Saint-Saens - Dejanire (CD + Book)
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Label: Bru Zane
Cat No: BZ1055
Format: CD + Book
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Opera
Release Date: 12th April 2024
Contents
Artists
Kate AldrichJulien Dran
Anais Constans
Jerome Boutillier
Anna Dowsley
Choeur de l’Opera de Monte-Carlo
Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Conductor
Kazuki YamadaWorks
DejanireArtists
Kate AldrichJulien Dran
Anais Constans
Jerome Boutillier
Anna Dowsley
Choeur de l’Opera de Monte-Carlo
Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Conductor
Kazuki YamadaAbout
‘It will be a strange score: people will either not like it at all, or will like it enormously’, prophesied Camille Saint-Saëns a few days before the premiere of Déjanire. The opera, first performed in Monte Carlo on 14 March 1911, is based on incidental music written in 1898 for the Béziers Arena. Fascinated by the subject, the composer soon wanted to give it a second, more ambitious life. He therefore conceived a mythological epic that inspired ‘powerfully evocative music’, according to Gabriel Fauré, who was struck by the impact of the choral writing. Yet the love drama that rends the heroine’s heart engenders wildly romantic duets and culminates in the public immolation of Hercules, set ablaze by the poisoned tunic offered to him by the fallen queen. This new Déjanire received high praise from the critics, who flocked to Monaco to see it. But the modernist path that French opera was taking at the time did not allow the work to survive the upheavals of the First World War. It would have been a shame to prolong this unjustified ostracism any longer.
Cast:
- Déjanire: Kate Aldrich
- Hercule: Julien Dran
- Iole: Anaïs Constans
- Philoctète: Jérôme Boutillier
- Phénice: Anna Dowsley
Cast:
- Déjanire: Kate Aldrich
- Hercule: Julien Dran
- Iole: Anaïs Constans
- Philoctète: Jérôme Boutillier
- Phénice: Anna Dowsley
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Acte 1er : Prélude
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2Acte 1er : Chœur. Hercule, fils d’Alcmène (Chœur)
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3Acte 1er : Scène. Iole, hélas ! triste victime (Iole, Chœur)
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4Acte 1er : Duo. Ô toi, le plus fidèle (Hecule, Philoctète)
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5Acte 1er : Scène et Arioso. Eh ! qui vient là ? Phénice ! (Phénice, Hecule, Philoctète)
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6Acte 1er : Air. Ô cruauté des dieux ! (Philoctète)
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7Acte 1er : Duo. Ô vous dont l’âme fut clémente (Iole, Philoctète)
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8Acte 1er : Chœur. Comme la Ménade en délire (Chœur)
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9Acte 1er : Entrée de Déjanire. Où que tu sois, Junon (Déjanire, Phénice)
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10Acte 2ème : Prélude
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11Acte 2ème : Air. Ce n’est pas comme vous (Iole)
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12Acte 2ème : Duo. Je te vois, et sans qu’on te nomme (Iole, Déjanire)
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13Acte 2ème : Duo. Hercule vient ! il va paraître ! (Déjanire, Hercule, Chœur)
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14Acte 2ème : Scène. Fais avertir Iole par ses femmes (Hercule, Philoctète)
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15Acte 2ème : Duo et Scène. Près de vous je croyais retrouver (Iole, Hercule, Philoctète)
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16Acte 2ème : Imprécation avec chœur. Eh ! quoi, Philoctète infidèle (Hercule, Chœur)
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17Acte 2ème : Prière. Pallas, vierge prudente et sage (Iole, Chœur)
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18Acte 3ème : Prélude et Arioso. De mes enchantements (Phénice, Déjanire)
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19Acte 3ème : Air. Triomphant de multiples épreuves (Déjanire)
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20Acte 3ème : Duo. Ô Reine, sauvez-moi ! (Iole, Déjanire, Chœur)
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21Acte 3ème : Duo. J’ai dormi dans la fraîche rosée (Déjanire, Hercule)
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22Acte 3ème : Duo. Où vas-tu, femme ? (Iole, Hercule, Chœur)
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23Acte 3ème : Scène. À quelques pas, dans l’ombre (Iole, Déjanire, Philoctète)
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24Acte 3ème : Scène. Philoctète, demeure ! (Déjanire)
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25Acte 3ème : Arioso. J’ai chargé ce tissu (Déjanire, Phénice)
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26Acte 3ème : Prière avec chœur. Ô toi qui fais trembler la terre (Iole, Phénice, Déjanire, Chœur)
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27Acte 4ème : Prélude et Cortège
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28Acte 4ème : Scène. Peuple, réjouis-toi ! (Hercule, Chœur)
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29Acte 4ème : Viens, ô toi dont le clair visage (Hercule)
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30Acte 4ème : Scène. Prince, je reçois ton hommage (Iole, Hercule, Déjanire, Phénice, Philoctète)
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31Acte 4ème : Épithalame. Éros, délices de la terre (Chœur)
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32Acte 4ème : Scène. Les larges fleurs de sang (Déjanire, Hercule)
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33Acte 4ème : Invocation. Ô Jupiter ! Dieu, père, souverain (Chœur)
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34Acte 4ème : Scène. Ah ! quel feu dévore ma chair ! (Hercule, Déjanire)
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35Acte 4ème : Apothéose. L’invincible Hercule succombe (Chœur)
Europadisc Review
It is ten years since the ever-enterprising Palazetto Bru Zane set itself the ambitious task of resurrecting and recording all of Saint-Saëns’s neglected operas. More than a dozen exist, of which five – Les Barbares, Proserpine, Le Timbre d’argent, La Princesse jaune and Phyrné – have already appeared, to great critical acclaim and the delight of opera lovers. The latest instalment in this Herculean labour of love, rather appropriately, is Déjanire (1911), which recounts the story of the final days of the great hero-turned-tyrant Hercules and his fate at the hands of his spurned wife, the eponymous Déjanire.
This was to be Saint-Saëns’s final opera, and it had its origins in the spectacular tableaux he was commissioned to write for an open-air performance of Louis Gallet’s verse epic Déjanire (based on Sophocles’s Trachiniae) at the newly-built arena in Béziers. Although Saint-Saëns had misgivings about writing music to be performed in an ‘abominable temple of blood’ (the arena was primarily used for bull-fighting), he was greatly taken with the subject, and the performances in August 1898 before an audience of 12,000 were a thunderous success.
A dozen years later, Saint-Saëns transformed the subject of this open-air epic into a genuinely operatic tragédie lyrique to Gallet’s text, although Gallet himself had died soon after the Béziers performances in 1898. He started composition in Cairo in December 1910, and completed the score the following March in Monte Carlo and Cannes. It was in Monte Carlo that the opera was premiered, on 14 March 1911, and it was a another great success. It enjoyed further performances both at home and abroad, reaching as far as Chicago in 1915. Saint-Saëns was dissatisfied with the Paris premiere at the Palais Garnier in November 1911, however, mainly on account of Messager’s ruinously static tempi; these went against the Gluckian aesthetic that Saint-Saëns had set such great store by in this work.
The upheaval of World War I and the advent of modernism fundamentally transformed audience tastes, and soon Déjanire was neglected even by the composer himself. Apart from a few excerpts and a partial 1985 revival, it has lain dormant ever since. All credit, then, to Bru Zane’s dedicated experts for this fascinating recording, made (again, very appropriately) in Monte Carlo with the Monte Carlo Opera Chorus and Philharmonic Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada. This is a work of epic subject-matter but under two hours in length, its dramatic and musical conciseness considerably enhancing its appeal.
There are some striking musical ideas, too: an opening chord from the orchestra’s wind ‘choir’ that acts as a call to attention; an exotic, sinewy woodwind motif that accompanies the beautiful, hapless Iole (new object of Hercules’s passions); and an arrestingly-scored downward arpeggio for the beginning of her Act 2 duet with Déjanire. The music ranges from exquisite inwardness, via impassioned outbursts to grand choral outbursts, a beguiling mixture of Gluckian formal clarity, heady grand-operatic Romanticism and fleeting intimations of early modernism.
At Déjanire’s centre is a classic(al) love triangle, and the casting of the three main characters is crucial. As Déjanire herself, mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich has a dusky patina and commanding presence that grabs the listener’s attention at her every appearance, compensating for the lack of that last ounce of precision in more passionate passages. This is a voice that can comfortably ride over the large orchestral forces it is frequently pitted against, and you can feel her hurt and rising anger throughout.
Soprano Anaïs Constans is pure and bright-toned as Déjanire's unwilling love rival Iole, the contrast between the two characters vividly evident in this audio-only format. Constans is fully engaged with the text, but soars wonderfully when she has to. As Hercules, tenor Julien Dran has a light but heroic voice, combining agility with incisiveness as he hurtles unwittingly to his fate; as the drama ratchets up, so does his voice, providing some moments of thrilling drama. Baritone Jérôme Boutillier makes a robust Philoctète, Hercules’s companion but Ines’s real love, and mezzo Anna Dowsley completes the solo line-up as an engaging Phénice.
The chorus – of Heraclids, and Oechalian and Aetolian women – are given some stunning passages, recalling the opera’s open-air origins, but they too are capable of a vast dynamic and expressive range, from introspection to open-mouthed horror; a cappella moments are taken with aplomb and total security. Under Yamada’s vibrant direction, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic play with an ideal combination of passion, precision and commitment. Speeds are kept moving, but Yamada knows exactly where and how to let the music breathe, the moments of stasis and introspection expertly deployed.
As always, this Bru Zane production is luxuriously presented in a hardback book format, replete with informative articles, illustrations and full libretto with translation. It’s hard to think of Déjanire being done better justice, or more persuasively. Opera lovers need not hesitate: this latest Saint-Saëns instalment is a winner.
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