What’s French about French Opera?
It’s always been about not being Italian. Until Wagner, that is. And also about getting the balance of music, dance and libretto right. How many operas do you know in which a sudden ballet interrupts the drama? Almost certainly, this was to gain performance in Paris.
There’s a wonderfully illustrated short history here. Here's my (Lyn's) shorter history...
The plot starts with Lully (who was Italian!) He set out at the court of King Louis XIV (17th century) to create a style of tragédie en musique, unlike the Italian style, featuring dance, choral singing and (French language) recitative. Rameau and then Gluck drove this style into the next (18th) century, increasingly bringing in drama. Meanwhile (still 18th century) Opéra comique appeared, with satire, spoken dialogue and arias, highlight being an amazing debate, the Querelle des Bouffons (1752–54), between French and Italian music. Opera was getting serious, Gluck moved to Paris, under sponsorship of Marie Antoinette (previously his pupil!) And then there was a revolution.
Thus to the 19th century, and most of the French opera we know well. In 1801 the two Paris opera companies merged and comedy came back (along with Napoleon). Italian opera, especially bel canto, thrived in Paris, and the hugely popular Rossini moved there - his William Tell started the fashion for Grand Opera. Mid-century now, and Berlioz got grander, with Les Troyens.
Emperor Napoleon III officially announced in 1860 an architectural design competition for the design of a new opera house. Opéra Garnier was formally inaugurated on 5 January 1875. (Between there was the Franco-Prussian War.)
In the second half of the 19th century, success in Paris was the goal for composers, including the Italians – look for operas in French, with ballets. Offenbach moved to Paris, Gounod and Bizet were already there facing the new challenge - not from Italy, now, but with Wagner, from Germany. Debussy directly addressed it.
Turn of the 20th century is marked by Massenet’s lyrical, elegant, very 19th-century, very French operas.
Which returns us to the question – is there anything particularly ‘French’ about French opera? The selections provided by the Met this week are all 19th century – most late century. There’s a a nice summary from Seattle Opera here:
"Ever since opera first came to France from Italy in the seventeenth century, the French have had their own wonderful way of blending the arts to create the hybrid which is opera. French opera has always been a balancing act: balancing poetry with music, musical delights with visual spectacle, dance with stasis, public with private, sorrow with high spirits, and above all balancing—and sometimes encouraging the tug-of-war between—passion and reason."
'Si tu ne m'aimes pas...' the very French Carmen
It's French, it's 19th century, lots of dance, lyrical arias, it's the one everyone knows - and it's our U3A opera for the week. Opera Australia is livestreaming its production on the Harbour. Filmed in 2013, it stars Rinat Shaham as the defiant gypsy. Here's her Habanera. (Here's Elina Garanca's Habanera for the Met.) Nicole Car is the very French good girl, Micaëla.
Go to our earlier blog for Nicole Car's performance. Reviewed here. And here. Preview here.
La semaine au Metropolitan Opera
Some répétitions, lots of joie de vivre, occasional gravité. Dates listed below are Melbourne time (9:30 am till 8:30 am next day). To watch the current stream go to https://www.metopera.org/ and scroll to the "Watch Now" pane.
Note: Monday Sept 7th streaming is of Thomas Adès’s The Tempest - see previous blog post.
Tuesday, September 8
Starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, Paulo Szot, and David Pittsinger, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From April 7, 2012. Met link about this performance, with synopsis, clips.
See our blog post on Manon, which covers other productions. This one is much earlier than the Met's recent 2019 showing, but it's the same Laurent Pelly production. With those lead singers it should be memorable. Here's Bachtrack's review. - "... a study in contrast and contradiction. Direct confrontations between youth and experience, virtue and sin, innocence and corruption, brightness and dark, all factor into the striking visual presentation of this production."
Wednesday, September 9 Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette Starring Diana Damrau, Vittorio Grigolo, Elliot Madore, and Mikhail Petrenko, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. From January 21, 2017. Met link.
Operawire's review headlines "Damrau & Grigolo’s Chemistry As Emotionally Riveting & Sexy As Ever", with interesting discussion of how Damrau and Grigolo handle the emotional growth of the two young lovers.
Thursday, September 10 Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust Starring Susan Graham, Marcello Giordani, and John Relyea, conducted by James Levine. From November 22, 2008. Met Link about the performance. A Robert LePage production, with a lot of software on show. Thoughtful OperaToday review. "The stars, however, were James Levine and the orchestra that he has honed to diamond fineness, tricking out every brilliant detail and glow of Berlioz’s matchless ingenuity, giving us sensual pleasure to survive any distraction."
Friday, September 11 Massenet’s Cendrillon Starring Kathleen Kim, Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote, Stephanie Blythe, and Laurent Naouri, conducted by Bertrand de Billy. From April 28, 2018. Met link. We looked at this recently. Check our blog for introduction and lots of links. Alice Coote marvellous as Prince Charming, and Laurent Naouri as a deliciously silly Pandolfe.
Saturday, September 12 and until Monday 2 am. Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles Starring Diana Damrau, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecień, and Nicolas Testé, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. From January 16, 2016.
We did a blog post on this earlier, with pictures and interviews. A typically lavish Met production.
Sunday, September 13 Berlioz’s Les Troyens Starring Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Karen Cargill, Bryan Hymel, Eric Cutler, Dwayne Croft, and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From January 5, 2013. Met link. Bachtrack review. Start early! - it's 4h 20m long, positively Wagnerian.
Monday, September 14 Massenet’s Werther Starring Sophie Koch as Charlotte and Jonas Kaufmann as Werther. From 2014. Met link. A brilliant performance, and our opera group voted it the greatest we'd seen from Kaufmann - at his best in voice and character acting.
See our blog posts on Clair de Lune, and on this Met performance, and the rave reviews.