Movie Music

By Martha Duffy

The shelves of possible Bellini and Donizetti operas must be getting bare; the new trend in vehicles for the box office sopranos may well be little-known French operas. Along with one fragile masterpiece, Manon, Jules Massenet wrote several operas that fit this description. After 87 years, one of them, Esclarmonde, has just made its Metropolitan Opera debut as a vehicle for Joan Sutherland. The title character is a Byzantine Empress with magical powers, and after hearing the music, one can only wish that she had used her sorcery to summon up a different show--Rigoletto, maybe.

The plot has to do with the gentle Esclarmonde's efforts to win her elusive beloved, the French knight Roland. Her plans are hampered by geography and a few other cumbersome details: the old Emperor, who abdicated in Esclarmonde's favor, conferred his wizardry powers upon her on condition that she remain veiled to all men until a suitable warrior consort is found for her.

Sound familiar? There are suggestions of Brunnhilde's dilemma here, and certainly Lohengrin's. These similarities would not much matter if the music had independent life. Instead, the score is a shameless pastiche, something that Erich Korngold, the peerless artificer of movie music, would have deeply appreciated. Wagner (including an outright steal of Tristan's theme for Roland), Meyerbeer, Offenbach, all emerge from the pit. The vocal music is lifted mostly from Berlioz, who wrote wonderfully sensuous love duets. The pity is that in Manon, Massenet created an ineffable erotic style of his own.

Bins of Beads. The revival of Esclarmonde is the idea of Richard Bonynge. Over the years he has earned grudging respect from critics for his workmanlike conducting, but his real talent is in finding music that will show in some new way his wife Joan Sutherland's extraordinary voice. There are few coloratura fireworks in Esclmonde. One hears instead her middle-high range -- lustrous, dusky, moving seamlessly between registers. No other singer could bring this music so close to distinction. Among the other principals, Mezzo Huguette Tourangeau, as the Empress' sister, sang with impeccable French style. The sets by Beni Montresor consist mostly of scrims and drops on which light shows swirl. To fashion his opulent costumes, the garment district must have emptied its bins of beads.

It all makes for a drowsy, pretty evening. But it is time for Bonynge to get out of the archives. With Esclarmonde he revealed the rich sensuality in Sutherland's voice. Why not give her a real part, like the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier?

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