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Bob’s
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Reviews — The New York Times
From the New York Times - September 6, 1908
THE STORY OF MASSENET'S OPERA, “GRISELIDIS”
Based on a Mystery Play and Rich in Supernatural
Imagery, Patrons of the Manhattan Will Find in This
Production a Work Typical of Composer's Genius.
This opera is based on a mystery play by Armand Silvestre and Eugene Morand, which was performed at the Comédie Française in Paris some years ago. The authors rearranged it as an operatic libretto, calling it a “lyric tale,” and it was first produced in its new form with Massenet's music, at the Paris Opéra Comique on Nov. 20, 1901, with Mme. Lucienne Bréval, who sang the title rôle, and Hector Dufrane, specially imported for last season's production of “Pelleas et Melisande,” as the hero.
“Grisélidis” does not seem to have made a very marked impression; but in spite of the “weak and sugary” music which, according to his enemies, Massenet writes, his works have a way of winning not only a fair measure of immediate success, but a staying now and then in the general répertoire. Two of them, “Le Cid” and “Manon Lescaut,” may be considered nearly modern classics; and the fact that “Grisélidis,” seven years after its initial performance, should jump from comparative obscurity to a place in next season's Manhattan Opera House list is but typical of the general run of Massenet's operas.
The scene of “Grisélidis” is laid in the France of the thirteenth century. The opera opens with a prologue in a forest of Provence: Alain, a humble shepherd, sings of his love for Grisélidis, a beautiful young maiden. Presently the Marquis de Saluces, lord of the region, appears on the stage, sees Grisélidis, and falls deeply in love with her. He asks her to marry him. She answers that, being his slave, she must obey his will. Together they depart for the château of the Marquis, while Alain, the shepherd, left alone, bewails the fate that has robbed him of his love. The first act takes place in the château of the Marquis de Saluces. In the background is a triptych open, with an image of St. Agnes, holding in her arms a white lamb. Beneath her feet is a stone image representing the Devil.
The Marquis is about to depart to the wars against the Saracens. He tells of his love for Grisélidis and his faith in her, adding that he would swear to her fidelity in the presence of the Devil himself.
Suddenly the stone image of the Devil beneath the feet of St. Agnes comes to life. The Devil bounds on the stage.
“Here I am, Sire,” he says to the Marquis.
He offers to wager the Marquis that during the latter's absence he can make Grisélidis forget both her vow of obedience and her vow of fidelity to her husband. At first the Marquis spurns the offer, but eventually he accepts, and gives the Devil his wedding ring to show that he has no doubts as to Grisélidis. Then, after bidding his wife farewell, he sallies forth from the castle. Grisélidis is left alone with her little son, Loys, and with Bertrade, her lady in waiting, who begins to read aloud to her mistress the story of Penelope, the faithful wife of Ulysses.
The second act shows a terrace of the castle. As the curtain goes up the Devil is discovered. He sings a song, the burden of which is “How happy a man is when away from his wife!”
But suddenly Fiamina, his wife, appears. She suspects that he is courting some other woman and the two have a violent and amusing dispute.
“I should tell you to go to the Devil,” remarks the husband, “if I were not the Devil himself.” But eventually he explains to Fiamina how he is trying to tempt Grisélidis, and she consents to help him in his wicked plan.
Grisélidis appears, with Loys and Bertrade; the Devil and his wife disappear. Grisélidis prays for the safe return of her husband, the Marquis. Presently Bertrade enters, announcing that a stranger, in the company with a woman, apparently from distant lands, wishes to speak with her without witnesses.
Enter the Devil.
She orders that they be brought before her. The strangers are the Devil and Fiamina, his wife. He is disguised as a Levantine merchant, she as a Moorish slave. Pointing to his wife, the Devil tells Grisélidis that her husband, the Marquis, bought the woman from him in the Orient, being greatly attracted by her charms, and that he has given instructions that she be installed at the château as mistress and that all there obey her in everything. As a proof of the truth of what he says the Devil shows Grisélidis the wedding ring of the Marquis. She meekly declares that she will obey her husband's orders.
The Devil and his wife look at each other in consternation.
“She has beaten you,” say Fiamina.
“Wait!” says the Devil, “I shall now tempt her to forget her vow of fidelity.”
His wife laughs at him, reminding him that he has no personal charms for making such a conquest. That sets him thinking. He remembers Alain, the humble shepherd, who loved Grisélidis before she married the Marquis de Saluces. He calls upon the Evil Spirits, his subjects. They bring Alain.
He enters, not knowing where he is or how he happens to be there. A few moments later Grisélidis appears, also brought by mysterious forces. Alain, seeing her, at once begins to make ardent love to her, recalling to her the days when he and she were humble together, and imploring her to fly with him and be happy. She repels him, but he becomes all the more ardent.
She feels that her resistance is weakening. “What can save me?” she asks.
Loys, her son, suddenly appears.
“My child!” she cries. “He will save me!” And she seizes Loys, placing him between herself and the importunate Alain. The shepherd rushes away in despair.
The Devil, emerging from among the trees, promptly seizes Loys and disappears with him. The curtain goes down on a frantic search for the boy, conducted by Grisélidis and all her servants, while the Devil, safely hidden, laughs a diabolic laugh.
The third act shows the interior of the château again, just as in the first act, with the difference that the triptych in the background is closed. Grisélidis is leaning out of the window. From outside the cries of the searchers for Loys are heard. Again Bertrade, the lady-in-waiting enters to announce that a man wishes to see Grisélidis. This time it is one who claims to know what has become of her son. Grisélidis instantly orders that the man in question be brought to her at once.
It is the Devil, of course, disguised this time as an old man. He tells Grisélidis that Loys has been kidnapped by a pirate, who is enamored of her, and that he asks, as the price of giving up the boy, a kiss from Grisélidis. The Devil points out that the pirate is young and handsome, but Grisélidis steadfastly refuses to grant the boon asked.
The Last Combat.
“Nobody will see you,” urges the Devil.
“God will, from His heaven,” says Grisélidis. “How I detest Him,” remarks the Devil. Then he points out that, unless she acceded to the pirate's wish, the latter will doubtless take Loys to Algiers as a slave; “or perhaps, hang him when the moon is full to see how that looks by moonlight,” he adds cruelly.
That is too much for the mother. She decides to go to the pirate. But first she takes a dagger, dips it in holy water for her protection, and sprinkles the Devil with some drops of it, in order that he, too, may be safe from harm. The holy water turns to drops of fire as soon as it touches him; he suffers excruciating pain.
Then she runs toward the harbor. At this moment the Marquis appears. The Devil promptly informs him that his wife has gone away to a rendezvous with a lover and gives him a knife in order that he may kill her. At first the Marquis intends to do so, but refusing after all to believe the Devil's accusations against his wife, he throws away the weapon.
Grisélidis returns, empty-handed. Seeing the Marquis, she asks him whether he is still her husband.
“Why do you doubt it?” he asks.
“Because you sent another woman here to take my place,” she replies. He swears solemnly that this is a lie. Then Grisélidis, in turn, swears that, in spite of the Devil's trap, she has remained faithful to him. The Devil, suddenly appearing, tells the Marquis mockingly to ask his wife where Loys, his son, is.
Then Grisélidis tells her husband about the kidnapping of the boy by the pirates. In fury, the Marquis starts toward the wall where some weapons are hanging in order to seize them and attack the pirates. The weapons suddenly vanish. Both the Marquis and Grisélidis recognize once more the hand of the Devil. Both fall on their knees and pray that arms be given them with which to fight the powers of evil. At the end of their prayer the cross above the alter in the background is suddenly transformed into a flaming sword. The Marquis seizes it, brandishing it above his head.
Then Grisélidis prays to St. Agnes that her son be restored to her.
There is a lightning flash, a violent clap of thunder. The triptych flies open, and the image of the St. Agnes is shown, holding in her arms, not the white lamb, but Loys, the son of Grisélidis. At the same time bells burst forth in joyous peals and invisible voices chant songs of praise to God. Grisélidis clasps Loys to her heart; she and her husband, with the child between, swear undying love to each other.
And the Devil, making a sudden appearance through an aperture in the wall, wearing the garb of a monk and carrying in his hands a staff, remarks: “I feel that I am growing old. I shall become a hermit.”
Last updated December 29, 2006