This
lofty shame of emotion is something as rare in opera as a Racine tragedy
is in poetry--they are works of the same order, and both of them perfect
flowers of the French spirit. Anyone who lives in foreign parts and is
curious to know what France is like and understand her genius should
study _Pelleas et Melisande_ as they would study Racine's _Berenice_.
Not that Debussy's art entirely represents French genius any more than
Racine's does; for there is quite another side to it which is not
represented there; and that side is heroic action, the intoxication of
reason and laughter, the passion for light, the France of Rabelais,
Moliere, Diderot, and in music, we will say--for want of better
names--the France of Berlioz and Bizet. To tell the truth, that is the
France I prefer. But Heaven preserve me from ignoring the other! It is
the balance between these two Frances that makes French genius. In our
contemporary music, _Pelleas et Melisande_ is at one end of the pole of
our art and _Carmen_ is at the other. The one is all on the surface, all
life, with no shadows, and no underneath. The other is below the
surface, bathed in twilight, and enveloped in silence.
Pages:
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322