Abstract

Music

Shortly before the war began in Europe a curious experiment was made in Paris, France with a modified Russian opera, "Le Coq d'Or," the thirteenth and last stage work of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This eminent composer, who died in 1908, a year after completing his final operatic score. Owing to delays caused by the censor, who found dangerous satire in the libretto, the composer never heard it, and when at last it was produced, it failed to win approval sufficient to start it on a European tour. In all probability it would never have been heard outside of Russia had not Michael Fokine, of the Ballet Russe, conceived the bold but happy thought of converting the score into a sort of operatic pantomime, a genre which was originated in Italy more than three centuries ago. Strange to say, the experiment succeeded very well. To be sure, only three performances were given in Paris, but that was because Rimsky-Korsakov's son invoked the international copyright law to prevent this "perversion" of his father's work.