2016-Spring-Concerts
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I role of Marguerite, that Monsieur Car- to include the chorus in Faust – and not valho begged Gounod to let her sing it. a moment too soon – the premiere took Choeur des Soldats/Soldiers’ Carvalho had faith in the ultimate triumph place at the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris on Chorus from Faust Act IV of Gounod’s Faust and pushed it to a fif- March 19, 1859. Charles François Gounod was among the ty-seventh performance, at which point he On opening night of New York’s Metro- most respected and prolific composers in failed and the theater was closed. Faust was politan Opera House, October 22, 1883, France during the second half of the nine- not heard again in Paris until 1862. Faust was chosen as the inaugural score. teenth century. He was born in Paris in In an ironic coincidence, Gounod’s When Hal Prince staged the current reviv- 1818. Gounod composed in all branches second great success came in the same year al of Faust as the Met, his was a Soldiers’ of music, yet he is only remembered today in which he introduced his Faust. He com- Chorus of wounded, traumatized veterans. as a composer of church music and operas. posed a Méditation for soprano solo – an —GH In 1852, Gounod assumed the direction obbligato to be sung with the first prelude Let’s lay down our arms; of the Orphéon de la ville de Paris. The Par- of J. S. Bach’s The Well-tempered Clavier. here we are returned at last is Orphéon was a male-voice choral society He dedicated his Mélodie religieuse to to the hearth and home! with membership drawn from the working Mme. Marie Miolan-Carvalho. Méditation Yes, it’s a pleasure in families class and lower bourgeoisie. During the quickly became popular with the public. to tell tales to the children, eight and a half years in which Gounod Gounod’s Méditation sur le Premier Prélude who shudder in silence, to the old people and the girls, held the post of director of the Orphéon, de Bach soon became known as Ave Maria. of war and its battles! Audiences, which had been cold to his the experience he gained in handling Immortal glory of our forefathers, massed choral forces was to prove useful. earlier works, went mad for Gounod. It do not desert us, let us die as they did! Gounod’s first great success, written when became fashionable for ladies to hear Ave And, beneath thy wings, he was forty, was produced in 1859. At first Maria with expressions of idyllic piety and conquering soldiers, though, no theater would produce Faust for gentlemen to listen with manly respect. direct our steps and fire our hearts! and no publisher would bring out the No soirée musicale was complete without For thee, our mother country, score. It is staggering to think that the pub- a performance of this ubiquitous morsel. face to face with destiny, lic of that time was so long in waking to Gounod deplored the immense popular thy sons, their souls inured to war, have braved death! the fact that here was a work of beauty and success of his unconsidered trifle and felt Thy sacred voice cries to us: the annoyance of all artists when they see charm destined to live. At last a publisher Forward, soldiers! was found. Antoine de Choudens, who their important works ignored in favor Sword in hand, fly to battle! was just starting in the business, offered of minor ones. Today, Gounod is best Immortal glory, etc. his entire capital of 10,000 francs for the remembered for his opera Faust and his Let us hasten our steps to our homes! publishing rights. Choudens’ gamble paid Ave Maria. Both works immortalized their We are expected; peace is concluded! off; by so doing, he laid the foundation of author. No more sights! Don’t let’s delay! the fortunes of one of France’s great music Act III, scene 3, of Faust takes place in a Towards our hearths, let’s hasten our steps! publishing houses. In thirty years, the town square. Soldiers triumphantly sing Our country stretches forth her arms to us! Love beckons and makes much of us! modest sum Choudens timidly advanced of their return from war. Over the years, And many a heart shudders in silence choral societies have enjoyed the justly fa- brought in nearly three million francs. at the memory of our battles! mous Soldiers’ Chorus. This is the Gounod Faust eventually became a fixture on the Immortal glory, etc. Parisian musical stage and second only to of the Orphéon. And to think this regal, Bizet’s Carmen as the world’s most popular patriotic, uplifting march was added to the Chor der Pilger French opera. Gounod’s fifteen or so other full score as an afterthought! The vigorous (Pilgrim’s Chorus) melody was originally an unaccompanied operas, with the single exception of his Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat Roméo et Juliette (1867) have not enjoyed Orphéon male-voice chorus from 1854, Le any measure of popularity. When Gounod Vin de Gaulois. from Tannhäuser , Act III, Scene I died in 1893, Faust had been performed Composers are notorious for borrowing Wagner completed his libretto for Tann- over a thousand times in Paris alone. from themselves. Charles Gounod was häuser on his 30th birthday, May 22, 1843 Faust, along with seven of Gounod’s no exception to this practice. The most and the musical setting two years later, on other operas, was written with librettists famous chorus in his opera Faust does not April 13, 1845. Composed between the Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. They based appear in the original manuscript! The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin, Tann- their classic tale of Faust closely on the first tune only found its way into the produc- häuser was first performed on October 14, part of the Goethe masterpiece of the same tion at the last moment. Gounod had used 1845, at the Dresden Hofoper where the name. It was Leon Carvalho, director of the Soldiers’ Chorus melody for yet another 32-year-old composer was court conduc- the Théâtre-Lyrique, who finally agreed to project in 1856 – his stillborn opera which tor. Some of the scenery, ordered from Par- stage the opera. Marie Miolan-Carvalho, was to have been called Ivan le terrible. is, had failed to arrive on time, and there the director’s wife, was so struck with the The composer was persuaded late in 1858 were problems with the cast; not until the 18 third performance did the opera come into Therefore I will praise God all the days of my life. Once it was even reborn as a fox trot! Not its own. Gradually, other German theaters Hallelujah, for evermore! surprisingly, the Méditation has survived. produced Tannhäuser. The U.S. premiere That is because it is a unique gem of its took place at the Stadttheater, New York, II kind, a simple, sensuous heart-song. on April 4, 1859. The second season of the We proudly present Massenet’s Médita- Metropolitan Opera, 1884-85, opened with Ave Maria tion in a unique arrangement done for Or- Tannhäuser, Leopold Damrosch conduct- Jules Massenet was born in the French pheus by one of our singers, Tom Wentzel. ing. provinces in 1842. At the age of ten he was Wisely, I believe, Tom chose to preserve Wagner was frustrated with what he saw admitted to the Paris Conservatoire for the Méditation in the original form, leaving as the outmoded artistic practices of his piano and solfège studies. At nineteen, he the entire violin solo intact. As a basis for time. He railed against the opera of the day entered the composition class of Ambroise his four-part choral arrangement for men’s (embodied in Meyerbeer) and saw himself Thomas. During this period, he supported voices, Tom used Ave Maria – composé sur as the “artist of the future,” battling the himself while gaining experience as an la Méditation de Thaïs – an obscure setting uncomprehending academy. For Wagner, extra percussionist at the Opéra and as a for solo voice issued by Massenet’s own Tannhäuser comprised a revolutionary café pianist. In the decade that followed, he publisher Heugel the same year in which transitional moment, a turning point. In made his first steps toward an illustrious the opera was premiered. —GH Tannhäuser the composer emerges “strug- career in opera that would continue for the gling to utter himself.” next 35 years. His place in the history of III With Tannhäuser, Wagner took another French music is secure. step away from the conventional opera of Nineteenth century Parisian audiences O Magnum Mysterium the period – with its division into set arias, had an unlimited appetite for exotic music In December 1994 the Los Angeles ensembles and recitatives – toward music and remote geographical or historical Master Chorale, directed by Paul Salamu- drama, in which words, music and action settings. Massenet generously satisfied the novich, presented the world premiere of form a dramatic whole. None of his other tastes of the belle époque with his opera a setting of the Latin chorus O Magnum works was subject to so many changes. Thaïs, the twelfth of his twenty-seven Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen, then Twice more in 1847 and in 1861, Wag- operas. Based on the well-known novel by a little-known 51-year-old professor of ner revised the opera. His revisions were Anatole France, Thaïs received its premiere composition at the University of Southern aimed at making the opera a Gesamtkunst- at the Paris Opéra in 1894.