Polyeucte – Grand Theâtre Massenet Saint-Etienne, France
By Francis Carlin
FT
March 17 2006 02:00
They are doing Carry on Christians in Saint-Etienne, a dizzy
Technicolor show that is as camp as Christmas. Alexandre Heyraud’s
interlocking series of red colonnades is simple and practical but
management should have taken the costume designer Frederic Pineau
aside and stopped him spending the entire municipal budget at the
local fabric warehouse. Pineau’s riotous pastel togas and headdresses
are right out of a 1950s time-warp.
Gounod thought his penultimate opera, based on Corneille’s tragedie
about the Armenian prince who flouts Roman authority and converts to
Christianity, was his best. It shows how mistaken composers can be
about their own works.
Polyeucte too often gets bogged down in an oompah, grand opera
style that the music director, Laurent Campellone, delivers with
keen attacks but a bit too much vigour. Apart from the tenor recital
lollipop “Source delicieuse”, there is little music of note but much
emphatic padding, run-of-the-mill orchestration, and regurgitated
formulae from past successes such as Faust.
Jean-Louis Pichon’s lame production makes things worse by leaving
the cast stranded mid-stage in shock-horror poses but the work
really requires a starry cast to make us overlook its pious self-
indulgence. Cecile Perrin’s Pauline can muster the high notes but is
hoarse in the middle register. Jean- Pierre Furlan in the title role
has a tenor voice that is in a weird class of its own: his vibrato-less
timbre could cut through the din of roadworks.
Evgeny Alexiev, as the altruistic Sevère, has appreciable power
but wayward control. The supporting cast is more at home with the
required style, notably Christophe Berry in a stylish, all-too-
brief pagan barcarolle.
And Corneille? He is probably still revolving in his tomb. But the
matinee audience lapped it up, particularly the climax, as Pauline
follows her husband and embraces death and the Christian faith.
Tel +33 4 77 47 83 40
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