PETITGIRARD: Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man.(Review)

PETITGIRARD:Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man

[] Stutzmann, Shafer, Devellereau, Koch; Breault, Rivenq, Courjal; Choeur Francais d'Opera, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Petitgirard. 1999. Text and translation. Le Chant du Monde LDC 2781139.40 (2)

Joseph Merrick, a disfigured Englishman who became a London celebrity in the 1880s, has been the subject of a 1980 film by David Lynch, as well as a Tony-winning Broadway play in 1979. This 1999 opera treatment of his life, with a score by Laurent Petitgirard and libretto in French by Eric Nonn, is a skillful, serious work. Nonn's well-constructed, effortlessly rhyming libretto affords Petitgirard the flexibility to shape the music accessibly, with recognizable motifs and set pieces. Occasionally, Nonn falters; the opening scenes at the freak show could have been telescoped, and some of the scenes a deux become a bit ambiguous. But there is much to admire in the storytelling, particularly the way Merrick is revealed slowly and steadily throughout, first remaining unseen, then unheard, then misunderstood, finally revealing the truest pain of his soul in the moments before his suicide. Even the ungainly title proves a good measure of the opera's attempt to highlight both the humanity and monstrosity of its subject.

Petitgirard's musical vocabulary reflects his French heritage -- the influences of Faure, Ravel, Poulenc and Satie are evident -- but his subtlety, melodic gift and sensitivity to the drama make him well-equipped to inherit the mantle and create his own outstandingly original idiom. Tom Norman, the freak-show presenter, is given a seductive, lyrical aria, while Dr. Treves and the nurses communicate in staccato, detached style. The great irony, of course, is that Merrick is treated with deeper respect and understanding by Norman than by Treves, whose attentions are but a thinly disguised attempt to forward medical science. Far more discomfiting than the freak show is the medical examination, where a chorus of doctors chants the ...