Mozart Monday – Remy Mathieu Sings Arbace

While watching the production of Thomas’ Hamlet from La Monnaie a few weeks ago, my attention was drawn to the tenor singing the role of Laertes, and I thought to myself, "This is someone to keep an eye on."

Apparently, I’ve thought that before, since I mentioned Remy Mathieu's performance last year in my review of the world premiere of Thierry Escaich’s Claude at Lyon. M. Mathieu also was one of the young discoveries of 2013 in révélation classique de l'Adami 2013

I think he has a lot of promise, and I try never to be negative, particularly about a relative newcomer. However, this is not the performance I would have chosen to highlight him. It’s not exactly a forgiving aria. In fact, who even thinks of singing this aria in recital? Half the time it’s cut from "full-length" performances of Idomeneo. 

Two Py, Not Square (Dialogues des Carmélites and Hamlet)

Stage director Olivier Py is busy all over Europe these days. Videos of two of his latest productions can be viewed online (and they're not on YT, so they won't magically disappear without warning.) On a post over at the Parterre Box*,  redbear commented:

...his Theatre des Champs-Elysees “Dialogues” [is] a “perfection rarement atteintes” and the “Hamlet” in Brussels last month “brillante.”

At Arte Live Web, where you can watch a video of Dialogues des Carmélites (featuring French divas Véronique Gens, Sophie Koch, and Patricia Petibon as Blanche) for about six more months, we learn:

Francis Poulenc's composition is based on the eponymous drama by Georges Bernanos and is an outstanding masterpiece of French opera of the 20th Century. The historical setting and the extraordinary protagonists make "Dialogues of the Carmelites" as an impressive allegory on human existence, death and the relationship of people to each other and to God.

Then check out Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet at La Monnaie; and not just because there's a nude barihunk (thank you, barihunks.com). It also is an opera we don't get to hear that often, and it's an impressive production. Marc Minkowski conducts, and Stéphane Degout is the wonderful Hamlet (he was a super Pelleas last season, too); Degout's brief nakedness adds a special creepiness to a mother giving her grown son a bath. Mathieu Rémy as Laertes is a tenor to watch out for, too. You can see the full opera on France's Culturebox until June 2014. 

My fluency in French is slightly below survival level, so even though I know the basic plot of each opera, I found these synopses from the Metropolitan Opera very helpful:

Hamlet

Dialogues des Carmélites

*A rather interesting (and impressively civil) discussion regarding pros and cons of Regieoper.

World Premiere: Claude – Opéra de Lyon

Claude – Opera in one act (World Premiere) 

Music by Thierry Escaich 

Libretto by Robert Badinter 

The man turned assassin under certain circumstances, 

if differently influenced would have served his country well.

The plot for this new opera is taken from Victor Hugo’s short story Claude Gueux (1834), which was based on actual events. The story expresses Hugo's early thoughts on social injustice. Thirty years later he fleshed out this theme in his novel Les Misérables, and Jean Valjean can be seen as a latter day Claude. While Les Miserables offers a sense of redemption, the opera Claude basically just lays out the events. Only Hugo’s commentary, sung as a choral backdrop throughout the opera, offers any moral. It’s a harsh and brittle opera, and well worth seeing.

The recording that’s available at arte.tv is sung in French and has French subtitles. Because my French skills are slightly below survivor level, I decided to read (a so-so translation of) the original story first. It helped a lot, as some of the dialog in the opera is taken directly from the book. There are some minor differences. In Hugo’s version, Claude has stolen bread to feed his family. In the opera, he is a weaver who is put out of work by automated looms and ends up being arrested at the barricades. 

Look at Claude Gueux. An intelligent and most noble-hearted man, 

placed in the midst of evil surroundings, he turned thief.

Director Olivier Py uses machinery, in particular a wheel, and constant, relentless motion as the primary image of inhumanity here.  The set and the cast are in constant motion, as is the music. While the action is realistic, it’s frequently accompanied by stylized activities. Also the main unit of the set, representing the prison, and containing nine cells on one side, is always moved by the prisoners. In this world the machines are more important than people. 

Claude is good and sensitive man, and is respected by the other prisoners, who rally around him. The Prison Director resents Claude as a man and for his status among the others, and singles him out for verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.