Adam and Auber

[uffeviking]

My last two opera DVD purchases were Le Toréador by Adolphe Charles Adam and Haÿdée by Daniel François Auber, both productions at the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne produced and directed by Pierre Jourdan.

I have bought and watched other performances from this venue but I could never find out more about this Pierre Jourdan. Google is of no help, Wikepedia has one entry in French, which I could barely translate with my very rusty knowledge of French. Anybody at GMG knows more about this gentleman?
All the operas Jourdan produced are by French composers and all are in traditional opera styles. The singers are unknown to me, not bad, but not first class either. In today's Haÿdée I was surprised by the ease with which the soprano Isabelle Philippe managed the many super high notes, not forced, every one right on the button, and she held them too! Unfortunately the tenor Bruno Comparetti was no match for her; lavish costumes though made up for his shortage of musicality.

Thanks for providing more information about this lover of French Opera.

[knight66]

Lis, You certainly travel the byways as well as the highways. As so often now, your news is my introduction to many operas.

From the last year or so of viewing, well known or not, if you were to recommend to me one performance that knocked your socks off, what would it be?

Mike

[uffeviking]

That was easy to answer because the name popping up right now was Claude Vivier. Didn't grab you immediately, did it, Mike? Understandable because only one video of his work is available and it's his Marco Polo. This is a double winner because it was staged by another star in the opera world: Pierre Audi

Give me time, Luv, and I am sure I'll come up with another composer, one who was not a pupil of Karl Heinz Stockhausen!