I think you will love this music too: Le docteur Miracle (Bizet)

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Le docteur Miracle (Bizet)

This is my post from this week's Once or Twice a Fortnight.

This time on OTF I’m sharing a recording I acquired a few years back, that was a bit of a mystery, turning out to be a pleasant surprise.

For a few years, I subscribed to eMusic, an online provider of “99-cent tracks”, and downloaded what I thought was an album of Beethoven stage music - including the Ah, Perfido! aria, only to discover that the music was not at all from Mr. Ludwig. I understood the music was sung in French, but couldn’t for the life of me identify the pieces. After I got over my disappointment, I paid close attention to the dialog, and tried to google some of it and finally established I had a recording of Bizet’s one-act opera Le docteur Miracle, with selections from other Bizet stage works.

The libretto of the opera (or operetta, depending on your sources) by Léon Battu and Ludovic Halévy, is based on R.B. Sheridan's play Saint Patrick's Day. Bizet wrote the work when he was just 18 years old for a competition organized by Jacques Offenbach. He shared first prize with Charles Lecocq. His reward was to have the piece performed 11 times at Offenbach's Bouffes-Parisiennes.

The general plot revolves around a common premise, that of forbidden love. Silvio, a young officer, courts the mayor’s daughter Laurette, with whom he has fallen in love. The mayor, who has an aversion to the military, has got wind of their relationship and had forbidden Laurette to have anything to do with soldiers. The plot twists and turns: Silvio poses as hired help, concocts a disgusting omelette – which is later claimed to be poisoned. The mayor is terrified, and in comes Doctor Miracle to the rescue with an antidote; he (Silvio in disguise) offers to cure the mayor in return for Laurette’s hand in marriage. As you probably guessed, the omelette wasn’t poisoned after all. Thoroughly outwitted, the mayor offers Laurette to Silvio and the opera ends in an ensemble in which they all agree that the phony doctor did after all have the cure for everything, which is Love.

Based on my research, the discography of this youthful work is quite sparse; in my opinion, this recording provides an honest performance of this rarely heard operetta.

Happy Listening