Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



463 



JULES MASSENET. 



There are two appreciations of Jules Mas- 

 senet, the French operatic compKsser, who 

 died a few weeks ago, in the magazines for 

 September. 



SPOILT BY SUCCESS. 



M. Calvocoressi, who writes in the Musical 

 Times, says that the career of Massenet, who 

 was born in 1842, may be described as an 

 almost uninterrupted series of successes. His 

 first ambitious work, however, was an absolute 

 failure. This was an op6ra-comique entitled 

 " Don Cesar de Bazan " {1872). Other failures 

 there were, but they seem to have passed un- 

 perceived under the favour of his radiant 

 triumphs. .Among the more memorable suc- 

 cesses, " .Manon," " Werther," and " Thais " 

 are named. Altogether, Massenet has comfxssed 

 twenty-four operatic works, incidental music 

 for several plays, pianoforte pieces, songs, 

 choral works, oratorios, and some church music. 

 According; to the French critic, the author of 

 this article, Massenet's chief idiosyncrasy was 

 an overwhelming desire to court success. Con- 

 sequently, when he found his music proved 

 effective and became popular, he carefully 

 avoided changing his manner, and finally sank 

 into sheer mannerism. The marvel is that so 

 gifted a musician should have succeeded so well 

 in throwinff away his gifts. Success seems to 

 have spoiled him. The earnest ideals, the 

 thirst for progress, remained unknowr»''to him. 

 He wrote for his time, and his time repaid 

 his labours well. His " Don Quichotte " (1910) 

 was heard at the London Opera House in the 

 spring of the present year. 



EARLY STRUGGLES. 



Writing in the Fortniphtly Rrview, Mr. A. 

 Beaumont gives us a picture of Massenet's 

 earlv struggles. As the composer himself said, 

 he beg.in his artistic career with great en- 

 thusiasm, but soon discovered that it was not 

 suflficicnt to have won the Grand Prix de Rome. 

 Success was slow in coming, but in spite of 

 apparent failure he continued to compose, and, 

 as he says, he hnd no more reason to be 

 ashamed of his inspirations than of having 

 played the kettledrum at the Th«'-.'5tre Lyrique 

 in his early days, and of having pl.iyed that 

 very instrument in the orchestra on the night 

 of the first production of Goimod's " Faust." 

 The opera " Manon " (1884) was a tremendous 

 success. It was followed in 18815 by " Le Cid," 

 in which Jean and F.douard de Reszke made 

 their dfhtifs. The most famous vocalists have 

 interpreted his works. Besides the brothers de 



Reszke, Pauline Viardot, Emma Nevada, Sybil 

 Sanderson, Emma Calv^, Mary Garden, Las- 

 salle. Van Dyck, and many others may be 

 named. Massenet never attended the first per- 

 formance of any of his works. 



WHISTLER AND HIS ART. 



A WRITER in the Connoisseur for September 

 draws attention to the exhibition of Whistler's 

 works at the Tate Gallery. 



SVMPHO.VIES IN WHITE. 



Any one of the examples of Whistler's art 

 shown would, he says, be a welcome addition 

 to the permanent collection, for Whistler is most 

 inadequately represented in the Gallery. Among 

 the works included in the exhibition is the pic- 

 ture " At the Piano " (1859), which the 

 Athenaum stigmatised as being marked bv "a 

 recklessly bold manner and sketchiness of the 

 wildest and roughest kind." Judged by the 

 standard of to-day, the writer says it is liighlv 

 finished. But it is not Whistler's greatest 

 picture, though no other example, perhaps, 

 suggests so completely the range of his powers. 

 .Another picture is that known as " The Little 

 White Girl " (Symphony in White, No. 2), 

 painted in 1864. .As a merely technical achieve- 

 ment this picture, we are told, can hold its 

 own with any of the permanent works in the 

 Tate Gallery. A third picture, " The Two Little 

 White Girls " (Symphony in White, No. 3), 

 is dated 1867. It is said to be less spontaneous 

 than the picture previously named, but the 

 draperies are described as marvels of soft 

 purity. 



" THE world's GREATEST MASTERPIECE." 



The portrait of Miss Alexander (1872) makes 

 up a quartette of pictures which are " the way- 

 marks of the artist's progress." This last 

 picture is considered the most exquisite bloom 

 of Whistler's art. Not only is it perfect in 

 its way, it is the most perfect picture of its 

 kind in the world. Nominally a portrait, 

 actually it is a superb piece of harmonic decora- 

 tion, a patterned arrangement of line and colour, 

 of which Miss .Alexander's figure forms the 

 principal portion. In this sense it is, in the 

 writer's opinion, the world's greatest master- 

 piece. If the picture ever comes into the 

 market, he thinks it should be secured for the 

 nation at almost any cost. Indeed, he goes 

 so far as to say one would rather have it than 

 half-a-dozen canvases for which large sums 

 have been paid. 



