Roussel: Le Testament de la Tante Caroline
8.660479 (Naxos, CD)
DDD
FIRST RELEASE (11 March 2022)
Playing time: 79'00"
Tracks: 20
Booklet pages: 16
℗ 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
© 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
Main country of recording: France
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Roussel: Le Testament de la Tante Caroline published on 9 June 2022
Marie Lenormand, mezzo soprano (Béatrice / Chorus)
Marion Gomar, soprano (Christine / Chorus)
Lucile Komitès mezzo-soprano (Noémie / Chorus)
Aurélien Gasse, baritone (Jobard / Chorus)
Charles Mesrine, tenor (Ferdinand / Chorus)
Marie Perbost, soprano (Lucine / Chorus)
Fabien Hyon, tenor (Noël / Chorus)
Till Fechner, bass-baritone (Maître Corbeau / Chorus)
Romain Dayez, baritone (Patogène / Chorus)
Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes
Dylan Corlay, conductor
Albert Roussel (1869-1937):
Le Testament de la Tante Caroline (Aunt Caroline's Will) - an operetta in three acts, 1932-33, to a libretto by Nino (a pseudonym of Michel Veber) - one act version from 1964, edited by Marcel Mihalovici (first recording)
1-16 Part I
17-20 Part II
Recorded live on 13 June 2019 at L'Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, Paris, France.
Le Testament de la Tante Caroline (Aunt Caroline's Will) remains one of Albert Roussel's least-known works. It's an energetic and imaginative operetta that sits perfectly in the lineage of French musical comedy, with a plot that concerns the conditions attached to the mischievous aunt's will. The text is inimitably Parisian and Roussel responded with graceful and elegant writing that for some contemporary critics evoked the music of one his orchestral masterpieces, Le Festin de l'araignée. The operetta is heard here in the revision requested by Roussel's widow which cuts three acts down to one.