Adolphe Charles
Adam was one of the most prolific suppliers of mostly light-hearted
stage works (more than ninety!) during the first half of the
19th century. He had an easy melodic gift, learnt
his trade early and knew how to keep the action of his admittedly
not very profound librettos alive. He could, when time allowed,
write a transparent and attractive orchestral score.
Today he might
be regarded as passé, but a few works from his pen
can still be heard from time to time. The ballet Giselle
belongs to the standard repertoire in many houses and of the
operas Si j’étais roi and the present work Le postillon
de Longjumeau can have an occasional outing. Cantique
de Noël, the somewhat saccharine Christmas song - in the
English speaking world known as O Holy Night - is heard
everywhere at Yuletide.
The postilion
of Longjumeau, premiered in Paris on October 13, 1836,
has been famous for Chapelou’s romance Mes amis, écoutez
l’histoire in the first act. It is a favourite exhibition
piece for tenors with an easy top register, requiring the
singer to throw off a high D. Helge Roswaenge’s HMV recording
from the late 1930s (in German of course) was legendary and
Nicolaï Gedda made his sensational debut at the Stockholm
Opera back in 1952 in this part. Present at that premiere
was EMI’s legendary producer Walter Legge. The rest is history:
within a year Gedda was singing everywhere. There exist several
recordings with him: a live recording from the premiere and
an early studio recording, both in Swedish. Later he recorded
it in the original French and in German, the latter in connection
with a highlights LP from the opera (possibly it was a complete
set but I have only seen the highlights). Ariola/Eurodisc
made a complete recording (also in German) in 1962 which has
been available from time to time. That production was conducted
by Reinhard Peters with a cast including John van Kesteren
and Swedish soprano Stina-Britta Melander. The present offering,
again in German, was recorded live in 1992 and is complete
insofar as all the musical numbers are included. However since
this is an opéra-comique it also contains a considerable amount
of spoken dialogue, which in this case is completely omitted.
It seems that what is recorded is not a staged performance
but a concert. There are no signs of action, no movements,
no stage noises, just the occasional rustling of pages being
turned. There are also practically no signs of an audience
being present, apart from the second act ensemble where the
Marquise has a comic solo with coughs and other business (CD2
track 3). Here one can vaguely hear amused reactions from
a rather distant audience.
The French original
is in three acts but this German version (by Klaus Dreyer)
is compressed into two. The plot is briefly as follows: The
postilion Chapelou and the young landlord Madeleine are celebrating
their wedding in the little village Longjumeau, not far from
Paris. The year is 1756. Chapelou is asked to sing his famous
song to the guests and is overheard by Marquis de Corcy, artistic
director of the Paris opera, who has stopped at the little
village to have his carriage repaired. He persuades Chapelou
to go with him to Paris and sing at the Opera. In this he
is encouraged by Bijou, the blacksmith, who has repaired the
carriage and who secretly loves Madeleine. The second act
takes place ten years later in Paris, where Chapelou is now
a star at the Opera under the name of Saint-Phar. Madeleine
has inherited her aunt’s fortune and lives as Madame de Latour
in Fontainebleau. Saint-Phar has seen her at the opera without
recognizing her and admires her. Bijou is also at the Opera,
as Alcindor, singing in the chorus. Saint-Phar and the chorus
are invited to Madame de Latour’s castle, ordered there by
the director, who is also in love with her. Saint-Phar proposes.
Madeleine accepts and they are married in the palace chapel
– by the member of the chorus Bourdon, Saint-Phar thinks,
since he arranged it that way to avoid being charged with
bigamy. But the Marquis had locked Bourdon in a room and they
were married by the real chaplain. So now Saint-Phar believes
he will be condemned to death. But all of course ends well.
Madeleine announces that bigamy has not taken place and Chapelou,
who has finally recognized his first wife, realizes that he
has always loved Madeleine.
On this rather
predictable libretto Adam lavished a rich and melodious musical
score, not very subtle perhaps, but the rather crude complications
require sturdy and exciting music and that is what Adam delivers
in abundance. And there are subtleties too. The orchestral
introduction to the first scene (there is no overture) is
light and airy. The interlude between the two scenes of act
two (CD2 track 1) is a fine atmospheric piece, nicely orchestrated
with strings and woodwind and a virtuoso clarinet solo, almost
a concertino movement. Both the tenor and the soprano have
several lyrically beautiful solos and duets. This is definitely
not a “one-piece-only” opera; several of the tunes
are really catchy. The chorus has a lot to do, mostly in lively
numbers and the Stuttgarter Choristen are an enthusiastic
body with a lot of “go”. The orchestra, as known from other
recordings, play well with fine rounded tone, helped by the
not very resonant but warm acoustics. The soloists are close-miked,
maybe a little too much in relation to the orchestra, but
on the whole it is a rather well-integrated sound. What feels
somewhat irritating is that after each musical number there
is a fade-out, not affecting the music but creating a dead
acoustic, often lasting for several seconds before the next
number starts. In a real performance there would have been
spoken dialogue there. Maybe there was some kind of a narrator
at the concert, whom the producers edited out. Anyway there
is no applause either. One gets an almost antiseptic feeling.
The soloists are
good. Robert Swensen, in the taxing role of Chapelou/Saint-Phar,
has a goodish lyrical tenor voice, not wholly equalized and
thinning out towards the top. His is a flexible voice moving
effortlessly between the extremes, right down in the bass
register; he has no problems with the high D. The postilion
song is good, his second act aria (CD1 track 6) even better.
It is unfair to compare him to Gedda, but in his own right
he gives a well thought-through reading.
Madeleine/Madame
de Latour is even better, sung with youthful elegance, beautiful
tone and flair by Pamela Coburn. She can be heard to best
advantage in the first two scenes of act one (CD1 tracks 1-2).
When we meet her in act two in her big aria (CD2 track 2)
ten years are supposed to have passed and it seems that the
passing of time has slightly affected the quality of her voice.
It has a harder edge to it, robbing it a little of the warmth.
But she still negotiates her runs and trills with ease, and
when we meet her in the duet with Saint-Phar (CD2 track 4),
actually one of the finest numbers in the opera, she is back
on form again.
The blacksmith
turned chorus-singer, Bijou/Alcindor, has a splendid buffo
aria in act two, executed with verve and humour by the excellent
Peter Lika, one of those fruity bass voices of which Germany
seems to abound. Florian Prey, son of the late lamented Hermann
Prey, has obviously inherited a feeling for comedy and he
also has the communicative stage presence brought over to
the listener without the visual element. He gives a lively
portrait of Marquis von Corcy. His antics in the second act
ensemble (CD2 track 3) are a joy.
Ideally I would
have wished the performance to be sung in French and retaining
at least some of the spoken dialogue for the continuity of
the action, but this is still an enjoyable performance, and
to someone knowing only the postilion song it will certainly
come as a positive surprise. It will not overthrow the existing
ranking-list of 19th century French opera neither
is it a forgotten masterpiece challenging Faust or
Carmen or a dozen others. Nevertheless it provides
1½ hours of pleasant listening and is far superior to the
roughly contemporaneous Alessandro Stradella by Flotow,
which I reviewed not so long ago.
Documentation
– if that’s the word for it – is limited to a cast-list and
a synopsis in three languages, but it retails at super-budget
price. Anyone curious enough to buy it might well derive as
much pleasure from it as I have done. While not wanting to
serve it as a three-course meal very often, I’m sure parts
of it will occasionally be a nice snack.
Göran Forsling
Robert Swensen (tenor)
– Chapelou, postilion, later Saint-Phar, an opera-singer; Pamela Coburn
(soprano) – Madeleine, Proprietress of an inn, his wife, later Mme. De
Latour; Peter Lika (bass) – Bijou, a wheelwright, later Alcindor, a member
of the chorus; Florian Prey (baritone) – Marquis von Corcy, theatre manager;
Jürgen Linn (bass) – Bourdon, A member of the chorus
