That was the fifteenth of March, 1900.
I return to Cendrillon. Albert Carré put on this opera with a stage setting which was as novel as it was marvellous.
Julia Guiraudon was exquisite in the rôle of Cendrillon. Mme. Deschamps Jehin was astonishing as a singer and as a comedienne, pretty Mlle. Emelen was our Prince Charming and the great Fugère showed himself an indescribable artist in the rôle of Pandolphe. He sent me the news of "victory" which I received the next morning at Enghien-les-Bains, which with my wife I had chosen as a refuge near Paris from the dress rehearsal and the first performance.
More than sixty continuous performances, including matinées, followed the Première. The Isola brothers, managers of the Gaîté, later gave a large number of performances, and a curious thing for so Parisian a work was that Italy gave Cendrillon a fine reception. This lyric work was given at Rome thirty times—a rare number. The following cablegram came to me from America:
Cendrillon hier, success pheno menal.
The last word was too long and the sending office had cut it in two.
It was now 1900, the memorable time of the Great Exposition.
I had scarcely recovered from the fine emotion of La Terre Promise at Saint Eustache than I fell seriously ill. They were then going on with the rehearsals of Le Cid at the Opéra which they intended to revive. The hundredth performance was reached in October of the same year.
All Paris was en fête. The capital, one of the most frequented places in the world, became even more and better than that: it was the world itself, for all people met there. All nations jostled one another; all tongues were heard and all costumes were set off against each other.
Though the Exposition sent its million of joyful notes skyward and could not fail to obtain a place of honor in history, at nightfall the immense crowd sought rest from the emotions of the day by swarming to the theaters which were everywhere open, and it invaded the magnificent palace which our dear great Charles Gamier had raised for the manifestations of Lyric Art and the religion of the Dance.