Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Monday, 4 February 1884

I beg your pardon for having overrated Hérodiade. The libretto to begin with is not good, and then the opera resembles Aida in more than one respect — only weaker in feeling...
Salomé alone with the offstage choruses alternating with her lamentations over Jean's fate — this too closely recalls Amneris alone with the offstage choruses lamenting the fate of Radamès. But what a difference! In Hérodiade it is a pale copy. It is true that Massenet has a very full and broad orchestration and that he achieves extraordinary sonorities — but he overuses them... It is very fine to paint broadly — but... This continual breadth and power impress one at first, but they are devoid of passion, which he never achieves despite all his mastery.
But mastery is powerless... In Aida there are thrilling phrases with a wholly Italian melody; in Hérodiade the melody is too simplified and has the air of something ashamed that dares not show itself... It is evident that by never doing anything too prominent one achieves great unity, and when it is not entirely devoid of "airs" after all, it makes a magnificent whole. One must hear Aida again to see whether it really is a little impoverished beside Massenet's exuberant breadth.
Massenet is Munkácsy — I dared not say so yesterday; I think so today.
I have both scores on my piano.
Tuesday, 5 February 1884 [Ten lines cancelled]
— you would do in believing the contrary, idiotic public — an insult to my respect for... myself.
I repaint a head in the painting.