Cherubini - Les deux journées

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Music reviews of Cherubini - Les deux journées

Music Review: An excellent new recording of a key French opera
Rating: 5 Stars

Cherubini arrived in Paris just before the outbreak of the French Revolution and his operas of the 1790s might be seen to trace the history of that turbulent decade. "Lodoiska" (1791) is full of the early hopes of revolutionary liberation; "Eliza" (1794), with its Swiss local colour, reflects the growing sense of national identity in Europe; "Medee" (1797) is a horrific depiction of the bloodbath the Revolution had become. "Les Deux Journees" (1800) might be seen as a sigh of relief and a plea for reconciliation between the classes. Based on a real life contemporary incident, but diplomatically relocated to the seventeenth century to avoid the censor, it tells the tale of a noble Parisian parliamentarian, Armand, escaping the clutches of the tyrannical Cardinal Mazarin with the help of a Savoyard water carrier, Mikeli, who manages to smuggle him past Mazarin's guards in one of the barrels on his cart. The opera was an immediate popular and critical success. The water carriers of Paris were certainly pleased with it - so much so that they rewarded the composer with a year's free water supply!

Those used to "Medea" or the Requiem and expecting Cherubini's music to be monumental, imposing and austere will be surprised at how catchy and charming much of this score is. For this work, the composer deliberately made his style more popular and direct. As well as its impact on the German Romantics, it also had a big influence on later - and lighter - French operas comiques by Boieldieu and Auber. There is great variety in the 80 minutes of music on offer here - the driving, Beethovenian overture; strophic, ballad-like arias; heroic, Gluckian duets; a wedding chorus and dance; menacing soldiers' choruses and marches. My favourite number though is the wonderful 12-minute long ensemble at the end of Act One, with its skilful changes in pace and mood. The orchestration is very rich, as you would expect from a composer in the French tradition - the woodwind writing in particular is highly imaginative.

The old Beecham recording had all the spoken dialogue, which is completely cut here. This is a shame as the libretto, though not a masterpiece, is solidly constructed and compact, and Cherubini skilfully integrated his music with the dialogue. Some of the melodramas (i.e. passages of speech over music) are also cut, further destroying the dramatic unity and making one element of Cherubini's influence on Beethoven harder to hear. In compensation, it all fits on one CD and we get the bonus of an alternative version of the famous overture plus a rediscovered number in Act 3 which sounds rather like an aria from one of Berlioz's early cantatas.

The performance (on period instruments) is ably conducted and very well sung. Mireille Delusch, in the Leonore-like role of Armand's faithful wife Constance, is outstanding. Anyone who admired her in the title role of Marc Minkowski's recording of Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride" last year should explore this - she exhibits the same heroic ardour. My only complaint would be that the Act 3 bridal choruses and dances and the final joyful chorus of the opera don't sparkle as much as they do on the Beecham version. On the other hand the clean, transparent sound of the modern recording allows you to hear many details lost in the distortion on the old tapes. I hope Spering gets the chance to record more works by Cherubini - for instance, his opera-ballet "Anacreon" has a wonderful reputation but no recording is available.

To my mind, this opera is more than just a date in the history books or a dusty old score of limited musical value. I really love this work. I hope this excellent new version will encourage others to appreciate this minor masterpiece too.(Brys)

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