Mary Berry in Paris - 29 March, 1802, at night
from Diary of Mary Berry, 29 March 1802, page 161:
In the evening at the Opera. ‘Astyanax’ was the opera, and ‘Psyche’ the ballet. All French operas are so like one another that it is only of the decoration that one can speak. The last scene, of Pyrrhus going on board a vessel with Astyanax and Andromache, and sailing away with all his fleet, was very good ; but au reste, it is always the same scrambling and violent exertion of voice, always the same exaggerated action, always a scene which we have called the tearing scene, where, from sorrow, or joy, or… more >>
Mary Berry, Diary of Mary Berry, 29 March 1802. In Lady Theresa Lewis (ed.), Extracts of the Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry from the Year 1783 to 1852, volume 2 (London, 1865), p. 161. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1541695489015 accessed: 8 December, 2024
Listeners
Listening to
hide composersPsyche | |
Astyanax
written by Rodolphe Kreutzer |
performed by Mlle Maillard |
Experience Information
Date/Time | 29 March, 1802, at night |
Medium | live |
Listening Environment | in the company of others, indoors, in public |
Notes
Although Mary Berry does not name the composer of either work heard, from her description it is possible that ‘Psyché’ alludes to the ballet-pantomime of that name by Ernest Louis Müller. Rodolphe Kreutzer’s opera ‘Astyanax’ was popular in Paris since its première in April 1801.