Saint-Saëns Déjanire, of 1911, was his last opera.  The plot is basically the same as Handel’s Hercules.  Déjanire is infuriated by Hercule’s infatuation with Iole so he gives him a poisoned robe; itself a gift from the Centaur Charon, which kills him.  There are a few plot tweaks.  Iole is in love with Philoctète and agrees to marry Hercule to save his life.  But, basically classic, simple plot.

Musically it’s tonal and elegant.  It was well received by the critics who, correctly, pointed out that it looked backwards to Gluck and Spontini and owed little or nothing to Wagner.  Premiering when it did; Petrouchka was playing in Paris and it was two years after the premier of Strauss’ Elektra, it seemed to belong to an earlier period.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the wake, a few years later, of events louder, more dramatic and more dissonant than any musical composition it rather disappeared from the repertoire.

To my mind it’s rather good but like most 19th century French operas it needs the right singers and a conductor who doesn’t treat it like Puccini.  The recording made by Palazetto Bru-Zane with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Monte-Carlo Opera Chorus, conductor Kazuki Yamada and an excellent group of soloists does it justice.

Unusually Hercule is given to a tenor, here Julien Dran, but it’svery much a French tenor role of the period demanding considerable heft and genuine high notes.  Dran is very stylish and has the notes.  His Act 4 aria “Viens, ô toit dout le clair visage” is particularly fine.  Déjanire was originally a soprano role in the “falcon” mode.  The composer specified that she should have “brassy low notes”.  Here it’s mezzo Kate Aldrich and it works well. She has a powerful and true upper register which sounds suitably dramatic especially in her Act 2 confrontation with her husband.  She also has some real depth in her lower register.  Iole, take here by Anaïs Constans, is supposed to be much lighter and she does have a lovely sweet, true voice.  Surprisingly perhaps she isn’t given any coloratura work.  Baritone Jérôme Boutillier is solid as Philoctète and mezzo Anna Dowsley rounds things out as the servant/prophetess Phénice.

Yamada chooses generally fast tempi which seems to be one of the keys to pulling off these French works.  Certainly Saint-Saēns thought so; criticising the premier conductor for tempi that “would put an ant hill to sleep”.

The recording was made at Auditorium Rainier III, Monaco, in 2022.  I listened to CD quality digital files and thought the audio quality was really pretty good.  It’s quite rich and spacious though, as always if I could, I would go for the higher resolution release.  It’s available as a 2 CD set with book or as MP3 or FLAC (CD quality and 96kHz/24 bit) with a digital booklet.  As always with these Bru-Zane releases the booklet is extremely comprehensive.  Besides the texts and several scholarly articles it reprints the first night reviews from the major Paris newspapers.

All in all, a most enjoyable opera given the sumptuous Bru-Zane treatment.

Catalogue information: Bru Zane BZ1055