"Considering that these gentlemen corrupt the public mind by the pieces they represent;
"Considering that they exercise a fatal influence on the revolution;
It is decreed that the _Siege of Thionville_ shall be represented gratis and solely for the amusement of the _sans culottes_, who, to this moment have been the true defenders of liberty and supporters of democracy."
Soon afterwards it was proposed to shut up the Opera, but Hébert, the ferocious Hébert, better known as _le père Duchèsne_, undertook its defence on the ground that it procured subsistence for a number of families, and "caused the agreeable arts to flourish."
It was thereupon resolved "that the Opera should be encouraged and defended against its enemies." At the same time the managers Cellérier and Francoeur were arrested as _suspects_. Neither of them was executed.
The Opera was now once more placed under the direction of a committee chosen from among the singers and dancers, who were selected this time, not by reason of their artistic merit, but solely with reference to their political principles. Lays, one of the chief managers, was a furious democrat, and on one occasion insisted on Mademoiselle Maillard (Gluck's "Armida!") appearing in a procession as the Goddess of Reason.
Mademoiselle Maillard having refused, Chaumette was appealed to. The arguments he employed were simple but convincing. "Well, _citoyenne_," he said, "since you refuse to be a divinity, you must not be astonished if we treat you _as a mortal_." Fortunately for the poor prima donna, Mormoro, a member of the Commune of Paris, and a raging "Maratiste" (which has not quite the same meaning now as in the days of the "Todistes") claimed the obnoxious part for his unhappy wife. The beautiful Madame Mormoro was forced to appear in the streets of Paris in the light and airy costume of an antique Goddess, with the thermometer at twenty degrees below freezing point! "Reason" not unreasonably wept with annoyance throughout the ceremony.
Léonard Bourdon, called by those who knew him _Léopard_ Bourdon, used all his influence, as a distinguished member of the Mountain, to get a work he had prepared for the Opera produced. His piece was called the _Tomb of the Impostors_, or _the Inauguration of the Temple of Truth_. It was printed at the expense of the Republic, but never brought out. In the first scene the stage represents a church, built with human skulls. In the sanctuary there is to be a fountain of blood. A woman enters to confess, the priest behaves atrociously in the confessional, &c., &c. The scenes and incidents throughout the drama are all in the same style, and the whole is dedicated in an uncomplimentary epistle to the Pope. Léopard tormented the directors actors, and actresses, night and day, to produce his master-piece, and threatened, that if they were not quick about it, he would have a guillotine erected on the stage.