Identifier: victrolabookofop00vict (find matches)
Title: The Victrola book of the opera : stories of one hundred and twenty operas with seven-hundred illustrations and descriptions of twelve-hundred Victor opera records
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors: Victor Talking Machine Company Rous, Samuel Holland
Subjects: Operas
Publisher: Camden, N.J. : Victor Talking Machine Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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THREE ACTS Text by Maurice Lena, from a mediaeval miracleplay, Etui de Nacre, by Anatole France. Music by JulesMassenet. First production at Monte Carlo, February18, 1902, with Renaud. First Paris production at theOp6ra Comique, May, 1904, and afterward given inall the principal cities of Europe. First Americanproduction, Manhattan Opera House, New York,November 27, 1908, with Mary Garden, Renaud andDufranne. Characters JEAN, a Juggler Tenor BONIFACE, cook of the Abbey Baritone Prior of the Monastery Bass Musician Monk Baritone Sculptor Monk Bass Poet Monk Tenor Painter Monk Baritone Angels, Virgin, Monks, Cavaliers, Citizens Time and Place: Cluny, near Paris; sixteenth century The story of Le Jongleur de Notre Dame is adaptedfrom a miracle tale by Anatole France, and theevents occur in Cluny in the Middle Ages. The legendtells of a poor juggler who tried to show his devotionto the Holy Virgin, and though his method appearedgrotesque and even sacrilegious to the priests, the Vir- 220
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(0T0 MANUEL THE JUGGLER VICTROLA BOOK OF THE OPERA—THE JUGGLER OF NOTRE DAME gin accepted his homage and glorified his death. Maurice Lena amplified Frances storyand made an admirable play of it, and for this beautiful legend Massenet has provided somehighly effective and reverential music. ACT I At the beginning of the opera, Jean, a poor juggler, haggard and worn, joins the merry-making crowd of villagers in the square in front of the monastery. It is May Day, and thepeople want to be amused, but when poor Jean tries to earn a few sous by his wornouttricks, they laugh and jeer at him. Suddenly the Prior of the Abbey appears and drivesaway the crowd, threatening Jean with the torments of the after-life if he does not mend hisways. He charges the boy to forsake his jugglers life and enter the monastery, and thepoor, hungry lad, after one look at a cart of provisions which arrives for the monks, con-sents and goes into the monastery with the Prior. ACT II The second act opens in the

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