The curtain goes up on the
dim cloisters of the convent, the cloister-garth, visible through
the Gothic arches of the arcade, bathed in bright moonlight
beyond. Bertram begins his incantations, recalling the erring nuns
from the dead. Very slowly the tombs in the cloister open, and dim
grey figures, barely visible in the darkness, creep silently out
from the graves. Bertram waves his arms over the cloister-garth,
and there, too, the tombs gape apart, and more shadowy spectres
emerge. Soon the stage is full of these faint grey spectral forms.
Bertram lifts his arms. The wicked nuns throw off their grey
wrappers, and appear glittering in scarlet and gold; the stage
blazes with light, and the ballet, the famous "Pas de
Fascination," begins. When really well done, this scene is
tremendously impressive.
I once heard in Paris, Levasseur, the French counterpart of our
own Corney Grain, giving a skit on Robert le Diable, illustrating
various stage conventions. Levasseur, seated at his piano, and
keeping up an incessant ripple of melody, talked something like
this, in French, of course:--
"The stage represents Isabelle's bedroom.
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