Roussel's Padmavati

[Sean]

The great Hindu goddess Padmavati, incarnation of Lakshmi Vishnu's consort, is the key deity alongside Venkateswara,Vishnu incarnation, in Andra Pradesh southeast India where I visited earlier this year- the temple complex is on Tirumala hill by Tirupati town.

Roussel visited here and the Hindu myth is of the aesthetics of romantice as Vishnu loses and regains Lakshmi. The temple near me in the West Mids is based on the same architecture with similar deities- here's some photos (I've just borrowed this recording from my library and I'm presently bouncing up and down, interested to compare the opera with the Faure, Chausson, etc; I was also at a seminar a couple of years by the booklet notes' writer).

[Sean]

Actually it looks like Roussel only made it to Rajastan...

[Superhorn]

  Roussel's Padmavati is an extraordinary opera ; a gripping ,fantastically colorful and utterly original work which has had scnadalously few performances since its premiere at the Paris opera in 1923.
  It has yet to be performed in America; Leon Boststein has got to do it with his American Symphony sometime soon. Where is he?
   I have the superb EMI recording with Horne,Gedda and VanDam, conducted by Michel  Plasson leading the Toulouse orchestra; this has recently been reissued , but I don't know how long it will remain available.
  Grab it before it goes out of print ! 
  There is also a live recording,which I have not heard from around 1960 ,available from arkivmusic.com, from London with the composer's pupil Jean Martinon conducting and ita Gorr as Padmavati .
  Last year, the opera was revived in Paris to considerable acclaim at the Theatre de Chatelet conducted by Lawrence Foster. The production was directed by
one of the leading Bollywood film directors who had never before done an opera !  There were live elephants and a tiger on stage !
   I hope it will come out on DVD soon. 



                                                                                  

[Superhorn]

  That should  read Rita Gorr. I accidentally left the r out.
   Pardon me.

[Sean]

Thanks Superhorn for your informed views and advocation- Roussel's operatic output has been an obvious gap in the fascinating fin de siecle French epoch, along with the likes of D'Indy's Fervaal which I've also yet to hear. I'll let you know my impressions in a few days: I have the Plasson recording on my desk and I'm a big fan of Marilyn Horne, what a unique and intelligently controlled voice, yet somehow her recordings don't come up so frequently.

The libretto is centred on Chittoor in Rajastan where I've never been despite passing close- I understand there're impressive remains of a fort where the balmy pratice of women's immolation and men riding out to certain death in the face of hostile armies was repeated several times in history.

[listener]

probably still on vinyl only
   PADMÂTÂVI         (1918)
LP      MRF 343-5      3    95 :26   1969   London Coliseum
AAA      Jean Martinon         London Symphony Orchestra
      BBC Chorus
      Rita Gorr, Albert Lance, Gerard Souzay, Gerard Dunan, Neilson Taylor, Philip Langridge
      

[pjme]

This recording is now available for very little money at JPC Germany - 11.90€



Peter

[Superhorn]

  Fervaal  had its US premiere last month at Avery Fisher hall with Leon Botstein and the American symphony orchestra; I don't remember the cast members.
  Anthony Tommasini  gave it a mixed review in the NY Times ; he didn't think it was a masterpiece but liked parts of the score.
I would have liked to have been at the performance; possibly it will come out on CD.

[Sean]

  Fervaal  had its US premiere last month at Avery Fisher hall with Leon Botstein and the American symphony orchestra; I don't remember the cast members.
  Anthony Tommasini  gave it a mixed review in the NY Times ; he didn't think it was a masterpiece but liked parts of the score.
I would have liked to have been at the performance; possibly it will come out on CD.

Okay

[Sean]

Listening to this a few times now, it's quite heavily scented stuff, Holst Beni mora sort of writing but more authentic with the exquisite scoring of The Spiders banquet; I don't think I'm going to see it as any lost masterpiece but it's quite intense nontheless: Roussel's music often seems greater than it is of course...

Also some of the evocative sonorities were to be exploited in later film music...

[knight66]

Prompted by this thread, I went into Amazon and on the basis of the samples, I have ordered the EMI version. Certainly a piece that will be new to me, it sounds engaging, though the snippits made it feel a bit overheated and busy. I assume they are not really representative and that most of it does not proceed in hysterical style.

Mike

[Sean]

No, it's a perfectly listenable opera, even if connections with the Strauss bathhouses of the period can be made; there's the occasional resonance of Daphnis and Chloe too. There are three Roussel operas and this is said to be the most important; it's an example of the interest at the time in things eastern...

[pjme]

Do try "Evocations", Roussel's musical vision of three Indian cities ( or sites). Two purely orchestral movements , and a largescale vocal finale ( ca 20 mins.) with soloists & chorus. Quite magnificent .
Two version (used) to be available : EMI/Plasson and Supraphon/?

Well worth discovering.
P.

[Sean]

Cheers, I didn't know about that.

Off topic but do you know the Holst Rig Veda settings? I know the third set but wasn't so taken...

[Sean]

By the way the end of Padmavati act 1 is very close to that of Satie's Socrate with the same tick-tock heartbeat rhythm; not sure which was written first.

[Superhorn]

  The conductor of the Supraphon recording of Evocations is the late Zdenek Kosler; I have this recording and love this piece, but have not heard the Plasson EMI.
  Kosler was best known of course for Czech music, of which he was a master. There are chevrons over the e in Zdenek which make it pronounced Zden-yek and the one over the s in his last name make the s pronounced as sh. I don't know how to put these on the screen with my keyboard.

[Wendell_E]

There are chevrons over the e in Zdenek which make it pronounced Zden-yek and the one over the s in his last name make the s pronounced as sh. I don't know how to put these on the screen with my keyboard.

Zdeněk Košler.  A lazy way to get the proper diacriticals is to google the name, and copy and paste from a page (Wikipedia in this case) that has 'em. 

[cosmicj]

I too love the Evocations.  The first movement (transl The Gods in the Shadows of the Caves) would go on my short list of undiscovered masterpieces.  I have the Plasson recording, which is good but with muddy sonics and haven't heard the Kosler CD unfortunately.  The first movement has a high fast filigree in the violins running through most of it that is an amazing invention.  I highly recommend this work. 

[Opus106]

The libretto is centred on Chittoor in Rajastan where I've never been despite passing close- I understand there're impressive remains of a fort where the balmy pratice of women's immolation and men riding out to certain death in the face of hostile armies was repeated several times in history.

Indeed. Attached is a picture from my trip around Rajasthan in December last year, of what are said to be the imprints left by women before performing Jauhar (the act of immolation by jumping into a large fire). The picture was not taken at Chittor but at  the mighty Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur (second photo).