Saint-Saëns Les Barbares

[Alan Howe]

Forthcoming from Ediciones Singulares:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/saint-saens-les-barbares-ediciones-singulares-2cds-book.html

[Mark Thomas]

Tremendous! These are usually such high quality productions.

[Aramiarz]

Very interesting release! Thank You for advise us! The people of Palazetto have some much funds!

One note in the page says:

Les Barbares was premièred at the Paris Opéra (Palais Garnier) in October 1901, having originally been intended for the Roman theatre of Orange, in Provence. Rather than concentrating on bloodshed and slaughter, the plot focuses on the evolution of the relationship between Floria, the chief vestal, and Marcomir, the leader of the Barbarians, with the musical interest of the opera culminating furthermore in their splendid duet at the end of Act II. Saint-Saëns, like Massenet too at that time, shows here his ability to adapt his style to suit his literary inspiration. Les Barbares is in the same vein as Berlioz's Les Troyens and contemporary with Fauré's Pénélope The composer does not hesitate to call the work a tragédie lyrique, since it has features of that eighteenth-century genre. We also note an allusion to the 1870 Franco-Prussian war.

[JimL]

Although not an opera buff myself, I'm certainly pleased to see the remainder of Saint-Saëns' operatic works getting a chance to be staged.  Probably going to find something better than Samson et Delilah in there somewhere.

[Aramiarz]

Maybe... It will be very interesting listen it!!

[mjmosca]

May I recommend Saint-Saens' Henry VIII a magnificent powerful work. The characters are all powerfully drawn and the music composed in a symphonic manner. There are 2 recordings available, neither perfect, but the broadcast recording with Alain Fondary and Francoise Pollet is generally superb. Available at PremierOperaItaly. thank you! Looking forward to Les Barbares!

[BerlinExpat]

I would equally recommend Étienne Marcel. It's a pity the Montpellier concert performance / Radio France broadcast has never been issued commercially.

Now we have Les Barbares and with this recording I feel Palazzetto Bru Zane must be applauded for demonstrating what a good opera composer Saint-Saens was. The prologue is rather unusal. After an short Introduction Symphonique a narrator gives the background to the drama. There then follows the Conclusion Symphonique - a kind of symphonic poem - which apparently foxed the audience at the première! This is different to the purely orchestral prologue on the recent Melba recording entitled Elan - Ballet Music from Operas by Saint-Saens.

As Aramiraz' note says a highlight is undoubedly the duet at the end of act two. The opera is symphonically conceived so don't expect hummable tunes.

As far as I'm aware there are still six operas to go, not including Étienne Marcel. If the remainder are as good as Les Barbares, I feel IMHO that we have been deprived of some wonderful music.

[Mark Thomas]

Wow! First impressions (I'm still listening to it) are that this is a real winner of an opera. Intensely dramatic, but with plenty of light and shade and superbly orchestrated (I was reminded of Massenet at his very best), this is a big work in scale if not in length (exactly 2 hours). BerlinEXpat wrote about it being conceived symphonically, and it certainly is not an episodic piece, but it does have a lot hummable melody in it, even at first hearing. The recording and performances (which include the ballet) are first class. My only gripes (and they are minor) is that downloaders from qobuz.com don't get the usual superb booklet, but only a measly jpg of the cover, and the tenor (don't know who he is as I don't have the booklet!) boasts an annoyingly persistent vibrato in his higher register. But overall, this is a great discovery which I will relish returning to.

[Mark Thomas]

The booklet has now mysteriously appeared in the downloads section of my qobuz account, so I guess whatever mistake there was has been rectified. Needless to say, it matches the high standards of Ediciones Singulares previous productions.

[JimL]

If by "conceived symphonically" do you mean to imply there is use of Wagnerian leitmotifs?

[Alan Howe]

Might "conceived symphonically" mean through-composed?

[khorovod]

I guess it might mean either. If you think about the date of the opera and various interpretations of Wagner operas as symphonic structures the question from Jim seems a reasonable one. IMHO, of course.

[Mark Thomas]

I was simply repeating what BerlinExpat wrote. I took it to mean that Les Barbares is not a number opera, and that's certainly true. I didn't pick up use of leitmotiv,  but then I have only heard it through once. It is, of course, through-composed. The Prologue is innovative: a short orchestral prelude and a long (10 minute or so) orchestral postlude frame a brief, sung, introduction by a narrator. No wonder audiences were confounded by that beginning!

[BerlinExpat]

Thank you, Mark, for stepping into the breach while I enjoyed a superb performance of Die tote Stadt in Chemnitz.
As Mark said, the opera is through composed, a term I didn't use because after the first hearing I was impressed by the 'symphonic' quality of the music. With the description "symphonically conceived", JimL, I didn't mean to suggest the use of Wagnerian Leitmotifs. In fact, after the Franco-Prussian war, I feel Saint-Saens avoided such devices although Charles Joly in his essay in the accompanying book to the CDs suggests there are four or five of them in Les Barbares. He says they are, "real themes, strong and expressive, and the whole of the prelude is based on those themes, which are nuanced, varied and counterpointed with infinite skill". Perhaps they are just themes and a more careful study of the score would be necessary to arrive at a different conclusion. IMHO, whether Leitmotifs or themes, they don't detract from the mastery of the score and two hours of wonderful music.

[eschiss1]

In that connection, full and vocal scores at IMSLP over here. Will try to fill out that page by adding links to analytical material, maybe a link to a manuscript if BNF has uploaded one (as they have for other Saint-Saëns works), &c. so that one has something in addition to the scores to refer to, though if one can read a full opera score that is usually, I think, the best recourse in the long run in trying to answer a question of the above sort (in general, depending on the complexity of the score, &c. And if a score needn't be ultramodern to be complex- that's a description(or?) somewhat at an angle from style, more "idea" )