I can’t decide. Was this program music enriched by history or history enriched by music? Attending an Opera Lafayette performance is not like opening a box of chocolates. You always know what you are going to get, beautiful music associated with historical events in 17-19th century France with relevance today. You can of course treat OL productions purely as musical events. You go; you hear the beautiful music that OL has unearthed that you likely have not heard before, played authentically on period instruments by an outstanding group of musicians. That is a rich experience in itself, but if interested, there is more, much more. In this case, Artistic Director Ryan Brown wondered if there was a connection between Jean-Baptiste Moreau’s music for Racine’s 17th century play, Esther, and George Frederic Handel’s use of the play for his own 18th century Esther, now recognized as the first English oratorio. Mr. Brown is a musical Sherlock Holmes; the game was afoot.
l to r: Soprano Elisse Albian, soprano Paulina Francisco, and mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.
For three seasons, the theme for OL productions has been the influence of powerful women on French music of the 17-18th centuries: Madame de Maintenon this season, Madame Pompadour last season, and Marie Antoinette two years ago. Madame de Maintenon was first a mistress and then the secret wife of King Louis XIV in his later years until his death, which gave her power and influence with the French court, which she, a strong-willed, religious person, used impactfully. She had a guiding interest in education and the moral upbringing of young women. She established a school in Saint-Cyr that could accommodate 250 daughters of impoverished nobility; Saint-Cyr is a town close to the palace at Versailles. This effort also served to reclaim the support of nobles made poorer by their required support of Louis XIV’s wars. Maintenon discouraged opera at the court as too emotional but supported music and song with the right tone and moral message for court performances and performances at Saint-Cyr.
l to r: Bass-baritone Jonathan Woody, tenor Patrick Kilbride, and tenor Jesse Darden. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.
One production performed in 1689 gave her more than she bargained for. She persuaded the great playwright, Jean Racine, employed by the court, to write a play about the biblical story of Esther and called on the court master of music Jean-Baptiste Moreau, to write music suitable for the performance. In the story, Esther has been selected by Persian King Ahasuerus to be his queen, unaware she was Jewish. Her cousin Mordecai incurs the wrath of Prime Minister Haman by refusing to bow to him, only willing to bow down to God. Haman sets in motion a plan to annihilate all Jewish people. At Mordecai’s urging, Esther pleads with the king, revealing she is Jewish and exposing Haman’s intentions. Ahasuerus, remembering that Mordecai once saved him from an assassination plot, sides with his bride and orders Haman’s execution. The choice of this story seemed appropriate and safe, with a religious theme and an avoidance of sexual issues. Though experts assert the story is not backed by historical record, Esther is viewed as an important parable of God’s deliverance. Many in Louis XIV’s court also saw Madame de Maintenon reflected in Esther and Louis XIV in Ahasuerus, coincidence or not. OL’s edition of Moreau’s Esther was created by French Musicologist Anne Piéjus, who worked with Opera Lafayette on this production.
The schoolgirls at Saint-Cyr were trained in theater and acted in performances, a practice not allowed at other schools of the period. The court provided elaborate sets, costumes, jewelry, and musicians for the shows. Keep in mind that there was no age of consent in France at that time and young women, often still girls, married early. Also keep in mind that the acting in the performances was exciting and created feelings of personal empowerment for the girls, generally suppressed for young women of that day. Finally, consider that male courtiers were known for rakish behavior. What might have been predicted occurred; the performances became a scandalous affair, causing Madame de Maintenon to clamp down further. Her agenda to use the theater as social media of the day to promote her view of morality had backfired (see The Fan Experience section below for a note on an essay by Philip Kennicott relating that event to social media today and an essay by Benjamin Bernard on schools of that period offering an alternative to moral education by the church).
Conductor and harpsichordist Justin Taylor. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.
It seems unlikely that Handel knew of Racine’s play or Moreau’s music for it. Two poets, Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot turned it into a masque from which Samuel Humphreys wrote a libretto for Handel. Handel originally composed his work in 1717 for performance at the Earl’s residence where he resided for a while, named Cannons; he then greatly revised the masque, turning Esther into a full oratorio, first presented in 1732 at the Haymarket theater in London. One might consider it a tribute to Handel that he could lure Opera Lafayette outside of France. However, it posed a dilemma for musical co-director and guest Justin Taylor: what to select from the two works for an hour and a half performance and how to arrange the excerpts, either interspersed or as two groupings. Since Madame de Maintenon placed dampening constraints on the music at the court and the singers used were schoolgirls providing further musical constraints, not limitations for Handel, he chose to present them separately with the more lively music of Handel second in the program, all vocals performed concert style.
The program featured six excellent vocalists and 15 musicians, including Mr. Taylor who served as guest conductor while playing the harpsichord, for which he is renown; violinist Jacob Ashworth was concertmaster. For the Saint-Cyr section of the program, three female singers were utilized as soloists and as a choir. Paulina Francisco was Soprano I and the relatively straightforward baroque music by Moreau provided a showcase for the beauty of her voice, again reflected when singing arias by Handel. Soprano II was Elisse Albian whose lovely singing was highlighted by a natural vibrato. The Alto role was sung effectively by mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith. The ensemble singing was a strong feature of the performance. In addition to the vocals, three instrumental lyric interludes were included, with the Entracte providing the most entertaining music of this section, I thought. The performance included strings, flute, bassoon, oboe, and harpsichord. The music made for an enjoyable evening, though it was not closely tied to the drama, as is the case for opera.
l to r: Nancy Jo Snider, Justin Taylor, John Thiessen, Freya Creech, Gesa Kordes, Leslie Nero, Jacob Ashworth, Theresa Salomon, Natalie Kress, Keats Dieffenbach, Alissa Smith, Meg Owens, Isaiah Chapman, Serafim Smigelskiy, Anna Marsh, Jessica Powell-Eig, Jonathan Woody. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.
For the Handel section, three male singers joined the women featured in the Moreau section. The role of Haman was sung by bass-baritone Jonathan Woody (who also served as musical co-director of the program), that of Ahasuerus by tenor Jesse Darden, and tenor Patrick Kilbride was in the role of Tenor II. Interactive singing between some of the characters in the oratorio excerpts heightened the emotional appeal, such as the duets between Ms. Francisco as Esther and Mr. Darden as Ahasuerus. Handel’s music allowed more color by the singers and allowed more expression of emotion. Haman was given more prominence in Handel’s version for greater dramatic impact. Handel used music and vocals from another work of his for parts of Esther, which gave Haman the odd chore of singing about the merit of forgiveness at one point. The finale where the vocalists came together as the choir to sing, “The Lord our enemy has slain” was a fitting, strong finish with added emphasis from a trumpet. At several points in the oratorio, vocal and musical riffs reminded me of Handel’s The Messiah, and though OL’s small chorus had a gorgeous sound, I did find myself wishing for a much larger chorus. At one point, perhaps between excerpts, Mr. Taylor seemed to be jamming on the harpsichord. It might be fun to hear more of that. Each of the singers was a pleasure, and the musicians again delivered an impressive performance. Conductor Taylor was wise to place Handel’s Esther last in the program, though the limited excerpts from both Moreau and Handel left me wanting more.
Once again, my wife and I headed home from an Opera Lafayette performance feeling that we had experienced something not just enjoyable, but something special.
The Fan Experience: Opera Lafayette scheduled performances of “From Saint-Cyr to Cannons: Moreau and Handel’s Esther” for February 8 in the Kennedy Center and May 9 in St. Peter’s Church, NYC. The performance lasted an hour and a half, including one 15-minute intermission. Moreau vocals were in French and Handel’s in English; subtitles in English were shown for both. The program brought to mind for me the October 7 attack of Hamas on the people of Israel, but it was set and planned prior to that event. Soprano Margot Rood was originally cast as Soprano I and Esther but had to withdraw due to illness.
OL’s 2023/2024 season will conclude on May 3, 4 with “Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie” in the Kennedy Center and May 9 in the Museo del Barrio, NYC.
The program book, still online at this writing, contained informative program notes by musicologist Anne Piéjus, an excellent essay by Washington Post Art and Architecture critic Philip Kennicott drawing parallels between the French court’s reception of Esther and impacts of today’s social media, and an also excellent essay by music historian Benjamin Bernard who covered private school education at a contemporaneous boys school, Collège Mazarin, and the girls school at Saint-Cyr, Maison royae de Saint-Louis. In addition, they held two zoom meetings with creative staff to discuss these productions, Salon I and Salon II, still available online.
On a closing note, there is a 2000 film titled “Saint-Cyr” available for purchase, but only in French, that covers the personal history of Madame de Maintenon and the Esther performances. Because I had not seen the film, through OL, I asked their expert in the area, musicologist Anne Piéjus for comments on the historical accuracy of the film; she is Director of Research at the CNRS Institute for Research in Musicology. Many thanks to her for a detailed response. I have included her comments below, slightly edited to maintain the focus on the film. She has further piqued my interest in seeing the film and learning more:
“Patricia Mazuy's film (2000) is based on the novel La Maison d'Esther, published in 1991 by actor Yves Dangerfield……another film about Saint-Cyr and Mme de Maintenon, L'allée du roi, made only 4 years earlier, by director Nina Compañez, is based on the magnificent novel L'allée du roi by historian Françoise Chandernagor….. Saint-Cyr is a pretty film, but it's a long way from reality. The sets at Caen Abbey are magnificent, and the story of the two little Normandy girls who speak poor French is fairly faithful to what we know about the linguistic unification sought at Saint-Cyr Theatre and music also helped them to learn French. The female characters, masters of their own destiny, are quite convincing.
However, in my opinion, there is a distorted reading of the story……[re] Mme de Maintenon (a "beautiful brunette" poorly portrayed by Isabelle Huppert) and the institution: the highly sexualized and unhealthy sado-masochistic relationship between Mme de Maintenon and the teenage girls, a sort of tawdry retelling of a real health problem in the 18th century: the tuberculosis epidemic that killed many pupils and adults. In the same vein, the scene with Mme de Maintenon washing herself in the pond after having sex struck me as highly inappropriate. Apart from the fact that she was hated at court, she would never have risked losing her reputation by making love in the wild like a prostitute.
The episode of Iphigénie [in the movie] is a classic in the romance literature of Saint-Cyr, but it is false…..
What remains is the effervescence of the young girls, the theatre that went to their heads, the rehearsals, the court audiences, and the marriage that took place after the performance, all of which are attested to in the archives and fairly well captured in the film…..” Now, if only the company will re-issue the film with English subtitles!