A programme of the choral society chestnut that is Fauré’s Requiem along with Poulenc’s lively comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias looked like an intriguing combination on paper: on the one hand, an intimate mass for the dead, on the other a surrealist comic opera about boobs and exceedingly effective child-rearing. While the two pieces are not without their similarities, with ear-catching melodies and an essentially positive outlook, the contrast proved perhaps too great on Saturday’s concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers led by Ludovic Morlot.
Fauré’s Requiem might lack the drama and visceral punch of the requiems of Verdi and Mozart. A piece of quiet contemplation, it is an intimate celebration of a soul passing on to heaven. Aside from some suspect intonation in the horns at the very beginning, the orchestral playing was solid throughout. The violas shone on top of a wonderfully burnished lower string section, playing with a wonderful sense of line in the more contrapuntal movements, especially in the second movement Offertoire.
The BBC Symphony Chorus was not on top form, lacking an overall sense of legato and line. This was especially apparent in the two big solo tenor moments, which were also marred by some very puzzling vowel modifications. Tempi were on the slow side, too slow at times, especially the Dies illa section of the Libera me. Despite some outstanding horn playing, there was no drama to this most dramatic section of the piece and the chorus failed to hold the intensity throughout. Soloists Hélène Guilmette and Jean-François Lapointe both sang well, although Guilmette had a tendency of drifting slightly flat towards the end of phrases. Lapointe’s ringing top made for an exciting Hostias, but his lower notes were rather underpowered, making him disappear into the orchestra during the Libera me.
Poulenc’s 1947 comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tirésias) was his first successful attempt at an opera. It was to mark his first meeting with the soprano Denise Duval, who sang the main role of Thérèse/Tirésias. She would later go on to create the roles of Blanche in Dialogues de carmélites and Elle in La voix humaine. The opera is based on a 1917 play with the same name by Guillaume Apollinaire, one of the first forays into surrealist drama.
Les mamelles de Tirésias is set in Zanzibar, not the island off the coast of Tanzania, but a fictional village on the French Riviera, not far from Monte Carlo. The main character, Thérèse is tired of cooking and making babies, and decides to become a man; Tirésias. She grows a beard, and her breasts float off in the form of two balloons. She leaves her husband to become a general and convinces the women of Zanzibar not to have any more children. Her husband takes matters into his own hands and somehow manages to give birth to 40,049 in a single day, all without any female intervention! Not only that: they all have successful careers in the arts! The opera ends with a plea to the audience to make children, surely a resonant message for an audience that had just gone through the terrors of World War II.