We submitted the idea to du Locle, but
he was afraid of an entirely Japanese stage setting. He wanted us to
soften the Japanese part, and it was he, I think, who had the idea of
making it half Japanese and half Dutch, the way the slight work _La
Princesse Jaune_ was cast.
That was only a beginning and in our daily talks we sketched the most
audacious projects. The leading concerts of the time did not balk at
performing large vocal works, as they too often do to-day to the great
detriment of the variety of their programmes. We then thought that we
were at the beginning of the prosperity of French oratorio which only
needed encouragement to flourish. I read by chance in an old Bible this
wonderful phrase,
"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth," and so I
proposed to Gallet that we do a Deluge. At first he wanted to introduce
characters. "No," I said, "put the Bible narrative into simple verse,
and I will do the rest." We know with what care and success he
accomplished his delicate task. Meanwhile he gave Massenet the texts for
_Marie-Madeleine_ and _Le Roi de Lahore_, and these two works created a
great stir in the operatic world.
We had dreams of historical opera, for we were quite without the
prejudice against this form of drama which afflicts the present school.
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