Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba in Bourgogne – magnifique!

France Mozart, Ascanio in Alba: Soloists, Choruses of Cosne-sure-Loire, Decize, Château-Chinon, Prémery and Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier (chorus directors: Stéphane Ruelle, Pauline Touma), Ensemble musical de Prémery / Laurent Noguès (conductor), L’Église Saint Pierre, Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, 6.6.2022. (LV)

Production:
Musical director – Laurent Nogués
Staging – Jean-Paul Denizon
Lighting – Fred Quenehem
Producer – Dan Krajcman

Cast:
Ascanio – Rémy Bres-Feuillet
Silvia – Pauline Touma
Aceste – Antoine Giovacchini
Venus – Caroline Pozdérec
Fauno – Alice Delachaume Perrin

In the Nièvre département of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté of France, nestled between the Loire Valley and the hills of Burgundy, a troupe of traveling players directed by Jean-Paul Denizon, known for his collaborations with Peter Brook including Tragédie de Carmen at Lincoln Center and the film Mahabharata, brought Mozart’s intoxicating Ascanio in Alba to life.  The unique adaptation captured the spirit and joy of the occasion by judiciously incorporating elements of the virtuoso singing in Kiss Me, Kate and the entertainment put on by the rude mechanicals for the Athenian court in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Narrated by Denizon in French as a way of bypassing the tedious recitatives and keeping the story going, but sung in the original Italian, the production had a theatrical flair and joie de vivre that created out of seemingly disparate parts not just a well-meaning, enterprising performance but a small Mozartian miracle.

Obscure to the extent that there are still only three recordings and lasting more than three hours in its complete form, Ascanio was composed to celebrate the marriage of Empress Maria Theresa’s son at a time when Mozart had fallen under the spell of both Italy and France. The music contains the seeds of Mozart’s great operas with passages that could be straight out of The Magic Flute and Così fan tutte, with five roles that demand singing of the highest caliber. And the fully professional cast met the challenge with some extraordinary singing, headlined by Rémy Bres-Feuillet (featured this month in Diapason as one of France’s brightest young countertenors) and Alice Delachaume Perrin (another possible star of the future) as Fauno, a predecessor of Cherubino and Barberina. As in the best performances at any level, the singers fell completely under Mozart’s spell.

The 28-piece Ensemble musical de Prémery, four professionals (three violinists and a French hornist) and the rest amateurs (with this critic leading the cellos), was conducted with an inspiring blend of passion and precision by Laurent Noguès, former conductor of the Morocco Symphony Orchestra and a professional bassoonist himself. The Ensemble was led with a similarly serious and vivid sense of purpose by concertmaster Jens Rossbach, not only an exceptional virtuoso and stylist – he is a frequent collaborator with the aron quartett of Vienna – but an expert on analyzing and optimizing the set-up of stringed instruments. Mozart’s original instrumentation was altered to accommodate circumstances, including three clarinets in place of the oboes for a more mellifluous sound and a euphonium in place of the serpent. Natural timpani were used for a tight, sometimes explosive, sound, and although it might have disappointed period instrument fans, the playing would definitely have tickled Mozart’s fancy.

This second performance of five on the Ascanio tour was presented in the church of Saint Pierre, established in 740 by Benedictine monks, with the country’s guardian angel, Jeanne d’Arc, watching over the proceedings. The church’s resonant acoustics, which recall the ambient properties of the cathedral Mozart wrote for in Salzburg, challenged Nogùes to keep the singers and the enthusiastic, surprisingly expert chorus balanced with the orchestra, especially its wonderful bassoons and double bass. If you missed either of the first two performances of Ascanio, more are scheduled for 18 June in Decize, 20 June in Cosne-sur-Loire, and 28 January 2023 in Autun. Not to be missed except, perhaps, by overly serious critics.

Laurence Vittes