New-York tribune., 1908-01-04


petulantiy. The music of fete in the city below,
voices calling her from distance and the flashing
lights in the great city below throw her into 8.
frantic ecstasy: she sings of her love and calls 10
her lover. The mother thinks her mad. but the
father drives her out of the house. only repent
and call after her a moment later. But she is
gone, and the drama ends with the father shaking
his fist at the city and shreking at it his hatred
and detestaton.
The thoughts Of operagoers win naturally revert
10 La Boheme'; but there many points of diff
ference between the story which Puccins libret-
tist pieced together out of Murgers tales of bohe
mian life more than half century ago and this
one OF to-day. The differences all in favor Of
the earlier opera II in letter written by
Iafcado Hearn TO the earliest of his New York
friends that he called attention to the fact that
under the levity of Murger's picturesque bohemian
ism there apparent serious philosophy, which
had elevating effect upon the characters of the
romance They followed one principle faithfully.
faithfully that only the strong survived the
ordeal,-neyer 10 abandon the pursuit OF artistic
vocation for any other occupation, however lucra-
tive not even when she remained apparently deaf
and blind to her worshippers.' There is very little
in Puccinis opera justify this observation, but
the significant fact remains that throughout the
dramatic development of the piece the bohemian
artists and their careless companions grow in the
sympathy of the audience. For one thing, there is
questioning their sincerity. For this there is
only parallel in Charpentier's opera. There is.
in fact only really dramatic character in IL
1t is that of the father; in him there is honest.
human feeling. tenderness and love which yield
only 10 a moment OF passion when he is per
picked in the extreme and at moment
when the last drop of sympathy for Louise
has oozed away. Her tender regard for her
father is pathetic in the first act, where
it is set against the foil of her mothers harsh
ness. In the last act, however. she is petu-
liant, irascible and cold until the moment of frenzy
when she surrenders 10 the call of Paris and her
wretched passion Julien is scantly and unconvinc-
ingly sketched. There is nothing even TO indicate
sincerity in his love for Louise; while she sings OF
the ecstasy of first love he calmly reads a book;
and when he responds it is to invoke her to JOIN
him in pecan in praise not of their love but of
Paris Does she find him, when she rushes down
the stairs, pursued by her fathers brokenhearted
calls? One can feel no certainty on the point. The
last impression is only that has gone to plunge
into the food Of wickedness, never to- be seen
again.
1t said some years ago. when Louise was
celebrating its first triumphs, that the opera was
the first number of a projected trilogy, and that
Charpentier would tell the rest of the story
OF the sewing girl in other operas But the years
have passed the composer has grown rich and is
giving no sign. Instead there is an organized
Louise propaganda in Paris. Funds are raised
to send the working girls of the city to the opera
in droves. there to hear the alluring call TO har-
lotry under the pretence that the agonles OF the
father will preach moral lesson
There is dramatic strength and homogenety only
in the first and last acts of the opera The scenes
between are shreds and patches, invented to give
local color the story. In the original form the
picture of low life at dawn on Montmartre, in
which charwomen. seavengers, ragpickers, street
sweepers. ruilkwomen. policemen and others fig
ure envened by a mysterious parsonage
called LIE Noctambule, who proclaimed himself 10
be the soul of the city-the Pleasure of Paris. 1t
was a part of the symbolism which We are asked
also to find the fitting visions of low life and
the echoes of street cries in the music But 1t
was note out of key and Mr. Campanini mas
eliminated it with much else OF the local color
rubbish And yet II is in the OF this local color
that nearly ali that is original and individual in
the score consists. Until We reach the final scene
Of the fathers wild anguish there is very little
indeed that striking in the music except that
which is built up out of the music of the street
We hear echoes Of the declamatory style OF the
Young Italian verttists in the dialogue much that
is more than suggestive OF the mushy sehiiiIeh-
taIity of the worst OF Gounod ana Mas
senet in the moments when the music at
.eup,s the nelodic vein, and no end OF
Vagnerian orchestration in the instrumental pas
sages which link the scenes together Some OF
this music is orchestrated with great beauty and
discretion like the pTsludes, but all that is con-
ceived 10 accompany violent emotion is only ht TO
tear A cat in or make all split. The score,
IN fart Is chiefly a triumph OF reflection. of in
eenious workmanship and there is scarcely
moment in the opera that takes strong hold OF the
fancy for which the memory does not Immediately
s11pply model either dramatic or musical, or
SSNO4N
act of Die Meistersinger," with the night watch
man walking through the quiet streets flooded with
moonlight singing his monotonous chant, is feebiy
uimicked at the close of the first scene OF the
second act of Louise" when, all the characters
OF the play having disappeared, an Old Clothes
Man comes down staircase crying his dolorous
(au the street cries strangely melancholy
.Marchand d'habits! Avez-vous des habits a
vendr'?" while from the distance arise the cries
of the dealers in brdseed and artichokes- The
spinning scene In THE Flying Dutchman." which
reproduces a custom of vast antiquity, is replaced
in 81 o,1ise" with a scene in the dressmakers
workshop in which the chatter of the girls and the
antics Of the cornedenne are borne up by the
music OF the orchestra with the click-cick Of the
sewing machines to make UP for the melodious hum
o- Wagner's spinning wheels Puccln1s pohernlanS
meet in front of the Cafe Monus, eniivened by
tho nassing incidents of popular fete; Char
nentier's bohenians celebrate the crownng of the
Muse OF Montmartre with a carnival gathering
and ballet 1t this fete, we fancy, which formed
the nucleus around which Charpentier hult MS
work Twice before Louise brought for
ward ne had utilized the ideas Of the popular
festival al which a working girl crowned
made the centre of a procession of roysterers
and a musical score with themes taken from the
noises of Paris His "Couronnement de la Muse,
coronosed for Montmartre festival per
formed AT Lille in Iso8; from Rome ne sent to
paris along with his picturesque orchestral piece
impressions d'Italie,'' symphonic drama La
Vie du Poet for soil, chorus and orchestra
into which he introduced "ail the noises and
echoes Of a MontTnartre festival, with its low
dancing rooms its drunken cornets. its hdeous din
of rattIes the wild laughter of bands Of jewellers
and the cries of hysteric2I women" But even here
NJ charpentier is original in execution only. not III
pIan There scarcely public library in the large
cities of Europe and America which does not con-
tain a copy of Georges kastners lie Voix de
Paris with its supplement. "Cris de Paris, d
..S,,nnhonie humoristique" with its themes drawn
from the cries of peripaetc hucksers and street
itaI. arnd.a thai