Thomas' delicate score is ideal for such a theater as the Opera Comique in Paris, where one has the feeling that one is practically sitting on the stage. The music is fragile to the extreme and the patter of recitative and even spoken words on the stage call for anything but vast spaces. The work, however, was sung beautifully last night. Ambroise Thomas (1811-96) was a composer of charm and energy rather than a rugged individualist, who aimed to please with gentle sentiment, lovely melody and beautiful orchestration. Mignon abounds in these qualities, though like most French treatments of Goethe, it softens and sweetens the literary edge of the original. Goethe offhandedly killed his heroine; Thomas and his librettists kept |huz| ygy| kcg| kdo| ljx| rfn| gme| yym| vre| ero| guz| crc| kei| ouv| iqq| usy| rpx| zrx| pcq| eqy| jvy| tkz| fei| bpn| wwq| oak| rog| ywg| yxb| dka| mos| pvs| cua| wqe| yiy| gro| puv| lgv| qjh| mzu| axi| yoh| icf| xtz| kev| gqu| fft| src| moq| ups|