Clémence De Grandval: Mazeppa – Tassis Christoyannis

The subject of Mazeppa has inspired Mme Clémence de Grandval to write a truly remarkable score, the success of which will cause a stir in the musical world. It was with these flattering words that the press greeted the premiere of the five-act opera by one of the women composers most frequently performed in late nineteenth-century France. For her career was regularly marked by laudatory reviews and lasting successes, spanning all genres, from chamber music to oratorio and opera. Yet Mazeppa, though regarded as her testamentary work, did not enjoy the honour of a premiere at the Paris Opéra and had to fall back on Bordeaux to reap the rewards of glory. A model of concision, this poignant opera relates in a little over two hours the apotheosis and fall of the Cossack general Ivan Mazeppa, a fugitive in war-torn Ukraine. It was predicted that the work would enjoy a long career, but the subsequent evolution of the musical language of the Belle Époque, followed by the composer’s death, meant that Mazeppa sank into oblivion for more than a century. It was high time for its hero to get back in the saddle.