François-Adrien Boieldieu...
jrw
Could the musicologists here explain why Francois-Adrien Boieldieu has
fallen so much out of favour. Is it the dominance of the Italian
repertory that has allowed this talented composer to be cast aside.
Or was it, as some of his contemporaries suspected, a pastiche of work
from the previous century?
Best regards
John Wilmott
rich...@gmail.com
Not a musicologist, John, but I think the issue is that French opera
generally has falled far out of favor (even in France) before the
middle of the 19th century. La Dame Blanche gets done from time to
time when you have a tenor who can handle it, but I believe that the
work is felt as being too 'pastoral' to make an impact. I would doubt
at this remove that people could identify the pastiche quality, so I
don't think it enters in.
The one who is even more inexplicable to me is Gretry. He was a tough
old bird, and could write in every style, and he lived through the
Monarch, the Revolution, and long afterwards, and kept adapting
himself and being in demand. He was a huge influence on Mozart (who
was exposed to his work in his Paris years), and L'Amant Jaloux (which
is available on You Tube and on a great DVD) is a pretty clear
precursor in a lot of ways to Abduction (not so much story as
configuration of the drama, and even the similarity betweeen
Constanze's Marten and the big Act II aria for the lead soprano).
I think that in the Battle des Bouffes (which pitted classic French
style against the incoming Italian style), French opera of a sort got
side-swiped (this was just before the Encyclopedists, around 1750). It
then had the hammer blows of Gluck's so-called reform operas, and then
you get on to a 'grand opera style', and in the process the charm of a
certain kind of French opera was lost as a performing style. This is a
desperately condensed version of what happened, but the French style
that was epitomized by from Rameau to Gretry to Boledieu and into the
1850s (and ultimately found its way, in the second part of that
centuiry, as French operetta) just doesn't have exponents who can
perform the work.
There is a terrific book by Lacombe on 19th century French opera,
which focuses on the second part of this era (from about the middle of
19th century) and the change over into orientalism and then a more
kind of 'proto-veristic' opera. His point, which I found fascinating
in terms of Broadway, was that, for the French Opera of the middle
19th century (and this is the lighter school of opera, which would
have included the successors to Boldieu) there was a way in which the
operas didn't have true 'authors'. They were in fact so built on
formula that although, of course, someone wrote the music and someone
wrote the libretto, the whole end product was kind of like putting
meat through a meet grinder (stage designs, specific ways the
libretto was structured, and so on) that Lacombe says it is as if
there were really no 'authorial' vision of the works...essentially
mass produced. It is a fascinating concept to think about in terms of
Broadway.
Great to see you here. Hope all is well with you
Richard
Pat
----------------
In a word, I think, "Faust". "La Dame Blanche," {1825} which is far
and away Boieldieu's most successful work, was perhaps the most
performed opera in France for about a third of a century, but its
popularity began to plummet around the time of the successful revival
of Gounod's "Faust" in 1862, which it foreshadowed but fell short of
in terms of melodic brilliance, elegance, and a plot line tinged by
the supernatural.
Within a few years first Tristan (1865) and then Meistersinger (1868)
seized the attention of the forward-looking part of the opera world as
surely as "Faust" had eclipsed virtually all of the French operas
which preceded it and Verdi had usurped the baton of the bel canto
masters of Italy.
It's not just Boieldieu who was buried in this musical avalanche --
Gretry, Mehul, and Cherubini, Herold and Halevy, Adam and Auber,
almost all of those who grew up or grew old during the reign of
Napoleon, were smothered by the ascendance of the mature Verdi to the
south, the appearance of "Faust" in their own country and the rise of
Wagnerism to the east. Meyerbeer and Berlioz fared a little better,
but not much.
It took the generation that was born in the decade or so following the
July Revolution of 1830 -- Bizet, Saint-Saens, Delibes and Massenet,
among others, to provide new direction to French opera.
Pat
jrw
Thanks for your reply. Condensed or not, you make the point
beautifully. A thank you for the welcome back and the recommendation.
I have long suspected some of the points you make without having read
Lacombe's book. I hasten to add the ideas have never really cemented
in such a fashion to be fully formed. I will give Gretry a listening
to...
Best regards
John
jrw
Thanks for your answer, again your erudition is more than
appreciated.
I agree that there was a tidal wave in the guise of Wagner and Verdi
that eclipsed, sorry, drowned their contemporaries. What is
interesting is the exceptions, those whose opera's are still performed
and those we choose to ignore. I suspect listening to Boieldieu that
it is not altogether a question of being a mediocre craftsman.
Meyerbeer might still be suffering from the damage done by the
rantings of Wagner...
Both you and Richard have mentioned Gretry it might be useful to ask
the group for suggestions of other long overlooked composers of the
period whose work we might revisit...
Best regards
John
rich...@gmail.com
I will get back on this, but I might point out to you two complete
operas which I think are both on You Tube in full...one is the Gretry
L'amant Jaloux, which I saw at the Comique. Another is Mehul Joseph in
Egypt, with Laurence Dale, which I have on dvd. It is wonderful music,
although the production is a little self conscious, and is kind of
told within a frame of a 'lesson' for school children, but the singing
is wonderful.
jrw
ear it is wonderful music. Surely a brave director wanting to make a
name for themselves could orchestrate a revival of his music with a
slightly more modern staging. I write this of course in total
ignorance of the theme, the plot, and the libretto. I will endeavor
to view the opera you suggested on youtube.
The real surprise with both Boieldieu and Gretry is the overwhelming
influence of Mozart. Thanks for the suggestion...
Best regards
John
Pat
==========
One minor pedantic point that I think is often overlooked is that
Gretry was actually no more French by nationality than Lully, Gluck or
Offenbach, to name just a few celebrated non-French French composers.
Gretry was from Liege, in modern Belgium, which was then one of the
component parts of the HRE. He was, I believe, the first "Belgian"
to reach the top ranks of the musical world since the great
renaissance triumvirate of Josquin du Prez, Andre Willaert, and
Orlando de Lassus, the last of whom died nearly two centuries before
Gretry's mid-career.
The low countries are always given their due in terms of renaissance
painting, but they produced three of the greatest composers of the
late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as well. De Lassus shuffled
off this mortal coil a decade or so before the debut of Monteverdi's
"Orfeo", but his madrigals surely influenced those of the younger man,
who cut his musical teeth composing several books of madrigals in the
1580's and 90's, vocal works which surely informed the operas that
were later to come from his pen.
Pat