The integral of Melodies by French composer Jules Massenet, published on Friday by Atma and officially launched on Tuesday at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, benefited from a boost and took on particular importance thanks to the pandemic.
“It will be a shock for the French! sums up baritone Marc Boucher, linchpin and artistic director of this 100% Quebec project that will mark the history of French melody. A shock, first of all “because they didn’t do it”, then “because it took five years, and, had it not been for the pandemic, certainly ten”.
When asked to characterize the extent of the challenge materialized today in a box set, Marc Boucher is very clear: “It is the largest recording project in French melody ever carried out in the world and in the history of the ‘registration. By the same token, it is the largest lyrical project ever recorded in Canada: more than fifteen hours of recording, the equivalent of a Wagner tetralogy. »
The French Schubert
We knew Schubert’s 600 lieder. Thanks to this crazy adventure, we will now know the 333 melodies of Massenet, the most prolific creator in the field, the “Schubert of French melody” in a way. But the number 333 is not set in stone. “When the box is published, I put my hand in the fire that other melodies will resurface”, says Marc Boucher. When he began his research on the subject, in 2017, the general catalog of works by Massenet drawn up by Hervé Oléon and Mary Dibbern, which had just been released, officially listed 280 melodies.
Assisted by musicologist Jacques Hétu, a namesake of the composer, Marc Boucher spent five years looking for scores week after week. “We found unpublished material in American libraries, including the Beinecke, at Yale, which has a Massenet fund. Conductor Richard Bonynge also sent us melodies, one of which, which he bought on the quays in Paris 40 or 50 years ago, was unknown to everyone. We did musical archeology until two weeks before the last recording session last spring. But we do know that there are other tunes in private collections or caught in the maze of estates at Sotheby’s or other auction houses. »
Pandemic Project
A particular feat, the recording only took 18 months, from September 2020. “It’s the pandemic project, a stroke of luck”, states the artistic director. “If not for the pandemic, with the voices gathered there – Karina Gauvin, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Julie Boulianne, Frédéric Antoun, etc. — it would have taken ten years. »
For Marc Boucher, artistically, the pandemic has therefore been “a lifeline”. “In 2020, everyone is going back to Montreal, everyone is depressed, no one has any money. And there we have 80 days of recording at Saint-Benoît in Mirabel: everyone is singing and everyone is happy to sing! »
We have found unpublished material in American libraries, including the Beinecke, at Yale, which has a Massenet fund. Conductor Richard Bonynge also sent us melodies, one of which, which he bought on the quays in Paris 40 or 50 years ago, was unknown to everyone. We did musical archeology until two weeks before the last recording session last spring.
Marc Boucher, who took just over a year in 2017 to convince his pianist accomplice Olivier Godin to accompany all the melodies alone, is in charge of the artistic direction of all the sessions. He is the guardian of diction, pronunciation and style. “At Massenet, everything is quite clear: the flows, the portandos, the glissandos, everything is there…” tells us the baritone, already involved in the Fauré and Poulenc projects of ATMA. Vocally, these indications are translated musically in a way that hardly poses a problem for the most experienced such as Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Jean-François Lapointe or Karina Gauvin and is transmitted to the youngest involved in the project: Florence Bourget, Sophie Naubert, Anna -Sophie Neher, Emmanuel Hasler, Magali Simard-Galdès. “It’s enjoyable to have worked on this”, sums up Marc Boucher.
Unusual means
At the start of the adventure, in 2017, the baritone had convinced patron Jacques Marchand to acquire an instrument. “We first needed a piano from the time of Massenet tuned to the tune of the ministerial decrees of 1859 in Paris, that is to say the = 435, and a piano with parallel and uncrossed strings. Jacques Marchand bought an 1854 Érard in Paris for the Classica Festival. This is really the starting point of the adventure. Then, Marc Boucher convinced Johanne Goyette, then owner of ATMA, and began three years of research before selecting the singers. “It was there that, for example, we realized that Massenet had written 30 to 40 melodies for Lucie Arbell, his latest muse, a contralto. This is how it was necessary to negotiate with Warner to release Marie-Nicole Lemieux from her exclusive contract.
The complete Massenet was a substantial investment: “The Classica Festival put in $100,000, three patrons (Jacques Marchand, Marie-Christine Tremblay and Marie-Paule Laurans) $200,000. The icing on the cake: “Here came Guillaume Lombart, the new owner of ATMA, who said: ‘I’m going to pay everyone’. Everyone has the same cachet to the melody. Me, it’s the first time that I get paid to record! So Guillaume put in at least $50,000. In short, it’s a project worth at least $350,000, which is enormous in the discographic landscape here in Quebec. »
This moving sum for history, where the singers, very well chosen, skilfully follow one another to sustain a constant interest, is also the last project of Johanne Goyette, who ensured the realization, the recording, the editing and the mixing. One could not dream of a more glorious exit from the stage.