As always, the seed is capricious. Of the vast corpus of Adolphe Adam (1803-1856) what did we learned? The ballet Giselle (that Tchaikovsky was always quoting in the example) and the song Midnight, christians . This is limited, if one considers that his work has some fifty operas, a dozen ballets, operettas, vaudevilles, cantatas, and a mass for the return of the ashes of Napoleon to the Invalides!

” Reserve your tickets for The Postilion of Longjumeau , the Comic Opera, Ticketac

Not content to be a a prolific musician, Adam also had a very nice pen ; in addition to his newspaper articles, his Recollections are an exciting testimony to the musical life of europe in the first half of the Nineteenth century. Prix de Rome, member of the Académie des beaux-arts, Adam missed even become chapel master of Saint-Petersburg, at the request of tsar Nicholas I, but he refused, preferring his life as a composer in paris.

in Spite of so much glory, who can now whistle a tune of The Rose of Péronne , The Brewer of Preston or The Muleteer of Toledo ? Rightly or wrongly, the steamroller of the memory has filled his office, and Adam went to the door. Only The Postilion of Longjumeau awakens even the memories of the lovers of French music. Created in 1836, the opera-comique was a instant success and dazzling, and immediately made the round of the scenes of Europe. Ubiquitous in Paris, it disappeared, however, the Salle Favart in 1894, never to return. It is, therefore, very happy to find this spring.

High-flying musical

The Postilion , it is first of all a history of opera. Arrant singer, Chapelou is that postilion to Longjumeau. The day of her wedding, he sings her air a fetish, in which he achieved a brilliant counter-re. He was immediately hired by a member of the court, who invites him to meet the king. And this is our Chapelou that leaves out marriage and young wife, to go and sing in front of the sovereign… It was not to find his wife neglected… ten years later, become a star of the opera. It will put in place a scheme to confuse, and revenge.

On a plot, comical and light, the work is mostly a pretext for songs of bravery and aerobatics of the music. It is today very few tenors who are able to reach the famous against-re of Chapelou. This is why american tenor Michael Spyres is a choice of a king. At his side, the young quebec soprano Florie Valiquette will have to deploy some of the treasures of pyrotechnics voice. Support to Sébastien Rouland to defend with zeal this music so fragile. But we are especially pleased to see the new staging, Michel Fau (reserves of course the role of a transvestite in the show!) so he had us enchanted with his Chives , on this same scene, a few years ago.

The Postilion of Longjumeau Opéra-Comique, 1 place Boieldieu (IIe). Tel.: 0 825 01 01 23. Dates: from march 30 to April 9, 2019 to 20 h.-Seat:From 6 to 138 €.

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