Le Roi de Lahore, and: In convertendo (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Le Roi de Lahore, and: In convertendo John Holland Jules Massenet. Le Roi de Lahore. DVD. Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice di Venezia/Marcello Viotti. With Ana Maria Sanchez, Giuseppe Gipali, Vladimir Stoyanov, Riccardo Zanellato. Directed by Tiziana Mancini. Genova, Italy: Dynamic, 2006. 33487. $38.97. Jean-Philippe Rameau. In convertendo. DVD. Les Arts Florissants/William Christie. Waldron, Heathfield, East Sussex, United Kingdom: Opus Arte, 2006. OA 0956 D. $19.98. French composers have always loved the dance. Over the centuries, dance rhythms have found their way into music by Gallic composers for all occasions. On these two recent DVDs we can hear works written more than a century apart and for entirely different purposes, but both are infused with a balletic buoyancy that could not have come from a foreigner. Jean-Philippe Rameau spent his early years working as a church musician in Lyon, and it is believed that his grands motets were written during this period. These are large scale works closer in length and form to the cantatas of J. S. Bach than any other works usually identified as motets. William Christie is well known as a leading interpreter of Rameau's music, and on this disc he leads a concert performance of In convertendo by his ensemble Les Arts Florissants, recorded at the church in the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris without any visual gimmickry. As can be expected from these artists, the performance is first rate and both audio and video are state of the art. The DVD also contains performances of three Pièces de clavecin en concert performed by members of the ensemble, and a documentary called The Real Rameau, which follows the composer's career with numerous musical excerpts and commentary by Christie and other scholars. Le Roi de Lahore was Jules Massenet's third opera, and his calling card for entry into the musical establishment of Paris, where it received its premiere in 1877 at the brand new Palais Garnier opera house. Ever the calculating craftsman, Massenet had a talent for writing operas sure to capitalize on current popular taste, and his score evokes the older sound of Gounod and Saint-Saëns more than the swooning melodies associated with his mature, better known operas. The libretto too is a throwback to the pseudo-Orientalism of the mid-nineteenth century and is probably the only opera to introduce reincarnation into its plot: the tenor is killed in battle in act 2 but comes back to earth in act 4 after a brief interlude in the Hindu paradise where he watches the obligatory ballet and has a conversation with Indra himself. The Italian label Dynamic specializes in audio and video recordings of unusual repertoire recorded live at some of the smaller Italian opera houses. While Venice's Teatro La Fenice has a distinguished history, it no longer ranks among the highest tier of European opera houses, and the result is a performance which is highly respectable but contains few outstanding performances. Conductor Marcello Viotti is the star of the show, leading an impassioned and thoroughly idiomatic [End Page 124] performance, sadly, one of his last before his untimely death. He is credited with preparing the critical edition of the score used. Of the singers, only baritone Vladimir Stoyanov gives a performance of international caliber. His voice has the right sound for French music, and he uses it expressively and with attention to the text. Tenor Giuseppe Gipali and soprano Ana Maria Sanchez possess attractive instruments, but he sounds as if he would be more comfortable singing over a smaller orchestra, she in a role with a lower tessitura, and acting seems to be a foreign concept to both. The production is handsomely traditional in a stylized Hindu fairy-tale sort of way, with the exception of the scene in Paradise, which is portrayed as a Second Empire salon. Le Roi de Lahore has never entered even the fringes of the standard repertoire, so this DVD makes a welcome addition to the catalog. A musically superior performance that was issued briefly on CD with Joan Sutherland and Sherrill Milnes heading the cast appears to be out of print...