And though it has at last admitted Wagner's dramas
into its repertory, one can no longer consider these works, half a
century old, to be in the vanguard of music. The most esteemed masters
of the French school, such as Massenet, Reyer, Chausson, and Vincent
d'Indy, had to seek refuge in the Theatre de la Monnaie at Brussels
before they could get their works received at the Opera in Paris. And
the classical composers fare no better. Neither _Fidelio_ nor Gluck's
tragedies--with the exception of _Armide_, which was put on under
pressure of fashion--are represented; and when by chance they give
_Freischuetz_ or _Don Juan_, one wonders if it would not have been better
to let them rest in oblivion, rather than treat them sacrilegiously by
adding, cutting, introducing ballets and new recitatives, and deforming
their style so as to bring them "up to date."[214]
[Footnote 213: This is according to M. Rivet's report on the
_Beaux-Arts_ in 1906. The Opera employs 1370 people, and its expenses
are about 3,988,000 francs. The annual grant of the State comes to about
800,000 francs.]
[Footnote 214: On the occasion of the revival of _Don Juan_ in 1902, the
_Revue Musicale_ counted up the pages that had been added to the
original score.
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