Léo Delibes: Jean De Nivelle – György Vashegyi

Among Leo Delibes’s output of some twenty operas, Jean de Nivelle falls within his mature period, between Le Roi l’a dit and Lakmé. The work’s premiere at the Opera-Comique on 8 March 1880 was a resounding success. The press praised the charm of the melodies and the quality of the libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille, remarking on the coexistence of two styles in the score: one melodic and light, typical of opera-comique, and another in which the vocal writing seemed more serious, the orchestration richer and the harmonies more complex. It is true that the listener frequently feels a dramatic sweep ‘that transports one into the realm of grand-opera’, to quote Le Menestrel. Beyond it’s intrinsic interest, Jean de Nivelle reveals the growing seriousness that had come to dominate the opera-comique genre. So much so, indeed, that critics regretted the retention of spoken dialogue (however characteristic of the genre) in Delibes’s work. But recitatives were soon added to facilitate it’s international dissemination. It is this version that the Palazzetto Bru Zane has reconstructed and decided to record.