munkus's Full Review: Ravel: L'Heure espagnole, etc / Previn, London SO
At age 27, the already established composer Maurice Ravel went to all 14 performances of Debussy's landmark opera Pelleas et Melisande. The influence of Debussy on the younger composer as been well traced, yet the most obvious influence of the earlier opera on Ravel's first opera L'heure espagnole is Ravel's very explicit instructions that it is to be 'declaimed rather than sung', so then it sounds like speaking musically rather than grand sweeps of song. Indeed, there are very flew places which could really be broken down as an aria or an ensemble- with the opera flowing over the hour more as some sort of beautifully scored, conversation recitative. This is possibly born of practicality, as Ravel set Franc-Nohain's play almost word-for-word, and if it had to stop for arias it would come out possibly twice as long.
The opera opens with Torquemada (bass) sitting at work in his clock shop (here, Ravel orchestrates a section for wittily ticking metronomes out of time which each other and other such automata). Ramiro (baritone), a muleteer, brings in a watch for repair. Torquemada's flirty wife Concepcion (mezzo soprano) reminds him he's supposed to be out winding up the municipal clocks, so Torquemada dashes out, but tells Ramiro to wait for his return. This irrates Concepcion as she is expecting her lover(s) to visit. Ramiro is equally irritated, as he's only too aware he's not too good at conversation with the ladies.
Concepcion has a brainwave. She gets Ramiro to carry one of the two grandfather clocks upstairs. He does so, at the exact point the first lover, an amorous student poet Gonzalve (tenor) arrives. Concepcion is impatient (and horny) whereas Gonzalve is effusively lyrical, espousing great romantic sentiments. But Concepcion isn't done yet. She has a second brainwave. When Ramiro returns, she tells him she has changed her mind and would like the clocks swapped. He dutifully returns upstairs, and Gonzalve is hidden inside the second clock, which Ramiro then happily takes upstairs. However, then Don Inigo Gomez (bass) arrives, an elderley banker, and another of Concepcion's lovers. In due course, he's also put in a clock which Ramiro then unwittingly takes upstairs. Concepcion sings what is closest resembling an aria in the whole opera about how useless her lovers are and she really doesn't know why she bothers. At this point however she is awoken to the charms of brawny Ramiro, and they go upstairs together, just as Torquemada comes back to his shop (by this point Gonzalve and Don Inigo are both downstairs, inside clocks) where he mistakes the situation and promptly sells them the clocks which they're hiding in. All five characters then come downstage and sing in the one ensemble a rather dubious moral.
In performance, this is a very funny comedic opera. It is a slapstick farce, but the slapstick also has heart which is no easy feat to accomplish. Musically, whilst it may lack the sheer amount of imaginative devices Ravel demonstrates in his other one hour (and, frankly, better) opera L'enfant et les sortileges, it still displays Ravel's unparalleled sense of orchestral colour even in the potentially cliched area of Spanishesque music.
Spanish Music was a field which was particularly popular at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, however by the time Ravel sunk his teeth into it was in its dying days (or, just as likely, no one felt game enough to try and top Ravel's efforts). It is one of the most interesting quirks of European art music that many of the most catchy 'Spanish' melodies were in fact written by Frenchmen (case in point: anything from Bizet's Carmen, all the more remarkable considering he never even visited Spain). It is however a dangerous field, ripe as it is to the worst excesses of musical tourism in that any composer would chuck in a castanet or three and a habanera rhythm and before you can say 'ole' you have a Rhapsodie Espagnole.
Happily though, Ravel's particular Rhapsodie Espagnole, which rounds off this disk, is utterly imaginative and superb, and a tremendous amount of fun with his wildly colourful splashes of orchestration and pulsating rhythmic devices used to propel the music into an orgy of excitement.
But back to the main attraction.
Any opera that has a modicum of success (and Ravel's operas, whilst universally loved, are rarely performed to their 60 minute length making them difficult to program as a full night's entertainment successfully) is immediately analysed to find out what does it really mean? Franc-Nohain's theories in his play were that sexual appetite was a mechanical action (like the machinery of a clock). This would have been an idea that appealed to Ravel's personality, and is perhaps further drawn out in his ability to counterpart sexual frolics of Concepcion with devices such as off-kilter metronomes and whirring clocks. Then again, it's also a good possibility that Ravel just wanted to write a silly opera.
This is an Andre Previn recording, from his Ravel series with Chuck Jones cover art. Previn is known as a shaky opera conductor (he has made only four recordings in his long career- including one of his own opera) but he's always been good with Ravel and he gets a lively performance from the London Symphony Orchestra but in such a quintessentially French work, it appears to zip along a little too much. This is also a problem with the cast, with only one of them being French (the smallish role of Torquemada is sung by Georges Gautier). It's all nicely sung though, but perhaps a little 'too' sung considering Ravel's very clear instructions regarding declamation and I feel that some of the less pleasant aspects of Ravel's opera (and he could definitely be bittersweet in his writing) are brushed over in the name of farce. However, overall, it is still a tremendous recording. The LSO also give a very energetic and sexy performance of the Rhapsodie.
Kimberley Barber is a luscious Concepcion, with the horny and impatient edge to her luxurious tone. Dumb Ramiro is sung by a hulking Kurt Ollmann who has a nicely winning voice, whilst Gonzalve (probably the only role which can be sung in the traditional manner- in fact, it should probably be overdone) is handled sweetly by John Mark Ainsley. Don Inigo's growling bass is sung by the under-appreciated David Wilson Johnson (who also did a great job on Previn's other Ravel opera recording).
L'heure espagnole has some sensational drama and discreetly brilliant music, but without the action being performed in front of you something is lost in the sterile surrounds of a studio recording (unlike Previn's L'enfant recording, linked earlier). With all the comings-and-goings of clocks and lovers, it can be hard work to try and follow what's going on next to a CD player.
Vital Stats
Original Language Title: L'Heure espagnole
Common Language Title: rarely translated (but it means The Spanish Hour)
Music: Ravel (1875-1937). His first (of two) operas.
Libretto: Franc-Nohain
Premiere: Paris, 19 May 1911
Sung In: French
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