The first permanent success achieved by Thomas was with "Le Caïd," a light opera given in 1849, which rapidly became popular, and is regarded by some as the precursor of the style of opéra bouffe which was destined later on to achieve so great a notoriety at the hands of Offenbach and his imitators. This is scarcely a correct view to take, as the innate refinement of a nature such as that of Ambroise Thomas has little in common with the vulgarities associated with the genre. "Le Caïd," in which the composer amusingly parodies the absurdities associated with the now happily obsolete Italian opera style of the period, would nowadays pass muster as a high-class opérette. This bright little score is full of that esprit of which French composers seem to possess the secret, and is wedded to an exceedingly amusing libretto. "Le Caïd" has remained popular in France, and occupies a permanent place in the répertoire of the Paris Opéra Comique.
Before proceeding with the composer's operatic career, it may be well to mention a phase in his existence during which he bravely performed his duties as a citizen. At the time of the political troubles of 1848, when art was forcibly relegated into the background, Ambroise Thomas donned the uniform of a garde national. It is related that one night, when passing under the windows of his friend and collaborator Sauvage, with whom he was at that moment working, he shouted out to him, brandishing his gun, "This is the instrument upon which I must compose to-day; the music it produces requires no words."
Happily Thomas was able soon to revert to more pacific and profitable occupations.
The composer's next work was of a different nature, and if "Le Songe d'une Nuit d'Été" ("A Midsummer Night's Dream"), given at the Opéra Comique in 1851, did not achieve a similar success to "Le Caïd," it possessed merit of a higher order, and is even now still occasionally performed.
This opera has nothing to do with Shakespeare's comedy, as its name might imply. Curiously enough, the immortal bard is made to figure as the hero of the piece. He is represented as a drunkard, who is rescued by Queen Elizabeth from his evil habits through a stratagem, by which he is made to see the veiled figure of a woman, when he is recovering from a drunken bout, whom he mistakes for the embodiment of his own genius, and who threatens to abandon him unless he promises to reform. It is strange that such a farrago of nonsense should have been deemed worthy of serving as an operatic text.
"Raymond," a three-act opera, founded upon the story of the Man with the Iron Mask, followed the above work in 1851. The overture is the only number that has survived. It is a brilliant orchestral piece, somewhat in the style of Auber.
In the course of the same year Ambroise Thomas was elected a member of the Institute in the place of Spontini. It can scarcely be said that this brought him much luck, for of the five operas that he wrote within the ten succeeding years, not one has kept the stage. They need not detain us long. Their names are "La Tonelli" (1853); "La Cour de Célimène" (1855); "Psyché'" (1857), a revised version of which was produced at the Opéra Comique in 1878; "Le Carnaval de Venise" (1857); and "Le Roman d'Elvire" (1860).
After these comparative failures the composer appears to have taken a much-needed rest and devoted some time to reflection, which was to be productive of excellent results. It may safely be urged that had Thomas died at this period he would have been only entitled to rank with musicians of subordinate talent, such as Massé, Maillart, Clapisson, "e tutti quanti."
As it happens, he had not then given the full measure of his worth, and the two works destined to procure for him the European reputation he enjoys belong to his full maturity.
The following is the opinion emitted by Fétis in his "Dictionnaire des Musiciens" upon Ambroise Thomas. It must be remembered that these lines were written before the production of either "Mignon" or "Hamlet": "Talent fin, gracieux, élégant, toujours distingué, ayant l'instinct de la scène, souvent mélodiste, écrivant en maître et instrumentant de même, cet artiste n'a malheureusement pas la santé, necessaire a l'énergie de la pensée. Il a le charme délicat et l'esprit, quelquefois il lui manque la force. Quoi qu'il en soit, M. Ambroise Thomas n'en est pas moins un des compositeurs les plus remarquables qu'ait produits la France."