2023-09-30 12:33:39
What a delicate and ticklish celimene the operetta is! Treating it with insufficient consideration can discredit it; Paying him too much attention is not doing him any favors. Proof, Madame Angot’s Daughter at the Opéra Comique until October 5, then in Nice, Avignon and Lyon the next seasons. In one of our best opera theaters, with resources worthy of a major production, the choice of a recognized director and throats experienced in otherwise demanding repertoires is not enough to endorse the return of Charles’ masterpiece Lecocq Salle Favart following 85 years of absence.
At the risk of repeating myself, is it obligatory to use transposition to help today’s public better understand yesterday’s works? Helped by the music, the staging of Richard Brunel manages to stimulate an intrigue deprived of springs. But an immediate gap sets in between the representation of the action in the hottest hours of May 1968, and the libretto, so anchored in the Directory that it multiplies the references to this period and summons several historical figures – Pitou, Lange… That at the end of the 18th century as well as the 20th century, revolt was brewing does not make the presence of a royalist poet in a body assembly workshop any less incongruous. Under the paving stones, the beach ; on the factory gates, banners blackened with slogans. A turntable facilitates passage from the steelworks to Miss Lange’s living room, which has become a cinema room. The reunion duet, “Fortunate Days of Our Childhood”, gives rise to a parody of the Young ladies of Rochefort which forms the most accomplished number of the evening. Alas, the stands of the dark rooms prove not very conducive to the waltz supposed to conceal the shenanigans of the conspirators. We will not be made to mistake bladders for lanterns, kisses for dance steps and de Gaulle for Barras. A few boos sanction the bias during the salutes.
© Jean-Louis Fernandez
At the time of Lecocq, “the singers ensured the success of the productions while the singers regularly disappointed,” explains Alexandre Dratwicki in the program – very complete, as always at the Opéra Comique. The times have changed. Hélène Guilmette et Véronique People must bow to their male partners. The first sketches a Clairette in need of brilliance, clarity and that freshness consubstantial with the young girls in bloom of the operetta. Miss Lange forces the second to make uncomfortable efforts at projection, as if the role did not fall into her voice. Having to read the surtitles so as not to lose a word of the sung text is a shame for a distinguished interpreter of lyrical tragedy and melody. Julien Behr would look good as Ange Pitou if the broadcast too far back did not attenuate the brilliance of the seducer and also make him difficult to understand. Ultimately, it is the supporting roles that stand out: Ludmilla Bouakkaz in cheeky Amarante although here once more you have to hang on to the surtitles to enjoy the “legend of Mother Angot”; Matthieu Lécroart whose wild baritone avoids the trap of caricature, dignified in the most embarrassing situations, disturbing as soon as he finds a semblance of authority, amusing in the 3rd act in the much applauded duet “des deux forts”; and at the head of the pack, Pierre DerhetPomponnet always intelligible, with remarkable vocal and stage ease, even in the romance of the 2nd act, cut during the creation because it was considered too difficult, using the mixed voice to imbue an otherwise ridiculous character with feelings.
The artists of the Concert Spirituel use their knowledge of the French repertoire of the 18th century to ennoble each of the choral interventions. With the assistance of the Paris Chamber Orchestra, Hervé Niquet professes his faith in the music of Lecocq. The lightness of his direction, his fantasy devoid of insolence, do not exclude the respect given to the score to ultimately achieve the desired balance between too much and not enough.
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