Kreutzer: La mort d'Abel Book)

... And this handsomely-finished premiere recording is indeed presented, in a limited edition run of three thousand, as a hardback book with the two discs slipped into sleeves attached to the inside of the covers. In terms of production values this release is undoubtedly five star plus: the book - printed on high quality paper, illustrated, with obvious thought and care devoted to typefaces and presentation generally - contains several fascinating and scholarly essays that place Kreutzer's sacred opera in historical context, excerpts from contemporary reviews, a biographical sketch by Fetis and the complete libretto in the original French with a parallel English translation. The musical realisation of the score and the sound quality bespeak an equivalent attention to detail and an obvious desire to present the work in the best possible way: the cast appears to be a youngish one, none of whom were familiar to me previously, but they acquit themselves admirably; both the Choeur de Chambre Namur and period ensemble Les Agrémens turn in spirited performances under the direction of Guy van Waas that make the best possible case for this revival. And yet, the only thing that unfortunately lets this whole worthy enterprise down is the actual piece they have chosen to resurrect.It is perhaps unfortunate that I listened to this opera hot on the heels of a new release of `Semiramis' by one of Kreutzer's contemporaries, Charles-Simon Catel*, because a comparison of the two works only serves to reinforce the difference between the latter composer with inherent gifts for the medium and a musician who, seemingly against his natural abilities, plugged away at the dream of winning operatic laurels throughout his life (indeed, I was surprised to learn just how many operas and theatrical works Kreutzer, whom I principally regarded as virtuoso performer-composer for the violin, had actually written across the course of his career). There is no doubting Kreutzer's technical competence here and the conventional but reasonably effective overture, closing as it does with music evoking the breaking dawn, seems to suggest that the ensuing work would contain enough imagination to raise it above mere compositional proficiency. Sadly - aside from a few thunderous rolls of the timpani, a solitary thwack on the tam-tam and, curiously, the striking of an anvil just before his aria, "Tremble, indigne frère" - the opera proceeds with music of generally unperturbed blandness. The modest but effective melodic gifts that Kreutzer displays in his violin concertos (at least, in the ones I have heard) are rather weak here: at his best, Kreutzer can summon up a rather sweet if unmemorable prettiness for the more lyrical sections of the score - the ensemble in which the family prematurely celebrate the ostensible reconciliation of Cain and Abel, for instance, or the final chorus, where the harp adds an unexpected and notable dimension of colour to the score that is generally absent throughout the rest of the work. The one standout "scene" for me is that which opens the second act: the use of woodwind colour in the orchestral introduction really does evoke both the wilderness to which Cain has fled and the character's melancholy introspection; even if the lengthy recitative that follows is unremarkable it is also effective and leads into a truly lovely aria ("Doux sommeil, dans ce lieu paisible").What fatally flaws `La Mort d'Abel' as an opera and as a drama, however, is Kreutzer's prosaic harmony. Several characters, including as you'd expect Cain himself, have what you might call "rage arias" but, for all the conventionally applied clichés of such pieces (rushing strings etc), the composer's pedestrian approach to harmony renders them little more than conventional bluster and in the case of the aforementioned "Tremble, indigne frère", the number is barely even worthy of the name aria, being over pretty much as soon as it starts, which leaves the listener with a pronounced sense of anti-climax. The same problem afflicts Kreutzer's characterisation of the demon Anamalech and his cohorts: his brief interjection during the reconciliation chorus is so casual as to make the protagonists' expression of horror almost comical; Anamalech's grand scene in that act uses music that crosses the line from bland to banal and, while his appearance in the second act doesn't inspire quite such a meagre response in the composer, I have to say the scene in which he infiltrates the sleeping Cain's dreams with horrific visions of the future is perfunctory at best and passes for nothing, musically and dramatically.I do wish I could be more enthusiastic about this release given the obvious commitment to the project by both artists and record label - if only all opera releases were granted such exemplary production values! The last decade of the eighteenth century and the first couple of decades of the nineteenth witnessed a fascinating and innovative creative milieu in French opera and many works from that period still await the attention they deserve. Sadly, I would say this isn't one of them; although perhaps recommendable to those with a specialist interest in French opera (or oratorio) of this period, as far as the general listener is concerned I would advise sampling the music before purchase.------*  Charles-Simon Catel: Sémiramis

Great , Super , Fine !

First of all the story. It comes directly from the Bible and we have to keep in mind this is the psychological rewriting of an episode that is both important and at the same time rather short in the aforesaid Bible. In the Bible Cain is the farmer who presents God with fruits and vegetables, whereas Abel is the shepherd and he presents God with the newborn lambs of his flock. God rejects the offerings from Cain and accepts those from Abel. This is essential since it makes God a blood lover. He needs blood in his sacrifices to be satisfied. The long sections about the temple, the bowls and knives of the temple, etc., are the evidence that Jehovah loves blood sacrifices and he only brings human sacrifices to an end with Abraham's ordered and then shunted sacrifice's) of his son(s). Jesus is not the first one to bleed for God as a human sacrifice still and quite many will follow the example willfully or not. But it is clear God rejects Cain at this moment. And that this rejection is the cause of the murder.The opera does not go beyond the killing of Abel. The offerings are not clearly differentiated and what's more the rejection does not come from God but is clearly the result of the intervention of Anamulech, an envoy from Satan who tells us he has always been behind Cain's hatred for his brother Abel. And it is clearly implied it is that devil which topples Cain's altar and offerings. In fact God is absolutely silent and absent from the whole opera. This is already an important disruption of the Biblical story.The opera then builds some psychological situation in which Cain accuses his parents of having preferred Abel to him and because of that he hates his brother. It is the typical rivalry of the older son who feels menaced by the arrival of the younger son. Note the opera provides the two brothers with wives and children, which implies, and it is clearly said, Adam and Eve have had daughters and these daughters became the wives of their own brothers. Incest is not heavily mentioned but it is mentioned a few times.Act I Scene 4, Abel says: "My sisters, run to him. No, he cannot hate." He is speaking to the two wives, his and Cain's.Act II Scene 6, Adam says to the women: "Eve, you have lost your son (to the others) Your brother is no more."This incestuous situation that comes from the very axiom of the Bible that humanity came from the only two humans to have been created by God, Adam and Eve, both being directly connected via the famous rib. God is a basic in-breeder. The opera does not make it an extremely important element but the two instances I have given here are strategically positioned and thus cannot be seen as metaphorical or just accidental. They are motivated by their contextual environment. We can say that is a French element in the story after the strongly anti-Christian French Revolution.Finally the opera insists a lot on the way the parents did not treat the two sons the same way. Even if they mention the curse from the angel when they were ousted from the Garden of Eden, and Adam's fault (note Eve's fault is not mentioned), the main argument heavily used by Cain is that Abel is the favorite son and he, the elder, is not, is rejected. The toppling of his altar and the rejection of his offerings are the direct endorsement - for Cain - of this rejection from his parents by God himself. In other words he is cursed. If you add to that the fact that Anamulech pretends he is manipulating Cain, God is described as a pretty impotent and absent character. That too is a mark of the period: 1810 and Napoleon I with the strong heritage from the French Revolution.We of course have to think of Victor Hugo's version of the tale in which things are just as ambiguous since Cain has himself buried underground but he is haunted by the eye of his guilt, Abel's eye watching him, ,if it is Abel's: "The eye was in the grave and looked at Cain." And the title is "Consciousness" (La Conscience). In the same way the poem makes god very absent from the situation. The great difference is that in the opera we are considering what happened up to the murder, whereas Victor Hugo only considers Cain running away with wife and children, dressed in hides and thus seen as savage wild uncivilized human beings who are bound to discover or invent consciousness, hence humanity. But the emphasis is set by Kreutzer on the fact that the devil is always manipulating us and the devil is in us in the shape of jealousy, whereas Victor Hugo insists on the fact good is always in man, even in the worst criminal, in the form of consciousness which is clearly seen as the sense of guilt, remorse even, though the crime is unredeemable, hence guilt is forever, and this is a fully human step.Compare with Act II Scene 3, Cain singing about himself in the third person: "Cain cannot betray himself, his heart is but bitterness, it is made for hatred." There is no human transformation in this declaration just before he kills his brother. In this opera Kreutzer is very close to Victor Hugo, both erasing God and the divine from the world but different because he seems to think only evil exists, as if there would not be any human life without evil. Godless and pessimistic indeed is this vision. And yet evil is only present in some individuals, like Cain, whose "race" is declared to be "cursed" in the opera. That goes against Victor Hugo's belief that Man is fundamentally good and creative, that Cain was a murderer because he was primitive, not yet fully human and he was to develop into a higher level of humanity through his own primitive crime.And Anumalech is the only supernatural force that is taken into account: "Since a tyrant drove us out of Heaven, We must reign on earth." And that is the will of God who with this decision became absent on earth.The music is quite pleasant and at times dramatic, though Kreutzer probably does not have the power of some other composers of the time. The production here is very good. The male voices are clearly differentiated and Cain and Abel are definitely clearly kept apart. Unluckily we do not have this same quality with the voices of the three women, Eve and the two wives or sisters. The opera has a couple of very good duets but the choruses are not used as they should have been: the chorus of children for instance, or those of demons and angels. Their use is hardly some kind of supplementary very short musical element supporting the soloists. They could and should have had some dramatic existence of their own. The composer chose not to give them any real density. The production here has been obliged to follow the score.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU