Berners: Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement (Sung in English)

Prosper Mérimée's play, Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement had been a flop since its conception, and when revived in 1848, received more hisses than applause during its six performances. However, in 1917, Yvonne Arnaud staged it with considerably more success in New York, London and Paris, where Berners saw it. "I was at once fascinated by the grace, the spirit and the character of this little work… It is true that a piece whose charm lies almost entirely in word and dialogue, where the action, materially speaking, is reduced to the very simplest expression, did not seem to me particularly suitable for musical treatment… Although this is a comic opera, or if you prefer it, a comedie musicale, I have laid aside the traditional overture or prelude, the utility of which I fail to see… As regards style you will see that I have not adhered to the old tradition of different airs and scenes following each other, and bound together by the different turns of the intrigue; Mérimée's comedy unfolds itself in too continuous and concise a manner not to induce me to follow its line by a musical development that is held together in the style of a symphonic poem."