The Comedie Francaise at Orange by Thomas A. Janvier

"Antigone," played on the second evening -- being a gentler tragedy than "Oedipus," and conceived in a spirit more in touch with our modern times -- was received with a warmer enthusiasm. No doubt to the Greeks, to whom its religious motive was a living reality, "Oedipus" was purely awe-inspiring; but to us, for whom the religious element practically has no existence, the intrinsic qualities of the plot are so repellent that the play is less awe-inspiring than horrible. And even in Grecian times, I fancy -- human nature being the same then as now in its substrata -- "Antigone," with its conflict between mortals, must have appealed more searchingly to human hearts than ever "Oedipus" could have appealed with its conflict between a mortal and the gods. Naturally, we are in closer sympathy with the righteous defiance of a man by a woman -- both before our eyes, passionately flaming with strong antagonistic emotions -- than we are with a man's unrighteous defiance of abstract and invisible Fate.

As "Antigone" was given at Orange, the softening influences which had subdued the harshness of "Oedipus" still farther were extended, making its deep tenderness still deeper and more appealing. The inspersion of music of a curiously penetrating, moving sort -- composed by Saint-Saens in an approximation to Grecian measures -- added a poetic undertone to the poetry of the situations and of the lines; and a greater intensity was given to the crises of the play -- an artistic reproduction of the effect caused by the accident of the night before -- by extinguishing the electric lamps and so bringing the action to a focus in the mellow radiance which came from the golden footlights and richly lighted the stage.