Le Chérubin was created by Mary Garden, the tender Nina by Marguerite Carré, the bewitching Ensoleillad by Cavalieri, and the part of the philosopher was filled by Maurice Renaud.
It was a really delightful interpretation. The evening was much drawn out by the applause and the constant encores which the audience demanded of the artists. It literally held them in an atmosphere of the wildest enthusiasm.
Our stay at the palace was one continual series of inexpressible delights which we were to experience again as the guests of that high-souled prince of science.
Henri Cain, who had been my collaborator with Francis de Croisset in Le Chérubin, amused me between times by making me write the music for a pretty, picturesque ballet in one act, Cigale. The Opéra-Comique gave it February 4, 1904. The bewitching, talented Mlle. Chasle was our Cigale, and Messmaecker, of the Opéra-Comique, clowned the rôle of Mme. Fourmi, Rentière, in a mirth provoking manner!
I was by far the most entertained of those who attended the rehearsals of Cigale. At the end was a scene which was very touching and exquisitely poetical, where an angel with a divine voice appears and sings in the distance. The angel's voice was Mlle. Guiraudon who became Mme. Henri Cain.
A year later, as I have said, on February 14, 1905, Le Chérubin was sung at Monte Carlo and on the twenty-third of the following May the Opéra-Comique in Paris closed its season with the same piece. The only changes at the latter were that Lucien Fugère took the rôle of the philosopher and added a new success to the many that artist had already achieved and that the rôle of Ensoleillad was given to the charming Mlle. Vallandri.
Persephone in Ariane
You will perhaps observe that I have said nothing about Ariane. The reason for this is that I never talk about a work until it is finished and engraved. I have said nothing about Ariane or about Roma, the first scenes of which I wrote in 1902, enraptured by the sublime tragedy, Rome Vaincue by Alexandre Parodi. As I write these words the five acts of Roma are in rehearsal at Monte Carlo and the Opéra, but I have already said too much.
So I resume the current of my life.