Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-29
CARPENTERS
JULIEN CALLED
SOUL TRAGEDY
Part Is Dream and Part Reality,
Revealing the Secret Genius
of the Composer.
BY CHARLES HENRY MELTzER.
Special Gable to The American.

BY CHARLES HENRY MELTZER.
Special Gable to The American.
PARIS, June 28.-I came away from
the dress rehearsal of Charpentier' =
Julien" shaking with emotion. The
last episode in the new work of the
composer who evolved Louise" had
been tremendous in effect.
The tones in which Charpentier
mad expressed the destruction of a
poets faith and dreams had been too
eloquent. His harmonies, his discords
and his rhythms racked ones nerves.
And what they meant was a soul
tragedy.
The ultra modern men hereof the
Debussy, Florent Schmidt and Ravel
groups-smiled as they listened to
some parts of the new opera" To
some it seemed as old as Richard
Wagner. Nor were they wholly
wrong. For, though it is of striking
power and full of beauty. it was BY
no means up to date"
STOPPED to Copy No One.
Charpentier had, of course, not
stopped to copy either Wagner or the
Italian Veritists. To all he does he
gives his own distinctive character.
He gave. it to Louise" his first sue
cess.
He has put it into Julien" Wag-
ner, Mascagni and, perhaps, also Ber-
lioz had been remembered in LA
Vie du Poete" and were suggested
here and there, of course in Julien"
And yet the work which thrilled the
audience at the Opera Comique a few
days ago was painfully personal. >
1t seemed the expression of it's Gre
ator's very life. the appeal of his I'M
happy, complex soul. the confession
Of his faith and doubt and dread.
There are literary parallels to the
case of Julien" in the Manfred" Of
Byron, the Faust" of Goethe and the
Heinrich of Hauptmann. Those poems
all described the eternal tragedy of
man, with his aspirations, his ideals
and his impotence.
He who has flown so high, as thou
has flown,
Must perish If he once fall back TO
EARTH
says the Wise Woman to Haupt-
mann's Heinrich in The Sunken
Bell"
And at the outset Julien scars. as
Heinrich scared, on the highway to
the sun.
In the opening act of Charpentier's
opera" or dramatic poem, the music
voices-rather COnventionally now
and then-the hero's idealism. BY
slow degrees we find him sinking into
doubt. For he soon loses the Louise
who inspires his dreams. Not the
mere workgirl of his early opera, but
a symbol, with the externals of a
woman-his Muse, his Higher Self,
his Power, his Dream.
yHhar1 In no closing aDiSndn of TN
lien" the poet again finds-or thinks
he finds-Louise, she has changed to
a street walker, a trull, pitiful
wreck, known to Montmartre as
"Casque d'Oignon." So in the final
movement of the Fantastic" the no
bility of the leading theme, which
suggests Berlioz's love, is changed to
an ignoble melody.
Part of the Opera Dream.
Part of Charpentier's Julien is
dream, part is reality. There is, as
said in my first review of the 'opera,"
a lack of unity in the composers
style. But the construction of the
work is clear 1t shows the tragedy
Of poets-and of humanity.
To come to earth-the score of
Julien" has much in common with
that of Louise" Echoes of that op-
era, as suggestions of its heroine, oc
cur in the second and last acts. The
tumult IF the orgy at the Montmartre
fair in the last episode has the spirit
Of the taird act Of Louise" trans
formed~-as a prayer may be trans
formed into a blasphemy. 1t was the
fourth and last act that most moved
me-not because it was the most
beautiful
Solo of Julien Exquisite.
The solo of julien in the second
act the act of Doubt" is by long
odds the most exquisite incident, mu-
Eically of the work; and the cava-
tina of the purely symbolical Louise
In the first act is almost as charming
But because it told the tragedy Of
poets (and, if you will, of MANI SO
painfully.
No one who is intelligent need be
shocked by the apparent crudity of
the prologue, which shows US a fig
ure-called Louise-in bed, at the Vii
la Medici, while her poet dreams. For.
I repeat, in the composers mind his
mistress is not flesh, but inspiration.
If Mr.. CATH CasaZza has not the
courage to copy the Paris production
he can draw the curtains of the al
cove in which Louise lies. Or he can
let her rest upon a couch. 1t does not
matter.
l fear that Mr.. CATH Casazza and
the plain New York public would
faint at the stark, realistic frankness
Of the dances in the orgy at Mont
martre. Well-they are not essential,
though they emphasize the compos
er's thought.