So far as American people are concerned the operatic Gounod lives only in “Faust” and “Roméo et Juliette.” There have been a few fitful performances of “Mireille” (mee-ray´) and “Philémon et Baucis” (Anglicized: fy-lee´-mon and baw´-sis); but all the other operas on his list are a blank.
Very different is the case of the most popular of his successors, Massenet (mahs-nay´); though it is more than likely that he too will become a two-opera man. Massenet is the most popular of Gounod’s successors, but not the greatest. A greater musical dramatist than he was Bizet (bee-zay´); a greater musician and almost also as prolific an opera writer was, or is, Saint-Saëns (sahng-song´). These two men are represented in current opera lists by a single opera each; but of Massenet’s works New Yorkers have heard no less than eleven,—“Werther” (vare-ter) and “Manon” (mah-nong´), which are likely to endure, and “Le Cid” (lay sid), “La Navarraise,” “Le jongleur de Notre-Dame” (translated: The juggler of no´-tr dahm), “Thaïs” (tah-ees´), “Hérodiade,” “Sapho” (sah-fo´), “Grisélidis,” and “Cendrillon” (sang-dri-yong´) which are not likely to endure long.
AMBROISE THOMAS
Composer of Mignon.
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Composer of Samson and Delilah.
LEO DELIBES