Chapter 90 Letter XXIII to Madame de Olbe

Dear cousin, I must tell you what I think of the opera, because, although there is no mention of opera in your letters, and despite Julie's secretiveness to you, I can see that there is something wrong with it. Where did her curiosity come from.I went to the opera once to satisfy my curiosity, and twice because of you.After reading this letter, I beg you not to mention it again.I could go there again for you, yawn there, suffer there, suffer to death there, but I can't keep my eyes open and watch with all my heart. Before I tell you what I think of this famous play, let me tell you what people here think of it.If I'm wrong, an insider's review will correct me.

In Paris, Paris opera is regarded as the most magnificent, most beautiful and most worthy of appreciation drama performance created by human art.It is said that this is the most magnificent monument left by King Louis XIV.On such an important issue, not everyone is free to express their views as you might imagine.Here one can argue about everything except music and opera.On matters of music and opera it is dangerous not to hide one's opinion.French music is maintained by a kind of strict censorship.In the way of lectures, the first thing to instill in all foreigners who come to this country is to convince these foreigners that there is no such good opera in the world except French opera.In this way, the cautious people are silent and only dare to snicker at each other.

However, it has to be admitted that no expense was spared in the performances of the Opera House. Not only are there various natural landscapes, but there are also many wonders that no one has ever seen.So Pope called this grotesque play a hodgepodge of wonders, gods, imps, goblins, kings, shepherds, nymphs, all of them, now angry, now merry, now mad, now dancing, Suddenly fighting, suddenly dancing, people are dazzled to see. This well-choreographed smorgasbord of dazzling bells and whistles is supposed to really be able to perform everything that needs to be performed.Seeing the appearance of a temple, the audience is immediately in awe; as long as the fairy is a little bit beautiful, half of the audience in the pool will have evil thoughts.Audiences at the Paris Opera are not as picky as those at the Comédie Française.In the comedy theater, the same audience, they always say that such and such a comedian does not play his part, but at the opera, they will say that such and such an actor is alive, the actor and the character are integrated.It seems that the audience's thoughts and reasonable fantasies are contradictory, and the more absurd the fantasies, the more they can accept them.Or maybe it's easier for them to imagine gods than heroes.Because Jupiter is not the same as us, everyone can imagine him freely, but whether Kadong is a man or not a god, how many people dare to believe that there is such a man?

Therefore, here, opera is not the same as elsewhere, actors are not paid to come on stage and act for the audience.Yes, they are also paid by the audience to perform on the stage, but the nature has completely changed, because this is a Royal Academy of Music, a kind of Royal Supreme Court, and the performance of the show depends entirely on its own interests. It doesn't matter whether the verdict is made, whether it is fair or not, whether it conforms to the facts.So, cousin, you can see that in some countries things are true or false according to what people say, and what is bad can become good if a gentleman says a few words.

The status of members of this noble institution will never be lowered, but they were expelled from religious membership, which is exactly the opposite of the rules of other countries.This may be because they have the right to choose, and they would rather be noble and go to hell than be a commoner and be blessed by God.I saw a modern knight on the stage, as proud of his calling as the hapless Labellius of old was ashamed of his calling, though he was compelled to it, and despite his The lines are of his own composition.In this way, the ancient Labolius could not sit among the ancient Roman knights in the arena, but today the new Labelius can compete with the country every day in the French comedy theater. The first-class nobles sat together.Never in Rome was the style of the Roman people heard with such awe as the style of the opera was spoken of in Paris.

That's about as much as I can gather what others have said about this glorious show.Now, let me tell you how I see it myself. Just imagine, a platform about fifteen feet square, this is the stage.On both sides of the platform, a few screens are placed at intervals, on which some things that will appear in the play are sketched.The innermost one is a big screen, which also has similar things painted on it, and it is almost full of holes, and there are many torn places. According to the background, they either represent the potholes on the ground, or the gaps in the clouds in the sky.Every person who came on the stage from behind the stage touched the curtain, and the curtain was pulled, which produced a phenomenon similar to an earthquake, which was very interesting to watch.The sky is represented by strips of bluish rags, propped up on sticks or hung from strings, like a washerwoman drying her clothes.The sun—for it is sometimes visible on the stage—was made by setting a torch in a lantern.The chariots in which the gods and fairies rode consisted of a framework of four wooden bars, suspended like a swing from a thick rope.A wooden plank is placed on the four wooden bars, and the god sits on the wooden plank. In front of it is hung a piece of rough canvas, which is used as a cloud on which the chariot rides.Below the car, you can see two or three lit candles, emitting a bad smell, and the candle flowers have not been trimmed. When the characters in the play shouted and screamed and shook on the "swing", the candles burned brightly, and the smoke Curling, which means burning incense and worshiping gods.

Since the car is the most important thing in the opera props, you can infer other things from the car.The rough seas are made of long angular lanterns made of blue canvas or blue cardboard, strung with some iron skewers for a few kids to turn.The sound of thunder, created by a lumbering cart being pushed across the stage floor, is not the worst "instrument" in this beautiful operatic music.Lightning is formed by sprinkling handfuls of turpentine on torches.The thunderbolt was caused by a firecracker lit on the top of the Monkey King. There are also some small square trap doors on the stage. When they need to be opened, it means that the devil is about to emerge from the hole in the ground.When the devils were about to rise into the air, some people cleverly replaced real people with little devils made of straw in brown canvas, and sometimes real chimneymen, who were hung on ropes and writhed desperately. Until they fall into those rags I just spoke of.But if the rope is not fastened, or if the rope breaks, it will be a real tragedy, and the devils and immortal gods in hell will fall down, breaking arms and legs, and dying .In addition, those ghosts also make some scenes very thrilling. There are dragons, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, big toads, etc., and they walk around the stage aggressively, making people look like St. Anthony. seductive scene.These monsters are all alive one by one, and they are all manipulated by a fool of Savoy.

My cousin, sitting in the pool seat, I saw with a spyglass some of these sumptuous opera scenes.You can easily guess that these mechanisms are hidden, so the effect is more realistic.What I am telling you is what I see for myself and for all spectators who have nothing to do with me.However, it can be said with certainty that a great deal of machinery was used to bring all this to life.I've been offered to see these machines several times, but I've never been curious enough to see how other people have gone to such lengths to come up with little gadgets. There are countless people who serve the opera.The band and chorus number about a hundred people: there are many dancers, and each role has an A, B, and even a C role.That is to say, there are often one or two second-rate actors who are preparing to replace the top actors.They just get paid and don't work until the leading actor himself wants to rest.It often happens that the leading actors want to take a break; after a few performances, the leading actors—they are all in the leading roles—stop serving the audience and let the B-side actors play their roles, and even let the C-side perform them. play.But the ticket price has not been lowered because of this, only the performance level has dropped.Audiences buy theater tickets just like buying lottery tickets, they don't know what prize they will win.But no one dares to complain in any case, because even if you knew about it, the noble members of the Academy would have no respect for the opinions of your spectators, who would follow their orders.

You know this kind of opera music, so I won't tell you about it.However, what you may not have imagined is that during the performance, the roof tiles were shaken in the theater, and there were constant roars and howls.You see actresses almost twitching, screaming at the top of their voices, beating their chests, throwing their heads back, their faces flushed, their veins twitching, their bellies rising and you don't know how they make people What's annoying is whether it looks harsh or sounds harsh.Watching them move is sickening, listening to them sing is sickening.What is even more unimaginable is that it was their hoarse roar that was applauded by the audience.Looking at the way the audience applauded, you would think they were deaf. Occasionally, when they heard a scream or two, they would be ecstatic, and applauded an actress desperately, and applauded desperately.But I feel that the audience applauding the actresses in the opera house is like applauding when watching a charlatan performing hard work in a vaudeville arena: they are both uncomfortable and uncomfortable to watch their performances. How long do they perform? The audience felt uncomfortable for a long time, but seeing that they finished the performance safely, the audience was happy and applauded naturally.Just imagine how one of Gino's most tender and beautiful operas could be sung in this way!Just imagine how the Muses, the Graces, Cupids, and even Venus are represented in this way!As for the devils, the acting is not bad, and the music has a bit of a taste of hell, which suits them quite well.So the magic, the psychics and all the witching parties in the play have always been the most appreciated things in French opera.

What matches these accurate and sweet singing is the performance of the band.Just imagine how uncomfortable it must be to mix the melody-less cacophony of so many instruments with the low-pitched grunts.This is the most desolate and loudest music I have ever heard in my life, and if I listen to it for half an hour, I will definitely not be able to bear it, and I will have a splitting headache.It was rather like the monotonous voice of a hymn, without melody or rhythm.However, every now and then, when a slightly changed tune came out, the audience applauded and stamped their feet together, and the big guy followed someone in the band and yelled loudly and desperately.For a while, they were fascinated by this music rhythm they didn't quite understand. One by one, they pricked up their ears, shouted louder, their feet, arms, and even their whole bodies shook non-stop, trying to keep up with them. The Germans and the Italians are different, they feel it in their hearts, so they can feel the beauty of the music, and they can keep up with the beat without any effort, absolutely no need to follow the beat.At least Reggiano often told me that although Italian operas are so beautiful and beautiful, the audience just listens quietly, and has never seen the orchestra or the audience make any movements to express the beauty of the music.In this country, however, everything shows that the musical instruments are harsh, that the singing is harsh and not soft, that the pitches change too quickly and suddenly, that the intonations are artificial and drawn out, that there is no sense of rhythm, and that there is no melodious melody in folk songs. .Military instruments, infantry piccolos, cavalry horns, horns of all kinds, oboes, street singers, cafe fiddlers, all these are harsh to the ear.Not everyone is versatile, and in general the French seem to be the least musically gifted of all European peoples.Gentleman Edward believed that the British music quality is also very poor, but the difference between the two is that although the British understand music, they don’t care much about music, while the French can give up any rights and admit defeat in everything. Disagree with people who say they are not world class musicians.Some even boasted that music was a national affair, perhaps imitating the Spartans, for in Sparta it was a felony to break two strings of Timothy's harp. It's a national event.This comparison is simply ridiculous.In any case, even if the opera in Paris is an excellent political education, it is not to the taste of refined people.Now, let me go back and describe what I saw and heard.

All I have left is ballet.Ballet is the most exciting part of Paris opera. If you look at it alone, it is a pleasing and beautiful performance, a real stage performance. However, it is only a part of a play, so it must be viewed from this perspective. To analyze it.You know Gino's operas, you know how the interludes are arranged, and Gino's disciples are either equal to him or worse than him.At the most interesting moment of each play, there is usually a sudden break, and the seated actors perform a show while the audience stands up to watch.As a result, it often happens that the characters in the play are completely forgotten, or that the audience is watching irrelevant actors.The method of inserting these programs is very simple: if the king is happy, everyone will be happy with him and start dancing; if the king is sad, everyone will try to amuse him, and also dance.I don't know if it's the same at court, when the king is in a bad mood, he dances away his sorrows.And all I know about the King is that he can't be too confident watching the gavot folk dance or listening to the singing when someone sometimes decides his throne and his fate behind the scenes.But there are many other things that make one dance: the most important things in life are expressed through dance.The priests danced, the soldiers danced, the gods danced, the devils danced, and danced until they were buried in the ground, and in short, dancing was in keeping with everything. Dance is the fourth artistic means used in opera, but the other three artistic means all imitate it.So who is it imitating?It imitates no one.So, when it is used only as a dance, it is an interlude, for, in a tragedy, what use is the minuet, the jig, the Spanish troise?I would add that if it imitated anything, it would be worse, because, of all the elements, there is absolutely no other essential element except that of language.And an opera whose plot is half sung and half danced is more ridiculous than half French and half Italian. Although they were not satisfied with introducing dance as the main part of the play, they sometimes insisted on using it as the main form of performance, and called some operas ballets, which is simply irrelevant, causing dance to be more important than other plays. It seems even more inappropriate.There are several themes in these ballets, and some mysterious lines are used to connect the themes.In this regard, if the author does not explain it clearly in the prologue, the audience will not be able to understand it.Seasons, years, directions, the five elements, etc., I don't understand what relationship they have with dance, and what imagination the audience can have if they are expressed in dance.Some of them are purely allegorical, such as the carnival antics and wild excesses, which are simply unbearable because, despite all the care and thought, the human emotions and the atmosphere of the environment cannot be expressed. Come on, it's not lively, it's not interesting, it doesn't let the music work at all, and it doesn't make the audience move and fantasize at all.In these so-called ballets, the movements are accompanied by songs, and the dancing always interferes with the plot, or only appears according to the situation, and expresses nothing anyway.As a result, the ballet is not as touching as tragedy, and if it is inserted in the play, it will not attract the attention of the audience. If it is performed vigorously, it will even disgust the audience.However, one defect can cover up another, so that, in order not to bore the audience with the dance, the author has contrived to make the whole play dull. From what I saw, I unconsciously began a study of the true nature of opera.As the scope is too broad to be discussed in this letter, and, to do so, it would be too far off topic, I have therefore written a separate short essay, which is enclosed, and which you can share with Reggiano Discuss it together.The rest of what I should say to you about French opera is that the greatest flaw I think I find in it is that it seeks too much for the miraculous, trying to express the unthinkable in opera in this way, without thinking that these things It is all imaginary, and what works well in an epic poem would be ludicrous in a play.If I hadn't seen it, I couldn't believe that there were some stupid artists who wanted to copy the sun god's car, and that there were audiences who were naive enough to go to see such a copy.La Bruyère could not understand how such an elegant play as the opera could be boring for what he paid a high price for.But I am not surprised by this.I am not La Bruyère, but I think that to anyone who is not yet completely devoid of artistic taste, the mixture of French music, dance, and magic necessarily makes the Paris opera the centerpiece of all drama. Most boring drama ever.In short, perhaps the French do not need perfection, at least in theatrical performances, not because they are incapable of recognizing the good, but because they are more sensitive to the bad than to the good. interested.They are more inclined to laugh than to applaud, and their distaste for the opera is counterbalanced by the pleasure of criticizing the plays.Moreover, they feel that it is more interesting to go out of the theater and have a trick and ridicule than to watch the play in the theater.