Largely forgotten today, the composer Charles Silver was one of the most promising students of Jules Massenet, whose elegant style and effective dramatic gestures he fully mastered. His opera La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), based on Perrault’s tale, testifies to these skills with its colourful, lively and surprisingly modern music: the influence of Puccini is evident.
The libretto enriches the original story with delightful comic touches from the characters of Jacotte and Barnabé, who provide a light-hearted counterpoint to the fairytale plot. Although it enjoyed a successful first run in Marseille in 1902, the opera unfortunately never received a Parisian premiere, which hindered its wider dissemination despite an acclaimed revival at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.
Accessible, refined and treating a universal theme, this score deserves a second chance that just might – who knows? – earn it a place on the international operatic stage.
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