Improbable New Year’s Eve Serenade in Avignon: Champagne! – News
For the holidays, the Opéra Grand Avignon unearths an astonishing comic opera composed by two women during the Restoration. Under the baton of Debora Waldman, Jean Lacornerie explains through his staging the interest of this rediscovery:
Here is an unusual story: in 1818, two women who were almost namesakes, Sophie Gael (for the score) and Sophie Gay (for the libretto) come together to present in an (almost) anonymous way this Serenade Al’comical opera. The libretto is based on a play written in 1694 (124 years earlier) by Jean-François Regnard, a playwright who remained in the shadow of Moliere : the Restoration thus honors the reign of the Sun King. The work first arouses enthusiasm before falling into oblivion: it is therefore theOpera Grand Avignonon the advice of the chef Debora Waldmanwho is responsible for putting it back in the spotlight (with the help of the Bru Zane Palace and the complicity of the operas of reindeer and Angers-Nantes where the production is going in a few months).
There are many dramaturgical questions that this work must have posed to the director. John Lacornerie when considering the work. The answers seem to have interested him so much that he made it his staging concept: the production troupe discusses in front of the public the specifics of the work, deciphers the vocabulary used, imagines how the two creators went from initial piece to their comic opera, and even counts the misogynistic references that the two women left in their text. This has certainly caused some lengths (and a somewhat slow start) which could well fade over the course of the performances, the passages between spoken dialogue and sung numbers still lacking fluidity, the singers suddenly given too little theatrical intentions in each other. But this has the great advantage of pedagogy: the references, the quotations from other works, the conventions of the time, everything is explained in a didactic way, which makes it possible to grasp what the work says of its time.
The scenography, signed Bruno de Lavenere, is quite simple: a spinner makes it possible to energize a bare space, simply dressed with a few accessories (a work table, ladders, but also words, lightning or clouds descending from hangers to support the messages of the work or even a fine sheet flying in the air with majesty). The space is also dressed in the lights of Kevin Briard, which also animates the opening with a prologue in Chinese shadows. The suits of Marion Benages makes it possible to pass with aestheticism from the universe of rehearsal to that of the theater in the theater.
L’Avignon-Provence National Orchestra is therefore directed by its Musical Director Debora Waldman to give sound and meaning to the graceful and playful music of Sophie Gaelwhich multiply the references, Rossini, Bach, Glück, Branch or Zingarelli with a proven art of counterpoint. The small harmony is particularly highlighted by its communicative lightness and the phalanx as a whole offers a fine, lively, accentuated interpretation: brief, nuanced. The tempi could possibly bring more variety, in particular to energize the Rossinian references (even if the very beautiful sextet is already very complex with a moderate tempo). The Men’s Choir lacks homogeneity in sound, but remains rhythmically precise.
Thomas Dolie proves to be full of resources to serve his character of Scapin (who himself serves that of Valère). He varies the registers, both sung and played, relying on a sure voice, coherent and brilliant, quite serious although placed on the heights of the instrument. Son alter ego female, Marine, played by Elodie Kimmelalso shows a character that can be heard in his singing, through his worked phrasing and his warm and solid timbre, including in the high notes, both lyrical and agile.
Enguerrand de Hys portrays a very theatrically involved Valère, which can be seen in his very articulated singing and graceful phrasing. The placement of its timbre in the mask generated a slight nasality, but also a lack of volume, its resonators not being stressed enough. His lover Léonore is held by Julie Mossaywhose timbre is rich and satiny in the treble but hardens in the medium, almost sizzling there at times.
Vincent Billier theatrically plays the role of Monsieur Grifon (Valère’s father, who covets Léonore) in a slender and firm voice, off vibrato. Carine Sechaye is a Madame Argante (mother of Léonore) with a powerful and authoritative voice. Its red tone has amber resonances. Mr. Mathieu is an interpreter by Jean Francois Baron, a regular at the house. He has a voice of character, well emitted and low in vibration.
Gilles Vajou is given the role of Champagne, who only sings a drunken tune with several grams of alcohol in the sound, but who plays the director of this troupe and provides the dramatic explanations, regularly popping up to comment on the stock. It is also he who is in charge of having the audience rehearse at the start of the show, so that they can repeat the last chorus with the orchestra and the singers (the Director of the Avignon house, Frederic Roelsis indeed a fervent promoter of participatory opera).
With a certain enthusiasm, and without needing Champagne to free their voices, the public sings this melody on its own from its first occurrence, even before being invited by the conductor and the choristers in the room. He then reserves an enthusiastic welcome to all the protagonists, clearly delighted with this discovery.
To read also: our large format on this rediscovery with interviews of the artists