France Competition d’Aix-en-Provence [5] – Rameau, Samson: Soloists, Pygmalion / Raphaël Pichon (conductor). Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, 12.7.2024. (MB)
A Rameau premiere? Sure and no. In some methods, what we noticed and heard was extra extraordinary than that: the resurrection of Rameau’s misplaced Voltaire opera, Samson of 1733. Envisaged by Voltaire because the work to reform tragédie lyrique, to revive its French classical virtues, it fell prey to censorship on grounds of blasphemy and was by no means carried out. Each music and unique libretto have been misplaced, though a revised, nearly definitely toned-down model of the latter survives from a set Voltaire printed later in life. Adopting an method each speculative and scholarly, in one of the best sense inventive, Raphaël Pichon and Claus Guth have reinvented the work, delving deeper into the E-book of Judges for context, but setting the work in a gift framed by Samson’s mom (movingly acted, not sung, by Andréa Ferréol, an ambiguous homeless man (Pascal Lifschutz) and different actors and singers (together with a fascinating Angel from Julie Roset). Understanding that Rameau reused music from the opera, preliminary makes an attempt have been made to suit Voltaire to numbers from different works.
As an illustration, Pichon recounts: ‘you might be acquainted with the entrée “Les Incas du Pérou” in Les Indes galantes. It accommodates a really spectacular scene sung by the character of Huascar, who can also be a basse-taille, and who additionally commits suicide – by hurling himself right into a volcano. The music on this scene is really breathtaking, and it regularly turned clear to me that it had been used for the ultimate scene of the destruction of the temple in Samson. So for that scene, I started to assemble a primary mosaic. And so it went on.’ However it quickly proved inconceivable to match music to the one model of the libretto to outlive, so as a substitute they adopted a freer method, inventing that state of affairs and, in a manner, letting each music and the Bible dictate, or even perhaps turn into, the drama. ‘And so,’ in response to Pichon, ‘started a protracted and painstaking treasure hunt … and its moments of doubt once we deleted every little thing and began once more. First we had to consider the variety of acts, the character of the prologue, the trajectory of a personality inside an act, after which the sequence of scenes, the structuring of every scene, looking for one of the simplest ways to get from one to the subsequent, to not point out the vary of tonalities and their sequences…’. Eddy Garaudel as author and Yvonne Gebauer as dramaturge have been deeply concerned within the course of too. A diary, if such a factor exists, or itself may very well be ‘reconstructed’ or ‘reimagined’, would probably be enlightened.
Voltaire’s dedication to limit recitative to the minimal makes for an enchanting ‘reform’, now incorporating speech and even sound design, that in some methods appears again to early Venetian opera – Pichon mentions Cavalli, who after all labored in France too – and ahead by means of Gluck nearly to wherever one will. It’s a one-off, and its creators seem to have been liberated by that prospect. Dance turns into all of the extra dramatically targeted, and if invoking the spirit of Wagner may be deceptive, it’s maybe not totally so. Others may have totally different standpoints, after all, and in some ways the work got here throughout as a staged oratorio, a French counterpart to Handel’s work of the identical identify, Rameau, Voltaire, and their fashionable collaborators maybe penetrating even deeper.
There can be far more to be written in regards to the concept and realisation of the enterprise; it could be a high-quality factor if its creators have been to take action, maybe in tandem with a few of the students Pichon cites. However what of the dramatic actuality, because the solar set on Aix’s ever-magical Théâtre de l’Archevêché? The usage of spoken texts from Judges, not fairly in lieu of recitative however slightly supplementing and framing, provided energy and concision: worlds away from what any eighteenth-century (or later) censor would have accredited. Étienne Pluss’s set design appeared to mediate between the colors and supplies of vernacular structure and a non-specific Canaan/Israel/Palestine that for apparent causes offered issues of its personal. There are clearly limits to how one may defuse, nearly actually, these points, given the subject material. I felt uneasy on the actually monochrome portrayal of Philistines in black and Israelites in white, however maybe black-and-whiteness was the purpose. Normally, a temptation to make political factors was, in all probability properly, prevented. Samson’s personal depiction, aided by sound design that gave voice to his inside agonies, was extra a psychological research — and a strong one at that.
Jarrett Ott’s work in bringing that research to life was excellent, as effectively acted because it was sung, in (to my ears) glorious French too, which removed from all the time goes with out saying. The hero’s charisma and physicality – partly, it appeared, compensation for private and social trauma – shone by means of, as did Ott’s chemistry together with his fellow artists. Timna, a composite of varied girls with whom Samson was concerned previous to Dalila, after which within the second half Dalila herself have been dropped at life vividly and in excellent type by the properly complementary Lea Desandre and Jacquelyn Stucker. Nahuel Di Pierro’s darkish, malevolent Achisch and the strikingly mellifluous tenor of Laurence Kilsby because the finally doomed traitor Elon provided equally high-quality character research in voice and gesture. Dancers and refrain contributed likewise, as spectacular collectively as individually.
Each inspiring and supporting this was the excellent work of Pichon and his Pygmalion choir and orchestra. The ensemble’s darkish hue, inflected by moments of usually French éclat, underpinned one of many best period-instrument performances I’ve heard, far superior to the earlier night’s Gluck. It was unabashedly huge boned, refuting the foolish conflation widespread to lots of ‘previous’ and ‘small’, relishing slightly a confrontation between previous and new that performed out on stage, within the pit, and in our minds. An unmistakeably Gallic bassoon enabled one, maybe fancifully, to hint lineage as much as Stravinsky’s Ceremony and certainly past, to early recordings of French orchestras, whose particularity has largely been misplaced in postwar homogenisation of orchestral sound. Pichon’s route appeared unerringly to alight on the correct stability, dynamic distinction, tempo, and extra: a high-quality illustration of how scholarship and musicianship can and may inform each other within the warmth of the dramatic second. Maybe one other time it could have been totally different; it looked like marrying due preparation with spontaneity on the night, as did the performances of these on stage.
And so, when the temple got here crashing down within the wounded, tortured Samson’s ultimate act of revenge and personhood, Samson turned the lion he as soon as had hire asunder. Voltaire’s dedication to keep away from the lieto high-quality, absolutely supported then and now by Rameau, imparted an ending of veritable and venerable tragedy, Attic and Hebrew. The world stopped, scenically and musically, in a style each trustworthy and untrue to Samson and his unique creators — and thus, one might fancy, to expectations historical and fashionable. This was evidently a labour not solely of affection but additionally of conviction for all concerned. In that sense and never solely that, the determine of Samson and Voltaire’s daring, vanquished plans for operatic reform discovered themselves embodied in Rameau, Pichon, and Guth’s new Samson.
Mark Berry
Manufacturing:
Director – Claus Guth
Set designs – Étienne Pluss
Costumes – Ursula Kudrna
Lighting and Video – Bertrand Couderc
Choreography – Sommer Ulrickson
Sound design – Mathis Nitschke
Editorial affiliate – Eddy Garaudel
Dramaturgy – Yvonne Gebauer
Solid:
Samson – Jarrett Ott
Dalila – Jacquelyn Stucker
Timna – Lea Desandre
Achisch – Nahuel Di Pierro
Elon – Laurence Kilsby
Angel – Julie Roset
First Decide, Visitor – Antonin Rondepierre
Samson’s mom – Andréa Ferréol
Younger Samson – Gabriel Coullaud-Rosseel
Homeless individual – Pascal Lifschutz
Dancers – Gal Fefferman, Theo Emil Krausz, Victoria McConnell, Manuel Meza, Rouven Pabst, Francesco Pacelli, Dan Palleg, Marion Plantey, Evie Poaros, Robin Rohrmann, Victor Villarreal, Marko Weigert
Actors – Alexandre Charlet, Arnaud Fiore, Jacky Kumanovic
