Le Jongleur de Notre Dame

jongleurThere are, perhaps remarkably, two operas on the theme of based on Anatole France’s short story about a juggler monk who impresses the Virgin Mary with his skills.  There is a long one by Massenet and a much shorter one by Peter Maxwell Davies which I shall deal with here.

It’s perhaps misleading to call it an opera.  It’s a stage work which requires a juggler mime.  That bit doesn’t work so well on CD!  There’s only one singer; a baritone playing the abbot who is initially shocked by the juggler and then comes to understand.  There’s lots of nstrumental music played by a small chamber ensemble and, rather oddly, the last three minutes or so feature a children’s band.

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Vanessa

Samuel Barber’s Vanessa doesn’t get performed much and the recently released recording of the 2018 Glyndebourne production is the only video version available.  It’s pretty interesting, if perplexing at times, and I’m not as convinced as many of the people interviewed in the “extras” portion of the disk that this is an “under-rated masterpiece”.

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