Opera no 84
Massé: Les Noces de Jeannette
Soloists
Concerts Pasdeloup
Jean Allain
This is another of those operas which turn up on old vocal records but which now have all but disappeared. Massé like Maillard (opera 83) was a pupil of Halévy and a winner of the Prix de Rome. It is essentially a two-hander for soprano and baritone. It does have two very minor roles and a small part for chorus but these are omitted in this recording - the only one available other than a re-issue of an recording from the early days of recording.
Ir is slightly (though only slightly) more heavyweight than Les Dragons but still very much in the opéra-comique tradition. The soprano part is quite taxing with a couple of coloraturaa arias. It is catchy and tuneful and very typical of its time and place. It is difficult to see how it could ever regain a place in the repertory. It is a bit too long to be a curtain raised and certainly not long enough to be an evening’s entertainment on its own. But tastes have changed and, alas, there seems no room for such delightful Jeux d’esprit on the modern stage.
