1914, musical comedy Music by Victor Herbert Libretto by Harry B. Smith Lyrics by Robert B. Smith
Ah, Love in Paree! Being engaged at birth proves awkward for Elaine, The Debutante, and Philip, as they come of age with their own exotic ideas of an ideal partner. There’s a French Marquis for her, and a French Opera Diva for him. The Debutante is set in 1914 as Cubism, Art Deco and Women’s Suffrage were racing throughout the world of art and culture. Spice or Comfort – that’s the question as deception and mistaken identity abound when the whole lot of colorful characters attempt to sort it out in Paris.
“What Victor Herbert does with a Cubist Opera should not be missed!” says Alyce Mott, VHRP LIVE! Artistic Director and Librettist. Hear again “The Face Behind the Mask,” “Call Around Again,” “The Love of the Lorelei,” “All for the Sake of A Girl” and “Never Mention Love When We’re Alone.”
1914 Opera Music by Victor Herbert Libretto by Grant Stewart Adapted from the French of Decourcelles & Thibaut
It is New Year’s Day in Paris! Madeleine Fleury, diva of the French Opera, must dine with someone! It is a must! Three gentlemen callers, a Chevalier, a Duke, and an Artiste, all visit Madame. The invitation is extended but alas each has the same exact excuse . . . “I am honored and would love to dine with you – shrug – but tonight, I really must dine with MaMa!” What’s a Diva to do? Here is a rare, one act experimental black box opera circa 1914. The Metropolitan Opera Company produced it for soprano Frances Alda. It was historic and completely misunderstood. Come explore this daring work by Victor Herbert with the VHRP LIVE! creative team and company.
THE REVIEWS ARE IN!
CRITICAL PRAISE FOR MADELEINE
We are delighted to have been so wonderfully reviewed by Opera News:
“On March 3, in the title role, soprano Claire Leyden was every inch the star, and projected a nicely human fallibility in a character who is not entirely sympathetic. Her lyric soprano is a major instrument, sweet of tone yet able to swell with dramatic force when necessary. Madeleine’s maid Nichette was mezzo Joanna Geffert. Her sizable voice was somewhat darker and richer than what might have been ideal in the part, but she delivered a winning performance, filled with concern for her impetuous mistress. Thomas Woodman lent his sonorous baritone to the too-brief role of Madeleine’s friend the Chevalier de Mauprat, and Andrew Klima’s vibrant tenor was ideal for his effusive romantic passages as Madeleine’s lover Francois, the Duc d’Esterre. As her childhood friend Didier, baritone Jonathan Hare wielded a virile presence and voice, and demonstrated a sensitive use of dynamics reflecting the multi-faceted moods of this character.”
Opera magazine in the UK said this of VHRP LIVE’s Madeleine:
New York, NY. Many forget that the Guernsey-born operetta king Victor Herbert was such a serious musician. He was an associate of Brahms, the Met’s first principal cellist and later (1898-1904) the Pittsburgh Symphony’s principal conductor. His huge successes in popular music and on Broadway have obscured his two operatic ventures, the grand opera Natoma (1911, premiered in Philadelphia by a cast including Mary Garden and John McCormack, no less) and the one-act Met comedy Madeleine (1914). For those of us New Yorkers who dream of seeing all the American operas the indefatigable Giulio Gatti-Casazza put on at the Old Met, this very well-prepared staging of Madeleine by the Victor Herbert Renaissance Project at the acoustically flattering Christ and St Stephen’s Church on March 3 proved a tonic.
The artistic director Alyce Mott introduced the opera alongside the conductor Jestin Pieper and the keen veteran pianist William Hicks. They talked about the audible influence of Debussy (whole tones) and Richard Strauss (touches of Rosenkavalier); to me, Herbert’s principal inspiration in this adaptation of a popular French play was manifestly Charpentier’s Louise, with its conversational bent and musical motifs for everything from soup to moods. Frances Alda, Gatti-Casazza’s wife, who created the title role, insisted on (and recorded) a set-piece aria, ‘A perfect day’. Otherwise all is instrumentally accompanied dialogue, with hints of arioso. The plot is little more than an anecdote: a spoiled actress attempts in vain to have her admirers and even her maid (who are committed to dinners with their mothers) join her for New Year’s Day supper; she finally settles for dining with a portrait of her own late mother, furnished by her impoverished childhood friend Didier. Conducted by Giorgio Polacco, Alda had good company at the 1914 premiere: Andrés de Segurola as Didier, with Paul Althouse and Antonio Pini-Corsi as an arrogant Duc and overfond Chevalier.
Mott produced a tight, logical staging—on a shoestring compared to the original production, if photos are anything to go by, but elegant in detail. In Claire Leyden we had a delightful Madeleine, a real actress with star-quality looks and voice, especially her pearly, well-projected top notes. If New York had a Volksoper, she’d be prominent there—as would Jonathan Hare, the graceful Didier, though (as with many American lyric baritones these days) he sounded best at full volume. Thomas Woodman—a sometime Met Valentin and Wolfram—sounded very solid as the genial Chevalier, and JoAnna Geffert showed a mettlesome mezzo as the loyal Nichette. Andrew Klima’s Duke was rather adenoidal. The whole cast showed dedication and good ensemble; the fine five-piece band (playing Herbert’s reduction from his 57-player Met score) played well from the opening bassoon sallies to the arpeggiated final chords, sweetened by the high violin. VHRP deserves thanks for expanding our view of Herbert with this charming rarity.
