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Realism Mixed With Dadaism Adds Spark to Opera Double Bill By BENJAMIN SOSLAND
On May 23, 1884, Claude Debussy was one of nine candidates to have arrived at the final round of the Prix de Rome, France's most important music competition. Having passed through a round of preliminary exams devoted to music as an art and science, he knew what lay ahead: Now he would enter a 25-day period of sequestration. Largely divorced from contact with the outside world—each candidate's composition studio was practically hermetically sealed—he was required to write a scène lyrique (dramatic cantata) on a prescribed text. Whether or not that imposed text sparked creativity in him was of little consequence. He was obliged to show his technical mastery of the "classical" aspects of composition, like harmony and counterpoint. The Prix de Rome was a challenging arena for any young composer, but perhaps more so for Debussy, whose student record at the Paris Conservatoire showed an increasingly rebellious spirit with regard to the tradition-bound study of music.
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| Costume sketches by Maline Casta for the roles of (left to right) Frogs, the Child, and the Princess for Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges, which shares a double bill with Debussy's L'enfant prodigue. |
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Judging began on June 27. Each candidate's newly composed work was performed for a panel comprising members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Jacques Durand, the music publisher, recalled the first round of judging in his book, Quelques souvenirs d'un editeur de musique (Memories of a Music Editor), published in Paris in 1924: "Debussy was at the piano, nervous, it is true … Madame Caron caused a huge sensation with Lia's aria … then after the final trio, I had the feeling that the prize was won."Durand was right. Although the voting proved to be contentious and protracted, Debussy emerged victorious. His scène lyrique, L'enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Child), on a text by Edouard Guinand, won Premier Prix. The Académie cited the work's "well-defined poetic sense, brilliant and warm color, lively and dramatic music." Along with the prestige of winning, Debussy received money, venues for performances, and publication of his work. He was obliged to spend three years in Rome (hence the name of the prize) housed in the Villa Medici, acting as an ambassador of French culture and as a student of the classical arts.Appropriately enough, Debussy was standing on the Pont des Arts when he found out he was the winner. Writing for the journal Gil Blas in 1903, he recalled that day: "… I was awaiting the result of the competition, watching with delight the coming and going of the bateaux-mouches on the Seine. All at once someone tapped me on the shoulder and breathlessly said, 'You have won the prize.' Now I do not know if you are going to believe this, but my heart sank. I had a sudden vision of boredom, and of all the worries that inevitably go together with any form of official recognition. I felt I was no longer free."
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| Lillian Groag (left) directs the Juilliard Opera Center’s double bill of French operas in December. |
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If winning the fabled Prix de Rome was bittersweet for Debussy, it certainly provided him with his first real accolade as a composer. The score of L'enfant prodigue leans heavily toward the prevailing esthetic of the day—the influence of Massenet and Gounod are obvious—rather than the more complex, evocative style of the mature Debussy. Yet it also reveals a keen sense of drama and technical skill impressive for a young composer. The plot is simple. A mother (Lia, sung by a soprano) is upset at the disappearance of her son. The son (Azaël, a tenor role) returns and falls unconscious from exhaustion on his parents' doorstep. When his parents (the father, Simeon, is a baritone) recognize him as their own, all three rejoice in their reunion.Maurice Ravel created his L'enfant et les sortilèges in a somewhat more conventional, though no less arduous, manner than Debussy. He and Colette, his illustrious librettist, met briefly in 1900 at the Paris salon of Madame de Saint-Marceaux, whose regular visitors included Gounod, Fauré, d'Indy, and Reynaldo Hahn. (Colette, in her typically coy manner, referred to such gatherings as "rather fashionable curiosities.") She listened to Ravel's music "first out of curiosity, then with … the mild unease of surprise, a sensual and wicked attraction to which new art added its charms." A full 15 years later, when Colette was invited to write a ballet-féerie (fantasy-ballet) for the Paris Opéra, she was thrilled at the prospect that Ravel, with whom she had had little or no contact in the intervening years, was to be the composer.The compositional process was slow for Ravel. His letters from the time reveal protracted bouts of ill health. But it was his service on the front lines at Verdun during World War I that prevented him from focusing on music. The opera was not finished until 1924, when it received its premiere in Monte Carlo.
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| Yves Abel will conduct the works by Ravel and Debussy. |
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Colette's libretto and Ravel's imaginative score create a dreamscape filtered through the imagination of a child. There are teacups that sing in ragtime, a slew of animals (a duet for cats consists solely of variations on the word "miaow"), a coloratura soprano in the guise of fire, and a crazed arithmetic professor. The child, loath to do homework, is scolded by his mother. He seeks revenge by destroying everything around him. Only at the poignant end of the opera, after he has wreaked havoc on his room and his beloved garden, does the child realize that his actions have consequences. "Particularly the Ravel talks about the fact that you cannot have a society or civilization unless there is compassion and caring for the world around us," explains Lillian Groag, the director of Juilliard's upcoming production of the two operas. "The child learns it's not 'every man for himself.'" As for the child's relationship with his mother, she adds, "Part of growing up is looking at your parents as people with flaws … they're not these icons. There was also the fact that Ravel went through World War I. He apparently observed the last words of dying soldiers; 90 percent of the time it was 'Maman' [a recurring motive in L'enfant]. In those days, when you heard it at the end of the opera, it had a different 'ping' than it does today."When the Juilliard Opera Center presents the two Enfants as a double bill, it will take a somewhat unorthodox approach by offering a staged version of the Debussy. How does a director deal with a work that was not intended for the stage? "It's terrifying!" said Groag, only half in jest. "There is no conflict: The Mother is sad. The Son shows up. The Mother says 'let's take him back.' The Father says 'no problem, let's take him back.' They sing and it's over."
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Ravel: L'enfant et les sortilèges
Debussy: L'enfant prodigue
Juilliard Opera Center
Juilliard Theater
Wednesday, Dec. 8-Sunday, Dec. 12
For time and ticket information, please see
the calendar.
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She realized early on that it would be futile to stage L'Enfant Prodigue like a true opera. But she admitted, "I don't like opera in concert. I'll stay home and play the record." She recalled an experience from the early '90s when she went to a concert performance of Electra, given by the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. "I didn't want to go. But I was invited—and it was, of course, the best experience I've ever had in my life. They acted it out without moving and without looking at each other. Opera singers are actors. I don't know when we're going to start insisting that an opera singer's a singing actor. If you have a B natural and your word is 'love,' that B natural should not sound the same as if your word is 'hate.' The sound is colored by what you're saying."
Undergraduate, graduate, and Juilliard Opera Center singers studying in the Department of Vocal Arts' Opera Studies program collaborate in this production portraying multiple characters and performing a variety of dances choreographed by Jeanne Hime Slater. John Conklin, the famed designer whose long list of credits include several productions for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and Broadway, will design sets for both shows. Groag promises elements of realism mixed with the influence of Dadaism, especially in the Ravel.A while ago, says Groag, she made a commitment to herself to work with students once a year. It is clear that she has a lot to teach them about life, both onstage and off. "If you want an easy life, get a 9-to-5 job with the whole weekend off, and you won't have to take your job home with you. If you want to do this … please, it's hard. This is not a hobby."Benjamin Sosland is a D.M.A. candidate in voice.
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