Massenet Festival
Massenet Festival (Festival Massenet) is a biennale festival of music by French composer, Jules Massenet held in Saint-Étienne, France, close to the area where the composer was born. The first Massenet Festival took place in November 1990 when the opera Cléopâtre and the oratorio La Vierge were presented. In recent years, performances have been given in the Grand Théâtre Massenet, one of the theatres of the Opéra Théâtre de Saint-Etienne, and formerly known as L'Esplanade.
History
Appointed to run the Opéra de Saint-Etienne in 1986, Jean-Louis Pichon invited Jean-Pierre Jacquillat to become musical director. Shortly afterwards, the elderly widow of a chief electrician at the Théâtre Eden handed over a mass of rare vocal scores, which included Amadis by Massenet. Intrigued, Pichon obtained a conductor's score for Jacquillat, but the conductor was killed in a road accident that August and a replacement was needed urgently. Eventually Pichon found Patrick Fournillier, then head of the Orchestre d'Auvergne.[1]
The revival of Amadis in January 1988 was a great success, broadcast by Radio-France which led to a commercial issue with the orchestra and chorus of the Opéra de Paris. As part of the bicententary celebration of the French revolution, Thérèse was staged in 1989 in several houses, Monte-Carlo, then Saint-Etienne, (whose production was selected to represent France at the European Festival of culture in Karlsruhe), then Łodz and Zagreb.[1]
Following the success of staging Massenet's Amadis in 1988 during this "unofficial" festival of his work, the organizers decided to seek funding for regular festivals; the Région Rhône-Alpes and France Télécom became main sponsors and the first Festival Massenet took place in November 1990.[1]
The Festival has occasionally incorporated a colloquy around the composer, such as in 1992 when 'Massenet et son œuvre dans le contexte esthétique de son temps' was the subject; speakers included Roger Delage on Massenet and Chabrier, Steven Huebner on Wagnerism in Esclarmonde, Hugh Macdonald on Massenet and the comic, and the musical language of Massenet by Gérard Condé.[2]
However, because the L'Esplanade opera house in Saint-Étienne burned down in October 1998, the originally planned next festival was delayed for more than half a year.
Festival highlights
In 1992, Esclarmonde was staged (with the participation of Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni in the title role), while the Third Massenet Festival in 1994 brought revivals of such operas as Grisélidis, Panurge, and Le Cid. In 2003 the 7th Festival included Sapho, conducted by Laurent Campellone.[3]
Over the following years, the other Massenet operas have been presented:
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Recordings
Festival performances before 1995 were released on audio CD (on the label Koch-Schwann) and others have followed, such as Thérèse from 2012.[8]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ a b c Forum Opera website interview with Jean-Louis Pichon by Laurent Bury, 9 Nov 2011. Jean-Louis Pichon : « Je pense avoir fait évoluer le regard des gens sur Massenet » accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^ Colloque International ~ Massenet et son temps. Notice in: L’Avant-Scène Opéra 148 – Esclarmonde ~ Grisélidis. L’Avant-Scène Opéra, Paris 1992, p.137.
- ^ Kasow, Joel. "Report from Saint Etienne", Opera (London), March 2004, Vol 55 No 3, p. 313.
- ^ Kasow, Joel. "Report from Saint Etienne", Opera (London), April 2002, Vol 53 No 4, p. 438.
- ^ David Stevens "A Massenet is born again", Internatiuonal Herald Tribune (on nytimes.com), 19 November 2003. Review of the 2003 Festival
- ^ Kasow, Joel. "Report from Saint Etienne", Opera (London), March 2006, Vol 57 No 3, p. 304.
- ^ Jose Irurzun, "Massenet, Ariane", review on www.musicweb-international.com Retrieved 22 February 2013
- ^ Andrew Clements, "Jules Massenet: Thérèse – review", 13 July 2013. Accessed 27 June 2014.