Halévy and Meilhac arose as enfants terribles for whom nothing was too sacred to be dramatized and ridiculed. For their irreverence and their attacks on and portrayals of subjects and characters generally considered immoral or taboo, Halévy and Meilhac were both despised and beloved. Critics such as Edmond and Jules de Goncourt condemned them for their cynicism and ruthlessness, yet audiences flocked to their openings, and Parisian society feted them nightly. From early to late in the career of these cowriters, their work was seen as a reflection, and even a reconstruction, of contemporary Paris. Just as Abel-François Villemain called Eugène Scribe "a historian in spite of himself" for the realistic portrayals of Restoration society found in his comédies, so Jules Lemaître viewed Halévy and Meilhac as historians of the "frivolous and elegant society" of the Second Empire and, later, of the early years of the Third Republic.
Although the art of Halévy and Meilhac was not completely original--techniques and devices were inherited from comédie, vaudeville, opéra comique, and opera buffa of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries--it is lauded today for its high technical craftsmanship, and many works have been viewed as outstanding expressions of popular genres: at least six opéra bouffe libretti are acknowledged masterpieces.
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