In this case the author indicated a pantomime.

This is never played and so this pretty bit loses all its significance.
Meyerbeer ventured to use combinations in harmony which were considered rash at that time.

They pretend that the sensitiveness of the ear has been developed since then, but in reality it has been dulled by having to undergo the most violent discords.
The beautiful "progression" of the exorcism in the fourth act of _Le Prophete_ was not accepted without some difficulty.

I can still see Gounod seated at a piano singing the debated passage and trying to convince a group of recalcitrant listeners of its beauty.
Meyerbeer developed the role of the English horn, which up to that time had been used only rarely and timidly, and he also introduced the bass clarinet into the orchestra.

But the two instruments, as he used them, still appeared somewhat unusual.