If what is called history is so near mythology as, many times, to be
confounded with it, what about romance and the historical drama in which
events, entirely imaginative, must of necessity find a place? What about
the long-drawn-out conversations in books and on the stage that are
attributed to historical persons? What about the actions attributed to
them, which need not be true but only seem to be so? The supernatural
element is the only thing lacking to make such works mythological in
every way.

Now the supernatural lends itself admirably to expression in music and
music finds in the supernatural a wealth of resources. But these
resources are by no means indispensable. What music must have above all
are emotions and passions laid bare and set in action by what we term
the situation. And where can one find more or better situations than in
history?

* * * * *

From the time of Lulli until the end of the Eighteenth Century French
opera was legendary, that is to say, it was mythological in character
and was not, as has been pretended, limited to the depiction of emotion
and the inner feelings in order to avoid contingencies. The real motive
was to find in fables material for a spectacle. Tragedy, as we know,
does not do this, for it can be developed only with considerable
difficulty when the stage is crowded with actors. On the contrary,
opera, which is free in its movements and can fill a vast stage, seeks
for pomp, display and haloes in which gods and goddesses appear, in fact
all that can be put into a stage-setting. If they did not use local
color, it was because local color had not been invented. Finally, as we
all get tired of everything, so they tired of mythology. Then the