Guiraud Ouverture d’Arteveld

 Day 157

Ernest Guiraud Overture d’Arteveld

Orchestra National de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Thousands - probably millions - of people will have heard music by Guiraud even though they were almost certainly unaware of it. That is because of Carmen. The opera was originally performed at the Opéra Comique and included spoken dialogue. Spoken dialogue was banned at the Paris Opéra so when, after Bizet’s death the Opéra wanted to perform Carmen Guiruad, who had been a close friend of the composer, was engaged to turn the dialogue into orchestrally accompanied recitatives.  It was in this form that Carmen was almost always performed up to the 1960s and 1970s when the original version with dialogue started to be revived. Nowadays it is very rare for the recitative version to be used. Guiraud was also responsible for sorting out the chaotic state in which Offenbach left The Tales of Hofmann at his death and again Guiraud’s edition was widely used until more recent scholarship has started to disentangle Offenbach’s true intentions.

So he was an important figure in French opera but not for his own music. I’ve never heard any of his own compositions but this short freestanding overture, on a compilation of Symphonic Poems on the invaluable  Bru Zane label, was today’s choice.  It starts very dramatically with a slow and menacing introduction, probably the best music in the piece. The main section is more vigorous and contains some attractive music but was perhaps less distinctive and which occasionally descended into cliche. The music is obviously French but there were some distinctly Schumann-like touches and the spirit of early Wagner lurked in the background. 

I doubt that there will be many other opportunists to hear more music by Guiraud so I am glad to have encountered this overture. But I am sure that he will continued to be remembered only by his association with Bizet and Carmen.