Although Berlioz has his place at
the Chevillard and Conservatoire concerts, it is to the Chatelet that
his followers flock; and their enthusiasm has not been affected by the
campaign that for several years has been directed against Berlioz by
some French critics under the influence of the younger musical
party--the followers of d'Indy and Debussy.
[Footnote 218: The _Damnation de Faust_ alone was given in its entirety
a hundred and fifty times in thirty years.]
It is also at the Chatelet that the keenest musical passion has been
preserved in the public, even to this day. Thanks to the size of the
theatre, which is one of the largest in Paris, and to the great number
of cheap seats, you may always find there a number of young students who
make the most interested kind of public possible. And the music is
something more than a pleasure to them--it is a necessity. There are
some that make great sacrifices in order to have a seat at the Sunday
concerts. And many of these young men and women live all the week on the
thought of forgetting the world for a few hours in musical enjoyment.
Such a public did not exist in France before 1870.
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