Albert ROUSSEL (1869-1937)
Le Testament de la Tante Caroline, Operetta in three acts (1932–33)
One-act version, 1964 – ed. Marcel Mihalovici (1898–1985)
Libretto by Nino (pseudonym of Michel Veber)
Béatrice /Chorus - Marie Lenormand, Mezzo-soprano
Christine /Chorus - Marion Gomar, Soprano
Noémie /Chorus - Lucile Komitès, Mezzo-soprano
Jobard /Chorus - Aurélien Gasse, Baritone
Ferdinand /Chorus - Charles Mesrine, Tenor
Lucine /Chorus - Marie Perbost, Soprano
Noël /Chorus - Fabien Hyon, Tenor
Maître Corbeau /Chorus - Till Fechner, Bass-baritone
Patogène /Chorus - Romain Dayez, Baritone
Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes/Dylan Corlay
rec. 13 June 2019, L’Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, Paris, France
No text or translation
First recording
NAXOS 8.660479 [79:00]
Roussel’s work falls into three periods, which partly overlap. In the first he was an impressionist, and the main works from this time are the first symphony, subtitled Le poème de la forêt, and the ballet Le festin de l’araignée. In the second he was greatly influenced by the culture of India. The principal works are the choral and orchestral work Evocations, the opera-ballet Padmâvatî and the second symphony. In his third period he was a neo-classicist, and the principal works are the third and fourth symphonies and the ballet Bacchus et Ariane. His third period is generally considered the finest, though I actually prefer the earlier works and Padmâvatî in particular.
In general, Roussel is a serious composer: Padmâvatî is a tragedy and the second symphony is grim and severe. It is therefore quite a surprise to find that in his third period Roussel was delighted by the challenge of writing an operetta, to a libretto so silly that it counts as a farce. The librettist, Michel Verber, who wrote using the pseudonym Nino, had made a speciality of writing libretti for popular operettas and when he produced Le testament, Roussel set to work on it at once. The story is that Aunt Caroline has died. She had been a prostitute and had been hugely successful and had a fortune to leave. Her three nieces, who had avoided her in life, rushed to claim what they hoped would be their inheritances. However, Caroline had left a will bequeathing her entire fortune to the first child born to one of the three nieces. They have one year to produce a child, after which her fortune would go to the Salvation Army.
Two of the nieces, Noémie and Christine are married, and try to have children during the year, unsuccessfully. The third niece, Béatrice, has gone into a religious order. The time is almost up when it turns out that Aunt Caroline’s chauffeur Noél is Beatrice’s illegitimate child. They are delighted to be reunited and Noél is named Aunt Caroline’s sole heir.
Roussel had some difficulty getting his operetta staged and it was first performed in 1936 in Czech translation in the Czech city Olomouc. The French premiere was in Paris in 1937. Despite careful preparation and strong casting it was not a success. In 1960, at the request of Roussel’s widow, Nino reworked the libretto from three acts into one and Marcel Mihalovici revised the score. This is the version which is performed nowadays and which is recorded here.
It would be pleasant to say that here we have a masterpiece in a lighter form, to match the sombre and powerful Padmâvatî. It is certainly light and frothy, and neatly and effectively scored, but not more than that. There are no stand-out numbers, no really memorable tunes. The score is competent, certainly but not more. Perhaps Beatrice’s aria near the end C’etait un gars de la Bretagne has a certain charm, but I don’t know that it is really that strong.
The performance here is a strong one, mounted by a team who have specialised in reviving French light music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They sing and play with a good deal of verve and sparkle. However, I should point out that, as one expects in operetta, there is a great deal of spoken dialogue, delivered in French so fast that I could not begin to follow it. The booklet offers only a brief synopsis and a libretto is not obtainable on line or otherwise. While I applaud Naxos’s enterprise in bringing rare operas to recording, this is the second I have had for review which has no text or translation with no prospect of being able to find one elsewhere (the other was Franck’s Hulda, review). This is bound to limit the appeal of an issue like this. I am sure that those interested in these works would rather pay a bit more and get a libretto with translation than buy something they cannot follow in detail. I hope that when Naxos get round to recording Roussel’s other one-act opera, La Naissance de la Lyre, as I hope they do, that they will have reconsidered their policy on this.
Stephen Barber
Previous review: Nick Barnard
