The Comedie Francaise at Orange by Thomas A. Janvier

In August, 1886, a venture was made at Orange the like of which rarely has been made in France in modern times: a new French play demanding positive and strong recognition, the magnificent "Empereur d'Arles," by the Avignon poet Alexis Mouzin, was given its first presentation in the Orange theatre -- in the provinces -- instead of being first produced on the Paris stage. In direct defiance of the modern French canons of centralization, the great audience was brought together not to ratify opinions formulated by Parisian critics but to express its own opinion at first hand. Silvain, of the Comedie Francaise, was the _Maximien_; Madame Caristie-Martel, of the Odeon (a grand-daughter of Caristie the architect who saved the theatre from ruin), was the _Minervine_. The support was strong. The stately tragedy -- vividly contrasting the tyranny and darkness of pagan Rome with the spirit of light and freedom arising in Christian Gaul -- was in perfect keeping with its stately frame. The play went on in a whirl of enthusiastic approval to a triumphant end. There was no question of ratifying the opinion of Parisian critics: those Southerners formed and delivered an opinion of their own. In other words, the defiance of conventions was an artistic victory, a decentralizing success.

Then it was that the Felibres -- the poets of Languedoc and of Provence who for forty years have been combating the Parisian attempt to focus in Paris the whole of France -- perceived how the Orange theatre could be made to advance their anti-centralizing principles, and so took a hand in its fortunes: with the avowed intention of establishing outside of Paris a national theatre wherein should be given in summer dramatic festivals of the highest class. With the Felibres to attempt is to accomplish; and to their efforts was due the presentation at Orange in August 1888, of the "Oedipus" of Sophocles and Rossini's "Moses" -- with Mounet-Sully and Boudouresque in the respective title-roles. The members of the two Felibrien societies of Paris, the Felibrige and the Cigaliers, were present in force at the performances -- so timed as to be a part of their customary biennial summer festival in the Midi -- and their command of the Paris newspapers (whereof the high places largely are filled by these brave writers of the South) enabled them to make all Paris and all France ring with their account of the beauty of the Orange spectacle.