Cherubini Les Abencérages

 Day 70

Cherubini Les Abencérages

Soloists

Orfeo orchestra

Purcell choir

György Vashegyi

Cherubini had a couple of fairly tenuous holds in musical history. First of all is the fact that Beethoven when asked in 1817 who was the greatest living composer replied ‘Cherubini’. Second his opera Medea has a toe hold in the repertoire and record catalogues because it was one of Maria Callas’ signature roles. Indeed a brief extract was included in the recent Callas film Maria.  

She sang it in Italian in a corrupt edition with recitatives by Lachner which were written in German. A very different experience to the original opéra-comique Médée in French with spoken dialogue. I saw that French version with Rosalind Plowright in the title role at Buxton many years ago - it works very effectively on stage and packs a real dramatic punch.

My first experience of Cherubini was playing the overture to Anacreon at a youth orchestra course. It is a strong piece which if you heard it cold you would almost certainly say was by Beethoven - so one can perhaps see why Beethoven gave the answer to that question which he did. I also played in the orchestra for a performance of one of his masses, though I can’t recall which one.

Since then I have heard a few other of his operas but this was a new one for me - other than the overture which has received a number of recordings. It is one of his later operas (1813) and has only received very occasional revivals. Indeed no score (full or vocal) of the work in French has ever been published. 

I enjoyed making its acquaintance. It is a fascinating transitional work which has elements which look back to French classical opera and some which point forward to what would become French grand opera. It inhabits the same world as Spontini and Mehul and one can see how ultimately this led to Les Huguenots and Les Troyens. 

Perhaps it is the large ensembles -with choirs divided into several different groups - which are the stand out feature of the score. A reminder that Cherubini gradually transformed himself towards the end of his life into a choral composer. The arias are attractive - though some are rather on the long side - but I don’t think that Cherubini had an innate gift for melody.  Unlike Médée the opera is through composed and it must be said that Cherubini is not a master of the transition - like Spotini and Meyerbeer he tends to make fairly awkward links between sections - if he were a car driver he would be criticised for his clunky gear changes.

The theme of the opera is the rivalry between two Muslim groups in the Alhambra in Grenada. The hero leads the Muslim’s to victory against the Spanish but in doing so looses the Army’s banner - the punishment for which is death. In fact the banner was taken by a soldier from the rival faction. The hero is saved from death because the Spanish emissary turns up in disguise and fights a duel on his behalf. He wins and virtue triumphs in the end.

Much of the drama takes place off stage - Act one is largely celebrating the hero’s impeding wedding at after at least half an hour of this the call comes to fight the Spanish and everybody disappears off stage. The crucial duel in Act 3 is not particularly dramatic and goes on too long - very few composers have ever managed to get this sort of fight music right. Cherubini’s attempt is underwhelming and sounds a little like the parody of grand opera one finds in The Pirates of Penzance.

But some of the music is highly effective and indeed very moving in parts. Again it is the choral episodes which have the greatest impact, though the arias for the hero and heroine in Act 3 as they both - independently - reflect on the fate are very moving.

This could never be a repertory piece but it was very good to hear it, particularly in this good performance which again shows the massive contribution that the Bru Zane label has made to our understanding of French opera. There are many more treasures to discover. Hérold, Halévy, Lecocq and Offenbach among others are lined up for this project in the coming months.