Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME III.
1909
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Messager.
André Charles Prosper
Messager was born at Montluçon, France, December 30, 1853. He was a
pupil first in the École Niedermeyer, and then of Saint-Saëns. He won
the gold medal of the Société des Compositeurs in 1876, with a symphony,
and the second prize of the City of Paris contest with his Promethée
Enchainé, a cantata. He became organist at the Church of St.
Sulpice; then conductor in Brussels. Returning to Paris as an organist
in the city churches, he began his operatic career by finishing a comic
opera by Bernicat called Françoise les Bas-Bleus.
Messager’s first original dramatic work, La Fauvette du
Temple, was successfully presented in 1885 in Paris, and La
Bernaise, in December of the same year, was an immediate success,
enjoying also a long run in London in an English version.
Other successful compositions of Messager’s are, Les Deux
Pigeons (1886); Le Bourgeois de Calais (1887); Isoline
(1888); Le Mari de la Reine (1889); La Basoche (1890);
Mine. Chrysanthème and Scaramouche (1891); Miss Dollar, Le
Chevalier d’Harmental, Les Petites Michus, Le Chevalier aux Fleurs, Une
Adventure de la Guimart, and Veronique (1898).
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Opera in three acts by
Messager. Libretto by Van Loo and Duval.
Characters: Florestan de Valiancourt; Monsieur Loustot, a bailiff;
Seraphin, a groom; Octave and Felicién, Florenstan’s friends; Monsieur
Coquenard; Emerance, Countess de Champ Azur; Agatha; Madame Coquenard;
Tante Benoit; Denise, her niece; Hélène de Solanges; an orderly of the
National Reserve, waiters, florists, and others.
Place, Paris. Time, Nineteenth Century. First produced at Paris in
1898.
The first scene of the opera is Coquenard’s flower shop. Monsieur
Coquenard is an eccentric old florist, who, in spite of his apparently
peaceful exterior, is filled with martial ardor and covets military
distinction. This ambition, his flirtations with the shop-girls, and the
troubles he has with his sword, when he finally comes into possession
one form the principal comedy elements of the opera.
Hélène de Solanges, a maid of honor at the court of Louis Philippe,
is about to be disposed of through a mariage de convenance, which
she very much dislikes. She and her fiancé have never met. Hélène and
her aunt visit the florist’s shop, and there from a gallery Hélène sees
her betrothed for the first time. He is Florestan, Marquis de
Valiancourt, and is flirting desperately with Madame Coquenard and her
shopful of pretty flower girls. He is sufficiently attractive to Hélène
to arouse her jealousy, and later her strong resentment while he tells,
with great aversion to it, of his coming marriage.
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The clever Hélène assumes the disguise of Veronique, a bewitching
flower girl, and wins the devotion of Florestan, to the disgust of
Madame Coquenard, whose husband also shows signs of deep interest in his
pretty employée. More than ever Florestan laments his coming marriage,
Hélène now enjoying his expressions of despair. At a lively rustic
wedding, Florenstan declares his love for the humble flower girl. But
Veronique-Hélène escapes in the veil of the bride, and a little later
receives her flancé in the reception-room of the Tuileries. The
despondent young nobleman discovers that Hélène and Veronique are the
same, to his great embarrassment and delight.
Opera in three acts by
André Messager. Libretto by Albert Carré. English adaption by Mrs.
Madelaine Lucette Ryley.
Characters: King Louis XII; Le Due de Longueville; Clement Marot;
L’Eveille; Roland; Master Guillot; Chancellor of “The Basoche”; Equerry
of the King; Jaquet; a Royal Page; the Watchman; Marie D’Angleterre;
Jeanette; Clarice; Colette.
Place, Paris, France. Time, Sixteenth Century. First produced in
Paris in 1890.
The story opens in a public place in Paris, where a band of
students, who form the club of “The Basoche,” are gathered to elect
their king. A young poet, Clement Marot, is the successful candidate. As
his election is announced he confesses to his confidential friend, L’Eveille,
that he has secretly married Colette, a pretty
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peasant girl. This is a serious matter, as the members of “The Basoche”
are bound by oath never to marry. Colette appears seeking her husband.
Hearing Clement’s voice she attempts to claim him. L’Eveille interferes,
explaining that there are reasons why the marriage must for a time
remain a secret. He prevails upon her to take a room in the students’
inn, the ‘Pewter Platter,” promising that Clement shall visit her in the
evening.
At this moment, however, there arrives upon the scene Princess Mary
Tudor, of England, who, by proxy in the person of the Duc de
Longueville, has been married to King Louis XII, of France, whom she has
never seen. She has prevailed upon the Duke to accompany her into Paris
for a frolic. She determines to spend the night at the “Pewter Platter,”
and this leaving no vacant room, Colette is forced to hire herself as
maid of all work in order to find shelter. From her balcony the Princess
sees the procession of students escorting their monarch, Clement.
Hearing the latter addressed as king, she at once falls in love with the
handsome youth, whom she believes to be her husband.
Poor Colette is quite as dismayed in finding, as she believes, that
her student husband is in reality King of France as she is at learning
that he is beloved by the Princess.
That night Clement secretly enters the inn seeking Colette. Clement
is enticed to sup with the Princess. He at first believes that she is a
spy in the employ of Roland, who suspects his marriage, and hence does
not dare retire with Colette, whom the Princess has ordered from the
room in order that she and her supposed husband
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may be more cosily homelike. The Princess, on the other hand, believes
that his evasion of her questions about their marriage is due entirely
to his romantic desire that they should for a time continue to play the
part of lovers.
The Duke, who has been sent for the King, returns saying that the
King is asleep. He is dumfounded on being told that the King has been
there. The students enter expecting to find Clement and Colette together.
Finding him with the Princess, however, they believe they have been
deceived into thinking him faithless to their oath, but the Princess
spoils this by announcing herself as his wife. The students are about to
pass judgment upon him when the Duke enters, and to save her claims that
he himself is the husband of the Princess.
Clement disappears in search of Colette. The latter has gone to the
royal palace. King Louis, learning of his wife’s whereabouts, has sent
for her. Meeting the messengers, Colette has in all honesty announced
herself as Queen and has been led away in triumph. She naturally refuses
to recognize Louis either as the King or as her husband, and he at once
suspects the Duke of having stolen her affections. When the two rivals
meet in the palace, and from the window observe the mock monarch once
more at the head of the students, explanations are ingeniously brought
about.
Opera in four acts, an
epilogue and a prologue, by Messager. Libretto adapted by Hartmann and
Alexandre from the novel of the same name by Pierre Loti.
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Characters: Pierre, a French naval officer; Monsieur Kangourou, a
Japanese marriage agent; Yves, brother to Pierre; Monsieur Sucre; a
marine orderly; Lieut. René; Second-Lieutenant Charles; Madame
Chrysanthemum; Madame Prune; O-Youki; Madame Strawberry; Jonquil-San;
Bluebell-San; French sailors and marines; Japanese, geishas and servants
of the Yeddo training school.
Place, Yeddo, Japan. Time, the Nineteenth Century. First produced
at Paris in 1893.
Pierre, an officer on a French warship, accompanied by his brother,
Yves, like himself a Breton sailor, is on a cruise to Japan, where he
meets the musmee of his dreams, a pupil of the Yeddo training
school for geishas. Through the good offices of Kangourou he makes the
musmee his wife, under the charming name of Chrysanthemum.
The most spirited action of the libretto is centered in a scene of
recriminations and tears, caused by Pierre’s unfounded jealousy of his
brother. With this exception the married life of Chrysanthemum and
Pierre is idyllic. Their union, however, is a fleeting one, soon broken
by the return under orders of the Triumphant, the lieutenant’s
ship. his departure makes a widow of the poor little Japanese girl, whom
Pierre has looked upon merely as a toy.
Unusually simple in plot, the opera is set to charming music and
contains many exquisite lyrics.
Last updated March 14, 2007