Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Le Voyage dans la Lune – opéra-féerie in four acts (prem. 1875)
Violette Polchi, Sheva Tehoval, Matthieu Lécroart,
Pierre Derhet, Raphaël Brémard, Thibaut Desplantes,
Marie Lenormand, Ludivine Gombert, Christophe Poncet de Solages
Chœur et Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie/Pierre Dumoussaud
rec. 2021, Salle Beracasa, Corum de Montpellier, France
French libretto with English translation provided in book
Bru Zane ‘Opéra français’ series, volume 32
BRU ZANE BZ1048 [2 CDs: 151]
The Bru Zane Opéra français CD-book series has reached volume 32 with Jacques Offenbach’s music theatre work Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). This first complete recording is part of Bru Zane’s contribution to a co-production directed by Olivier Fredj being taken to a number of theatres and opera houses in France. I applaud the entirely sensible decision to abridge the extensive spoken dialogue of this studio recording of Le Voyage (as it is often abbreviated) just enough to keep the narrative coherent.
Palazzetto Bru Zane was seriously promoting Offenbach in the bicentennial of his birth in 2019, including revivals of Madame Favart, Maître Péronilla, Les deux aveugles, Lischen et Fritzchen, La Périchole, Le 66! and La vie Parisienne. It is pleasing that Bru Zane is championing Offenbach’s ‘light music’ - a tag that can be attached to so many of his music theatre works - while ensuring that the quality of the work is paramount. Prior to this new album, Bru Zane released two outstanding Offenbach recordings in its French Opéra series, both opéras bouffes that I have reviewed and found outstanding:
La Périchole and
Maître Péronilla. In addition, it also backed a production of Le Roi Carotte, an acclaimed Opera Rara recording of Fantasio and on the Alpha label the album by soprano Jodie Devos
Offenbach Colorature.
Offenbach’s prolificity in producing stage works was huge and remarkable. Between 1819-80 he wrote approaching a hundred music theatre works of which all bar a couple are on the lighter side. These are usually classified very broadly as operettas which traditionally include the subcategories opéra-féerie, opéra bouffe, opéra comique etc. and also contain a dance element such as a ballet. He also wrote a number of incidental music to plays. The sheer number of Offenbach compositions makes it no surprise that a large number of them are generally unknown, the main exceptions being La vie Parisienne, Orpheus in the Underworld and La belle Hélène. In the sphere of grand opéra, Offenbach wrote two works: the rarely encountered Die Rheinnixen (Les fées du Rhin) and his most famous masterwork
Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
Le Voyage is the last of five stage works he described as an opéra-féerie (fairy opera), an opéra or opéra-ballet genre fashionable in the 18th century French in which the storyline is based on fairy tales or fantasy, often with aspects of magic and the supernatural. Compared to the heavyweight, large scale French grands opéras usually based on turbulent historical subjects and events fraught with political or religious implications - for example Halévy’s La Juive (1835) and Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (1836) - an opéra féerie is far lighter in style, the music having a more secondary role often designed in a series of tableaux with spectacular stage effects, illusions and ballets.
Le Voyage falls plumb into that category. Designed in four acts and twenty-three tableaux with a pair of ballets, it uses a libretto provided by Albert Vanloo, Eugène Leterrier and Arnold Mortier and was inspired by Jules Verne’s inspirational novels from 1864, Voyage au centre de la Terre (A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and 1865, De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon). Adventurous and futuristic, Verne’s highly popular and now classic tales were boosted by parody and extraordinary scientific insight. The libretto concerns a journey to outer space, in a rocket blasted from a massive cannon King V’lan, Caprice and Microscope land on the Moon and discover that Love only exists there only as a malady and unknown to the Sélénites (Moon dwellers) apples serve as an antidote.
The premiere of Le Voyage given in October 1875 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté was a great success and ran for six months. In March 1877, the score was revived at the Théâtre du Châtelet and was soon staged in both Europe and the USA. The extravagantly financed production used 24 striking sets created by Cornil, Fromont and Chéret that included ‘recreating the Paris Observatory, a working blast furnace, a massive cannon, and the crater of an erupting volcano… a lunar landscape, a glass palace, mother-of-pearl galleries, etc.’ It seems there were almost 700 hundred costumes and adding to the sense of theatre the production even included renting from a zoo both a dromedary and an ostrich.
From the first bar to the last this recording of Le Voyage is very much to my taste, entirely holding my attention. Clearly judiciously chosen, the cast of mainly native French speakers gives an ebullient performance that communicates the sheer infectious joy of music making. This may be a light music work but it doesn’t take long to realise that the cast treats the performance of this opéra féerie with utmost sincerity. What a treat it is to encounter such a motivated cast that communicates such spirit and hilarity.
A mezzo-soprano rather than a soprano role heads the cast here, Violette Polchi taking the trouser role of Prince Caprice. Caprice is generously given several outstanding solos, both with and without chorus, and the celebrated Duo des Pommes (Apple duet) with Princess Fantasia, too. Polchi excels displaying noticeable expression and clarity of diction in the quickly taken couplets Ah! J'en ai vu, j'en ai vu as Caprice announces to his father the King that he has travelled everywhere on earth. Next comes the flowery romance of Caprice’s Ô reine de la nuit… Papa, papa! je veux la Lune!... which is a real gem. Refusing to accept the crown of his father the King, Caprice wants the freedom to roam and explore, dreaming of journeying to the moon. Polchi characterises convincingly and is able to quickly slide to her top notes. At one point her tone comes close to a screech, but I put that down to over-enthusiasm and thankfully that unfavourable feature doesn’t persist. She gives a most effective rendition of the delightful, ebullient and testing waltz song Monde charmant que l'on ignore as Caprice reaffirms wanting to leave earth and explore the moon. In Act Two, she is outstanding in the fast and furious Rondeau of the Rocket Dans un obus qui fend l’air as Caprice gives a commentary how the massive cannon will zoom the rocket up into the sky. She is at her most expressive in the madrigal Je regarde vos jolis yeux, singing quite delightfully of Caprice’s love for Princess Fantasia.
The Chœur et Ronde des Charlatans (Mountebanks) in Act Three incorporates Caprice’s smash hit a Boniment (Patter Song) with chorus Ah! quelle musique… Ohé! ohé! les badauds! accompanied by what sounds like an out-of-tune village band. The first audiences adored it and demanded encores; here, Polchi’s rendition demands praise. Upbeat, carefree and memorable. she surmounts the patter song’s difficulties and provides quite terrific entertainment. Popular with audiences, too, is the attractive Act Two Duo des Pommes (Apple Duet) Mon Dieu, qu'ai-je ressenti là? sung by Caprice and Fantasia. Moon-dwellers like Fantasia cannot experience love, but eating apples enables them to feel strong affections. Both Violette Polchi and Sheva Tehoval are in splendid form, their voices combining so well. They are clearly savouring the charming text as the royal couple express their love for each other.
Bass-baritone Matthieu Lécroart as the earthly king V’lan has only one significant solo, the Act One couplets V’lan, V’lan, je suis V’lan and also sings the minor roles of Un Bourgeois, Un Marchand and Un Acheteur. One can practically see Lécroart as V’lan make his entrance with a fanfare and introduces himself to his subjects as a benevolent monarch who feels ill at the very thought of raising taxes. Projecting his large personality, Lécroart excels in couplets so good- humoured and entertaining the role could have been written for his voice.
Relishing the role of Princess Fantasia, the beautiful daughter of King Cosmos ruler of the Moon, is soprano Sheva Tehoval, expressing oodles of personality and displaying a fresh, girl-like tone; she is ideal for the role. With liberal measures of merriment Tehoval revels in Fantasia’s Act Two couplets Tu devais, le jour de ma fête; as it’s her birthday, she asks her papa to show the earthlings mercy. I’m most impressed by her; she is a real performer who may not have the largest voice yet it’s firm and highly effective, demonstrating such splendid coloratura and a command of high notes. From Act Three Tehoval impresses in the arietta of the princess Je suis nerveuse. Fantasia is head over heels in love with Caprice and as she is being attended to by doctors, describes her nervousness and how her head is boiling. This is characterful and admirable singing from Tehoval who clearly appreciates the witty arietta’s thrilling, high-register conclusion.
Tenor Raphaël Brémard takes the roles of Microscope, the brainy scientist who designed the project to reach the Moon, and Un Acheteur and Un Marchand. He is most effective as Microscope which, although a significant role, consists largely of dialogue; there is some singing but nothing in the way of major solos. As Prince Quipasseparla, tenor Pierre Derhet demonstrates his fine comedy voice in his major solo with chorus known as the Rondo de Quipasseparla. Derhet negotiates the tricky text with witty expression as the prince boasts of how he collects women of all types.
In Act Four the Ronde des pommiers (Round Dance of the Apple Trees) boys are in the orchard picking apples and throwing them down to the girls’ baskets. Celebrating by dancing, Flamma and Adja in their solos with chorus Olà! que chaque fillette, Ici tende son panier help cultivate the concept new to them of tasty fruit representing love. Here, soprano Ludivine Gombert sings the contributions of both Flamma and Adja and does a splendid job, too. Those in other comprimario roles Marie Lenormand as Popette, Thibaut Desplantes as Cosmos and Christophe Poncet de Solages have been well-chosen and perform with credit.
There is plenty of music for the chorus and the thirty-strong Chœur Opéra national Montpellier Occitanie, prepared by chorusmaster Noëlle Gény, is in splendid voice throughout, adding to the success of the recording. The Orchestre national de Montpellier Occitanie is conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud who keeps the score on the move, bolstered by the enthusiasm and energy of the players. Offenbach includes a pair of ballets both containing highly attractive music which is gratifyingly performed here by the Montpellier players. At the end of Act Two is the Ballet des Chimères (Ballet of the Chimeras) in five movements. Later comes the admired Ballet des flocons de neige (Ballet of the Snowflakes) from the conclusion of Act Three that includes the famous and melodic Polka, a much-loved classical lollipop.
I notice that French label Malibran has released a pair of studio archive recordings from Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, Paris. From 1961, there is Le Voyage dans la Lune coupled with the Offenbach opéra bouffon conducted by Jean-Paul Kreder and also Le Voyage de MM. Dunanan père et fils under Edouard Bervily from 1956. Regrettably, the single CD on Malibran [MR786] consists of selections only and although it provides no real competition to this Bru Zane release I feel it is worthy of mention. Of possible interest, too, from 2007 is the double CD album Entre nous - Celebrating Offenbach - Excerpts from the Forgotten Operas that includes five selections from Le Voyage on Opera Rara [ORR243].
Released as part of the Bru Zane Opéra français series of CD-books, Le Voyage enjoys the usual high-end presentation that one has come to expect from this label. This 212-page hardback book is a bilingual edition (French and English) with a full cast and track listing, a detailed synopsis and the abridged French libretto with English translation. There are four detailed and informative essays: Alexandre Dratwicki Shooting for the Moon with Offenbach, Jérôme Collomb Offenbach and the ‘féerie’, Alexandre Dratwicki A journey... through the press and Jean-Claude Yon Jacques Offenbach and Jules Verne: abortive encounters. In addition, there are several reproductions of artworks, drawings and posters of the early productions and also current performer photos.
With Offenbach’s opéra féerie - Le Voyage dans la Lune Bru Zane has come up trumps. This unashamedly light music comes across as a fast-moving and immensely entertaining fantasy romp. Surely the number of spectacular scenes makes Le Voyage best appreciated in a full staging; nonetheless, the excellence of the performances on this recording drew me in completely. Fingers crossed that one day I will get to see a staging.
Michael Cookson
Cast list
Violette Polchi (mezzo-soprano) – Prince Caprice, son of King V’lan, a trouser role
Sheva Tehoval (soprano) – Princess Fantasia, daughter of King Cosmos
Matthieu Lécroart (bass-baritone) – earthly King V’lan / Un Bourgeois / Un Marchand / Un Acheteur
Pierre Derhet (tenor) – Prince Quipasseparla / Un Forgeron,
Raphaël Brémard – Microscope, an astronomer, tutor of Caprice / Un Acheteur / Un Marchand
Marie Lenormand (mezzo-soprano) – Popette, consort of King Cosmos, in love with Microscope / Une Bourgeoise
Thibaut Desplantes – King Cosmos of the Selenites / Le Commissaire / Cosinus / Un Marchand)
Ludivine Gombert – Flamma / Adja / Une Bourgeoise / Un Fergeronne
Christophe Poncet de Solages – Cactus / Parabase
