Although you may not know the opera on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/9 3:00 p.m.), we have no doubt you’ll recognize one of the arias as it’s been a mainstay of concert performances for many years. The opera is “Mignon” by Charles Ambroise Thomas, the thirteenth of his twenty-three operas.
Thomas was never really lauded during his lifetime, and only two of his operas seem to have had lives in the 20th century: “Mignon” and “Hamlet,” but more of his works have been showing up in recordings and on stage.
“Mignon” was the most popular of Thomas’ works during his lifetime and was based on a character found in Goethe’s novel “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship.” German audiences weren’t happy with the opera because of the changes made by librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carre. The opera had a happy ending as required by the Opera Comique where it premiered on November 17, 1866. After the German critics complained, Thomas wrote a more concise tragic ending, but that didn’t appease anybody. You’ll hear both endings on today’s program. Oh, that famous aria is “Je suis Titania,” and you’ll no doubt recognize it as soon as it begins.
The story is just a bit silly, so a direct approach may be best:
Mignon (Marilyn Horne) is stolen by gypsies in her infancy.
She travels with the gypsies and is forced to dance in their troupe.
Mignon is saved from the treacherous gypsy Jarno (Claude Meloni) by a student named Wilhelm (Alain Vanzo) and a travelling, amnesiac lute player named Lothario (Nicola Zaccaria).
She falls in love with Wilhelm but becomes jealous over his attentions to an actress named Philine (Ruth Welting).
Wilhelm is challenged to a duel by Philine’s admirer named Frederic (Frederica von Stade), but the two are separated by Mignon. Wilhelm has had enough Mignon’s constant attention, and he leaves her.
Upset, Mignon declares that she wishes the castle that they are in would burn down, and Lothario obliges.
Wilhelm saves Mignon from the burning castle, and Lothario returns having remembered that he is really Mignon’s, whose real name is Sperata, father.
In the tragic ending, Mignon dies in Wilhelm’s arms. In the happy ending, the happy couple and her newly reunited father embrace. We’ll hear both endings.
They’re joined by Andre Battledou as Laerte, an actor in the same troupe as Philine, the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Antonio de Almeida is the conductor.
After the opera, more music of Thomas is programmed including a ballet from “Francoise de Rimini,” an opera based on a section of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” We’ll also hear Bo Skovhus with the “Spectre Infernall” segment from “Hamlet. The afternoon will close with another version of “Je suis Titania,” this time performed by a 12-year-old Julie Andrews!
