Sunday 24th of July 2016 at 6 - 8.30 pm
Sunday 25th of July 2010 at 3.04 - 5.20 pm
INTRODUCTION
RECORDING
CHABRIER: L'Etoile, an opera in three acts
2016
King Ouf I - Christophe Mortagne
Siroco - Simon Bailey
Prince Hérissonde Proc-Epic - François Piolino
Tapioca - Aimery Lefèvre
Lazuli - Kate Lindsey
Princesse Laolo - Hélène Guilmette
Aloès - Julie Boulianne
Patacha - Samuel Sakker
Zalzal - Samuel Dale Johnson
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Chorus & Orch/Mark Elder (BBC)
2010
Le Roi Ouf......................... Jean-Paul Fouchécourt
Siroco................................ René Schirrer
Hérisson de Porc-Epic....... Jean Doyen
Tapioca............................. Fabrice Farina
Lazuli................................. Marie-Claude Chappuis
La Princesse Laoula........... Sophie Graf
Aloès................................. Blandine Staskiewicz
Chef da la Police................ Jérôme Savary
Grand Théâtre Chorus, Swiss Romande Orch/Jean-Yves Ossonce (recorded in the Grand Théâtre, Geneva by Swiss Radio)
Emmanuel Chabrier, the talented, jovial, and genial (though not quite a genius) French composer, here offers us a tuneful and humorous operetta, comparable to the frothy light operas of Offenbach. However, the first performers found that the work was not as simple as they had come to expect from Offenbach, and accused Chabrier of writing Wagnerian music. We know him chiefly thorough his jolly rhapsody España.
The whimsical names of the characters indicate the farcical nature of the piece (c'est un opéra bouffe). Siroco is an astrologer (dry and windy?), but who or what is the star (l'étoile)? Lazuli (a 'gem') is a poor peddler (mezzo soprano, notice) who sings of his guiding star.
Introductory notes and a synopsis are available at the links provided above; the recording is (surprisingly, though not astonishingly) by John Eliot Gardiner and the Lyon Opera (from the time when he was its musical director).
No comments:
Post a Comment