Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Thaïs (1892-94, revised 1898)
Comédie lyrique in Three Acts and Seven Scenes
Erin Wall – Thaïs; Joshua Hopkins – Athanaël; Andrew Staples – Nicias; Palemon - Nathan Berg; Crobyle - Liv Redpath; Myrtale - Andrea Ludwig; La Charmeuse - Stacey Tappan; Albine - Emilia Boteva
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis
rec. live, 4-9 November 2019, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Canada
CHANDOS CHSA5258(2) SACD [72:37 + 59:31]
Massenet’s Thaïs was composed in 1894 and subsequently revised in 1898, and it is this version that we hear on recordings. I have two other sets of the work: RCA’s 1974 production with Anna Moffo as the eponymous heroine, and the sumptuous Decca set from 1997, with Renee Fleming taking the rôle.
It is a shame that the otherwise splendid RCA set is spoiled by the unfortunate state of Moffo’s voice. In 1974 she was only 42 and should have been at the height of her vocal powers, but it is thought that her over-intense work load led to her sudden vocal decline, and when the RCA recording was released there was shock amongst her fans at the sound she produced. Her voice seems to droop in pitch, and although the high notes are there, they are not free of wobble, and at the extreme sound thin and unsupported. Alas, the voice is also somewhat deficient in the upper middle registers. She never really recovered from this breakdown, and her voice is in a worse state on the RCA set of Montemezzi’s L’Amore dei Tre Rei recorded in 1977. The remaining cast is superb, with the young Jose Carreras in glorious voice singing the important rôle of Nicias, and Gabriel Bacquier making a fine job of injecting real passion into the part of Athanaël. Julius Rudel was an opera conductor of great experience, and he paces the music splendidly, aided by the excellent playing of the New Philharmonia. I still like this recording, because despite her problems, Moffo sings passionately and makes meaty stuff of her set pieces and duet with Bacquier. The remaining voices are top notch, and Rudel makes the orchestra really play.
I used to own the 1976 EMI discs with Beverly Sills singing Thaïs, with Sherrill Milnes as Athanaël and Nicola Gedda as Nicias. Sills was approaching the end of her career and her over-bright voice reduces much of Thaïs’ allure. Also, Gedda was 51 and his voice also sounds rather worn. The greatest problem lies with Lorin Maazel’s conducting - brisk efficiency is perhaps the best way to describe it, and it robs the opera of much of its charm.
In 1997, for Decca, Renée Fleming sounds absolutely lovely, and the whole set has much to recommend it, not least for Giuseppe Sabatini as Nicias and Thomas Hampson as Athanaël. Both he and Fleming are riveting in the final duet. I occasionally felt the playing of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine to be rather below the class of the London and Toronto Orchestras, but despite this minor quibble the whole set is a sumptuous affair, as befits the opera.
After all that, what about the new Chandos set under review here, recorded live at a concert performance in Toronto? The recording is excellent and Chandos have issued it in SACD format to make the most of the quality. I listened to it in 2-channel stereo through a dedicated SACD player.
Perhaps a brief summary of the plot is called for. The opera is set in Alexandria in the fourth century, when Christianity was tolerated and gaining ground in the Roman Empire. The monk Athanaël has visited the city and is appalled by its licentiousness and general sense of dissolution. He is a fervent believer in a very severe, puritanical form of Christianity, and having caught sight of her, blames the notorious courtesan Thaïs for her wanton behaviour. Despite being warned against it by his superior, Athanaël determines to return to Alexandria to confront Thaïs and convert her to Christianity. When he gets there, he visits the home of his childhood friend Nicias, who is very wealthy. Athanaël is horrified to discover that Nicias is Thaïs’ current lover, and Nicias tells him that in a week’s time he will run out of money (so expensive is Thaïs), and she will leave him. He offers to introduce Athanaël to Thaïs over dinner and his slaves take Athanaël out in order to dress him properly for the meal. Meanwhile Nicias and Thaïs sing a beautiful duet and Thaïs begins saying her goodbyes. During dinner, Thaïs asks who Athanaël is, and Nicias explains. Athanaël tells her of his intention to convert her, and she laughs at him and teases him with a seductive song, asking how can he live without giving in to desire. Athanaël is very discomfited and rushes from the room, swearing that he will convert her.
Act 2 begins with Thaïs in her room. Looking into a mirror she wonders what will happen to her once the inevitable effects of aging diminishe her beauty. To her surprise, Athanaël enters and she warns him not to fall for her. He replies that the love he offers is a pure one that will ensure that both ascend to eternal salvation. Outside, Nicias sings of the pleasures he and Thaïs have shared, and Thaïs becomes very distressed while Athanaël registers disgust. She nearly faints and turns Athanaël down and sends him away, but he says he will sleep outside her door until morning.
The second scene is set outside the house, in the early hours of the morning. Athanaël is sitting on the steps, and he can hear the sound of Nicias gambling in an adjacent villa. Thaïs comes out and tells Athanaël that after meditating overnight, she has decided to renounce her early life and to join him. Athanaël tells her that he will lead her to a cloister in the desert, presided over by the saintly Albine. She will remain there until Jesus comes to call her to heaven. Her entire house and its contents must burn, he says, and he enters the villa to burn it down. Nicias has finished gambling and won a lot of money. He and his friends gather in the square and arrange for a group of dancing girls to perform. It should be noted that this new Chandos recording omits much of the orchestral Divertissement in this tableau. At the height of the revels, Athanaël and Thaïs appear, and when the crowd learns of their intentions, the scene turns ugly. Athanaël is surrounded and stoned and in order to divert the crowd from his old friend, Nicias scatters gold which lures the crowd away, and Nicias helps Athanaël and Thaïs to escape. The villa is burning and crashes to the ground.
Act 3 begins in the desert, where Thaïs has suffered greatly from the journey on foot. Athanaël drives her onwards, but eventually shows her compassion when he sees that her feet are bleeding. As they reach the oasis, he fetches her water and fruits which they share. Albine appears from the convent and the nuns prepare to take Thaïs away. As she goes, she tells Athanaël that she thanks him for his spiritual guidance and that they will meet again in paradise. At that point he becomes very sad at the thought of never seeing Thaïs again.
Scene 2 is in the monk’s settlement, where Athanaël has had to confess that he cannot rest or gain any mental peace, because his thoughts continually turn to the beauty of Thaïs. He falls asleep and dreams of her at her most seductive, then he hears distant voices predicting her death and ascent to heaven because of her devoutness and suffering. He awakens to the sound of a storm and desperately vows that he will rejoin her. He rushes off into the night as the storm intensifies.
Scene 3 is set in the garden of the nunnery, where Thaïs is lying under the shade of a tree. Athanaël enters and despite the prioress’ words praising Thias’ devoutness. Athanaël does not listen, instead he approaches Thaïs and declares his love for her, declaring that he now realises that he sorely misled her. Thaïs awakens and describes a vision of eternity, then she sees God and dies. Athanaël is devastated and cries out in distress.
This astonishing mix of sex and devoutness, religious conviction, human frailty and hypocrisy, stimulated Massenet to produce one of his most attractively inventive scores. It is, of course, most famous for the Meditation, which every violinist in the world must have learned, and which is still trotted out in recital CDs. This is not surprising because it is intensely melodic and memorable, and it was one of the first pieces I heard when I began to investigate classical music some 40 years ago. In the opera it occurs at the end of act 2, and reappears later on. Incidentally, it is clear from the way Massenet reintroduces it as Thaïs dies, that it was not intended as some sort of sickly comment on her lecherous life, but rather as a foretelling of the perfect serenity awaiting her at the end.
Athanaël is sung extremely well by baritone Joshua Hopkins. He doesn’t have quite the darkness of voice of Gabriel Bacquier, but is more than equal to giving the rôle the necessary weight and histrionics that are required, particularly in the second and third scenes of Act 3.
Andrew Staples is a most accomplished tenor, and it is only in comparison with the young Carreras that his performance is found wanting, and then only in ultimate vocal allure. His duets with Erin Wall are first rate. I also consider him to be the equal of Giuseppe Sabatini in the Decca recording.
Then, Erin Wall as Thaïs is really, really good, and it is only in comparison with the luxuriant voice of Renée Fleming that any criticism can be levelled, and even then it is merely because I am probably over-sensitive to vibrato. She certainly does not use it to excess, and her voice at the top is pure and totally controlled. Her famous opening aria in Act 2, where she frantically demands of her mirror that it shows her to be beautiful, and will do so eternally, is quite superb, and at the very end of the opera where she dies and sees heaven, her voice soars ecstatically.
Andre Davis paces the opera perfectly and the orchestra play splendidly. The large chorus also fulfils its rôle to perfection, and all the minor parts are sung very well indeed; there is not a weakness anywhere. The two-SACD set is accompanied by a full text and libretto in French and English (rather Victorian-Biblical English, I might add - many thees and thous), and the new dissertation by Hugh MacDonald is masterly.
I suppose that in a perfect world I would have the three principal parts sung by Fleming, Bacquier and Carreras, but such perfection rarely occurs in any one recording of an opera. It is a total shame that Anna Moffo is very nearly hors de combat in the RCA recording, but that 2 CD set is available very cheaply, and for anyone who enjoys Thaïs as I do, it is probably worthwhile acquiring it to supplement either this new Chandos set or the 1997 Decca.
Jim Westhead
Previous review: Ralph Moore
