LES CLOCHES DE CORNLVILLE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2574, 23 September 1915, Page 9

LES CLOCHES DE CORNLVILLE

Jn the vrhole gamut of comic opera .there is probably no more telling dramaho climax than that, reached at the end fof the second act of Planquette's beautiful and iromahtio opera, "Les Cloches de Corneville." The situation is cleverly, worked up by the action followmg the return to his Normandy estates ot the Marquis, believed to be dead. The legend states that the bells are only to ring- when the heir returns, find Teturii he to find that Gaspard, tlie trusted servant of his dea<l father, has become a mean, gTasping miser, who lias hoarded up the money accruing from the 1 estates until be believes it is all his. When the Marquis returns he eeeks bis youthful home in thd old and now crumbling chateau on tho bill. The villagers believe it to be haunted, strange, lights and shapes have been seen through the tnullioned windows at midnight. The Marquis, with his sailor lads, resolves to probe the mystelry, and finds that the spectre is none other than old Gaspard, The intruders then appear out of the gloom as ghosts, and at tie sight of them Gaspard hugs his gold and loses his reaon at the same time. The scene is fascinating dramatically, and the chorus, "Let Our Torches Light up the Gloom," and that of the "Ancestors" are fine evidences of Planquette's genius as a. writer for massed voices. The whole of the net proceeds of the opera, season are to be donated to the Wounded Soldiers' Fund. The bos plan is showing some cheering marks at the Bristol.