Even Wexford has shied away from Offenbach’s operetta, Robinson Crusoë. It has rarely been performed since it premiered in Paris in 1867. In fact it ran for only thirteen performances and then slumbered like Rip Van Winkle until it was awakened (woke?) at the Camden Festival in 1973.
Now the Royal College of Music have revived it and I saw it on Monday evening. Of course Rip Van Winkle only slept for twenty years but the point is he slept through the American Revolution. I’d like to sleep through Brexit and wake up when everything has settled down. I completely misread the situation after the referendum. It seemed obvious that the optimal way out of the EU was to rejoin the EEA and EFTA. Mrs May’s Lancaster House speech ruled that out and marked the beginning of the chaos we are in now.
I am used to being bullied by politicians. They have been stealing my pocket money ever since I started getting it – calling it taxation. I put up with it because it‘s also called democracy. Where we are now is indeed uncharted territory and when a subservient, bovine, compliant citizen like me starts thinking about the American Revolution there can only be bad times ahead.
In the opera Man Friday (Vendredi) is sung by a mezzo soprano. In the original 1867 performance the role was sung by Célestine Galli-Marié, later to be the first Carmen. I hope the 2019 cast enjoy equal success.
https://youtu.be/ezGHapF8-lY
Drawing a veil over the fraught subject of Brexit, and focusing on the more frivolous topic: I have never seen Robinson Crusoë, or, indeed, even heard a complete recording, which I believe only exists in English, in any case. But there is a dazzling bonbon of an aria, the valse chantée, “Conduisez-moi vers celui que j’adore,” that is good fun, if you like that sort of thing. While it is arguably just a fluffy confection (was it perhaps part of the inspiration for Bernstein’s mocking “Glitter and be gay”?), it is nevertheless devilishly difficult to sing. Various recordings exist, with perhaps only Sutherland and Dessay up to the task in French (giving Sutherland a pass for execrable enunciation, as is necessary in most recordings). But most enjoyable, to my ear, is the rendition in English by Yvonne Kenny, with a killer trill at the end that must be heard to be believed. (Clearly, I have a weakness for sticky sweets such as this, so apologies to those who could care less.)
But one aria does not make it worth sitting through an entire evening, so perhaps this is one of those works that can benefit from some judicial cuts, if sensitively carried out? You don’t seem to have expressed much opinion on the success of the latest revival. Might one infer, then, that you didn’t like it . . . or perhaps that you simply emulated Rip Van Winkle during Monday’s performance?
Your Rip V Winkle guess is almost correct. My guest was unable to come at the last minute, I was feeling seedy after a weekend in Dublin so I jumped ship in the first interval. The English translation was an asset but I think a few cuts may have been advisable – running time well over three hours. However, it was an opportunity for the RCM young singers to show off with elan and a good production.