ABSTRACT
The French dramatist Prosper Merimee completed his rather trivial South American play Le carrosse du Saint-sacrement in 1828 but its first performances were badly received. Le carrosse du Saint-sacrement seems to have appealed to him because of its farcical situations, humorous exchanges between characters, and tongue-in-cheek slant on religion, all elements to which Lord Berners was particularly drawn. Berners dispenses with any introduction to the action, beginning straight away with singer and orchestra together. However, for the 1926 edition Berners cut thirty bars of a monologue given by the Viceroy and replaced it with a longer orchestral section, making Balthasar the first character to speak in this scene. Berners’ confidence in handling the orchestra allowed him to use it in a variety of ways which range from remaining completely silent beneath a vocal line, to occupying almost an entire scene without vocal intrusion. Berners’ contribution to the operatic repertoire is a curious mixture.
