Memories and Commentaries

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

The singers had scarcely learned the notes before the piano preview performance, which took place at the Princesse de Polignac’s a few days before the public one. At this Polignac soirée I accompanied them on the piano. From the reactions of the guests, I could see that Oedipus was not likely to succeed with the ballet audience. But my austere vocal concert, following a ‘romantic’ and colourful ballet, Firebird, was a greater failure than I anticipated. The audience was hardly more than polite, and the Sganarelles of the press were a lot less than that: ‘Celui qui a compose Pétrouchka nous present avec cette pastiche Handelienne …Un tas de gens mal habillés ont mal chanté…La musique de Créon est une marche Meyerbeerienne’, …Performances were rare in the next two decades, but since then Oedipus has become almost popular.

excerpt from 'Memories and Commentaries' pp. 163 (152 words)

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