H. K. M.
III
As we have seen in an earlier chapter, the opéra comique had developed after Boildieu into a new type, of which Auber, Hérold, Halévy, and Adam were the principal exponents. These were the men who prepared the way for the new lyric drama which grew out of the opéra comique—for the romantic opera of Gounod and Thomas. The romantic movement in French literature had, we may recall, received its impulse by Victor Hugo, whose Hernani appeared in 1829. Its influence on French music was most powerful from 1840 on. Composers of all schools yielded to it in one way or another, from Berlioz, who followed the ideals of Gluck, to Halévy, whose Jaguarita l’Indienne pictures romance in the tropics.
The direct result of this influence of literary romanticism was the creation of the drame lyrique. Yet it must not be thought that Thomas and Gounod deliberately created the drame lyrique as a distinct operatic form. Auber and others of his school had already produced operas which may justly lay claim to the titles of lyric dramas. And the earlier works of both Thomas and Gounod themselves were light in character. In fact, Thomas’ La double échelle and Le Perruquier de la Régence are opéras comique of the accepted type; and Le Caïd has received the somewhat doubtful compliment of being considered ‘a precursor of the Offenbach torrent of opéra bouffe.’ In Gounod’s Médecin malgré lui, wherein he anticipated Richard Strauss and Wolf-Ferrari in choosing a Molière comedy for operatic treatment, the composer achieved a success. Yet this opera, as well as that charming modernization of a classic legend, Philemon et Baucis, both adhere strictly to the conventional lines of opéra comique.
Gounod’s Faust remains the epochal work of his career. His Sapho (1851) never achieved popularity, but is of interest because it foreshadows his later style in its departure from tradition; in the final scene he ‘struck a note of sensuous melancholy new to French opera.’ Adam (in his capacity as a music critic) even claimed that in Sapho Gounod was trying to revive Gluck’s system of musical declamation.
In March, 1859, the first performance of Faust took place at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. In a manner it represents the ideal combination of the brilliant fancy, dreamy mysticism, and picturesque description that is the stuff of which romanticism is made. Goethe’s masterpiece, which had already been used operatically by Spohr, and, to mention a few among many, had also inspired Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner, achieved as great a success in the land of Goethe as it did in France. It was well received at its debut by the critics of the day, but its success in Paris was gradual, notwithstanding the fact that the Révue des Deux Mondes spoke of ‘the sustained distinction of style, the perfect good taste shown in every least detail of the long score, the color, supreme elegance and discreet sobriety of instrumentation which reveal the hand of a master.’ But it must be remembered that at the time of its production Rossini and Meyerbeer were still regarded as the very incarnation of music.
Gounod’s own style was essentially French, yet he had studied Mendelssohn and Schumann, and the charm of the poetic sentimentality that permeated his music was novel in French composition. For several decades Faust remained the recognized type of modern French opera, of the drame lyrique, embodying the poesy of an entire generation. The dictum ‘sensuous but not sensual,’ which applies in general to all Gounod’s work, is especially appropriate to Faust. It shows at its best his lyric genius, his ability to produce powerful effects without effort, and that languorous seduction which has been deprecated as an enervating influence in French dramatic art. In spite of elements unsympathetic to the modern musician, Faust, taken as a whole, is a work of a high order of beauty, shaped by the hand of a master. ‘Every page of the music tells of a striving after a lofty ideal.’
In Faust Gounod’s work as a creator culminates. His remaining operas repeat, more or less, the ideas of his masterpiece. The four-act Reine de Saba, given in England under the name of ‘Irene,’ contains noble pages, but was unsuccessful. Neither did Mireille (1864), founded on a libretto by the Provençal poet Mistral, nor Colombe, a light two-act operetta, win popular favor. Romeo et Juliette (1867) ranks as his second-best opera. The composer himself enigmatically expressed his opinion of the relative values of the two operas in the words: ‘“Faust” is the oldest, but I was younger; “Romeo” is the youngest, but I was older.’ Romeo et Juliette was an instant success in Paris, and was eventually transferred to the repertory of the Grand Opera, after having for some time formed part of that of the Opéra Comique. Gounod’s last operas Cinq Mars and Le Tribut de Zamora, which is in the style of Meyerbeer, were alike unsuccessful.
Gounod struck a strong personal note, and he may well be considered the strongest artistic influence in French music up to the death of César Franck. His art is eclectic, a curious mixture of naïve and refined sincerity, of real and assumed tenderness, of voluptuousness and worldly mysticism, and profound religious sentiment. The influence of ‘Faust’ was at once apparent, and its new and fascinating idiom was soon taken up by other composers, who responded to its romantic appeal.
Among these was Charles-Louis-Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896), who had already produced five ambitious operas with varying success before the appearance of Faust. But Mignon (1866) is the opera in which after Faust the transition from the opéra comique to the romantic poetry of the lyric drama is most marked. Gounod’s influence acted on Thomas like a charm. Mignon is an opera of great dramatic truth and beauty, one which according to Hanslick is ‘the work of a sensitive and refined artist,’ characterized by ‘rare knowledge of stage effects, skill in orchestral treatment, and purity of style and sentiment.’ Like Gounod, Thomas had chosen a subject by Goethe on which to write the opera which was to raise him among the foremost operatic composers of his day. Mme. Galti Marie, the creator of the title rôle, had modelled her conception of the part of the poor orphan girl upon the well-known picture by Ary Scheffer, and Mignon at once captivated the public, and remained one of the most popular operas of the second half of the nineteenth century.[103]