OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2160, 6 December 1875, Page 4

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(KEOM OTJR OWN COESESPOKDENr.)

Pabis, October ' 2.

Theatres.

Theatre Fbancais. —"Le Philosopheie Saroi." This famous five aot comedy by Sedaine, dates from the year 1765, and is now reitored in its original text, after undergoing innumerable mutilations by the censors of the past, because it was considered to be an attack on the laws prohibiting duelling. On the contrary, the object of the play is eminently sdcial, and represents the rehabilitation, if not the glorification, of the middle class, then commencing to reclaim its rights. Sedaine would seem to have anticipated the celebrated formula of Sieyes : " What ii the Tiers-Etat ? Nothing; What ought it to be ? Everything ? " For the year 1765, it is nothing short of a revolutionary play, and was the precursor of the " Barbier de Seville," and of the •• Marriage dv Figaro." The principal character, Vanderk, was blamed by the authorities, because he apologised for duels, in describing them as " a cruel abuse of honor," which must have taken birth in barbarous times, and could only exist among a people vain and full of itself; in the midst of a nation where each individual considers his person everything, and Ms family and country nothing, and where the severity of the laws places the heart of an honest man between infamy and punishment. So much for the duel. Vanderk is a nobleman by birth, becomes a merchant to re-establish his shattered fortune, and in so doing shocks the aristocratic prejudices of his family and friends, especially those of his sister, a Marchioness, who consents to be present at his son's marriape only on condition that she be regarded as a distant relative of the family. Vanderk does not imitate those rich merchants who seek a titled son-in-law, whose debts they pay and whose escutcheon they regild; so he decides that his son shall marry Victorine, the daughter of his head clerk, Anteine. Indeed the young couple had long since forestalled old Vanderk's arrangement. On the morning of the wedding the son endeavors; to quit the house quietly to fight a duel; but he encounters his father, who declares he has risen early to see that everything was in apple-pie order regarding the wedding preparations. The son avows his position; that the previous day an officer of dragoons made same disparaging remarks touching persons in trade, which he resented, and hence the challenge. The father does not prevent him, and proceeds to take every precaution to facilitate his son's flight, in case he escapes death. He is seated in his office, when one Desparville arrives to have a letter of credit cashed. In course of conversation ' Desparville congratulates Vanderk upon having no son. " I hope I have one " " But perhaps he is not a scapegrace like mine, always in rows and duels ?" . At this moment a blind is lowered by Antoine, the concerted signal to apprize Vanderk in case his son was killed. The father controls his agony till Desparville retires, and then a dreadful scene of grief ensues between him and Victorine. It is of short duration, as young Vanderk and his antagonist De?parville, jun., now the best of friends, enter the room. The, watch scene was finely rendered; it was here where Mile. Mars distinguished herself; the evening before the duel, her lover begged her, and "onlyher," to keep his valuable watch till next day, and her joy and upbraiding him when returning it made an attractive scene. The play has on the present occasion been fairly interpreted and supported. Gtmnase.—" La Dame aux Camelias." Some judges allege that every revival of this play excites less interest in the public, and. attracts only when new artistes are engaged to interpret the principal roles- The stage would lose nothing by the lapse into forgetfulness of this apotheosis of a courtesan. The pulmonic element of the play is becoming used up. On the other hand there are competent persons who assert the " Dame aux Camelias " will survive all the other dramas of Dumas fils, when his philoso-phico-religious theories, which he has presented under the name of social studies, shall have been forgotten. " Traviata " has contributed not a little to galvanize the parent play, which will now soon be nearly/la quarter of a century old. Dumas confesses that he wrote all his dramas with love and respect for his art, save the first—" The Dame," &,c, —which he composed in eight days, without exactly knowing how, cxc* pt in virtue of juvenile audacity, the chances of youthfulness, and rather more from the want of money than from inspiration. These would be bad attractions for young authors, and would soon land them in gross defects,inconsequences, and immoralities, all of which bristle in the present drama. Mile. Tallandiera,.as Marguerite, was physically marked out for the part; she has jet black hair, pale features* and beautiful teeth; she endeavored to make the actrice win pardon for the heroine; was particularly excellent in the third and fourth acts, where her weak voice comes to the aid of her ptithisis, and when she staggers and faints, so 'pale under her black hair, she produces a shudder among the spectators, some of whom even cried. M. Worms, as Armand, was simple, sober, and natural, fcut was not every thing to. be desired. Oltjny.—"La Chambre Ardente." This old melodrama by Mclesville and Bayard, has been revived at this house with success. Like otherplays, ifc drives a coach and six through history. It is founded on the crimes of Brinvjllers and her punishment. She was not, however, tried by the Chambre Ardente, but before the Parliament of Paris. We are supposed to be in the time of Louis XIV., when everybody was suspected of poisoning everybody. We assist at riots in Paris caused by the rumours of these poisonings, and we see the people recognising in every passer-by with a phial, a poisoner, and their rushing to massacre the unfortunate. One of these passersby is, the Comte de Guiche, who loves Marie,.the daughter of La Brinvilliers—for this criminal had a child that she adored absolutely, as Lucrezia Borgia loved Gennaro. To secure a fortune for her daughter La Brinvilliers poisons her brother, having for her accomplice her friend the Chevalier, de Sainte Croix. The Comte de Guiche discovers this murder, and puts the law on the traces of the marchioness. Poisonißgs now succeed swiftly. De Guichois gorrid of, and by a stretch, of history, Madame Heuriette succumbs

at the same time, being considered as a rival of Mile, de Brinviiliera. The rest of the drama is devoted to the pursuit, arrest, judgment and public execution of the Marchioness, whose parting with her daughter is a very emotional scene, as aliio a preceding one, where she believes she has poisoned her own child in error. The play is well mounted, the scenery superb, and the acting creditable. , Theatre Histobiqtte. •— *'Les Muscadins," drama in five acts, by Jules Claretie. As the piece has been removed from the bills, the evidence of inBuccess is conclusive. It was a play founded on one of the author's novels, and aimed to represent the muscadins, or fops, during the Directory, and of which, if the truth be told, there were none at all, a fact the play seems to recognise, by making the muscadins conspicuous by their absence. The plot turns upon political refugees, adulteries, forgeries, and executions. The loss in bringing out this drama must be enormous, as the scenery and costumes were magnificent. The author is recommended to recast his work.

The Chatelet has revised the "Closerie dcs Genets," the most successful of Sanlies dramas,' and in which a stern Breton father, causes his daughter to avow her misconduct; as usual the play provoked tears, although time has marked it with many wrinkles. The Ambigtt has fallen back on the " Fils dv Diable," a drama by Paul Feval, which is appreciated for its several extraordinary incidents, though few can comprehend the plot. Music. At the National Opera " Faust" has been produced, not for any particular reason save to place a very prominent artiste, Mme. Madier, in the to her unsuitable r6le of Marguerite, demanding tenderness and melancholy, which the passionate nature of the singer cannot command. At the Opera-Gomique, a positively new star has, one may soy, reappeared, since she there sang formerly in "Carmen." But Mile. Chapuy has been so transformed, her progress has been so rapid that she has completely crossed the distance which separates a conscientious artiste from a first-rate chanteuse, both in style and expression, such as she appears as Isabelle. in the " Pre*auxClercs," Mile. Chapuy owes her progress to having during the late London season sang in Italian repertoires; her contact with great artistes has matured her talent; she expresses herself with exquisite taste; and has nothing to learn under the head of mechanism; the compass of her voice is sympathetic, but its volume small, and consequently unsuited for a large building; perhaps time and practice may impart to it amplitude. The Theatre de la Eenaissance has brought out a one act operette. " Marianne et Jeannot," music by M. Moniot. It is a peasant's love story, with nothing classical or remarkable, where a farm steward is shy to marry his employer, who has to coquet with a rival in order to spur on the choice of her heart. The music is agreeable? and is taken a little from everywhere, except the composer's imagination; the style is easy and flowing, and not deficient in promise. In " Girofle-Girofla" Mile. Granier is simply charming, and the other characters amusing, and at the Bouffes, the blonde Theo, exercises her seductions on her special public in the " Jolie Parfumeuse." The winter concerts are on the point of opening, and Parisians will have nothing to complain of in this respect during the soason.