Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné

Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné

BZ 1047 (Palazzetto Bru Zane, CD)

FIRST RELEASE (11 February 2022)

Playing time: 64'30"
Tracks: 17
Booklet pages: 172
℗ 2022 Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française
© 2022 Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française
Main country of recording: France
Country of manufacture: Italy
Reviewer: Giuseppe Pennisi
Review of Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné published on 28 March 2022


Listen: Saint-Saëns: C'est Phryné (Phryné) (BZ 1047 track 3, 0:00-0:45)

Florie Valiquette, soprano (Phryné)
Cyrille Dubois, tenor (Nicias)
Thomas Dolié, baritone (Dicéphile)
Anaïs Constans, soprano (Lampito)
François Rougier, tenor (Cynalopex)
Patrick Bolleire, bass (Agoragine, Un Héraut)
Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen Normandie
Chœur du Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet, conductor

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921):

Phryné (1893) - opéra comique in two acts, to a libretto by Lucien Augé de Lassus - 1896 version with recitatives by André Messager

Act I

1 Introduction

2 Scene 1: Le peuple athénien

3 Scene 2: C'est Phryné

4 Scene 3: Trouverais-je toujours

5 Scene 4: Bonjour, mon cher oncle

6 Scene 5: Quelle destinée est la mienne

7 Scene 6: Je suis las de la vie

8 Scene 7: Phryné, je vous rends grâce

Act II

9 Introduction

10 Scene 1: Nicias!

Scene 2:
11 Qui vient là?
12 Un soir, j'errais sur le rivage

13 Scene 3: J'aperçois Dicéphile

14 Scene 4: Voyons! mon petit inventaire

Scene 5:
15 Seigneur, est-ce bien moi
16 C'est Phryné

17 Scene 6: Salut et gloire

To mark the centenary of the death of Camille Saint-Saëns, Palazzetto Bru Zane offers a chance to discover one of the most performed and admired operas during his lifetime, presented here in a rare version. Completed in 1893 and first performed the same year at the Opéra-Comique, the piece amusingly recounts the love affair between Nicias and Phryné, who dupes the old archon Dicephilus in order to avenge his cruelty. Its witty melodies and delightful orchestration made the opera an immediate success in Paris and then throughout France. It was enriched with recitatives composed by André Messager in 1896 to promote its career in theatres abroad. Hervé Niquet's dashing interpretation brings out to the full the qualities of the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen Normandie and the Chœur du Concert Spirituel, thus providing a sparkling backdrop for the virtuosic soprano voice of Florie Valiquette, the refined lyricism of tenor Cyrille Dubois and the vocal authority of Thomas Dolié's baritone.

Recorded 31 March-2 April 2021 at Opéra de Rouen Normandie, France.