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The Europadisc Review

Saint-Saens - Dejanire (CD + Book)

Kazuki Yamada, Kate Aldrich, Julien Dran, Anais Constans, Jerome Boutillier, Anna D...

£30.49

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 h... read more

Saint-Saens - Dejanire (CD + Book)

Kazuki Yamada, Kate Aldrich, Julien Dran, Anais Constans, Jerome Boutillier, Anna Dowsley, Choeur de l’Opera de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo

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.

The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Classical Music: The Endgame? 10th April 2024

10th April 2024

A recent visit to the London Coliseum brought home the scale of the challenge facing opera, not just at the home of the troubled English National Opera, but more generally – and, indeed, classical music more widely. What seemed to be a fairly respectable attandance was revealed – on a glance upwards to the upper circle and balcony – to be only half a house: the upper levels were completely empty, having been effectively closed from sale. And this on a Saturday evening! There was a time (in the 1970s and 80s) when Janáček’s Jenůfa would have been a real draw for audiences. Now – presumably on the grounds that it's better to play to a near-full half-house than a sparsely populated whole house – it's relegated to a kind of operatic second division.

What I witnessed is just one symptom of a wider malaise: opera houses and concert halls are struggling to attract an... read more

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