New-York tribune., 1919-03-01

genious aAd pathetically lovely strains
which Mireille sings, including the
"Magali" song. But the device Of secur-
ing local color By bold seizure and use
ot Sunes taker stra gnt from the
tongues of the people had not come
INTO vogue half a century ago Gounod
asked Mistral for folktunesr but only
that he might with them fructfy his
own fancy.
Originally "Mireille" was in five
acts. 1t was reduced to three when it
was tNarsla lated into Italian for London,
and the excisions then made were pre-
served in the version presented last
night These eXcisions reduced the
drama to mere skeleton, but were
probably prompted by theatrical wis
dom. All of the characters of Mistral's
poem are exceedingly humble, all of
It's sentiments amazingly simple and
homely, all of its dramatic incidents
remarkably unaffected and true to
nature. 1t deals with the luckless love
of rich peasants daughter and a
poor baskctmaker. The pair are thrown
together Gin the poem) by Mireille and
her father seeking refuge from a storm
in the basketmaker's hut The young
his life, and the recital, though with
out single heroic element, begets
wondrous love in the farmers daugh-
ter. The young pair go birds nesting
one day, and an accident leads to
declaration Of love.
Then is met the rock upon which all
promise of happiness is shattered.
Mireille's parents will have no fly
catcher, leechishcr and basketmaker
for a son-in-law. The girl is hidden
TO choose husband from three suitors
for her hand-a shepherd, horse
dealer and an oXhcrd. She will have
none Of them, and the last who has
fierce sounding name, Ourrias, enraged
at the girls refusal, waylays Vincent,
the favored lover, and attempts to kill
TavoN, whose incantations save his
life. He sends his father, Ambrose,
to ask Ramon, her father, for Mireille's
hand and is repulsed.
Mireille leaves her home and wan
ders in mental agony through the hot
and barren country. At last, footsore
and exhausted, she enters a village
church, but scarcely reaches the rest
ing place before she sinks in q swoon.
In vision the saints appear to her
and recount their stories of martyr
dom and strengthen her to endure the
rest of her suferings. She awakcs.
Vincent is at her side. She dies thus
in the poem; also in the opera as
originally written.
Carre made some changes in the
poem for the purposes of the opera.
His heroine dies Of sunstroke, and
when Colonel Mapleson gave tne opera
thirty-tve years ago, following the
London mode, it was the sunstroke-
failing the traditional operate mad
ness-that touched off the pyrotechnics
of the waltz-song which has its proper
place in the first act The equally ira
ditional and supposedly essential spec
tacular scene with its ballet, Carre
and Gounod developed out of one of
the most picturesque and dramatic epi
tried to kill Vincent the poet has him
attempt to escape across a river. He
loses his life in the water and as he
dies the spirits of the men and women
who have been drowned in the stream
arise and dance a ghostly dance around
the murderer.
Out of this episode Carre and
Gounod constructed a scene analogous
to the Walpurgis night ballet in
Faust" which, by the way, is hol-
low absurdity at the Metropolitan. This
has been eliminated and What dancing
there is is confined to the school in the
arena at Artes, in which we see the
Farandole. And now Mireille does not
die but regains health and happiness,
Just as Mgnon dies in Ambrose
Thomas's opera of that name. That
was more than the Germans could stand,
and for them Thomas had to write
denoNement aUemand and permit the
gentle maid to die instead Of marrying
Wilhelm Meister.
There was little that was inspiring
about last nights performance, which
frequently creaked in the wheels and
sagged in the body until it seemed in
imminent danger Of collapsing in the
road. 1t presented some pretty stage
pictures Mr. Mauril having painted
tire models for scenes with which he
was familiar from childhood, and
showing more respect for accuracy
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