Hélène Guilmette, Artavazd Sargsyan, Chœur du Concert Spirituel, Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Anaïk Morel, Thomas Dolié, Ludivine Gombert
Munich Radio Orchestra, Hervé Niquet
"To have written that, you must be a poet", Massenet told Reynaldo Hahn when he read through the score of L Île du rêve. Composed when the young man was not yet eighteen years old, this curtain-raiser already had the qualities of the great works of the period. It reveals the colouristic talents of Bizet, the passionate outbursts of Massenet and even the prosodic originality of the young Debussy. The plot recounts a French naval officer's love affair with a young Polynesian girl he has to abandon. This subject also treated musically by Puccini (Madama Butterfly) and Delibes (Lakmé) is approached in an almost Symbolist style: the Romanticism of the music contrasts with a contemplative, introspective treatment of the narration. This is where the youthful Hahn particularly shines: in the very first bars (the hymn to Bora-Bora), in the various love scenes for Loti and Mahénu (notably the duet Restons encore les paupières mi-closes ) and even in the neo-Handelian prelude to Act Two.
Hahn is a precociously skilled orchestrator who elegantly sidesteps anything that might sound like ‘local’ colour...A successful song composer, he writes sympathetically for the voice. His cast reward him for his consideration: notably Cyrille Dubois as Loti, though Hélène Guilmette’s Mahénu doesn’t make the vocal journey from teasing girl to abandoned wife as smoothly as she might. Niquet coaxes stylish playing from the Munich Radio Orchestra, making the case for a rarity that is much more than an oddity.
The performance is first-rate across the board.
Dubois is a wonderfully ardent Loti, singing with passionate restraint and easy liquidity of tone...The rest of the cast, some of them taking multiple roles, are consistently strong, and the Munich Radio Orchestra sound sumptuous for Hervé Niquet, who presses through the work with quiet urgency; this is a score that would cloy if taken too slowly.
This exotic “idylle polynésienne” is a rediscovered gem about interracial love, packed with exotic atmosphere and sensuous melody. Niquet conducts stylishly and the soloists, deliciously led by Hélène Guilmette and Cyrille Dubois, are near ideal.
Hervé Niquet’s conducting is sensitive to the score’s beauties without allowing the piece to droop. Soprano Hélène Guilmette and tenor Cyrille Dubois sing their duets with elegance, and his Act III arioso is plangent.
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