«Les Grands oratorios à l’église Saint-Eustache» and the Parisian Press Jennifer Walker (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) [email protected] On 15 January 1900, multiple Parisian newspapers announced an upcoming series of oratorio performances that was to take place at the church of Saint- Eustache during the coming months. Generally speaking, announcements such as these are unremarkable in themselves. Yet these announcements were curious, for the headlines prefaced the announcement with the phrase «les grands oratoires comiques»1. The juxtaposition of «comiques» — the association of which with the opéra-comique would not have been lost on readers — with a Parisian parish church intended for private worship was striking, and would come to serve as perhaps the most apt description of the events that would soon unfold — so much so that the critic Henry Mortimer quipped that the series of performances was sure to be successful by virtue of the humor of the situation, writing that «when one has laughter on one’s side, one is very close to success»2. Indeed, Mortimer proved to be correct: the concert series ultimately garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews by critics with varying ideological and aesthetic allegiances. While the preparations for the 1900 Exposition Universelle took up the lion’s share of the Parisian press, Eugène d’Harcourt’s series of oratorio performances nonetheless commanded a surprisingly substantial portion of journalists’ attention, due in no small part to objections raised by figures such 1. L’Estafette 1900: «Les grands oratoires comiques: C’est le jeudi 18 janvier à 8 h. 3/4 du soir qu’au lieu à Saint-Eustache l’audition du Messie de Haëndel. Orchestre est chœurs (300 exécutants) sous la direction de M. Eugène d’Harcourt». 2. MORTIMER 1900: «Le ‘théâtre’ Saint-Eustache est un bon mot, il fera rire. Lorsqu’on a les rieurs de son côté on est bien près du succès». Journal of Music Criticism, Volume 3 (2019), pp. 109-131 © Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini. All rights reserved. Jennifer Walker as Cardinal François-Marie-Benjamin Richard de la Vergne (hereafter, Cardinal Richard), the Archbishop of Paris, and a senator from Aveyron, Joseph Fabre. They publicly bemoaned the prospect that such performances transformed the church into the «theater of Saint-Eustache» and, therefore, that the Catholic church had finally succumbed to the so-called secularizing influence of the Republic. Critics and commentators quickly responded to their strident dissent, and a controversy ensued that rivaled that of a major political event: to many writers, it was these overblown reactions and counter-reactions to the concerts that justified the likening of Saint-Eustache to an «oratoire comique». Amidst ongoing tensions between the Catholic Church and the French Republic, d’Harcourt’s concert series at Saint-Eustache could easily be read as simply one more sticking point in a long string of conflicts between Catholic traditionalists and «secular» Republicans, a cleavage that has come to dominate scholarship on the subject. Although the Archbishop and Senator Fabre couched their arguments in language that addressed the proper use of sacred space and the matter of ticket sales, more significant questions of ownership underscored these practical concerns. What drove their arguments was the fear that the «secular» Republic might successfully appropriate the Catholic Church as a meaningful and broadly appealing facet of Republican identity. Analyzing the narratives created by the press coverage of d’Harcourt’s concerts reveals that this fear was perhaps not unfounded after all. Contrary to the Catholic objections raised to these performances that claimed that paid concerts in church settings constituted a transformation from sacred sanctuary to secular stage, members of the press frequently configured the performances as religious events in such a way that their appeal to Republican audiences and ideology was not lost. This sense of reconfiguration was supported by the concert programs themselves: the music performed at Saint-Eustache carried with it its own ideological baggage that shaped the ways in which church and government officials, critics, and the general public came to view the Church’s relationship to the Republic. Alongside such perennial favorites as Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, the performance and reception of the series’s high-profile premiere of Jules Massenet’s La Terre promise demonstrated how music could simultaneously function as a model of religious devotion through sacred music and also as a symbol of a Republican brand of Catholicism. After an analysis of the critical response to the concerts at Saint-Eustache and a brief study of Massenet’s La Terre promise, I demonstrate in the article how the fluidity of these narratives challenges the long-standing assertion that Republicans and Catholics, in Ralph Gibson’s words, «could not stand each other in the nineteenth century» 110 «Les Grands oratorios à l’église Saint-Eustache» and the Parisian Press by illuminating instead the many crossovers between the church and the Republic at the turn of the twentieth century3. THE THEATER OF SAINT-EUSTACHE? «Les Grands oratorios à l’église Saint-Eustache» opened with Handel’s Messiah on 18 January 1900. Led by d’Harcourt, a choir of over three hundred singers performed to a packed house. Special platforms to accommodate the massive choir and orchestra had been erected, and tickets ranging in price from two to twelve francs sold out well in advance. The series continued with four further concerts, scheduled one per month until April. The second concert, on 15 February, featured a performance of Berlioz’s Requiem alongside two excerpts from Gounod’s Mors et Vita. On 15 March, audiences heard Richard Wagner’s La Cène des Apôtres and the premiere of Massenet’s La Terre promise and, on 12 and 13 April — Holy Thursday and Good Friday — the series closed with a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, played in two parts between the two days. As Katharine Ellis has suggested, d’Harcourt intended to perform a similar concert series as part of the 1900 Exposition Universelle4. He submitted a proposal to present Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and other, more modern French oratorios to Alfred Picard, the Exposition’s Commissioner General, in 1899 — an idea which was, in the mind of the critic Arthur Dandelot, «praiseworthy», since it would provide a space for «exclusively religious concerts»5. In a letter to the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, who initially showed some interest, d’Harcourt asked for official support for his concerts and offered additional assistance with other events should his proposition be rejected which, in the end, it was6. 3. GIBSON 1991. 4. ELLIS 2008, p. xvi. 5. DANDELOT 1900: «La louable conception de M. d’Harcourt, d’organiser, en vue de l’Exposition, des séances exclusivement consacrées à l’art musical religieux, m’a fait ressouvenir des théories de l’auteur de Fervaal et, n’ayant pas répondu sur le moment aux opinions émises par M. d’Indy, je le fais maintenant durant l’accalmie des heures de villégiature». 6. D’HARCOURT 1899: «J’ai l’honneur, suivant votre désir, de vous envoyer ci joint la copie du projet d’auditions musicales que j’ai adressé, il y a plus de trois mois, à Monsieur le Directeur de l’Exposition Universelle. Comme vous avez paru vous intéresser à mes idées et à mes plans, que vous m’avez fait l’honneur de conserver, j’espère que vous voudrez bien les appuyer, à 111 Jennifer Walker Parish council minutes from Saint-Eustache indicate that d’Harcourt’s request to use the church coincided with his plans for the Exposition. At some point prior to July 1899, d’Harcourt approached the church with his request, and soon thereafter, it was accepted by the parish priest, Father Gaultier de Claubry7. Between June and November 1899, the dates of the concerts were fixed, 12 and 13 April included, regardless of some resistance to Father Claubry’s suggestion that all Holy Thursday services be cancelled in order to accommodate d’Harcourt’s concert series8. Father Claubry’s unquestioning acceptance of d’Harcourt’s proposal engendered an embittered response from both church and government officials, a reaction that rivaled that of a major political event. On 10 January, Cardinal Richard, the Archbishop of Paris, wrote a letter to Claubry outlining his concerns; three days later, on 13 January, the letter was published in the Catholic weekly, Semaine religieuse: I regret that you have not communicated the program of concerts announced in your church in advance. The first three are to take place at 8:45 in the evening. At this time, the holy sacrament has been removed from the tabernacle. I can consent to a concert composed of serious pieces, provided, however, that the meeting has the serious character appropriate in a church, even though this meeting is not accompanied by a liturgical office. It is only as an exception that I permit the concerts announced in the programs. I could not approve a church to habitually become a great religious concert hall. I know that the distinguished men who prepared the musical ceremonies of Saint-Eustache were animated by Christian moins que vous ne préfériez en faire votre chose, auquel cas, je mets à votre disposition ma collaboration pour l’intérêt artistique général. Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Ministre, l’expression de mon profond respect». 7. CONSEIL DE FABRIQUE 1899: «Le conseil, dans le circonstance, estime que la question étant engagée il n’a pas à prendre de délibération, toutefois il tient à consigner qu’il admet en principe ces auditions le programme devant en être arrêté d’accord avec Mgr.