Topic: Operas in french written by non-french composers

[Mirror Image]

Martinu's Julietta, Alexandre bis, and Ariane all have French libretti.

[Spineur]

Yep !  I will add them.  Amazing I missed Julietta  (I have the Kozena excerpt).  There is a recording of the full version that just came out
 

I have never heard Ariane.  Have you ?  It has also been recorded recently.

[Monsieur Croche]

Off the main topic, but there are also vocal works in French composed by non-French composers.

Three composers immediately come to mind, while I'm sure there are many more.

Stravinsky ~ Songs; Two poems of Paul Verlaine and Two poems of Konstantin Balmont.

Benjamin Britten ~ Les Illuminations, verse and prose poems of Arthur Rimbaud.

Samuel Barber ~ Mélodies passagères, the texts are the Poèmes français by Rainer Maria Rilke (another exception -- Rilke wrote mainly in German.)

I think it is at least a bit of a pity that Richard Strauss worked from a German Translation of Wilde's Salome, that play written in French.  Strauss' Salome, using Wilde's original text en français as the basis for the libretto is a tantalizing 'what if.'


Best regards.

[knight66]

A what if no more. There are at least two versions in French, one of which is on Naxos. The link below explains that Strauss authorised the orig French text and amended some passages to fit the French text. I am very, very tempted.

<sup>http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Sept08/Strauss_Salome_cds5721.htm


Mike

PS I have listened briefly on Spotify and I have ordered this set.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0018J91PC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1</sup>

[Spineur]

A what if no more. There are at least two versions in French, one of which is on Naxos. The link below explains that Strauss authorised the orig French text and amended some passages to fit the French text. I am very, very tempted.

<sup>http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Sept08/Strauss_Salome_cds5721.htm


Mike</sup>

I found a radio broadcast of the "french" Salomé on France Musique web site
http://www.francemusique.fr/player/resource/49941-56359

[knight66]

Thanks for that, I will try to find time tomorrow morning and give it a go.

Cheers,

Mike

[Spineur]

I managed to watch Koukourgi this week end, which had been sitting on the "to do" pile for too long !

Koukourgi is a comic opera composed by Cherubini around 1792, during the French revolution.  It is a satyrical piece on the "ancien régime" transposed to china.  Koukourgi is a Mandarin, with a character pretty close to Louis XVI, lazy, coward and interested in women and food.  The other important character is Zulma, a young a beautiful princess, and Alezan a beautiful and courageous soldier who free Zulma father held hostage by some Tartar in a castle.  Koukourgi court Zulma who is in love with Alezan.  In the end Alezan is victorious and Koukourgi is sent home to his mom assuming his mediocrity.
The libretto as you see is rather shallow and doesnt amount too much, but the same is not true of the opera.
Koukourgi was never completed and staged, presumably because of the Terror.  The score got lost, and by one of these mystery of history was found in Krakow library after the war.  The prelude and the end of the final scene of the opera were missing.  The prelude was taken from another opera and so was the final scene.  The completed opera was staged in 2010 at Klagenfurt (Austria) theater and this is what has been filmed live on this DVD.  The staging is nice, and the costumes absolutely magnificent.
The music is very Mozartian and absolutely lovely.  A lot of duos and trios and not so many arias, as in Mozart operas.  There is some repetitions (da capo), but it is never tedious.
A light comic opera really fun to watch, and we had a great time with it.
As an opera, Lodoiska and Médée are probably a bit more interesting, mostly because of the libretti.
I discovered that two other Cherubini operas have been recorded (so there are a total of 6 available): Les Deux Journées (Op 111, Naive) and Les Abencerages (Arts Archives).

[jidlomonster]

I thought I might update the Martinů section of the original post. Although Martinů did base his opera Julietta on the French play by Georges Neveux, his libretto was in Czech.  Having said that, Martinů's very last project was to produce a French version of his libretto - and when done in French it sounds very convincing!

The original poster mentioned Alexandre bis and Ariane (also after Neveux) but there are a few others from his early career which were in french, as a result of his collaboration with Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes.  They are

• Larmes de couteau
• Les trois souhaits
• La semaine de bonté (unfinished)

Les trois souhaits is probably the finest result of Martinů's obsession with jazz idioms during the 1920s.  It is a real shame that the Supraphon recording not only used a Czech translation but also cut huge swathes out of this 3-act opera.  I also have a video performance from Opera Lyons, this time of course in French and with much more of the opera presented, yet still a lot missing.  It would be so nice if some enterprising company could record the whole thing and allow a proper assessment of its merits to be made.

[Spineur]

Concerning Julietta, the Supraphon recording available is in french.  I also attended a performance of this opera in Prague in the french version.  So evidence are that this seem to be the preferred version today.  I actually never heared the Czech version .

I did add to the list the only opera of Franz Liszt composed in his youth (15 yo): Don Sanche ou le chateau de l'amour.  It is actually in the pure classical tradition of the opera seria.  It has been recorded on the Hungaroton label but is OOP.  An intersting curiosity which show that the romantic inspiration came to Liszt at a later age.  His interest in opera never really subside as he composed quite a few transcriptions and paraphrase from operas

[Biffo]

Perhaps Stravinsky should score half a point for Oedipus Rex - the sung text is in Latin (Jean Danielou) and the spoken narration is in French (Jean Cocteau).

[North Star]

Concerning Julietta, the Supraphon recording available is in french.  I also attended a performance of this opera in Prague in the french version.  So evidence are that this seem to be the preferred version today.  I actually never heared the Czech version .

Do you mean OEHMS instead of Supraphon? Krombholc's recording on Supraphon is certainly in Czech, but it seems to be out-of-print.

[Spineur]

Do you mean OEHMS instead of Supraphon? Krombholc's recording on Supraphon is certainly in Czech, but it seems to be out-of-print.

[North Star]

Ah yes, that's just excerpts, though.

[Mirror Image]

Ah yes, that's just excerpts, though.

Yep, but a great disc nevertheless!