Messager Les P'tites Michu

 Day 21

Message Les P'tites Michu

Soloists

Orchestra National des Pays de la Loire

Choeur D'Angers Nantes Opéra

Pierre Dumoussaud

I've mentioned before in this project my interest in French opera.  One of the things that most attracts me is that there is no real dividing line between what one might call serious grand opera and lighter operetta. Stylistically there are strong similarities between the two extremes and many composers were able to move seamless between one and the other. If you take Carmen, for example, the intense tragic music is contrasted with something like the Act 2 quintet. Even in Benventuto Cellini the trio in Act one would fit very easily into a comic opera.  Categorisation of the lighter French opera genres is quite complicated. What is an Opéra Comique, an Opéra Bouffe, an Operetta, a light opera, a lyric opera and even a musical comedy? 

There is so much music to enjoy here. Offenbach is a constant delight (I'm sure I will be including him in this project) and slightly later there is a whole raft of composers to explore - Planquette, Lecocq, Christiné, to name but a few who are well worth listening to. Then there are people like Reynaldo Hahn and Chabrier - the list goes on.

Probably the most highly regarded of all of these light opera composers is André Messager. He is a reallygood example of the way that there was no real hard and fast distinction between light and serious music. He was at one time musical director of the Folies Bergère but also become the musical director of the Paris Opera, where among other important premieres he conducted the first performance of Pelléas et Mélisande. Ballet lovers will know his score for Les Deux Pigeons. His most famous opera is Véronique. You probably know the donkey duet from Act 1, even if you didn't know where it came from.

Les P'tites Muchu (1897) is a constant delight. It has a plot involving babies mixed up at birth -conveniently called Blanche Marie and Marie Blanche. If that reminds you of Gilbert and Sullivan it is no real surprise. Messager comes from the same tradition - indeed he had an opera performed at the Savoy Theatre - the spiritual home of G+S. The one word I would use to describe the score is 'suave'. There is an elegance in the melodic writing and some piquant harmonic moments which come just when you least expect them. I knew a couple of the individual numbers but this was my first time listening to the whole thing, It was a lovely way to spend a morning.

I'm sure that I will be returning to lighter French opera later in this series - there is so much more to explore. If this genre is new to you I would recommend the single disc that Susan Graham recorded of highlights from a number of these operas: it includes one from this piece.