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Review
of: Chabrier: L'Étoile This is a real find for anyone who is a devotee of Chabrier and an enthusiast of Ninon Vallin. At a price of about $16.50 I calls it a bargain. L'Étoile is more than the kind of fluff that Messager, Planquette, Lecocq and Offenbach composed for the Parisian public in the latter part of the nineteenth century. As delightful as much of it is not the best can hold a candle to the Chabrier. And yet it was a failure in Paris who liked their opera-buffa just so. Even today it has not come into its own. The first recording of any part of this comic masterpiece took place during the occupation with a set of five 78-rpm records under the masterful baton of Roger Desormiére. About 1984 there finally was a complete recording on VSM from Lyon and with John Eliot Gardiner at the wheel. This is available on two CDs - if you can find it. This recording springs from a broadcast emanating from Geneva Radio from 1941. It is not totally complete and as near as I can make out - Damn it I lack a score! - Loses maybe ten minutes. It is also 'blessed' with an unnamed narrator. Whether this is blessing or curse you must decide for yourself. Certainly he has a piquant voice and his French is impeccable. I might add that the plot is exceedingly - and delightfully! - Complicated. Something about a King whose chief pleasure for his birthday is finding someone - anyone - who speaks ill of the government - ipso est the King - and then executes him to the delight of the populous. After that … things get complicated as indicated. The melody line is so typical of Chabrier at his very best and the orchestration so piquant as scene dissolves to scene that one is sorry to see the whole farrago come to an end. It is a class act from miniature overture to closing chorus. I wouldn't miss it were I you. As to the performance: Ninon Vallin is a past mistress of this kind of music and here in her fifty-fifth year she is as sprightly as ever and her voice addresses the music with absolute flawlessness. Her surrounding cast too is delightful. Hugues Cuenod is not exactly unknown and makes much (or little if you will) of Le Roi Ouf 1er. Ansermet has that certain flair that always adds to whatever he conducts but most especially in French repertoire. I must close with a cautionary or two. The sound is pretty poor. It is badly pinched at the top end and I would suggest that you use a little diminution at about 6 to 8 KHz. There are inadequate notes, no text and no synopsis. But Hey! Don't miss it! Excerpt used: Rondeau du colporteur (Vallin)
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ALEXIS
EMMANUEL CHABRIER: L'ÉTOILE
