THOMAS : MIGNON

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 28th of October 2012 at 3.03 - 6 pm

THOMAS: Mignon, an opera in three acts
Mignon........................ Sophie Koch
Philine.......................... Diana Damrau
Wilhelm Meister.......... Paolo Fanale
Frédéric........................ Carine Séchaye
Laerte........................... Emilio Pons
Lothario....................... Nicolas Courjal
Jarno............................ Frédéric Gonçalves
Grand Théâtre Chorus, Swiss Romande Orch/Frédéric Chaslin  
(recorded in the Grand Théâtre, Geneva by Swiss Radio)

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER 
SYNOPSIS
SOURCE 
VIDEO

This is another surprise from Ambroise Thomas: of his score of operas two have endured, namely Hamlet (after Shakespeare but with the Danish Prince surviving to become king, though an alternative ending has him committing suicide, in accordance with his "To be or not to be" soliloquy) and Mignon (based on Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, a so-called Bildungsroman, a novel about the formation ('building') of a person. As the title suggests, the opera focuses on Mignon rather than William's "years of education", with another happy ending worthy of Dickens and his Oliver Twist, where the true identity of the orphan is revealed (but Mignon should have died tragically).
    The song "None but the lonely heart" (Tchaikovsky) has its source in the Goethe novel, originally "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" (Only someone who knows longing understands what I suffer). The other piece, "Kennst du das Land wo die Zitronen blühn", appears in Act One as "Connais tu le pays" ("Do you know the land where the citrus trees bloom").