French Music For The Stage (Auber; Boieldieu; Delibes; Massenet; Thomas)

French Music For The Stage 

Ambroise THOMAS (1811-1896)

Overture To 'Raymond, Ou Le Secret de la Reine' (1851)

Daniel-Francois-Esprit AUBER (1782-1871)

Overture To 'Fra Diavolo, Ou L'Hôtellerie de Terracine', S18 (1830)

François-Adrien BOIELDIEU (1775-1834)

Overture To 'Le Calife de Bagdad" (1809)

Overture To 'La Dame Blanche' (1825)

Leo DELIBES (1836-1891)

Scène Du Bal And Vieille Chanson From 'Le Roi S'amuse' (1882)

Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)

Espada (1908)

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

Neeme Jarvi

Recording venue:

Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn; 30 and 31 May 2018 (Espada), 6 May 2019 (Overtures to Raymond, Fra Diavolo, and Le Calife de Bagdad), and 31 May 2019 (other works).

Front cover The Curtain, pastel and charcoal painting (c. 1880) by Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)

Review:

"Espada" was the last of Massenet's four ballets and was premiered at the Monte Carlo Opera in 1908. According to James Harding in his biography of the composer, it has not been heard since and, as far as I know, this is the first recording of the complete ballet although a suite has been recorded a few times before, most recently by Naxos on an all Massenet disc. The ballet tells the story of a beautiful and popular dancer who is just about to perform for her admirers when she hears news of the death of her lover in a bull-fight. In spite of this, she makes her appearance, dances with a frenzy hitherto unknown and then drops dead. The music is attractive, colourful and lively although, for ballet music with a Spanish flavour, there is nothing here which quite matches the memorability of the music from "Le Cid". Like all Massenet, though, it's still well worth hearing. The 29 minutes the ballet takes passes quickly by. Most, though not all, of the best music in "Espada" is to be found in the suite so, if you already have the Naxos disc and the other music on this Chandos recording, you may not feel the need to buy Jarvi's disc. His performance has a little more flair than Tingaud's, however, and is recorded in a slightly warmer and more sympathetic acoustic.

Delibes incidental music to Victor Hugo's play "Le Roi s'amuse" dates from 1882. The play had already provided the basis for Verdi's opera, "Rigoletto". The music consists of a suite of "Airs de danse dans le style ancien". It is superior light music; some of these tunes you will already know. The Gaillarde is one as is the following "Pavane", a tune which Peter Warlock used in his "Capriol Suite". You may also recognise the "Passpied", especially if you ever learned the piano. The "Scene du Bouquet", with its lyrical melody for massed 'cellos accompanied by the other strings playing pizzicato is irresistible. The most exotic number features solos for mandolin and 'cello. Again, Jarvi's performances could hardly be bettered.

The rest of this disc consists of four operatic overtures. "Raymond" by Ambroise Thomas has rarely been recorded but is particularly attractive melodically, avoiding the bombast which often afflicts French overtures of this period. Even Leonard Bernstein did not turn his nose up at this piece and recorded it. Next comes the Overture to Auber's "Fra Diavolo". A hundred years later this opera inspired Laurel and Hardy's film "The Devil's Brother". The music has a distinctly military and marchlike flavour and is again tuneful and immediately enjoyable although not entirely free from bombast. Boieldieu's overture to "Le Calif de Bagdad" is a little disfigured by rather a lot of pages of noisy tutti writing but, at other times, the composer's fine craftsmanship is apparent and there is no shortage of graceful melodic material. Finally comes Boieldieu's perky overture to "La Dame Blanche", an opera which has had a few complete recordings but which seems to have fallen out of favour now. Perhaps the Estonian orchestra is a little below top form here but don't let this tiny reservation put you off buying a very well filled disc, full of immediately enjoyable music in excellent performances