Charles Gounod, Mireille: production from the Opéra de Nice.  Soloists, chorus and orchestra of the Opéra Toulon Provence Méditerranée; Toulon, France.  15.05. 2007 (MM) 

The Opéra de Nice production of Gounod's Mireille made its way to Toulon last week, as had Nice's Pelléas et Melisande only four months before.  Pelléas, an undisputed chef d'oeuvre easily stimulates intelligent staging, and the Nice Pelléas succeeded as real theater.  Mireille on the other hand is easily thrown away as little more than beautiful music.  As seen in Toulon , Mireille revealed itself as an operatic gem in a production left untouched by theatrical intelligence. 

Unburdened by the philosophic or theatrical pretensions of Faust and Romeo et Juliet, Gounod's facile lyricism suits pastoral tragedy.  Frédéric Mistral's Miréio (1859), a narrative poem in the Provençal language about star-crossed lovers lost in the hostile wilds of the Rhone delta, became Mireille in French when Gounod and Mistral reconfigured it into an elaborate musical pastoral along the lines of courtly Renaissance and Baroque pastorals.

The poetry is highly refined, its simplicity elaborated in richly musical verse, these dramatic outpourings interspersed between highly stylized choruses and dances of those happy folk who inhabit an idealized countryside.  Spectacle enters with the intrusion of the other world, a pagan hell, when a rival for Mireille's hand cruelly attacks her lover and then drowns in the river Styx. Complete with balletic netherworld spirits this scene is right out of a ballet de cour at Louis XIV's Versailles.

Gounod was no stranger to nineteenth century musical pastoralism, Mireille's sophisticated score recalls moments of earlier Romantic musical pastorals -the magical horn calls of Der Freischűtz, the mysterious fairy music of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, the solitude of Tristan's horn blowing Shepherd.  Peasant songs become fine choruses, peasant dances undergo symphonic elaboration.  Most astounding is Gounod's seemingly boundless lyricism, able always to transform itself into renewed statements of simple pastoral amorous premises.

Gounod and Mistral's Mireille is subtle, sophisticated theater from a rich tradition, and it deserves sophisticated production.  If this was lacking in Toulon, musical sophistication was not.  Conductor Alain Guingal led the fine Toulon orchestra in a polished performance with excellent wind playing (forget the blip by the second horn).  This maestro never let down his orchestral support for those singing their hearts out on the stage.

Ermonela Jaho, a young and beautiful Albanian soprano, made a formidable Mireille.  She possesses a warm voice comfortable (most of the time) in Gounod's considerable use of the mezzo register and made effective use of her bright upper range as well, ably sustaining Gounod's extended mounting musical lines.  Tenor Florian Laconi was the charmingly believable little basket maker Vincent, who would surely win the heart of any rich farmer's daughter or for that matter any other girl on Mistral's Mulberry plantation.   He possesses a fine light lyric voice particularly effective in the forte climaxes of this crossover character/romantic role.  The villainous herdsman, Ourrias was well sung by Marc Barrard, brutally aggressive and then cowardly repentant, excellently acted in the extended Val d'enfer scene.  Vincent's sister Vincenette was nicely rendered by Isabelle Obadia as was Vincent's father by bass Jean-Marie Delpas.  The roles of the witch Taven, played by Anne Pareuil and the father, played by Christian Tréguier were less effective.

The Toulon stage became theatrically alive momentarily during the ballet of infernal spirits, very musically choreographed by Servane Delanoe in elaborated repeating contemporary-style movements.  This gripping dance scene was a fish out of water in this production.

Paul-Émile Fourny, general director of the Opéra de Nice, was the producer.  He seemed to leave his singers to their own devices for getting through their arias.  The one directorial flourish, besides the obligatory sinking to the knees in all big arias, was Mireille delivering a sizeable portion of her heat delirium lying on her back, feet headed up-stage.  Designer Poppi Ranchetti chose an appropriate Provençal color palette for his otherwise uninteresting costumes which sometimes but not always, defined character.  His scenery, less attractive, was impressionist inspired painted scrims and drops before and behind the drab brown platform configuration that served as a floor.

Rare is the evening in Toulon when musical and vocal values are not solidly upheld: rare in Toulon is the evening when production values are of interest.

 

Michael Milenski

Pictures © Khaldoun Belhatem