FULL Jacqueline – Opéra comique en un acte (Offenbach) Opéra de Barie 2015 Claire Beaudouin, Damien Féral, Cyril Fargues, Brigitte Farges
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Jacqueline
- Composer: Offenbach Jacque
- Libretto: H.Crémieux, L.Halévy Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Opéra de Barie, France
- Recorded: August 2015
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Claire Beaudouin, Damien Féral, Cyril Fargues, Brigitte Farges, Michel Ballan
- Conductor: Jean-Marc Choisy
- Orchestra: Arnaud Oreb, PIANO
- Stage Director: Cyril Fargues
- Costume Designer: Anne Vergeron
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Jean-marc Choisy
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Do you know Jacqueline?
Libretto H.Crémieux and L.Halévy (who signed Pol D’Arcy) Music by Alfred Lange. Don’t go back through all your archives to find traces of Albert Lange. This composer does not exist! It is a pseudonym used by Offenbach to obey tortuous regulations.
Premiered on October 14, 1862 at Bouffes Parisiens (102 performances) then a German version in 1871.
There is the French censorship booklet and an edition of the German score. The French score was never published and the manuscript seems to be lost.
The latest news, I believe that Jean-Christophe Keck has found it, which was not the case when Jean-Marc Choisy, President of the Barie Opera sent me the German score and asked me if I wanted to work on reconstituting a French version for the 2015 season.
For the music, there is no doubt, we find Offenbach’s touch. No madness here though. We are closer to comic opera than to the follies of Orphée aux enfers or La Vie Parisienne. But what an art of simple melody, music which seeks nothing else to please and which succeeds in doing so.
By comparing the German version and the French censorship booklet, we quickly realize that the two versions differ. I’m not talking about places where you need two eighth notes instead of a quarter note for the text to “fit” but other, more important differences. In several pieces, it is impossible to put the French text in place of the German. I therefore had to, in many places, redo a French text different from that of the censorship booklet, translating more or less the German in order to be able to use the music.
The same goes for the spoken text: Again, some scenes are completely different. I reconstructed by taking what was the most theatrical in each of the two versions.
Overall, the characters seem less bland in the German version. The plot, a little sister to that of the Chalet d’Adam (1834), a little “nice” can only gain from it.
Jacqueline, a peasant girl, was betrothed to her cousin Petit Pierre. He left to pursue a career in the army as a lancer. Jacqueline thinks she is free to marry Grosjean, the schoolmaster. But Petit Pierre returns and thinks he is keeping his word by marrying Jacqueline despite the lack of attraction they feel for each other. Finally Petit Pierre, smarter than you would think, understands the situation and gives way to Grosjean. The Notary Griffard, deaf as a pot and the servant Manon complete the distribution.
Petit Pierre seems much more rough-and-ready east of the Rhine. I tried to give it a peasant side that has never known anything other than cows and life in the barracks. Not mean but not rough. He must never arouse the repulsion of the public and his qualities of heart end up making him very sympathetic.
Grosjean wants to be recognized as an intellectual and likes to call himself “Herr Professor”. I’m not sure he makes a very nice husband but he loves Jacqueline and she loves him so….
Griffard is only named by his profession (der Amtsschreiber) but the comedy generated by his deafness is clearer in the French version.
In short, it would be tedious to list all the small differences.
The version which will be presented at the Barie Opera in August 2015 is therefore an adaptation rather than a simple translation.
I wanted to put my knowledge of Offenbach’s works at the service of Jacqueline and the Barie Opera, having theatrical efficiency as my guide. Offenbach (like Mozart) was a man of the theater and ready to sacrifice his music when it ran out. I didn’t touch the music, but I wanted Jacqueline to hold the stage. We will see this summer in Barie if I succeeded!
Jean-Louis Guignon