Marston is making its inexorable way through Pathé’s remarkable,
acoustically recorded opera series. The recording began with
Carmen in 1911 and ended with Massenet’s Manon
in 1923. In between there was a series of outstanding complete
sets, mostly of canonic works, but also including three that
are little known today. One was Nouguès’ Les Frères Danilo,
recorded in 1912-13, and the other two are contained in this
exquisitely produced three CD set. Both are by the once exceptionally
popular Victor Massé. Galathée was composed in 1852 and
was recorded in around 1912, whereas Les noces de Jeannette
is the product of sessions in 1922. Both are exceedingly
rare now, and their appearance here is not simply logical but
is made even more valuable by virtue of the appendix, which
contains other performances of the music from both operas. It’s
an index of the popularity of both works that not only were
complete opera sets made, but that so many other isolated extracts
exist of music from them too.
Both works were acclaimed at the Opéra-Comique. They need singers
immersed in the style, singers able to give life, and idiomatic
life at that, to the numerous spoken passages. Galathée is
the less well known of the two, whereas Les noces de Jeannette
was an immense hit for the composer, but listening to them
side by side, as it were, gives one an opportunity to acknowledge
Massé’s sheer consistency of invention, and to admire the singers
who undertook these two pioneering recordings.
The reinforcement of brass basses is most apparent in Galathée
but it’s also notable just how well balanced is the solo harp,
for instance, and the balance between voice and orchestra is
good — albeit Pathé was maddeningly inconsistent in recording
quality. There is minimal stage craft but there is some — there’s
a door knocking scene leading to the first spoken text near
the beginning of the first Act. As an investigation into prevailing
spoken style, into the contemporary Opéra-Comique approach,
this is a fascinating document. All four singers are personable.
Albert Vaguet is the best known, a much recorded tenor. Alex
Jouvin’s articulation is a touch eccentric, so too his divisions
and stage laugh but he makes a strong aural impression. André
Gresse had been recording for a decade by this time, and his
confident, authoritative presence is cemented by an equally
attractive and theatrically convincing spoken style. Whereas
in years to come, much nearer our own time and on LP, actors
were employed in scenes such as this, here we have no such mismatch
between song and speech. In the title role is Jane Morlet, whose
first appearance is teasingly delayed — the story incidentally
is effectively that of Pygmalion — and who demonstrates real
stylistic assurance and textual nuance. Ensembles exude fun
and wit, the texts are taken crisply and with buoyant internal
rhythm.
Ninon Vallin is the star of Les noces de Jeanette, but
on no account overlook León Ponzio, her Jean, who brings élan,
style, and immense vocal charisma to his role. She, meanwhile,
sings with clarity and directness, though genuine badinage and
wit is not really her province, splendidly though she sings
as such. Once again the spoken scenes are excellent, ensembles
too, though I miss in Vallin a little of what Morlet brought
a decade earlier. The two smaller parts are well taken, though
the Thomas, one M. Laurent, seems to have escaped biographers
to such an extent that his Christian name is unknown. The quality
of the recording had necessarily improved and Pathé seems to
have become a touch more consistent by this time, unless that’s
an aural illusion provided by Ward Marston’s tremendous transfers.
Still, the pealing bell effect in Act II registers clearly and
the clarity of articulation in sung and spoken scenes is high
indeed.
The Appendix gives us 17 separate songs from both operas in
recordings dating from 1900-22. Some of the greatest names in
French singing are here in rare discs. Marie Charbonnel survives
a rough sounding c.1910 Trianon whilst Suzanne Brohly reminds
us in her 1922 disc that the role of Pygmalion in Galathée
was originally to have been that of a mezzo. Rose Heilbronner’s
French Gramophone disc was pretty much contemporary with the
1912 Pathé set, but her disc is immeasurably better recorded,
though neither she nor Joachim Cerdan can match the Pathé singers
for personality. It’s very valuable to find the little known
soprano Marie-Louise Martini in her 1909 APGA, but it’s also
good to find so eminent a soprano as Lise Landouzy too in her
c.1911 Odéon. Jane Marignan’s 1905 Pathé has one of those rinky-dink
Parisian piano recordings — could it have been pitch stabilised?
— whereas the great Gabriel Soulacroix, recorded in 1900, five
years before his death, suffers no such trouble in his extract
from Les noces de Jeanette. Others to impress include
the imaginative and exciting Louis Dupouy, and the similarly
talented Alexis Ghasne. Georgette Bréjean-Silver is rather weak-toned
in her extract.
This three disc set is aimed squarely at specialists in French
opera on disc. As such it is a niche set, but that’s pretty
much a given, since almost all Marston discs appeal to the specialist
collector of one sort or another. The project has been realised
with outstanding intelligence and application, and is recommendable
in every respect.
Jonathan Woolf
List of works in the Appendix
Galathée
Tristes amours! -Marie Charbonnel (con) as Pygmalion; ca. 1910;
TRIANON (7411) 7411O Vénus - Suzanne Brohly (ms) as Pygmalion;
8 February 1922; GRAMOPHONE (CE238-1) 033225
Aimons! Il faut aimer - Rose Heilbronner (so) as Galathée and
Joachim Cerdan (bs) as Pygmalion; 17 December 1912; GRAMOPHONE
Ah! Qu’il est doux de ne rien faire - Georges Régis (te) as
Ganymède; 27 December 1910; GRAMOPHONE (16197u) 4-32224
Mais quels transports nouveaux? - Lise Landouzy (so) as Galathée;
ca. 1911; ODÉON (XP5527) X56227
Ah! Qu’il est doux de ne rien faire - Georges Régis (te) as
Ganymède; 27 December 1910; GRAMOPHONE (16197u) 4-32224
Enfin me voilà seul - André Baugé (ba) as Jean; 19 May 1921;
GRAMOPHONE (03446v/03447v) W411
Les noces de Jeannette
Enfin me voilà seul - Gabriel Soulacroix (ba) as Jean; July
1900; GRAMOPHONE (1020G) 32879
Enfin me voilà seul - André Baugé (ba) as Jean; 19 May 1921;
GRAMOPHONE (03446v/03447v) W411
Parmi tant d’amoureux - Lise Landouzy (so) as Jeannette; ca.
1905; PHRYNIS 2-MINUTE CYLINDER (10401)
Margot, Margot, lève ton sabot - Alexis Ghasne (ba) as Jean;
1907; APGA (1736) 1736 Halte-là, s’il vous plaît!- Yvonne Brothier
(so) as Jeannette and André Baugé (ba) as Jean; 24 May 1921;
GRAMOPHONE (03451v/0345
Ah! Vous ne savez pas, ma chère - Berthe César (so) as Jeanette
and Louis Dupouy (ba) as Jean; 5 September 1912; GRAMOPHONE
(17306u)
Cours, mon aiguille, dans la laine [Romance de l’aiguille] -
Jeanne Daffetye (so) as Jeannette; June 1907; GRAMOPHONE (6759o)
33820
Au bord du chemin [Air du rossignol, part 1 only] - Jeanne Leclerc
(so) as Jeannette; 1905; ODÉON (XP1623) 36126
Au bord du chemin ... Pour entendre mieux [Air du rossignol]
- Georgette Bréjean-Silver (so) as Jeannette; ca. 1907; ODÉON
(XP3267/3268) X56071/56073
Allons, je veux qu’on s’assoie - Nelly Martyl (so) as Jeannette
and Louis Dupouy (ba) as Jean; 23 November 1911; GRAMOPHONE
(02228v)
Pygmalion — Andrei Gresse (bass) 
Details
of works included in the Appendix listed below. 