Massenet: Grisélidis (2-CD)

Composer: Jules Massenet
Artists: Vannina Sontoni, Julien Dran, Thomas Dolié, Tassis Christoyannis, Antoinette Dennefeld, Adèle Charvet, Adrien Fournaison, Thibault de Damas, Orchestre et Chœur Opéra National Montpellier Occitainie
Conductor: Jean-Marie Zeitouni
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Bru Zane
Release Date: October 31, 2024

Paris discovered Massenet’s Grisélidis at the Opera-Comique on November 20, 1901. The work is based on a medieval folktale retold by Boccaccio and Perrault, among others, and already set to music several times in the Baroque era. It gave Massenet the opportunity to handle the Gothic coloring of which the early twentieth century could not get enough. 

The inventive libretto explores unusually contrasted registers: the religious, the fantastical, the sentimental and the warlike. Above all, the presence of a scene-stealing Devil, saddled with a cantankerous wife, offers the possibility of contrasting the serious (or sublime) and the comic (or grotesque). 

Massenet thus produced a rare example of cross-genre equilibrium, a jewel of French demi-caractère, typical of the Opéra-Comique repertory. Although the opera renounces spoken dialogue, theatrical declamation nevertheless creeps into a few particularly successful scenes. Two magnificent baritone roles – the Marquis and the Devil – oppose each other with the full trappings of Romantic vocality, while Grisélidis makes a noble and introspective heroine, the perfect model of the French soprano.

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