The San Francisco call., 1897-03-28
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%HE story runs that one evening
Ag Massenet and Henri Cain Glance
.9IyA of Emma Calve) were discussing
LA Cavalleria Rusticana," Santa Lucia"
and other new operas in which music that
charms the public ear is welded to police
court plots Massenet remarked that he
craved for more lurid story than the
Santugza episode and Cain replied that he
had a plot on tap which would just fill the
bill. They thereupon discussed the de-
tails and decided that in order to pile on
the agony properly there must be no solos
or duets or set numbers OF any kind, II
possible they desired TO go one better than
the late lamented Richard Wagner in the
way of making the action continuous.
''La Navarraise," produced here for the
first time last Thursday, was tho Aoutcome
OF this confab. 1t is now nearly three
years old, but up to date it holds the
championship for getting more condensed
agony into given space OF time than
any other lyric drams.
II 1d Ndfdl1dlSC 30 q loAA ooAA PAC Va
the trend of modern lyric drama 1t won't
be decade before stronger nerves are re-
ouired to attend the opera than to go to
an execution. At the latter function one,
or at most two nen are whisked with
painful suddenness into eternity, but in
LA Navarraise" companies of gallant
soldiers are wiped out wholesale with all
the realism of actual warfare.
1t is la guerre, rhorrlble guerre, in all
its revolving hideousness that forms the
theme of ia Navarraise." Wounded
soldiers are brought in on stretchers
bathed in gore, the smoke of gunpowder
hangs heavy over the stage and gets into
the nostrls of the spectators, and the
very air seems thick with carnage. Moth
ing recalls the grotesque parody warfare
of everyday melodrama, where the
wounded are so often made the butt of an
unfeeling gallery. IN LA Navarraise'
everything seems real; the battle is
actually raging a few yards of, men are
being shot down within hearing. Officers
are giving sharp, short, decisive orders,
suitable to the emergency OF the moment;
dusty, begrimed stragglers come in from
the retreat, exchanging fusillades with
their pursuers, the wounded dragging
themselves painfully, all who are able to
carry a musket fighting and shooting to
the last gasp. The action is breathless in
its rapidity, and the orchestra AIDES the
illusion of absolute realism by the startling
way in which it transcribes what is pass
ing on the stage.
Divorced from its music, the ibretto of
"La Navarraise' might be grewsomh and
nothing else but words and score together
form melodrama heaped on melodrama's
head in so realistic way that the spec
tator starts and gasps with excitement.
There is no time 10 stop and analyze; the
ear is filled with tone pic ures and the eye
with stage pictures so luridly and rapidly
painted that in the illusion of the moment
La Navarrsise" seems more fact than
fiction.
Judged from first hearing, Massenet
has not shown much melodic invention in
his score-meiody never was his strong
point The overture opens with strongly
marked theme, as suggestive of disaster
as the knocking" motive in the first bars
of Verdfs Force OF Destiny" Before the
overture is half finished all sem blance OF
theme is swamped in sounds as of a
Fourth of July celebration or 8 grand
chivsree of devils in Chinatown. 1t is the
Carlis,s repu'sing the royalists at close
quarters and both armies have evidently
unlimited ammunition. At intervals all
through LA Navarraise" this din is re-
newed, and though nervous people start
and pray aloud that no stray bullets will
come their way, the shooting adds mar
,cl-
seems to have been the composers main
object.
A great deal of the vocal score sounds
like reciiatiye, though familiarity with
the music might reveal more melody
The gem OF the opera is the song and
chorus sung by Busta and the other SOL
dlers-a lovely, Enthusiastically Spanish
melody. of the serenade kind. accom-
panied by strings touched pizzlcato, and
by the soft rhythmic clspping OF the SOL
diers' hands. Enthusiastic applause
would no doubt have greeted this num-
Der, but Massenet wrote LA Navarraise"
on the "encores strictly prohibited plan,
so he rudely breaks into his lovely sere-
made by bugles sounding the order to
march. and before one spectator has had
time to clap his hands, hi, presto! the
soldiers are all in motion, and the cha nee
for the encore fiend has gone forever.
The music in which Anita and Araouil
recall how they first met and loved is
characterstically Spanish and is very
sweet and N elodious withal No doup,
Massenet intended 1t to represent an
echo OF the days when sweetness entered
into the lives of these unhappy lovers.
No opera built on the "Cavalleris Rus
ticana" plan would be complete without
the intermezzo. 1t is as inevitable as
doom. Massenet's intermezzo is played
as the nj. .ht is supposed to pass and the
soldiers are bivouacked round the camp
fire. There is any amount of originality
and considerable quaintness about this
intermezzo. but Mascagni has no need to
trembe for his laurels. Speaking person
ally. l could not decide whether the inter-
mezzo reminded me most of the Scotch
bagpipes or Chinese orchestra
am almost tempted 70 go into extraya-
gances over the way "La Navarraise;' was
acted, costumed and generally stage
managed. The worn, dirty uniforms and
blood-stained bandages, the peImell rush
ing hither an thither and the martial
bearing of soldiers and officers were all
startlingiy realistic. l forgave the fact
that the singing of the men was not nm to