That was Gluck's aim; and because he realised it
so well he gained a reputation among the French public which nothing
will destroy. Debussy's strength lies in the methods by which he has
approached this ideal of musical temperateness and disinterestedness,
and in the way he has placed his genius as a composer at the service of
the drama. He has never sought to dominate Maeterlinck's poem, or to
swallow it up in a torrent of music; he has made it so much a part of
himself that at the present time no Frenchman is able to think of a
passage in the play without Debussy's music singing at the same time
within him.
But apart from all these reasons that make the work important in the
history of opera, there are purely musical reasons for its success,
which are of deeper significance still.[200] _Pelleas et Melisande_ has
brought about a reform in the dramatic music of France. This reform is
concerned with several things, and, first of all, with recitative.
[Footnote 200: That is for musicians. But I am convinced that with the
mass of the public the other reasons have more weight--as is always the
case.]
In France we have never had--apart from a few attempts in
_opera-comique_--a recitative that exactly expressed our natural speech.
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