L'écume des jours (opera)
Encyclopedia
L'écume des jours is an opera
in three acts (14 scenes) by the Russian composer Edison Denisov
. The French
(also German
and Russian
) text is by the composer based on the novel of the same title
by Boris Vian
. It was composed in 1981.
, but also texts from a religious song by an anonymous author (14th tableau) from a funeral liturgy
(13th tableau), and the Latin text from the mass
(Credo
and Gloria
– 2nd tableau) and from the requiem
(Agnus dei and Requiem aeternam – 13th tableau).
Denisov himself defined his opera as a lyrical drama. The plot has something in common with La traviata
by Verdi
. The atmosphere of the opera in some respects is similar to Pelléas et Mélisande
by Debussy
. The influence of Tristan und Isolde
by Wagner
is also notable here. There are many comical or absurd elements that reinforce dramatic or even tragic aspects of the story.
The musical language is typical of Denisov’s music of 1980s with complex chromatic vocal lines, dissonant harmony and rich orchestral textures. There are many quotations, hidden quotations or allusions to music of different styles and epochs: songs by Duke Ellington
, American jazz
, French chanson
, or Gregorian chant
. All of these are veiled and transformed in some way, and even the quotation from Wagner
’s Tristan und Isolde
has a jazzy hue.
This work is probably the first contemporary Russian opera written in French and on a French subject. This (but not only this) gives it special qualities that have not been seen in Russian music before.
The duration of the work is 2 hours and 20 minutes and it was published by Le Chant du Monde in Paris
.
The premiere performance was given on Saturday, March 15, 1986 at Salle Favart, the Opéra Comique
in Paris
conducted by John Burdekin with stage direction by Jean-Claude Fall.
Subsequently a production was mounted at the Perm
Opera Theatre in 1989.
Colin lives together with Mouse, the friend of his house. Colin is waiting for his friend, engineer Chick, whom he invited for dinner. His cook Nicolas is reading the recipes from the cook book. Chick arrives, and Colin shows him the “piano-cocktail”, his own invention – the piano that makes cocktails. Chick plays an improvisation on Duke Ellington
themes and then tells him about Alise, the niece of Nicolas, whom he met at the conference of Jean-Sol-Partre (a broad hint on Jean-Paul Sartre
). They both go skating.
Intermezzo: Colin dreams about a girl he wants to meet
2nd Tableau: The skating-rink "Molitor"
Chick and Colin meet Alise and Isis, who invites them to the birthday celebration of her dog. One of the skaters breaks up on the wall. They all join the burial liturgy.
Intermezzo: The windy street
Colin repeats: “I would like to fall in love, you would like to fall in love”, and so on.
3rd Tableau: At Isis
Alise tells Colin that Chick does not want to marry her, because he spends all his money on the books by Jean-Sol-Partre. Chloé enters. Colin feels that she is the girl of his dream. They dance.
4th Tableau: The Quarter
Colin meets Chloé and they walk along the streets. Terrified by the absurd shop-windows they went to the forest where surrounded by the pink cloud they are invisible for other people.
Two “honorary homosexuals”, Pégase and Coriolan, are preparing themselves for the wedding. Simultaneously Chloé, Alise and Isis also prepare themselves for the wedding.
Intermezzo: The wedding of Colin and Chloé: Hymn of Love
6th Tableau: The honeymoon trip
Colin and Chloé travel by car with Nicolas as a driver. Chloé is frightened by the vision of strange fish-scale beasts, smoke and dirt of the copper mines.
7th Tableau: At Colin's
Colin and Chloé are in bed. Chloé complains about pain in her lungs. They play a record, and the room is transformed into a sphere. The visit of a doctor.
Intermezzo: The Medical Quarter, the channel with some fragments of bloody cotton, the eye gazing to Colin and Chloé
8th Tableau: The pharmacy
Colin and Chick are in a strange pharmacy with a guillotine for recipes and a mechalical rabbit making pills. Colin tells that Chloé has a lily in her lungs, and only flowers can cure her.
9th Tableau: At Colin's
Chloé is surrounded by flowers. The room became smaller. Colin reads her a novel about Tristan and Iseult
.
10th Tableau: The military plant
Colin finds a job at the military factory. The Director explains that weapons are growing from the seeds if you warm them with your naked body.
11th Tableau: At Colin's
Chloé sleeps among the flowers. Alise enters and tells Colin that Chick spent all his money to the books by Jean-Sol-Partre, and now wants to separate with her. Colin tries to consolate her.
Intermezzo: Seneschal and eight policemen and are coming to Chick to confiscate his property
12th Tableau: At Chick's
Chick dies defending his books. Paris is on fire.
Intermezzo: Alise sets fire to the bookshops with the books by Jean-Sol-Partre
13th Tableau: Chloé’s death
The dialogue between Colin and Jesus nailed to the cross.
Intermezzo: The empty town. The little girl sings a song about the dead town
14th Tableau: An Epilogue
Dialogue of Cat and Mouse. Mouse wants to die putting its head into the Cat’s mouth. Blind girls walk the street singing a song about Jesus. One of the girls stepped on the Cat’s tail. The Cat shuts its mouth.
(French)
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts (14 scenes) by the Russian composer Edison Denisov
Edison Denisov
Edison Vasilievich Denisov was a Russian composer of so called "Underground" — "Anti-Collectivist", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division in the Soviet music.-Biography:...
. The French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(also German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
) text is by the composer based on the novel of the same title
Froth on the daydream
Froth on the daydream is a novel written by French author Boris Vian, and published in 1947.It has been translated several times into English, under different titles...
by Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
. It was composed in 1981.
Creation and performance history
The idea of this opera came to Denisov in the beginning of the 1970s and he worked on it up until 1981. In the libretto, written in French, Denisov not only used text from the novel, and from numerous songs by Boris VianBoris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
, but also texts from a religious song by an anonymous author (14th tableau) from a funeral liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
(13th tableau), and the Latin text from the mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
(Credo
Credo
A credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...
and Gloria
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
"Gloria in excelsis Deo" is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn. The name is often abbreviated to Gloria in Excelsis or simply Gloria.It is an example of the psalmi idiotici "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest")...
– 2nd tableau) and from the requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
(Agnus dei and Requiem aeternam – 13th tableau).
Denisov himself defined his opera as a lyrical drama. The plot has something in common with La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
by Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. The atmosphere of the opera in some respects is similar to Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
by Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
. The influence of Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
by Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
is also notable here. There are many comical or absurd elements that reinforce dramatic or even tragic aspects of the story.
The musical language is typical of Denisov’s music of 1980s with complex chromatic vocal lines, dissonant harmony and rich orchestral textures. There are many quotations, hidden quotations or allusions to music of different styles and epochs: songs by Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, French chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
, or Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
. All of these are veiled and transformed in some way, and even the quotation from Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
’s Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
has a jazzy hue.
This work is probably the first contemporary Russian opera written in French and on a French subject. This (but not only this) gives it special qualities that have not been seen in Russian music before.
The duration of the work is 2 hours and 20 minutes and it was published by Le Chant du Monde in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
The premiere performance was given on Saturday, March 15, 1986 at Salle Favart, the Opéra Comique
Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
conducted by John Burdekin with stage direction by Jean-Claude Fall.
Subsequently a production was mounted at the Perm
Perm
Perm is a city and the administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia, located on the banks of the Kama River, in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was named Molotov ....
Opera Theatre in 1989.
Roles
| Roles | Voice type | Premiere cast 15 March 1986 (Conductor: John Burdekin) |
|---|---|---|
| Colin | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Thierry Dran |
| Chloé | light soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Véronique Dietschy |
| Chick | tenor | Marcel Quillevéré |
| Alise | mezzo soprano | Eva Saurova |
| Isis | soprano | Éliane Lublin |
| Nicolas | bass | Fernand Dumont Fernand Dumont Fernand Dumont was a québécois sociologist, philosopher, theologian and poet.Dumont was born in Montmorency, Quebec.Dumont died in Quebec.-External links:*... |
| Mangemanche | bass | Jean-Louis Soumagnas |
| Le sénéchal | tenor | Bruce Brewer |
| Director of the plant | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Michel Philippe |
| Jésus | baritone | Jean-Noël Beguelin |
| The Mouse | speaker | Sarah Mesguich |
| Le Pharmacien | speaker | Jean Rumeau |
| Little Girl | child's voice | Catherine Martin |
Scoring
- Singers: 2 sopranos, mezzo, 4 tenors, 2 baritones, 3 basses, 2 mimes, 1 boy soprano, chorus
- OrchestraOrchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
: 3.3.3.3 – alt saxophone, tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
– 3.3.3.1– percussion – electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
/celestaCelestaThe celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
– harpHarpThe harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
– stringString instrumentA string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
s
Act 1
1st Tableau: Colin's roomColin lives together with Mouse, the friend of his house. Colin is waiting for his friend, engineer Chick, whom he invited for dinner. His cook Nicolas is reading the recipes from the cook book. Chick arrives, and Colin shows him the “piano-cocktail”, his own invention – the piano that makes cocktails. Chick plays an improvisation on Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
themes and then tells him about Alise, the niece of Nicolas, whom he met at the conference of Jean-Sol-Partre (a broad hint on Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
). They both go skating.
Intermezzo: Colin dreams about a girl he wants to meet
2nd Tableau: The skating-rink "Molitor"
Chick and Colin meet Alise and Isis, who invites them to the birthday celebration of her dog. One of the skaters breaks up on the wall. They all join the burial liturgy.
Intermezzo: The windy street
Colin repeats: “I would like to fall in love, you would like to fall in love”, and so on.
3rd Tableau: At Isis
Alise tells Colin that Chick does not want to marry her, because he spends all his money on the books by Jean-Sol-Partre. Chloé enters. Colin feels that she is the girl of his dream. They dance.
4th Tableau: The Quarter
Colin meets Chloé and they walk along the streets. Terrified by the absurd shop-windows they went to the forest where surrounded by the pink cloud they are invisible for other people.
Act 2
5th Tableau: Wedding preparationsTwo “honorary homosexuals”, Pégase and Coriolan, are preparing themselves for the wedding. Simultaneously Chloé, Alise and Isis also prepare themselves for the wedding.
Intermezzo: The wedding of Colin and Chloé: Hymn of Love
6th Tableau: The honeymoon trip
Colin and Chloé travel by car with Nicolas as a driver. Chloé is frightened by the vision of strange fish-scale beasts, smoke and dirt of the copper mines.
7th Tableau: At Colin's
Colin and Chloé are in bed. Chloé complains about pain in her lungs. They play a record, and the room is transformed into a sphere. The visit of a doctor.
Intermezzo: The Medical Quarter, the channel with some fragments of bloody cotton, the eye gazing to Colin and Chloé
8th Tableau: The pharmacy
Colin and Chick are in a strange pharmacy with a guillotine for recipes and a mechalical rabbit making pills. Colin tells that Chloé has a lily in her lungs, and only flowers can cure her.
9th Tableau: At Colin's
Chloé is surrounded by flowers. The room became smaller. Colin reads her a novel about Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
.
Act 3
Intermezzo: Colin walks along the road; the vision of strange shapes and shadows10th Tableau: The military plant
Colin finds a job at the military factory. The Director explains that weapons are growing from the seeds if you warm them with your naked body.
11th Tableau: At Colin's
Chloé sleeps among the flowers. Alise enters and tells Colin that Chick spent all his money to the books by Jean-Sol-Partre, and now wants to separate with her. Colin tries to consolate her.
Intermezzo: Seneschal and eight policemen and are coming to Chick to confiscate his property
12th Tableau: At Chick's
Chick dies defending his books. Paris is on fire.
Intermezzo: Alise sets fire to the bookshops with the books by Jean-Sol-Partre
13th Tableau: Chloé’s death
The dialogue between Colin and Jesus nailed to the cross.
Intermezzo: The empty town. The little girl sings a song about the dead town
14th Tableau: An Epilogue
Dialogue of Cat and Mouse. Mouse wants to die putting its head into the Cat’s mouth. Blind girls walk the street singing a song about Jesus. One of the girls stepped on the Cat’s tail. The Cat shuts its mouth.
Recordings
Colin et Chloé, suite from the opera L'écume des jours (The Foam of Days) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, chorus and orchestra (1981) 36' Text by Boris VianBoris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
(French)
- LP Melodiya 24593: USSR Ministry of Culture SO, Latvian SSR Academic Chorus, The USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra,Vasili Sinaisky (conductor), Nelli Lee (soprano), Nina Terentieva (mezzo-soprano), Nikolai Dumtsev (tenor)
- CD Melodiya SUCD 10-00107: USSR Ministry of Culture SO, Latvian SSR Academic Chorus, The USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Vasili Sinaisky (conductor), Nelli Lee (soprano), Nina Terentieva (mezzo-soprano), Nikolai Dumtsev (tenor)
- 1. The Street - 22.36 (1-7)
- 2. The Molitor Skating Rink
- 3. On the Way to Chloé
- 4. The Wedding
- 5. Соlin et Chloé
- 6. The Medical Quarter
- 7. Alice's Death
- 8. Epilogue - 7.40