MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 
REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS

François-Adrien BOIELDIEU (1775-1834)
La Dame Blanche - Opéra-comique in three Acts (1825) [2:16:55]
Georges Brown – Rockwell Blake (tenor)/Jacques Verzier (dialogue);
Gaveston – Laurent Naouri (baritone);
Dickson - Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (tenor);
MacIrton – Bernard Deletré (baritone);
Anna – Annick Massis (soprano);
Jenny – Mireille Delunsch (soprano);
Marguerite – Sylvie Brunet (soprano);
Un paysan – Bernard Dehont (baritone);
Gabriel – Gilles Vajou (speaker);
Choeur de Radio France; Ensemble Orchestral de Paris/Marc Minkowski
rec. Maison de Radio France, Paris, 16-22 November 1996
EMI CLASSICS 00946 395118 2 2 [68:16 + 68:29]

Experience Classicsonline

The popularity of “La Dame Blanche” in the nineteenth century was immense. It received its 1000th performance at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1862 and had reached 1675 by 1914. This success was however matched by its subsequent almost total neglect. Listening to this recording it seems unthinkable that such a charming, well-crafted and memorable opera should not once again be part of the regular repertoire. It can be compared with Auber’s “Fra Diavolo” (1830) or Adam’s “Le Postillon de Longjumeau” (1836) in style but is surely superior to either. Indeed I would compare it much more with Rossini’s “Le Comte Ory” (1828) in terms of its sheer musical quality, although it should be noted that it predates all of these works. Boieldieu not only had the ability to write memorable, even catchy, arias and ensembles but also was able to match dramatic situations and to write interestingly and imaginatively for the orchestra as well as the voices. When allied to a stage sense developed by the writing of nearly forty operas in total the reasons for his early success are obvious. The reasons for current neglect in terms of stage performances are less clear.

The most obvious reason could be that which usually condemns operas to remain unperformed – the libretto. However, whilst scarcely the most gripping of plots - it concerns a mysterious “ghost” called “The White Lady” who eventually reveals the whereabouts of some missing treasure to the tenor lead – George Brown - it is far from being uninteresting or incoherent. Based very loosely on episodes from Sir Walter Scott’s “Guy Mannering” and “The Monastery”, it was much tidied up to produce a clear narrative (unlike the original novels). Although the Scott connection might seem to link it to other Scott-based operas including “Lucia di Lammermoor” or “La jolie fille de Perth” the real comparison is with less dramatic works set in a more rural, even realistic, setting such as “L’elisir d’amore” or “La Sonnambula”. On the basis of this recording it would seem to be their equal in quality and I long for the chance to test this in live performance.

The present discs present the work to its best advantage, with mainly French singers and a very alert sounding orchestra. Rockwell Blake is the main non-Frenchman in the cast, but he sings very stylishly and with apparent ease in the florid sections. He is replaced by a French actor in the dialogue but this causes none of the awkward problems that can be caused by a failure to match the two voices. There is a problem with the dialogue, however, at least for me and others whose French is not up to coping with lengthy stretches of French delivered at some speed. The booklet promises a full libretto and translation at the EMI Classics website but I have not been able to find it there. This is a great pity, as it is obviously essential to understand what is being said and sung to get full enjoyment from this (or any other) opera. I hope that EMI will find a way of remedying this.

It would nonetheless be a pity to let this stop you from trying this set. It should appeal not only to all admirers of French opera of this period, but also to those of Offenbach and Sullivan, both of whom learnt from Boieldieu’s works, or indeed lovers of any early nineteenth century operas. I have previously managed to find recordings of “Ma tante Aurore” and “Jean de Paris”, and excerpts from “La Dame Blanche” but the present recording is by some way the best introduction to this composer’s music that I know of. I hope that it may have rivals in due course but past experience suggests that it would be worth acquiring this excellent version while it is available at a reasonably low price.

John Sheppard

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.