Méhul Joseph, etc
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Nicholas Etienne Méhul
Genre:
Opera
Label: Le Chant du Monde
Magazine Review Date: 11/1990
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: K478 963/4
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Joseph |
Nicholas Etienne Méhul, Composer
(Le Sinfonietta) Picardy Regional Orchestra Antoine Normand, Nephtali, Tenor Brigitte Lafon, Benjamin Claude Bardon, Conductor Frédéric Vassar, Jacob Intermezzo Choral Ensemble Laurence Dale, Joseph, Tenor Natalie Dessay, Une jeune fille, Soprano Nicholas Etienne Méhul, Composer Philippe Jorquera, Utobal Philippe Pistole, Ruben René Massis, Simeon, Baritone |
| (Le) Chant du départ |
Nicholas Etienne Méhul, Composer
(Le Sinfonietta) Picardy Regional Orchestra Athos Cesarini, Sergio, Tenor Brigitte Lafon, Mezzo soprano Claude Bardon, Conductor Frédéric Vassar, Bass-baritone Intermezzo Choral Ensemble Kiri Te Kanawa, Dimitri, Mezzo soprano Laurence Dale, Tenor Leonardo Monreale, Lorek, Baritone Leonardo Monreale, Nicola, Baritone Leonardo Monreale, Nicola, Bass Leonardo Monreale, Lorek, Bass Leonardo Monreale, Nicola, Baritone Leonardo Monreale, Lorek, Baritone Nicholas Etienne Méhul, Composer Paul Rogers, Boleslao Lazinski, Tenor Peter Binder, Cirillo, Baritone Piero de Palma, Baron Rouvel, Tenor René Massis, Bass-baritone Virgilio Carbonari, Boroff, Bass |
Author: Lionel Salter
Mehul was the leading composer of the early days of the French Republic, and Joseph (the correct title, not pace the sleeve, La legende de Joseph), despite a feeble libretto, was his most successful opera, not only acclaimed in Paris in 1807 and admired by Berlioz and Wagner (who conducted it in Riga) but enthusiastically taken up all over Europe and in the USA. It is a serious opera-comique, that is to say with spoken dialogue. For the stage performances by the Theatre francais de la musique (from which this recording is derived), however, the original dialogue was discarded and replaced by a narrator (about whom Andre Tubeuf, in the October issue—page 674—was scathing): he certainly operates in a quite different style from the rest of the work, and moreover one may reasonably jib at the inclusion of this narration (written for last year's production) occupying a quarter of the work's duration. (It is worth remarking, too, that the second of this pair of CDs runs for less than 26 minutes: plenty of time that could have been filled up with, say, some of Mehul's overtures.)
Joseph is a curious work, its studied 'classical' sobriety owing something to Gluck; but some of the arias—particularly Joseph's ingenuous ''A peine au sortir de l'enfance'' and Benjamin's Act 2 ''Ah, lorsque la mort trop cruelle''—drew from Berlioz the comment that in them ''simplicity is pushed to limits that are dangerous to approach so closely''. Certainly the appeal of only tonic and dominant harmonies very soon wears thin, and it is a relief to find greater character and more adventurous modulations (for which Mehul had a reputation) in Simeon's first solo. It is in the ensembles rather than the solos, however, that the more interesting music is found—in the finale to Act 2, for example.
Claude Bardon, who was Barenboim's associate conductor to the Orchestre de Paris and is now assistant director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, judges his tempos well and secures clean, tidy playing from his orchestra. He is fortunate in having two excellent principals in Laurence Dale (an English tenor whose lyrical voice also has some metal in it, and whose French is admirable) and Rene Massis (a fine firm baritone); and Frederic Vassar as Jacob and Brigitte Lafon in the travesti part of Benjamin are very acceptable; the lesser roles are just about adequate, no more. It is a pity that no one bothered to correlate the printed text of the narrations with what is actually spoken and that the translations, in English of a sort, do not attempt greater fidelity to the originals; but such matters have clearly not been regarded as of importance.
The Chant du depart (to words by Andre Chenier's brother) was for long almost as popular as the Marseillaise: it is sung here with the requisite fervour in readiness for its bicentenary in 1994.'
Joseph is a curious work, its studied 'classical' sobriety owing something to Gluck; but some of the arias—particularly Joseph's ingenuous ''A peine au sortir de l'enfance'' and Benjamin's Act 2 ''Ah, lorsque la mort trop cruelle''—drew from Berlioz the comment that in them ''simplicity is pushed to limits that are dangerous to approach so closely''. Certainly the appeal of only tonic and dominant harmonies very soon wears thin, and it is a relief to find greater character and more adventurous modulations (for which Mehul had a reputation) in Simeon's first solo. It is in the ensembles rather than the solos, however, that the more interesting music is found—in the finale to Act 2, for example.
Claude Bardon, who was Barenboim's associate conductor to the Orchestre de Paris and is now assistant director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, judges his tempos well and secures clean, tidy playing from his orchestra. He is fortunate in having two excellent principals in Laurence Dale (an English tenor whose lyrical voice also has some metal in it, and whose French is admirable) and Rene Massis (a fine firm baritone); and Frederic Vassar as Jacob and Brigitte Lafon in the travesti part of Benjamin are very acceptable; the lesser roles are just about adequate, no more. It is a pity that no one bothered to correlate the printed text of the narrations with what is actually spoken and that the translations, in English of a sort, do not attempt greater fidelity to the originals; but such matters have clearly not been regarded as of importance.
The Chant du depart (to words by Andre Chenier's brother) was for long almost as popular as the Marseillaise: it is sung here with the requisite fervour in readiness for its bicentenary in 1994.'
Méhul Joseph, etc
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