Massenet: Don César de Bazan

[Collrec]

Here is an update on the world premiere recording by Naxos of Massenet's Don Cesar de Bazan. It will be a 2 CD set, Catalog No. 8.660464-65, of the 1888 version and will be released on June 12, 2020. As a mail order dealer/distributor, DBA Collectors Records, this information was just sent to me by Naxos of America along with the following description:

Don César de Bazan is an opéra-comique with a narrative of dashing Spanish chivalry and romance. Its plot revolves around deception and comedies of reversed identity, with a struggle between true nobility and wicked selfishness maintaining an animated momentum throughout. This was the young Jules Massenet's first full-length opera and yet it is filled with the composer's mature symphonic style, his gift for melody, feeling for the picturesque, and vivacity of rhythm. These distinctive qualities reveal an operatic feast whose time has at last arrived. Conductor Mathieu Romano works within all genres from the Baroque to the contemporary, both on the concert stage and in opera. Romano has worked with ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor and the Latvian Radio Choir, and on operatic productions with Les Frivolités Parisiennes and contemporary projects with Ensemble Itinéraire. He also works with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, the Normandy Regional Orchestra, Les Siècles and Sinfonia Varsovia. He regularly appears with Ensemble Aedes, of which he is the founder and artistic director. His discography includes a number of acclaimed releases devoted to choral repertoire.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the news, I'm very much looking forward to this.

[Matt]

The singers are Laurent Naouri (Don César), Elsa Dreisig, Marion Lebègue, Thomas Bettinger, Christian Helmer and Christian Rodrigue Mongoungou. You can listen to an extract from the overture on SoundCloud.

I'm looking forward to this recording, too ! (and also Bacchus in July, if the concert is not cancelled...)

[Kevin]

This is cool. I've always had a soft spot for Massenet, especially the neglected works like Sapho, Griselidis, and Esclarmonde. Now if only Naxos(or CPO?) could also finally get around to releasing Franck's Hulda...

[Mark Thomas]

You can listen to an extract from the overture on SoundCloud

It's here.

[Revilod]

Can't wait! Just cannot get enough Massenet! The perky tune from the overture is also heard in the Act 3 Sevillana which Jarvi and Bonynge have recorded. It seems to go better at Bonynge's speed than Romano's.

[Alan Howe]

The singers are Laurent Naouri (Don César), Elsa Dreisig, Marion Lebègue, Thomas Bettinger, Christian Helmer and Christian Rodrigue Mongoungou.

Thanks for the update on the cast. I had evidently seen the singers who appeared in a public performance, not in the recording. Not that I have heard of any of these either...

[Alan Howe]

On the opera company involved:

Created in 2012 by Benjamin El Arabi and Mathieu Franot, the Frivolités Parisiennes Opera Company brings the public to rediscover the French lyrical repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries: comic opera, "opéra bouffe" and musical comedy.

"Les Frivos" orchestra wants to be the spiritual heir of the orchestra of the Opéra Comique which disappeared in the sixties. Depending on the project, it is a chamber orchestra with between 14 and 40 instrumentalists and is composed of musicians who are curious and specialists in this repertoire.

In starting this project, the challenge was to find the right positioning between a light, joyful and even "frivolous" approach, and a more professional approach emphasizing the qualities of these exceptional musicians. It was a bit like creating a graphic union between a "Bel Canto" from the Third Empire and a "Diva" from the 1940s. On the one hand a form of joyful sauciness and on the other a form of refined elegance.

https://www.grapheine.com/en/portfolio/frivolites-parisiennes-orchestra-visual-identity

[Ebubu]

"(and also Bacchus in July, if the concert is not cancelled...)"

Unfortunately, it is.
Third "unsung" opera to be cancelled/postponed this season in France, after La Carmélite (Hahn) [postponed to next season, apparently], and Psyché (Thomas) [hopefullly postponed ?]

[eschiss1]

Not France but Chicago Summer Opera does still plan to do [Charles] CSS' Hélène on July 11 fortunately?

[Jimfin]

The story this was based on was also I think the inspiration for Maritana and part of The Yeomen of the Guard!