New-York tribune., 1906-12-08
MUSIC.
METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE.
'La Damnation de Faust" as an Opera.


Faust" was from the beginning and still is thing
| Of shreds and patches" 1t was conceived such.
and though Berloz tried by various devices TO give
| II an entity he failed. He called 1t dramatic
legend" term which may mean much or little, as
| one chooses to consider II, but recall no
word Of his that he ever thought for a moment
that It was fit for representation upon the stage
lei last night the patrons of the Metropolitan
opera House heard BAriiozs music amid en-
Vlronment OF scenic pomp and with dramatic acces-
SORES that seemed to give new life and new
slgnlhcance to Of the musTc. But only
| 10 some; the rest did not benefit but lost
lInneasurably by its removal from the realm of
imagination into which the composer wisely placed
Il 1t was Raoul Gunsbourg, director oe the opera
at Monte Carlo who conceived the notion of 4
theatrical representation Of the legend, and who
tFlcked 1t out with pictures and few attempts at
action Most Of these attempts futile and work
injury to the music, will presently appear, but
in few instances they are successfu-indeed. very
successful OF course. if BerliOz had wished to
make an opera out of Goethe's poem he could have
done so. He would then have anticipa ted Barber,
Care and Gounod and possibly achieved one Of
lhose popular successes for which his heart hun
gered But he in his soul a poet in his heart
a symphonist and intellectually. many futile
efforts proved, incapable of producing a piece for
the boards When the Faust subject first seized
VI on DIS imagination he knew ii only in prose
translation of Goethe's poem made by Gerard de
Nerval. In his Memoirs he tells us how It fascnat
ed him. He carried 1t about with him, reading it in
cessantly and eagerly. dinner in the streets in
the theatre. In the prose translation there were
a few fragments Of songs. These he set to music
and published the Composition under the title
HUT Scenes de Faust at his own expense
Marx, the Berlin critic theorettcian and critical
biographer of Beethoven saw the music and wrote
the composer letter full Of encoura cement; but
Berlioz soon saw grave defects in his work and
withdrew II from circulation, destroying all the
copies which he could lay hands on What was
good in it. however. he laid away fer future use
The opportunity came twenty years later when he
was Hred anew with d desire to write music for
Goethe's poem Though he had planned the work
before starting out his artistic travels. he
to have found inspiration in the circumstance that
he was amongst people who were mora appre-
clatIve OF his genius than his own cOuu-
trymen and whose language was that en-
ployed by the poet Not more than one-sixth
| OF his Eight Scenes" had consisted Of set
tngs to the translatIons Of de NervaI; a few
scenes had been textually prepared by NJ. GaU-
donniere from notes provided by the composer
The rest Of the book BerlioZ wrote himself now
paraphrasing the original poet now going TO him
only for suggestion. As the with
Wagner, words and music frequently presented
themselves 10 him simultaneously. Travelling from
town to town, conducting rehearsaIs and concerts
ne wrote whenever and whatever he could
number in inn at Passau. the Eibe scene and
the Dance of the SyIphs OF Vienna, the peasants
song by gasllght in a shop night when he had
lost MS way IN Pesth, the angels chorus in Mar
guerttes apotheoss at Prague, getting up in the
middle Of tho night 10 write II down: the song of
the students, Jam stellata velamina pandt'
(of which the words are also Berozs). at Breslau
He finished the work in Rouen and Paris, ut home
at his ca e. in the gardens Of the Tuileres even
on a stone in the Boulevard du Temple. While in
Vienna he had made an orchestral transcription Of
the famous Hungarian Rakoczy march Gn one
night, he says, though this is scarcely credible,
since the time would not suffice to write down the
notes alone). It made extraordinary stir at the
concert in Pesth at which he produced it. and this
led him to introduce II with Introduction into
his legend-a proceeding which he defends a
piece Of poetical license justified by the character
Of his hero. whom IL allowable to put in any
part Of the world and in any situation one pleased.
This incident serves to indicate how lightly all
dramatic fetters sat upon Berlioz while La Dam
nation" in his mind and how little it occurred
10 him that any one would ever make the attempt
to place his scenes upon the stage. In the Of
the Hungarian march which IS accounted
OF NJ. Gunsbourg's greatest trtumphs this has been
done only sacrifice Of BerlioZ's poetical
celt TO which the Introductory text and music
fitted; but Of this something more presently. As
he constructed the dramatic Legend it belonged
10 no musical category. It was neither p symphony
with vocal parts like his ROMEO ct Juliette,"
which has IN some of its sections symphonic ele
nents, nor an oratorio, a cantata. 1t IS
very likely that this fact long obstacle
to its production Even in New York.
where on its introduction created the profound
est sensation ever witnessed in local conce-r
room Il was performed fourteen times. with
the choral parts sung by the Oratorio society.
before that society admitted It into ts lists Dr.
Leopold Damrosch gave It its Rrst American
performance on February 70, 1880 az con-
cert OF the Symphony Society, which he had
founded The triumph which 1t achieved is still
fresh in the memories Of hundreds OF our middle
aged concerto -goers. There were six performances
the first season and one OF the souvenirs of the
occasion was a placard bearing the portraits OF
the artistic triurnvirate. Goethe, Berlioz, Dam
rosch When the Oratorio Society celebrated It's
twenty-ffth anniversary in April, 1885, az Carnegie
Hall it performed the work under its u
spices for the first time. and this. We believe.
the last time that New York heard it in its n
tirety. It's instrumental numbers, Dance OF the
syIphs, NIinuet Of the Wnl-o- Wisps and Hun
gariac march. have been heard at orchestral
certs nearly every season since.
And now to tell how the work has been fitted
to the OF the opera house Nothing be
palmer to those who recall tho old concert per
foruances or are familiar with Berliozs score than
that no amount OF ingenuity could ever give the
scenes OF the legend dramatic continuity or CO
herency Boitos opera 'Iefstofele' has been criti-
csed being merely a series OF scenes from
Goethe's poem. in which. because he attempted
much he accomplished too little Boito was uu-
willing 10 content himself with the single episode
OF the between Faust and Margaret He
wanted to bring out the fundamental ethical idea
OF the poet, and he went far TO attempt the
prologue IN heaven, we'll the classical scene
between Helen OF Troy and Faust, with all it's
artistic symbolism. and the death of Faust with
the contest for his Berloz had no scruples OF
any kind. He chose his scenes from Goethe changed
them Will and at the outset interpolated one sim
ply for the sake OF his march Connection the scenes
have not and. as has been intuated some Of
his best music belongs IN the realm Of the
imaginary and ideal. At the outset Berlioz con-
ceIved Faust alone on a vast field in Hungary in
sprfne: he comments on the beauties OF nature
and praises the benison or solitude. His rumina-