and whose elbows en-
croach inconveniently on his neighbours' ribs, it re-
quires almost superhuman powers of abstraction to
enjoy the beauties of this opera. An arm-chair
with plenty of room to roll about in is almost an
absolute necessity ; the addition of a long Turkish
pipe filled with the choicest Jibelee would render
the enjoyment perfect. The opera is very well per-
formed, and has never, perhaps, since Gluck's days,
been so faithfully presented to the public. Mdlle.
Battu sings the part of Alceste with a genuine
pathos which was hardly to he expected, and few
artistes could exceed the elegance of her personation
of the heroine. To the admirers of what in Eng-
land is called classical music this performance affords
a rich treat, but they must hasten to enjoy it, for it
will remain but a short time on the playbill. The
boxes yawn over it, and the loge infernale unequi-
vocally pronounces it a bore.
VAUDEVILLE. —" Le Fou d'en Face." Dr.
Johnson, or some equally wordy-wise sage, said, or
is said to have said, " Sir, if you marry a widow,
make sure that her first husband was hanged."
Widow Livia's first husband was not hanged,
but Hector, who occupies the apartment above
her, never heard the oracle of the great lexico-
grapher. " Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly
to be wise,' and so being, we must hope for
his own sake, already very foolish, his only resource
is to be wise after folly's fashion. It can only be in
consideration of this that the authors and the audi-
ence of the Vaudeville allow him to drill holes
throngh her ceilings so that he can watch all her
goings and comings. In England such shocking
doings would be put down at once. Now, Madame
Livia is very tired of her honourable state of widow-
hood, which it is always to be considered is the
greatest compliment she could pay to Husband No.
1, and in this case No.l must have been a charming
fellow, for not one of all the pretenders to her hand
comes up to her ideal of what No. 2 should be. She
has the worst of all the ills known to humanity, she
is ennuyee. Her only amusement is to watch the
mopes and mod es of a madman who lives on the other
side of the street. Hector, who knows every move-
ment she makes and hears every thought which she
utters—for it seems that in France widows have a
habit of thinking aloud--is at his wits' end for some
means of introducing himself to the lady of his love.
At last he hits upon the idea, and a very natural
one for a man at his wits' end ; it is to force his way
intolierpresence in the character of a madman on the
opposite side of the street. The stratagem succeeds
of course, for otherwise the curtain must fall, and in
his assumed character of the madness he makes her
alternately laugh, cry, tremble, each and all in the
most fascinating manner, and not leaving her a
moment for ennui. Finally he affects a lodgment in
her heart by opening her cupboard and showing
her a " pickpocket," which is the French for a
burglar, concealed in it. Single ladies, I must make
a parenthesis, this is the virtue of Judases. Having
turned out the thief, who had certainly paid dearly
enough for his evil intentions by having to listen to
Hector's mad ravings, he falls at Madame Livia's
feet, assures her that if he is mad it is only with
love, and she who is evidently not less mad gives her
hand. It is a mad farce, but an amusing one ; the
plot is old, but the dialogue is vivacious, and it will
be often played as a lever de rideau. The maddest
character in it is not the fou d'en face.
AMBIGU.—Les Amours de Paris. —From the mad
loves of the Vaudeville we must pass to the Pari-
sian Loves of the Ambigu, which are both mad
and bad. If the reader has ever attended a dra-
matic performance in China or Japan—the glori-
ous days of the Sanscrit drama which last a week
or more are, alas ! things of the past—he will un-
derstand the pleasure of seven acts which drag
their slow length through six mortal hours. In
China the play would hardly last longer, and at
least there are the fresh air of the morning, the
flowing tea, the two hours allowed for dinner
about midday, the cool of the evening, to palliate
the infliction. To analyse such a performance
would only be wasted time. It' begins with a sui-
cide by drowning, ends with another by the rope,
and is diversified by a murder by a shooting in the
middle. The authors have kindly omitted poison-
ing out of regard to the feelings of their audisetnuedey.
But the piece is worth seeing to those who
human aberrations on philosophical principles.

A PANIC IN A RAILWAY
panic occurred on Sunday evening on the Versailles Rail-
TRAIN. —A singular
ay to a special train heavily laden with visitors from
w
the La Marche steeplechases. Shortly after crossing the
river at Asnieres the engine and carriages came Lora stand-
still, and a sudden terror seizing on the passengs a rush
was made to the doors, and in a moment the whole of the
passengers scrambled on to the line, some jumping front
the seats on the tool* iu their haste to alight, no one, bow_
of their
ever, knowing of any cause for alarm. Fortunately no
aFareema ,
other train passed at the time, and the guard having re-
porte(rnte
assured the passengers as to the cause of the stoppage,they
resumed their seats, laughing, but half ashamed
from
foolish fear.
who t.ioDrDifhltDstE3AoTlyfeAarTs
aCnA2iitßioßrelDhGasE .b—eeyhr.
e.
Christ's
returning ~,
Trinity College, Cambridge, expired somewhat suddenly
a visit to seine relatives, was passing on l‘londay night. The deceased,
a quarter before 9 o'clock, when he g hrist's College about
though in a fit. Assistance was immediatelywas observed to fall as
deceased was conveyed in fly rendered, and
street,, where he shortly a to his lodgings in B
spoken. afterwards expired ndge-
without having

HARDSHIPS OF HOP-PICKERS.—A project origi-
nating with the Rev. J. Y. Stratton, the incumbent of
Ditton, Kent, for ameliorating the condition cf the myriads
of poor creatures who make their way into the largo hop-
growing districts for employment in the picking, has been
very warmly taken up, and a memorial on the subject has
been most readily signed by owners and occupiers of hop
lands and others interested iu the social and moral welfare
of the county. A meeting of growers is to be held to-mor-
i row at Maidstone.