Seen and Heard International Opera Review

Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein, MC2, Grenoble, September 24, 2004 (FC)

The big question is, can they do it again? The team of conductor Marc Minkowski and stage designer Laurent Pelly won all the critics awards around for their sparkling season 2000-2001 performances of Offenbach’s La Belle Hél ne at Théâtre Châtelet in Paris. It was such a hit it became a fixture at that theater each holiday season for the next three years. The bright, contemporary staging, filled with a wit which seemed to spring naturally from the score and script, is now on DVD and was widely praised when released.

It is not surprising that this same team’s take on another Offenbach work, La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein, is one of the most anticipated events of the Paris season. The pre-Paris performances were part of the celebration of the opening of Grenoble’s new Maison de la Culture in this town in foothills of the French Alps. The old building was completely rebuilt, in a six-year project, and the opening ceremonies included Marc Minkowski because of his residency there with his Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble. Vital too is the help of the boy wonder of the French stage, Laurent Pelly, who happens to direct the theater program at the center.

The new complex, dubbed MC2, has both a theater, with 1050 seats, and an auditorium for concerts and recitals that seats 1000 plus a smaller theater and a modular space for experimental work. The rehearsal spaces for the ballet and theater have glass walls which allow citizens of Grenoble to see how some of their tax dollars are being spent and the spacious lobby can hold the entire intermission crowd when the temperature dips outside.

The new staging of Gerolstein gives the impression of darkness and it does not mesh well with the always bubbly music. Some might find a contemporary message in the plot: a bored and dim-witted leader decides to take the nation to war without having a specific enemy in mind, well supported in the decision by scheming advisors and arrogant, incompetent Generals. But this is, after all, the postage stamp-size nation of Gerolstein and the leader is the delicious soprano Felicity Lott as the Grand Duchess.

Credit photo: M N Robert

Pelly’s army, with camouflage battle fatigues and rifles, have a dangerous contemporary feel but their pie tin helmets betray their lack of murderous intent. The pervasive somberness of the décor is emphasized by the opening curtain where the stage is littered with bodies of soldiers as from a war. We learn, before the end of the overture, that they are all only sleeping off drink but the olive-drab set does not well frame the spry comedy which follows in Meilhac and Halévy‘s libretto. Act II is set in a room in the Duchesse’s palace (sets by Chantal Thomas) but it seems more like the Addams Family than any Second Empire takeoff. Even the arrival of the Duchess herself singing her well-known "Ah, que j’aime les militaires" seemed overall rather sober. One of the great comic characters of the French musical stage, General Boum, here played gruffly by Francois Le Roux, seems more menacing than funny.

But the talented cast - except for Dame Felicity, all French - perform with a zeal and fresh energy that you would expect from a Pelly production. The engaging lovers, Fritz by tenor Yann Beron and the Wanda of Sandrine Piau, do a bit of unnecessary mugging but sing with style and engagement.

Despite the unaccustomed heaviness, there is much to like in this production. Miss Lott can still make Offenbach roles come alive as no one else and shows no signs of slowing down. Minkowski’s obvious delight and dedication to this music is still much in evidence. He conducts his orchestra with an energy and lightness that shows the best side of the often delicious music which has been recently, more often than not, badly played. Pelly’s wit is still in evidence and, despite the gloom, still can cause a laugh. Laura Scozzi’s choreography is still wondrously lively and go-go contemporary. Franck Laguerinel, as Baron Puck, Erick Huchet as Prince Paul and Boris Grappe as Baron Grog, make a light-hearted gang of eager, if not always loyal, courtiers.

This opera opened at Théâtre Châtelet October 5 and will run in Paris until October 20. It will also return from December 9 through January 2 in the same venue. Since this performance will be offered during the Christmas holidays on French television, can we assume that that DVD is only a matter of time? Is La Pé richole next?

Frank Cadenhead

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