| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: not tell her now that I love her I am a fool," he kept saying to
himself.
Neither spoke; and there came between the pair one of those deep
silences that are crowded with thoughts. The countess examined Paz
covertly, and Paz observed her in a mirror. Buried in an armchair like
a man digesting his dinner, the image of a husband or an indifferent
old man, Paz crossed his hands upon his stomach and twirled his thumbs
mechanically, looking stupidly at them.
"Why don't you tell me something good of Adam?" cried Clementine
suddenly. "Tell me that he is not volatile, you who know him so well."
The cry was fine.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: inspirations as to detail, but hindered him from ever losing his way.
Hence his power of emphasis, his declamatory style thrilling with life
and truth. I quite agree with you that Meyerbeer's learning is
transcendent; but science is a defect when it evicts inspiration, and
it seems to me that we have in this opera the painful toil of a
refined craftsman who in his music has but picked up thousands of
phrases out of other operas, damned or forgotten, and appropriated
them, while extending, modifying, or condensing them. But he has
fallen into the error of all selectors of /centos/,--an abuse of good
things. This clever harvester of notes is lavish of discords, which,
when too often introduced, fatigue the ear till those great effects
Gambara |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: VI.
Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,
And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,
A longing tarriance for Adonis made
Under an osier growing by a brook,
A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen:
Hot was the day; she hotter that did look
For his approach, that often there had been.
Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,
And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim:
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