Massenet - Griselidis (CD + Book)

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Label: Bru Zane

Cat No: BZ1058

Format: CD + Book

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 24th January 2025

Works

Massenet, Jules

Griselidis

Artists

Vannina Santoni
Julien Dran
Thomas Dolie
Tassis Christoyannis
Antoinette Dennefeld
Adele Charvet
Adrien Fournaison
Thibault de Damas
Choeur Opera national Montpellier Occitanie
Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie

Conductor

Jean-Marie Zeitouni

Works

Massenet, Jules

Griselidis

Artists

Conductor

Jean-Marie Zeitouni

About

Paris discovered Massenet's Grisélidis at the Opéra-Comique on 20 November 1901. The work is based on a medieval folktale retold by Boccaccio and Perrault, among others, and already set to music several times in the Baroque era. It gave Massenet the opportunity to handle the ‘Gothic’ colouring of which the early twentieth century could not get enough. The inventive libretto by Armand Silvestre and Eugène Morand explores unusually contrasted registers: the religious, the fantastical, the sentimental and the warlike. Above all, the presence of a scene-stealing Devil, saddled with a cantankerous wife, offers the possibility of contrasting the serious (or sublime) and the comic (or grotesque). Massenet thus produced a rare example of cross-genre equilibrium, a jewel of French demi-caractère, typical of the Opéra-Comique repertory. Although the opera renounces spoken dialogue, theatrical declamation nevertheless creeps into a few particularly successful scenes. Two magnificent baritone roles – the Marquis and the Devil – oppose each other with the full trappings of Romantic vocality, while Grisélidis makes a noble and introspective heroine, the perfect model of the French soprano.

Cast:
- Grisélidis: Vannina Santoni
- Alain: Julien Dran
- Le Marquis: Thomas Dolié
- Le Diable: Tassis Christoyannis
- Fiamina: Antoinette Dennefeld
- Bertrade: Adèle Charvet
- Gondebaud: Adrien Fournaison
- Le Prieur: Thibault de Damas

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Prologue : Prélude et Arioso. Ouvrez-vous sur mon front
2

Prologue : Scène. Prieur, de ces côtés on l’aura vu peut-être
3

Prologue : Air. Voir Grisélidis, c’est connaître
4

Prologue : Scène. Ah ! voyez... le marquis
5

Prologue : Arioso. Toi qui portes la paix du ciel
6

Prologue : Arioso. La volonté du ciel sans doute étant la vôtre
7

Prologue : Scène finale. Au château par la main
8

Acte 1er : Prélude
9

Acte 1er : Couplets. En Avignon, pays d’amour
10

Acte 1er : Scène. Chut ! les chansons d’amour ont fait leur temps
11

Acte 1er : Scène. Le Marquis !
12

Acte 1er : Air et Scène. Que dis-tu ? Traiter en prisonnière
13

Acte 1er : Scène. Monseigneur, me voilà !
14

Acte 1er : Trio. J’avais fait, comme on dit, le diable
15

Acte 1er : Scène. Va, la marquise ici doit venir
16

Acte 1er : Air. Grisélidis ! Grisélidis !
17

Acte 1er : Duo. Grisélidis !
18

Acte 1er : Arioso et suite du duo. Devant le soleil clair
19

Acte 1er : Duo – fin. La douceur des baisers
20

Acte 1er : Mélodrame. Bertrade, reprenons
21

Acte 2ème : Entracte-Idylle
22

Acte 2ème : Air. Jusqu’ici, sans dangers
23

Acte 2ème : Scène. Pardon ! les chats sont là
24

Acte 2ème : Duo. Non ! Vous cherchiez ici
25

Acte 2ème : Scène et reprise du duo. Elle a le diable au corps !
26

Acte 2ème : Air. La mer ! Et sur les flots toujours bleus
27

Acte 2ème : Scène et Prière. Mon enfant, viens prier
28

Acte 2ème : Chœur. Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâce
29

Acte 2ème : Trio. Madame, un étranger
30

Acte 2ème : Trio – suite. Nos goûts ne se ressemblent guère
31

Acte 2ème : Trio – fin. La volonté du Ciel étant la vôtre
32

Acte 2ème : Scène. Mon cher époux
33

Acte 2ème : Incantation. Des bois obscurs
34

Acte 2ème : Danse des Esprits
35

Acte 2ème : Incantation – suite. Accourez !
36

Acte 2ème : Floraison des roses
37

Acte 2ème : Sortie des Esprits. Vous qui portez
38

Acte 2ème : Air. Je suis l’oiseau
39

Acte 2ème : Entrée de Grisélidis. Le rêve a fui mon front
40

Acte 2ème : Duo. Elle !... Tout mon être a frémi
41

Acte 2ème : Duo – suite. Grisélidis, écoute-moi !
42

Acte 2ème : Duo – fin. Dans tout mon être, quel émoi !
43

Acte 2ème : Scène finale. Ah ! Loÿs ! Où donc es-tu ?
44

Acte 3ème : Prélude
45

Acte 3ème : Air. Loÿs ! Loÿs !
46

Acte 3ème : Duo. Madame à vos ordres.
47

Acte 3ème : Duo – suite. Soit ! j’irai donc
48

Acte 3ème : Scène. Mais, sacrebleu ! Je vous le dis
49

Acte 3ème : Duo. C’est vrai, nous n’avons pas l’honneur
50

Acte 3ème : Scène. S’il n’avait pas menti
51

Acte 3ème : Arioso. Dieu ! c’est elle ! Elle revient !
52

Acte 3ème : Duo. Avant de vous parler
53

Acte 3ème : Duo – suite. Loin qu’elle te pardonne
54

Acte 3ème : Mélodrame. Eh bien ! c’est du joli !
55

Acte 3ème : Duo. L’heure cruelle, hélas !
56

Acte 3ème : Duo – suite. Des armes ! des armes !
57

Acte 3ème : Prière. À l’heure où le Malin
58

Acte 3ème : Scène finale. Magnificat anima mea Dominum

Europadisc Review

Few operas in the early 20th-century successfully combined serious drama with comedy, but Massenet’s Grisélidis is a notable if neglected exception. In it, Massenet fulfilled his hopes to combine comedic elements of the féerie genre with an evocative historic setting (14th-century Provence) and an underlying tale of love and high drama. His first draft of the score dates from 1894, but he subjected the work to further revisions in 1898 and a thorough reworking in 1901, before the opera’s eventual premèire given by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart on 20 November 1901. For this, Massenet insisted on the notable Wagnerian soprano Lucienne Bréval in the title role, while the part of the ‘very good-natured Devil’ was taken by the star of the Opéra-Comique troupe, Lucien Fugère. The première was a huge success, not least the atmosphere conjured up by the sets, designed by Lucien Jusseaume, a year before he designed those for Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande.

Yet within a few years Grisélidis had fallen into obscurity, swept aside by changing tastes, even though its setting and underlying atmosphere have certain aspects in common with then-fashionable Symbolism. The comedic side of the work was probably its undoing, at least in the medium term, but sporadic revivals since 1982 have revealed its considerable musical and dramatic charms, and now a splendid new recording (there have been few previously) from the indefatigable team at the Palazzetto Bru Zane breathes new life into this conte lyrique.

The libretto (by Armand Silvestre and Eugûne Morand) takes the story of Griselda from Boccaccio’s Decameron and additional material from Perrault’s version of the story, while adding crowd-pleasing elements in a comedy Devil (who nevertheless conjures up situations of real peril) and his cantankerous wife, Fiamina, as well as additional love interest in the character of the shepherd, Alain. In the Prologue (replete with wonderful pastoral evocations and a scene-setting opening horn call), the peasant girl Grisélidis is taken in marriage by the Marquis de Saluces. The rest of the action takes place some four years later, and the Marquis agrees to a wager with the Devil (in disguise) on Grisélidis’s fidelity while he departs on crusade to the Holy Land. The rest of the action sees various disguises and machinations by the Devil, including tempting Grisélidis with the reappearance of her first love, and culminating in the dramatic abduction of her young child.

Luxuriously presented and splendidly recorded, Jean-Marie Zeitouni directs forces of the Opéra national Montpellier Occitaine in a hugely persuasive performance of this peach of a score. Massenet was not afraid to use a large orchestra (especially by the Opéra-Comique’s standards), and the myriad colours and moods, encompassing pastoral charm, ardent love, dark humour and heart-rending prayerfulness, are conveyed with marvellously varied textures and invention, all vividly realised here. In the title role, Vannina Santoni has just the right sort of voice to portray the character’s various dilemmas and inner strength, combining the fundamentally dramatic vocal demands of the music with meltingly lyrical moments. Her Act 2 duet with Alain (tenor Julien Dran, in ringing heroic form) is one of the many highlights, as is her fragile tenderness at the opening of Act 2, in her aria ‘Loÿs ! Loÿs ! Des larmes brûlent ma paupiûre’.

As already hinted, Julien Dran makes a marvellous impression as the unfortunate Alain (as in his Act 2 aria ‘Je suis l’oiseau’), while baritone Thomas Dolié is outstanding as the Marquis, the vocal embodiment of benevolent nobility, sympathetic yet, when roused, implacably passionate. Veteran baritone Tassis Christoyannis is the other star here, as an engagingly comic but threatening Devil. He and his haranguing wife Fiamina (mezzo-soprano Antoinette Dennefeld) manage the delicate balancing act of bringing humorous elements into what is, at heart, a serious tale, and they manage this to perfection, relishing their moments of farce without ever going right over the top. Mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet as lady-in-waiting Bertrade, bass Adrien Fournaison as Gondebaud and bass-baritone Thibault de Damas as the Prior complete the exceptionally strong line-up.

The Montpellier Opera Chorus make fine contributions, variously diabolic and heavenly, while the Orchestre national Montpellier Occitaine play their socks off under Zeitouni’s urgently committed direction, in moods and textures ranging from the spikily humorous to moments of Puccinian ardour. The climaxes of Acts 2 and 3 are thrillingly prepared and piercing in their emotional impact. Beautifully presented within a hardback book, the documentation includes detailed articles about the opera’s themes, genesis, location and earliest performances (with plenty of archive photos), as well as full libretto and English translation. If anything can persuade you that Grisélidis is long overdue a reappraisal, this recording is it.

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Massenet - Griselidis (CD + Book)

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Despatch Information

Contents

Works

Artists

Conductor

Works

Artists

Conductor

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review