Product Description
CD88232 Chabrier's comic opera l'Étoile - Geneva December 20
Here's reupload by request of the performance of Chabrier's comic opera 'The
Star', recorded live 9 November 2009 at Grand Théâtre de Genève and broadcast by
Éspace 2, 12 December 2009.
Cast
Le roi Ouf 1er............Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (tenor)
Siroco....................René Schirrer (bass-baritone)
Hérisson de porc-Epic.....Pierre Doyen (baritone)
Tapioca...................Fabrice Farina (tenor)
Lazuli....................Marie-Claude Chappuis (mezzo-soprano)
La princesse Laoula.......Sophie Graf (soprano)
Aloès.....................Blandine Staskiewicz (mezzo-soprano)
Chef de la police.........Frédéric Longbois
With: Harry Draganov & Omar Garrido
Choeurs du Grand-Théâtre de Genève, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce
Happy listening!
krokelva
Synopsis in French:
Le roi Ouf 1er, un despote, cherche un quidam à empaler en public afin d'égayer
son anniversaire. Passent quatre voyageurs d'une contrée voisine. L'un d'eux
gifle le roi qui vient de trouver la victime pour le pal. Ce dernier
parviendra-t-il à échapper au supplice et à ravir la belle princesse Laoula au
roi ? Pour le savoir, n'hésitez pas à nous rejoindre et à partager avec nous
cette aventure au son d'une musique exquise. Mais, laissons Vincent d'Indy
conclure : « Cette pimpante Étoile, petit chef-d'œuvre de musique drôle, aussi
brillant que Le Barbier, est à coup sûr plus comique et plus musicale que toutes
les opérettes antérieures. »
***************************************************
From Penguin New Guide to Opera
L'etoile
The Star
Opéra bouffe in three acts (1h 30m)
Libretto by Eugene Leterrier and Albert Vanloo
Composed 1877
Premiers
28 November 1577, Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris; US: 18 August 1890,
Broadway Theater, New York (arr. Sousa); UK: 7 January 1899, Savoy Theatre,
London (arr. Sousa as The Merry Monarch); ¬Apri1 1970, John Lewis Theatre,
London (as The Lucky Star)
Cast
Ouf t, Siroco b, Herisson de Porc-Epic bar, Aloès ms, Tapioca t, Lazuli s
(travesti role), Princess Laoula s, maids of honour (Oasis, e, Youca, Adza,
Zinnia, Koukouli) 6 s, Mayor and Chief of spoken roles; satb chorus of people,
watchmen, courtiers
Standard orchestra
For all the (to us) charm of Chabrier's first completed opera, it was at first
regarded as excessively complicated for an opera bouffe. It was accused of
Wagnerian orches¬tration (Henri Duparc, who admired it, later called it `a
French Meistersinger'), and both the orchestra and the chorus had difficulty
preparing their music. Its original run of 40 performances at the
Bouffes-Parisiens was regarded as disappointing, and it was not seen again in
Paris until 1941.
Synopsis
Act I
Ouf the First roams his city in disguise to find a suitable subject to execute
as a 39th birthday treat. Enter, also disguised, Herisson, his wife Aloes,
secretary Tapioca, and Laoula, daughter of the neighbouring monarch. Their
mission, of which she is unaware, is to marry Laoula to Ouf. The pedlar Lazuli
has already fallen for her. Scolded for flirting with the two ladies (who are
disguised as each other) he insults Ouf, who thus finds the desired candidate
for death by impalement. Just in time Siroco, the king's astrol¬oger, reveals
that Ouf's fate and Lazuli's are inextricably linked. Lazuli is escorted with
honour into the palace.
Act II
Lazuli longs to escape and join Laoula. Ouf, still unaware of the two women's
exchange, furthers the lovers' marriage by having the superfluous husband,
Herisson, imprisoned. Lazuli and Laoula depart happily together, leaving Aloes
and Ouf in friendly contact, to the discom-posure of Herisson who has now
escaped. This confusion is resolved and Herisson orders the pedlar to be shot.
Gunfire is heard from the lake. Laoula is brought in, but no Lazuli, so Ouf and
Siroco accept that this day will be their last.
Act III
Lazuli, who has swum to safety, returns to overhear Ouf and his astrologer
drowning their sorrows in green chartreuse and then, when Herisson enters, an
explanation. The men leave; the girls return. Their sadness is dispelled when
Lazuli reveals himself, suffering only from a sneeze. A second elopement is
planned. But Ouf returns, anxious to implant an heir without delay (an earlier
prediction said he would lose his throne if his successor was not sired before
he turned 40). Functionaries arrive to perform the marriage. Then when Siroco's
latest erratic stargazing tells Ouf that his death is imminent, he releases
Laoula and declares the pedlar his heir. His disappointment is lost in the
general rejoicing.
The attractions of this charming piece include the tender romance de 1'etoile
where Lazuli first declares his love (its words possibly by Verlaine) and the
delicious Tickling trio which follows. The words for the gruesome punishment
which gives the otherwise kindly king such pleasure can surely be attributed in
all their salacious innuendo to Ver¬laine: 'Le Pal / Est de tous les supplices /
Le principal / Et le plus fécond en délices.' (The official librettists changed
the last line to 'le moins rempli de délices'.) The note of tenderness is struck
again in Act III with Laoula's couplets de la rose (at the moment when all hope
of Lazuli has abandoned her for the second time). Parody of Donizetti/ Bellini,
lurking everywhere, surfaces in the Green Chartr¬euse duet a little earlier. But
the music's main language is French, the accent unmistakably Chabrier's.
Recording
Alliot-Lugaz, Raphanel, Damonte, Gautier, Le Roux, Bacquier, David, Lyons Opera
Ch & 0, Gardiner, HMV, 1984
Publisher: Enoch: vs., 1877