Laurent Petitgirard’s
composing career stretches back to the
1970s. He has written a number of substantial
orchestral scores as well as having
an extensive catalogue of music for
film and television (including the music
for many episodes in the French ‘Maigret’
series and Otto Preminger’s ‘Rosebud’).
Petitgirard has a parallel career as
a conductor and was the music director
of the Orchestre Symphonique de France
from 1989 to 1996.
‘Joseph Merrick, The
Elephant Man’ is his first opera, written
to a libretto by Eric Nonn. In it he
explores the life of Joseph Merrick,
made famous in the film ‘The Elephant
Man’ but Petitgirard and Nonn say they
have based their opera more on the facts
of Merrick’s life whereas David Lynch’s
film was based on the memoirs of Dr.
Treves, the doctor who supposedly rescues
Merrick.
Petitgirard was attracted
to the story because he wanted to deal
with a dual personality. The opera portrays
the duality between Merrick’s inner
life and his physical appearance. This
is a subject which seems to be highly
suitable to Petitgirard’s technique
as a composer. He is a supremely skilled
orchestral technician, the orchestra
plays a big role in the opera and Petitgirard
uses it to some effect to comment upon
and increase our knowledge of the characters.
This has the useful effect of strengthening
and deepening the continuous arioso
in which the opera is written.
The opera is in four
acts consisting of some twenty short
scenes with a cast of eight major characters
plus some seven subsidiary roles. This
is a relatively large cast for just
under 150 minutes of music. Apart from
Dr. Treves and Merrick himself, you
never get to know the other characters
well. They seem to be foils for the
composer’s exploration of the two lead
characters.
Act 1 is set in a freak
show and the major role in this act
is the showman Tom Norman, a lively
Robert Bréault, with his sidekick
Jimmy, treble Damien Grelier. Dr. Treves
(Nicolas Revenq in sterling form) intervenes
and ensures the closure of the freak-show.
Merrick does not sing in this act but
in the staging we would see him in silhouette.
Between Act 1 and Act
2, Merrick’s life changes dramatically
as he goes off with a travelling show
before being abandoned and finally rescued
by Dr. Treves at the London Hospital.
We have to take all this for granted
and the opera’s failure to address it
is one of its biggest structural failures.
Instead Act 2 cuts
directly to Merrick (the stunning contralto
Natalie Stutzmann) recovering in the
London Hospital, only gradually learning
to speak and wary of revealing himself
to other people. His strongest relationship
is with the nurse Mary (soprano Marie
Devellereau) though their scene must
compete with substantial stage time
given to Dr. Treves and the hospital
staff.
In Act 3 Dr. Treves
exhibits Merrick to other doctors and
makes him something of a celebrity when
he appeals for funds to help support
him. We gradually realise that Treves’
motives have as much to do with his
own renown as with Merrick’s well-being.
Merrick’s confusion over the dichotomy
between his own appearance and his interior
feelings mean he rejects Mary’s feelings
for him.
Finally, he is feted
and becomes an object of adulation;
he is wooed by a famous actress played
by coloratura soprano Celena Nelson-Shafer,
who copes well with Petitgirard’s stratospheric
writing. Treves tells Merrick that his
condition is worsening and Merrick goes
into a decline, eventually committing
suicide.
I loved Petitgirard’s
very French sound-world and the musical
style of this piece. In many ways it
is old-fashioned. Musically its influences
are French from the mid-20th
century with barely a hint of Messiaen
and Boulez. This style of writing has
been decried in the past but times are
changing and we are coming to realise
that there is a place in our musical
world for operas whose virtues include
strong construction and secure understanding
of the operatic form, along with fine
musical craftsmanship.
All the singers in
the opera are exemplary. Some, such
as Sophie Koch as the Hospital matron,
Eva Lukes, seem rather underused. But
ultimately the show belongs to Rivenq’s
outstanding Dr. Treves (he almost convinces
us of Treves’ nobility of purpose) and
to Natalie Stutzmann. Stutzmann’s low
contralto voice is ideal for the role
of Merrick, conveying a sense of his
otherness and also, perhaps, giving
a feeling for his lack of overt male
sexuality due to his extreme disfigurement.
Merrick sings far too little in the
first half of the opera so that it is
only very late on that we come to know
him. Stutzmann brilliantly overcomes
this problem with this role and delivers
the final scene so powerfully that it
is overwhelming.
With some varied settings
and a multiplicity of scenes with a
strong visual impetus (the showground,
Dr. Treves’ presentation to the other
doctors) and its drama punctuated by
a fine series of choruses (strongly
sung by the French Opera Chorus), this
opera must work very well on stage.
This recording was made in 1999 prior
to the work’s stage performance and
I wonder how my attitude to the work
would have changed if the cast had sung
their roles on stage first. I can’t
help feeling that this recording, lovely
though it sounds, fails to quite convince
on all levels. As well as being ravished
I wanted to be challenged, especially
considering the subject matter; Petitgirard’s
music just fails to address the sheer
horror that the sight of Merrick must
have caused.
Still Naxos are to
be congratulated at bringing this recording
out but it surely hampers a contemporary
work if we are presented with a brief
synopsis of each act and no libretto.
We must be grateful that many of the
cast display such excellent diction,
but I feel that our knowledge of the
opera is limited if we don’t have access
to the text.
Cast, chorus and orchestra
give a tremendous performance, strongly
supported by Petitgirard conducting
his own work. But I must return to the
structure and drama of the work. Though
I loved the sound of it and will return
to it many times, there were occasions
when I thought that we were listening
to a tone poem with voices rather than
a truly dramatic work. As I have said,
perhaps my perceptions would change
if I saw the TV recording of the work’s
staging. And, after all, this recording
did its work wonderfully well as it
was crafted by Petitgirard to raise
interest in his opera. Do try it.
Robert Hugill
French Opera Chorus 
