This set is one of the recent
EMI reissues of operetta recordings with dialogue
in French.
Louis Ganne was born
in Buxières-les-Mines in Allier on
5 April 1862, and became an organ student
of César Franck and Massenet at the
Paris Conservatoire. Ganne’s operettas, Hans
the Flute-player and The Travelling
Entertainers (Les Saltimbanques) are rarely
staged and are unlikely to be known outside
France. He may be remembered, however, for
composing rousing military marches like Le
Père la Victoire and the immortal
Marche Lorraine. He began his career
as a conductor at the Nouveau Théâtre
de la Rue Blanche, at the Folies-Bergère,
later at the Casino de Royan and then at Monte
Carlo where he presented his own concerts
before he returned to Paris and the Théâtre
Apollo. A number of trifles and character
pieces caught the public's attention, mostly
based on dance-rhythms from afar, giving off
an amusing off-beat whiff of fin-de-siècle
exoticism with mazurkas or polkas like
La Czarine, La Tzigane, or La
Mousmé. At the Folies (Casino de
Paris) he put on ballets, and he was also
a sparkling director of the opera balls: one
can only imagine what Les Sources du Nil
or Phryné must have been like
when put on at these venues which went in
for enchantment and spectacle! Incidental
music for a play called Rabelais at
the 0déon in 1892 came just before
his first attempt at a vocal stage-work, La
Colle des Femmes, at the Menus-Plaisirs.
These notes edited from Michel Parouty’s CD
material gives a good introduction to Ganne,
a little known composer who doesn’t even appear
in Rosenthal & Warrack’s Oxford Dictionary
of Opera.
Operetta was unfashionable
at this time, though Robert Planquette had
received a triumph with his Le Talisman
and revivals of his two principal works, Surcouf
and Les Cloches de Corneville.
At the close of a Century which had seen the
public flock to the Universal Exposition in
Paris (1867) when Offenbach was in vogue,
preparations were being made at the Gaîeté
for the première of Les Saltimbanques,
a three-act piece, composed to
a libretto by Maurice Ordonneau which opened
on 30th December 1899. Ganne’s
score is generally robust and is punctuated
with military interludes, songs and finales
which are Suppé-like with their bouncy
rhythms (try CD1 tk.14) and there are circus
numbers which could be compared with favourites
like Smetana’s Dance of the Tumblers
or Strauss’s Tritsch Tratsch Polka. I
find Ganne becomes more fluent in his composing
from Act 2 onwards. Certainly the opening
chorus number to Act 2 would be better used
for Act 1 which progresses rather pedantically,
without real purpose and is unlikely to focus
an audience’s initial interest. He writes
a clever military song (CD2 tk.5) for André
and some of his ensemble numbers are equally
inventive. An Act 2 ballet is quite charming
and confirms Ganne’s confidence in scoring
with good texture and artistic style (CD2
tk.13). Also the excellent finale which follows
contains plenty of vocal colour.
Les Saltimbanques
(The Acrobats) has a touching story surrounding
a child taken in by a troupe of travelling
circus artistes. It is a romance of circus
life that is boisterous yet colourful, and
offers a backdrop for some spectacular effects.
Ganne’s score leans towards
an opéra-comique level and very much
in the tradition of Planquette and Audran
rather his other contemporary, Messager. One
number in particular became a hit with the
audiences. It was not André's stirring
military song, ‘Va, gentil Soidat’,
where the composer was confident with his
much tested martial rhythms, nor the melodic
duets for the two lovers, but a waltz which
ends the first Act, ‘C'est I'amour’
(CD1 tk.19) This number’s music is particularly
effective: it is a completely captivating
song which one is likely to remember after
one leaves the theatre. On 14 April 1906 at
Monte Carlo, Louis Ganne's Hans le Joueur
de Flûte, the story of the Pied
Piper of Hamelin was premièred. It
starred Jean Périer (the first Florestan
in Véronique and the first Pelléas
in Debussy's masterpiece). Although more ambitious
a production than Les Saltimbanques, this
pretty fantasy has completely disappeared
from the repertoire. This interesting information
is provided in the CD notes.
In Act 1 a foundling, Suzanne
(Mady Mesplé) has been taken in by
the Malicornes, owners of a travelling circus.
Her friends are Paillasse, the clown, who
is in love with her, Grand-Pingouin, and Hercule,
who are also enamoured. At Versailles where
the circus has stopped some young officers
flirt with Suzanne, but the lieutenant André
de Langeac (Claude Calés) puts an end
to their banter and asks the young girl to
excuse his comrades. Suzanne is not unmoved
by the handsome officer's charms, but thinks
herself unworthy of him. After an argument
with the brutal Malicorne, she refuses to
stay with the circus and leaves, joined by
her three friends.
Act 2 reveals that Suzanne,
Marion, Paillasse and Grand-Pingouin have
formed their own small circus troupe, ‘The
Gigoletti’. They happen to be in Normandy,
near the castle of the Comte des Etiquettes,
who is André's uncle. Malicorne has
by now tracked down the renegades and wants
them arrested on the pretext of owing him
money. The Comte des Etiquettes (André
Batisse) intervenes, pays the required amount,
and asks the circus and ‘The Gigoletti’ to
give a show in the castle grounds. Even happier
for Suzanne is the arrival of André
at the head of his regiment.
Act 3 While the troupe are
on stage at the Castle, Suzanne sings a song
she learned in childhood, the origins of which
she does not know. It is in fact an unpublished
composition by the Count. Suzanne is the daughter
who had disappeared seventeen years ago. The
young entertainer now has no need to be ashamed
of her birth; she can marry her lieutenant,
to the despair of Paillasse.
Mady Mesplé plays
the role of the timid Suzanne with sensitivity
and brings pathos and tenderness to the part.
Her light soprano voice with characteristic
rapid vibrato is well suited to play the young
girl. (Try her "Pourquoi vous"
CD1 tk.4, & "La bergère
Colinette" tk.16 or " Souvent
on me fait" CD2 tk.1) Eliane Lublin
(Marion) takes an equally large soprano part
with a pleasing timbre with good diction and
wide register. Try her "C’est l’amour"
(CD1 tk.19). Her acting and characterisation
is excellent. Raymond Amade (Paillasse) is
a light and slightly nasally tenor with good
diction and hardly any vibrato. He suits the
character. Claude Calès (André)
is a wide range baritone who brings confidence
and authority to his part as Lieutenant. His
military song "En voyant un village"
(CD 2 tk.5) is excellent as is his duet with
Mesplé which follows.
This 2 CD set is a reissue
of LPs released in the 1968. The master tape
transfer to CD is excellent. As with other
CD sets in the series, the track indexing
can be inaccurate in places. With this mid
price issue, notes by Michel Parouty in French
and English are included.
Further reading: "Operetta", Traubner
(Oxford 1883); ‘Musicals", Ganzl (Carlton
1995)
Raymond Walker
Operetta (complete, with
dialogue in French)