GOUNOD : CINQ-MARS

Radio New Zealand Concert Network
Sunday 25th of October 2015 at  6 - 8.40 pm

GOUNOD: Cinq-Mars, an opera in four acts and five tableaux
Le marquis de Cinq-Mars.......... Mathias Vidal
Le conseiller de Thou................. Tassis Christoyannis
Père Joseph................................ Andrew Foster-Williams
Le vicomte de Fontrailles.......... André Heyboer
Le roi, Louis XIII/Chancellor.... Jacques-Greg Belobo
De Montmort............................. Andrew Lepri
De Montrésor/Eustache............. Matthias Ettmayr
De Brienne................................. Wolfgang Klose
Princesse Marie de Gonzague.... Véronique Gens
Marion Delorme......................... Norma Nahoun
Ninon de l'Enclos....................... Marie Lenormand
Bavarian Radio Chorus, Munich Radio SO/Ulf Schirmer
(recorded in the Prinzregententheater, Munich)

This is a concert performance

INTRODUCTION
PREVIEW
LIBRETTO (French)

The time is the reign of King Louis XIII (b. 1601, d. 1643), a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1610 to 1643, and as King of Navarre from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre merged with the French crown. He is a character in the opera, but Cardinal Richelieu does not appear on stage (nor the 3/4 Musketeers).
   This opera is French, about French history (stuff that is not taught in New Zealand schools, because it is only Kings and Queens of England that count as educational here, I have been told), specifically the reign od Louis XIII (natus 1601, regnavit 1610-1643). The composer is (one momentplease, struggling to open the filing cabinet drawer ....) you know, Gounod.
   We know Roméo et Juliette, Faust (et Marguérite), Mireille (et Vincent) (in which the woman always dies at the end) but who or what is Cinq-Mars? (The 5th of March?)
   The lovers in this case are Le Marquis de Cinq-Mars and Princesse Marie de Gonzague. But Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis Richelieu (whom we know through French literature of the musketeer genre) has given her to the King of Poland, and Cinq-Mars is executed for disagreeing with the Cardinal (the Secretary of State). The original Traviata (Marie) had that name Du Plessis. Could she have been a descendant of that almighty archbishop?
    The term éminence grise (grey eminence) lurks around Richelieu, but it was applied to his private secretary, Père Joseph, who is a scheming character in this opera, but the Cardinal is in his cabinet and never appears on stage, though this is a concert performance from Munich, and so that is two ways they saved on the expense of a costly costume for him.

Brian (pronounced nasally)