Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher

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Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher
Mystère lyrique (a dramatic sort of oratorio) by Arthur Honegger
The composer in 1928
EnglishJoan of Arc at the Stake
Textby Paul Claudel
LanguageFrench
Performed12 May 1938 (1938-05-12): Basel
Scoring
  • speakers
  • soloists
  • SATB choir
  • children's choir
  • orchestra

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) is a mystère lyrique, or sung mystery play (a dramatic sort of oratorio), by Paul Claudel with music by Arthur Honegger. Commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, it was written in 1935, premiered in 1938 and published in 1947 after rounds of minor revisions that extended into 1944. Claudel narrates Joan of Arc's last minutes of life with flashbacks to her trial and younger days. But while his poème of eleven scenes and a prologue is the work's backbone, with key scenes spoken, its music, particularly the choral writing, is generally considered its strength, despite Honegger's avowal that he had merely put his services “at the disposal of” the poet. Claudel's frame gave Honegger a space between Heaven and Earth, past and present, for mixing styles and using musical tools — monody, harmony and counterpoint — to build sculpted blocks of sound.[1] One detail of his score is its part for ondes martenot, an early electronic instrument played at the premiere by its inventor Maurice Martenot.[2] The mystère lyrique lasts about 75 minutes.

Performance history[edit]

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher premiered on 12 May 1938 in Basel. Rubinstein acted Jeanne and Jean Périer played Dominique, both spoken roles. Basel Boys Choir, a local adult chorus and a freelance orchestra were conducted by Paul Sacher.[2] It was an immediate success, with critics almost unanimous in praising a perfect cohesion between words and music.[3]

On 6 May 1939, after rehearsals at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the work was semi-staged with designs by Alexandre Benois at the Théâtre Municipal in Orléans, where Louis Fourestier conducted.[4] The work was heard again in Basel on 12 May 1939 and then in Zürich on 14 May. On 13 June that year at the Palais de Chaillot, it was conducted by Charles Munch (who would go on to lead the United States premiere in New York in 1948). After the outbreak of war the work was performed at the Salle Pleyel and in Brussels (22 and 29 February 1940, respectively). Sacher and Rubinstein made abortive plans for further performances that year, including at the Lucerne Festival.[5]

On 26 February 1947 Rubinstein organised a concert performance at the Palais des Fêtes in Strasbourg, conducted by Fritz Münch, brother of Charles, which was repeated the following year on 13 June in the presence of the composer.[6] Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher was first performed in Canada at the Montreal Festivals in 1953 under conductor Wilfrid Pelletier,[7] and as a staged performance the following year at the Stoll Theatre in London, conducted by Leighton Lucas.[8]

In December 1953 Roberto Rossellini directed a staged version in Italian translation at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples with Ingrid Bergman in the title role. This was then repeated at La Scala. Both performances received excellent reviews. Rossellini also staged the mystère lyrique at the Paris Opera, now back to the original French, again to critical success. He went on to film the San Carlo production in French and Italian versions. The film was released in Italy in 1954 under the Italian title Giovanna d'Arco al rogo, but it was a box-office failure and so the French version was never released.[9][10]

First radio broadcast[edit]

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher was part of the 1957–58 New York Philharmonic season at Carnegie Hall with Felicia Montealegre as Jeanne d'Arc, Adele Addison as the Virgin Mary, Leontyne Price as St Marguerite, Martial Singher as Brother Dominique, Frances Bible as St Catherine and Leonard Bernstein conducting.[11] The three performances took place in April (1958) and there was a broadcast.

More recent performances[edit]

Seiji Ozawa conducted a performance at the Basilique de Saint-Denis in Paris in 1989 starring Marthe Keller, and a recording ensued. Hiroshi Wakasugi led performances in Tokyo in 1994, though these did not constitute the work's Japanese premiere.

Marion Cotillard has acted Joan of Arc in many live performances, first in 2005, in Orléans, with the Orléans Symphony Orchestra directed by Jean-Pierre Loisil; again in 2012 in Barcelona with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia, directed by Marc Soustrot; in 2015 with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall[12][13]; and in 2024 at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main under Alain Altinoglu.

Recordings[edit]

The first recording was made in 1943 by French EMI, with the Belgian National Orchestra under Lodewijk de Vocht [nl], and featuring Marthe Dugard [fr] as Jeanne. In 1954 the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy recorded it for Philips Classics with Vera Zorina as Jeanne. Serge Baudo conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for Supraphon in 1977, featuring Nelly Borgeaud. The work had long been in the repertoire of Seiji Ozawa, whose live performance with the French National Orchestra and Marthe Keller, at the Basilica of Saint-Denis was released in 1991 (Deutsche Grammophon). More recent recordings include one of the 2012 Soustrot Barcelona performance with Marion Cotillard (2015, Alpha), and Stéphane Denève with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Judith Chemla (2018, RCO Live).

Roles[edit]

References[edit]

Notes

  1. ^ Roy 1994, p. 108.
  2. ^ a b Halbreich 1999, pp. 422–423
  3. ^ Depaulis 1994, pp. 72–73.
  4. ^ Depaulis 1994, pp. 78–79.
  5. ^ Depaulis 1994, pp. 80–81.
  6. ^ Depaulis 1994, p. 98.
  7. ^ Denise Ménard; Marc Samson. "Wilfrid Pelletier". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  8. ^ Leighton Lucas obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 9 November 1982, p. 14
  9. ^ Brunette, Peter (1996). Roberto Rossellini. pp. 177–180. University of California Press. ISBN 0520200535
  10. ^ Padgaonkar, Dileep (2008). Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India, p. 12. Penguin. ISBN 067008154X
  11. ^ "1958 Apr 24, 25, 27 / Subscription Season / Bernstein". New York Philharmonic Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives. 2124. Retrieved 28 January 2023. Includes program notes.
  12. ^ Craig Hubert (23 January 2014). "New York Philharmonic to Stage Joan of Arc with Marion Cotillard". artinfo.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  13. ^ "Marion Cotillard in Joan of Arc at the Stake". New York Philharmonic. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.

Sources

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