Planquette Les Cloches de Corneville

 Day 137

Planquette Les Cloches de Corneville

Soloists

Chorus of l'Opéra de Paris

Orchestra du Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique

Jean Doussard

Les Cloches de Corneville and La Fille de Madam Angot (14 May) were the two big hits on the French light opera state in the 1870s and both went on to have huge numbers of performances throughout the world. They are very different. Lecocq's work is very much towards the operatic side of opéra comique whereas as this opera, by Planquette, seems much closer to comic opera. The music language is is much more straightforward- there are occasionally passages of interesting harmony but for the most it consists of fairly simply tunes with straightforward harmony and fairly plain orchestration. Yet, perhaps for that reason, I enjoyed it more than I did the Lecocq. For example the big tune in the song about the bells (the bells will only ring out when the rightful master of the castle returns - which inevitably he does) has a very naive tune which is almost like a nursery rhyme. Yet a day later I can't stop hearing it in my head - it is a real ear worm.

There was something of a Viennese flavour to the score. Most of these French light operas have a waltz but the one here seemed as if it could have come straight out of the world of Lehár and indeed some of the comic songs would not have been out of place in The Merry Widow.  So although this was probably the least sophisticated work in this little exploration of lighter French operas I certainly got a great deal of pleasure from it.

As a footnote it was surprising to find that the original performer of one of the lead soprano roles went on to record a few numbers from the opera. Given that the opera was first performed in 1877 that seemed unlikely but it turns out that Juliette Simon-Girard was only 18 when she sang in the first permanence so was only in her mid 40s when she made the recordings in 1903 (she lived on until 1854). I heard one of her recordings and through the rather primitive sound you can still hear a very lively and free performance - much more like a music hall artiste rather than an opera singer. That is probably very indicative of the style of the original performances