It has also been open to
various kinds of foreign art: Humperdinck's _Haensel und Gretel_, Verdi's
_Falstaff_, the works of Puccini, Mascagni, and the young Italian
school, Richard Strauss's _Feuersnot_, Rimsky-Korsakow's
_Snegourotchka_, have all been played. And they have even given the
classic masterpieces of opera there: _Fidelio_, _Orfeo_, _Alceste_, the
two _Iphigenies_; and taken more pains with them and mounted them with
more pious zeal than they do at the Opera. The operas themselves are
more at home there, too, for the size of the theatre is more like that
of the eighteenth-century theatres. It is true that the stage rather
lacks depth; but the ingenuity of the director and the admirable scenic
artists he employs has succeeded in making one forget this defect, and
accomplished marvels. No theatre in Paris has more artistic staging, and
some of the scenery that has been designed lately is a masterpiece of
its kind. The Opera-Comique has also the advantage of excellent
conductors, and one of them, M. Messager, who is now Director, has, by
his clever interpretations, greatly contributed to the success of the
works of the new school.
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