'Messidor' (1897) and 'L'Ouragan'
(1901) had very much the same reception as the composer's earlier
operas. The compact little phalanx of his admirers greeted them with
enthusiasm, but the general public remained cold. 'Messidor,' written
to a prose libretto by Zola, is a curious mixture of socialism and
symbolism. The foundation of the plot is a legend of the gold-bearing
river Ariege, which is said to spring from a vast subterranean
cathedral, where the infant Christ sits on his mother's lap playing with
the sand which falls from his hands in streams of gold. Intertwined with
this strange story is a tale of the conflict between a capitalist and
the villagers whom his gold-sifting machinery has ruined. There are some
fine moments in the drama, but the allegorical element which plays so
large a part in it makes neither for perspicacity nor for popularity.
'L'Ouragan' is a gloomy story of love, jealousy, and revenge. The scene
is laid among the fisher-folk of a wild coast--presumably
Brittany--where the passions of the inhabitants seem to rival the
tempests of their storm-beaten shores in power and intensity. It
contains music finely imagined and finely wrought, and it is impossible
not to feel that if Bruneau's sheer power of invention were commensurate
with his earnestness and dramatic feeling he would rank very high among
contemporary composers. In 'L'Enfant Roi' (1905), a 'comedie lyrique'
dealing with _bourgeois_ life in modern Paris, which plainly owed a good
deal to Charpentier's 'Louise,' the composer essayed a lighter style
with no very conspicuous success, but his latest work,'Nais Micoulin'
(1907), a Provencal tale of passion, revenge and devotion seems to
contain more of the elements of lasting success.
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