Massenet Box | A 100% Quebec discographic feat

It’s not every day that a block of 13 discs made in Quebec lands in the bins of record stores, all styles combined. In fact, it probably never happened. And it is thanks to singer and cultural entrepreneur Marc Boucher that the miracle happened. Take a look at this first integral of Massenet’s melodies recently released by Atma Classique.

“It’s still five years of work that is taking shape,” says the baritone, also general and artistic director of the Classica festival in his spare time.

The “virus” of the integral, he had already caught it a few years earlier by realizing those of the melodies of Poulenc and Fauré. But it was a question, each time, of “only” a hundred melodies.

However, Jules Massenet, better known for his operas like Manon and Wether, is at the origin of more than 300 melodies (of which several are recorded for the first time), a record in France. This leads the singer to call him a “French Schubert”.

With his friend Jacques Hétu (not to be confused with the late composer), passionate about Massenet, he brought from France an authentic Érard piano from the composer’s time. Marc Boucher also succeeded in convincing his colleague Olivier Godin to provide accompaniment for all the melodies, which meant putting around fifteen hours of music in his fingers.

And there are the singers, of course. There is no question of entrusting everything to a single performer, as did, for example, a Fischer-Dieskau in Schubert, Brahms and Strauss.

To preserve, as far as possible, the original tones and the vocal color required by each melody, Marc Boucher called on 17 different singers (including himself), all from here, a string of artists who reads like the current pantheon of Quebec singing with Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Jean-François Lapointe, Karina Gauvin, Julie Boulianne, Michèle Losier and Frédéric Antoun, to name only the best known.

Other artists joined as needed for narrator, violin, cello, guitar or harp parts.

Two years of “pure happiness”

With the number of works and performers involved, it was out of the question to record it all in one go. The availability of the Saint-Benoît de Mirabel church allowed the team to stretch the whole thing over almost two years, a period of “pure happiness” for the project manager, who was present for the recording of each melodies.

Marc Boucher also had the duty to ensure the artistic uniformity of the integral. No question, in particular, of mixing “r” grasseyés and “r” apical (rolled) according to the goodwill of the singers. These are the second who have had the favor of the singer, in line with the teaching of the legendary Pierre Bernac. Nor is there any question of going towards hypercorrection in terms of liaisons, for example by making a “z” heard in “vers elle”, as is sometimes customary in old French recordings.

And there is singing. “Vocal conduct, at Massenet, is not the same as at Fauré for example, explains the baritone. It’s more lyrical, more legato. There’s a marshmallow in the vocal line. A vowel calls the next. »

But what is the point of recording all of this, after all? Is everything good in pork? « Marie-Nicole [Lemieux] said that Massenet is music that comes from the heart, that has an overflowing sensuality. There is a signature there. Of the 333 melodies, I can say, in my humble opinion, that there are between 5 and 10 that we could perhaps have done without. Because even if Massenet does not always write on brilliant texts, his genius is to transcend these texts. »

“He was a bit like the Elton John or the Paul McCartney of the time. Or the Reynaldo Hahn. His music comes out of a jet,” he adds.

What will Marc Boucher do after that? He may be thinking of a Gounod or Dubois integral. “But there we breathe a little, we will reap the fruits of this project”, warns the singer.

Classic

Jules Massenet – Complete melodies for voice and piano

Various artists

Atma Classic