Bohemian Montmartre of Paris is Locale of "Louise", Opera Chosen for "Harvard Night"

The following article, discussing the opera "Louise", by Charpentier, was written by Professor E. B. Hill '94, Head of the Department of Music. "Louise" is to be given by the Chicago Opera Company on Harvard Night, which is to be held on Monday, February 6.

Gustave Charpentier's "Louise", which is to be performed by the Chicago Civic Opera Company on "Harvard Night", has maintained its place in operatic repertories for over a quarter of a century because it combines human interest with musical vitality. It also attracts the student of opera for two reasons. First, it is the outcome of sincere experiment in substituting a story of "real life" among the working classes for the romantic or history subjects previously in vogue. Furthermore its text, following the example of Bruneau, a great admirer of Zola and the literary cult of "realism" is written not in verse but in prose by Charpentier himself. Secondly, its scene is laid in the Montmartre quarter of Paris when that section was the native habitat of Bohemian artists, literary men and musicians, and not a stopping point for sight-seeing omnibuses.

The plot is simple. Louise, the daughter of honest and conservative working people, herself employed in a dress-maker's-shop, has fallen in love with Julien a poet and "pillar of a cabaret" as Louise's mother succintly describes him. Julien has written frankly to the parents to ask for Louise's hand in marriage. The poet's careless life and invisible income do not prepossess the somewhat strait-laced parents in his favor, and they refuse his offer. Louise promises to clope with her lover if the opposition continues. After a fantastic picture of Montmartre at night in which the rag-pickers, the small coals dealer, the old clothes man and other peddlars philosophize upon life, the scene changes to Louise's workshop. Julien serenades Louise, and reproaches her for not keeping her bargain. Overcome with remorse, she feigns illness and leaves her work to join her lover. They take up their abode on the heights of Montmartre, where in a brilliantly gay ceremony Louise is crowned queen of the quarter. One day the mother tells Louise that her father is gravely ill as the result of his daughters conduct, and humbly asks Julien to allow Louise to nurse her father for a few days. Julien consents. At home again, Louise learns that she was the victim of a ruse to separate her from her lover. She chafes at confinement until her father, beside, himself in the rage and disappointment, turns Louise out of his house, cursing all Paris for depriving him of his daughter.

Charpentier has followed the dramatic method of his teacher Massenet, "Louise" is significant for its abundant melodic invention, its captivating coloristic treatment of the orchestra, and for the ingenfous manner in which he has woven the songs by which the peddlers announce their calling into the introduction and first scene of the second act. The role of "Louise" is conspicuously suited to the histrionic and musical abilities of Miss Garden, and the opera as a whole presents a graphic picture of a Bohemian Paris which has almost ceased to exist.