Bizet: Vocal Bits 'n Bobs

 

For this entry of my Bits 'n Bobs series, I cover a handful of vocal and choral works from Bizet, all taken from the Bru Zane portrait series.

I have previously reviewed books from Bru Zane, those dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns (BLOG) and Paul Dukas (BLOG). Those came with 2CDs housed in a luxury book filled with essays surrounding those composers, their compositions, and experiences related to the Prix de Rome competition.

In the case of George Bizet, the book comes with 4CDs and is part of Bru Zane's Portraits series, of which this is Vol. 6. Whereas the Prix de Rome series focused primarily on vocal cantatas and choral works, this one focused on Bizet offers an opera, a couple vocal cantatas, some choral works, an overture, French art songs, and many short solo piano pieces.

In the case of this Bru Zane Bizet portrait, I do not own the physical book, as I am doing a streaming review. If the others I own are any measure, I expect the physical media to be as high quality as the rest. I am also commenting on the pieces I was interested in hearing, thus I will not be covering the whole shebang. Those interested, though, should know the Bru Zane website contains all of the essays for their products, and for Bizet, also comes in English.

Two Prix de Rome vocal cantatas from Bizet are included, both The Return of Virginia and Clovis and Clotilde. These were composed for three vocal soloists and orchestra, based on a libretto which also had to go through a competition to be selected for the Prix de Rome. These vocal cantatas are essentially opera scenas of around 20-30-minutes length, composed over a 30-day period for the second round of the competition.

Surprisingly, I am already familiar with both of these works in different ways. The Return of Virginia was also composed by Camille Saint-Saëns for his entry to the Prix de Rome in 1852 on the very exact same libretto. While Bizet's conception is a little more darkly dramatic, Saint-Saëns wins the day musically for me. While most of the Bru Zane series find music not often found on recordings, Clovis and Clotilde has actually spent some time on record, which I most recently heard on Naxos from Jean-Claude Casadesus and the Lille National Orchestra. Here on Bru Zane, I find the singers are much finer compared to that Naxos release. Oddly, both of these vocal cantatas have characters waiting around singing for someone to return, and both feature a bass-voiced priest/missionary role.

Similar to these two vocal cantatas is Vasco de Gama, in what Bizet terms as an Ode-Symphonie. It is just as operatically dramatic as the others I mentioned, featuring significant time given over to solo vocal characters, but Vasco de Gama includes quite a bit of material for chorus as well. As I understand it, this work was required of Bizet as a result of winning the Prix de Rome grand prize, similar to his Te Deum.

In addition to these, I gave a listen to four choral pieces with orchestra. Le Golfe de Baïa and La Chanson de Rouet feature significant vocal solos amongst the chorus, retaining the operatic atmosphere of the previous works, but on a smaller scale. Le Chœur d'étudiants and La Mort s'avance are composed for chorus alone, showing Bizet's operatic nature, even without solo voices present. The Student Chorus is a boisterous male partsong number, while Death Advances applies its heavy-handed unison melody most effectively for a grim choral piece, opposite the heavenly body represented by the female singers, and is the most substantial of the quartet of choral pieces.

While I enjoy the quality of the books from Bru Zane, as well as the rare musical literature on their programs, it is the performances which matter most in the end. Luckily, every recording I have heard from Bru Zane has featured performers sounding as fresh as a daisy, with suave, attractive voices. I especially love the energetic capabilities of the Flemish Radio Choir, who are not only solid as an ensemble, but are fine musical characters in each work as well.

I would individually single out Mélissa Petit, whose soprano is absolutely divine, as well as tenor Cyrille Dubois, whose bright, bleating tenor has worked it way into my synapses as something of great power and beauty. While the orchestras utilized change from piece to piece, they are all recorded excellently.

While I wasn't as interested in hearing the full-length opera Djamileh, as well as the 10 solo piano pieces, I may eventually wander to these, but more likely, the 15 songs for solo voice and piano will come first. I will leave these for another day.

 

Bits 'n Bobs

Le Retour de Virginie (35.16)
    Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, mezzo-soprano
    Cyrille Dubois, tenor
    Patrick Bolleire, bass
  Lyon National Orchestra
  Ben Glassberg, conductor
  Bru Zane; 2025

Clovis et Clotilde (35.23)
    Karina Gauvin, soprano
    Julien Dravin, tenor
    Huw Montague Rendall, baritone
  Concert de la Loge Orchestra
  Julien Chauvin, conductor
  Bru Zane; 2025

Vasco de Gama (28.31)
    Mélissa Petit, soprano
    Cyrille Dubois, tenor
    Thomas Dolié, baritone
  Flemish Radio Choir
  Metz Grande of Est National Orchestra
  David Reiland, conductor
  Bru Zane; 2025

Le Golfe de Baïa (5.41)
La Chanson de Rouet (3.56)
Le Chœur d'étudiants (3.25)
La Mort s'avance (6.41)
    Mélissa Petit, soprano
    Cyrille Dubois, tenor
  Flemish Radio Choir
  Metz Grande of Est National Orchestra
  David Reiland, conductor
  Bru Zane; 2025

Find more Bizet recordings HERE!