And so the society is representative of
a little public whose taste is, broadly speaking, conservative and
official; and the noise of the strife outside its doors only reaches its
ears slowly, and with a deadened sound.
The influence of the Conservatoire is, in music especially, an influence
of the past and of the Government. One may say much the same of the
Opera. This ancient association, which bears the imposing name of
_Academie nationale de Musique_ and dates from 1669, is a sort of
national institution which is more concerned with the history of
official art than with living art. The satire with which Jean-Jacques
describes, in his _Nouvelle Heloise_, the stiff solemnity and mournful
pomp of its performances has not lost much of its truth. What is lacking
in the Opera to-day is the enthusiasm that accompanied its former
musical struggles in the times of the "_Encyclopedistes_" and the
"_guerre des coins_." The great battles of art are now fought outside
its doors; and it has become by degrees a showy _salon_, a little faded
perhaps, where the public is more interested in itself than in the
performance. In spite of the enormous sums that it swallows up every
year (nearly four million francs),[213] only one or two new pieces are
produced in a year, and they are rarely works that are representative of
the modern school.
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