* Rebel and Francoeur, who, when they were very young, went together
from house to house playing on the violin, were so called.
The part to which I had been most attentive, and in which I had kept
at the greatest distance from the common track, was the recitative.
Mine was accented in a manner entirely new, and accompanied the
utterance of the word. The directors dared not suffer this horrid
innovation to pass, lest it should shock the ears of persons who never
judge for themselves. Another recitative was proposed by Francueil and
Jelyotte, to which I consented; but refused at the same time to have
anything to do with it myself.
When everything was ready and the day of performance fixed, a
proposition was made me to go to Fontainebleau, that I might at
least be at the last rehearsal. I went with Mademoiselle Fel, Grimm,
and I think the Abbe Raynal, in one of the stages to the court. The
rehearsal was tolerable: I was more satisfied with it than I
expected to have been. The orchestra was numerous, composed of the
orchestras of the opera and the king's band. Jelyotte played Colin,
Mademoiselle Fel, Colette, Cuvillier the Devin: the choruses were
those of the opera. I said but little; Jelyotte had prepared
everything; I was unwilling either to approve of or censure what he
had done; and notwithstanding I had assumed the air of an old Roman, I
was, in the midst of so many people, as bashful as a schoolboy.
The next morning, the day of performance, I went to breakfast at the
coffee-house du Grand Commun, where I found a great number of
people.
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