When we offer the public an unknown opera by an unknown composer, it is better that the title is attractive. With The Miser “according to Molière” by Francesco Gasparini (1661-1727), Vincent Dumestre had a good nose, and we can already imagine the school buses flocking to the different performances of the tour which will begin after the premiere at the Caen theater, co-producer of the show. And there will be no deception on the merchandise, because this Miserly created in 1720 is indeed based on the comedy of which Harpagon is the hero.
A remodeled plot
Of course, serious pruning has been carried out, since it is in fact three interludes sketches intended to be inserted between the acts of an opera seria, as was the practice at the time. Who says interludes also says the person of the drama reduced to the strict minimum, two most often. The Miser reduced to two characters? But yes, it’s possible! There is inevitably a miser, who here is called Pancrazio, and opposite him a character who is at the same time young woman, valet and matchmaker, thus condensing the roles of Mariane, La Flèche and Frosine, without forgetting a few lines from Valère which she inherits.
We indeed admire the skill with which the librettist Antonio Salvi – the originator of several texts subsequently set to music by Handel, including Ariodante et Rodelinda – managed to use entire sections of Molière’s text (in particular scene 4 of Act II, where Harpagon dialogues with Frosine, for the first two interludesand the unmissable final monologue of Act IV where the miser discovers the theft of his cassette). However, the plot is remodeled to come closer to the outlines of Italian comedy which Goldoni would still use a few decades later: Fiammetta is a young widow who claims to marry the old and rich Pancrazio and who, disguised as her own twin brother, enters the service of the miser to better praise the merits of the woman who could become his wife; she gets her hands on her treasure and, once married, she shows her great generosity by sharing with her husband the six thousand crowns… which were his.
© Philippe Delval – Caen Theater
Like Vivaldi
On this text, Francesco Gasparini composed pleasant but not unforgettable music. It sounds like Vivaldi, and for good reason: he was the director of the Ospedale della Pietà at the time when the red-haired priest was employed there. (Definitely accustomed to the exploitation of the European theatrical repertoire, Gasparini also became known for a Amblet according to Hamletrecently partly resurrected in a disc by Roberta Mameli). We especially notice a certain brilliance in the use of syllabic singing, particularly in the duet concluding the first interlude“Chi non ha non è”, which has nothing is nothing. The score is nonetheless executed with great taste by a dozen instrumentalists from the Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre in the lead, on guitar. To achieve a show of a duration more in line with customs, the conductor added three popular songs where it is a question of money and stinginess, with which each of the three intermezzi opens, as well as a pastiche of the famous “Agitata da due venti” taken from the Griselda by Vivaldi, the Miser being in his turn “agitato” when he lost his gold.
The show put on by Théophile Gasselin begins like a Benjamin Lazar production, with the Caravaggesque vision of a mute valet (the very flexible Stefano Amori) lighting an old woman with a lantern. peasant that one would think came out of Pea Eaters by Georges de La Tour. But the superb blue silk curtain soon rises, revealing first the musicians in Elizabethan dress and powdered hair, assembled on a platform, then Pancrazio’s house, a bric-a-brac from which some furniture and accessories necessary for the action will emerge. Amusing without excess, the production also benefits from the costumes of the faithful Alain Blanchot, Fiammetta alternating revisited basket dresses and valet disguise, while the miser wears the “antique strawberry” as planned by Molière.
© Philippe Delval –Theater de Caen
Singers faithful to the Poème Harmonique
In the cast, we find the no less faithful Serge Goubioud, already disguised as a nanny in Aegisthus by Cavalli in 2012, who here interprets the three aforementioned popular songs with great sensitivity. Present in the covers of Bourgeois gentlemanEva Zaïcik has also been a traveling companion of the Poème harmonique for several years: the role of Fiammetta allows her to deploy all the facets of her talent, especially on the stage, because the demands of the score are not excessive. Faced with a fairly large range, Victor Sicard finally bursts into Pancrazio, to whom he gives all the necessary ease, especially in his monologue where, as in the play, the miser apostrophizes the audience and succumbs to madness.
Laurent Bury
