La Navarraise with Henri Cain, another frequent associate of Massenet’s. Both feature a mezzosoprano as the central and only female character, and both use a small cast. They are as close to Italian verismo as French music gets.
had been a witness at her wedding. In 1875 Massenet’s librettist Jules Claretie had published a weighty study of the affair entitled Camille Desmoulins, Lucille Desmoulins: Étude sur les Dantonistes. The link between the young woman executed in 1793 and Thérèse is made very clear in Massenet’s Mes Souvenirs when he tells of his visit in 1905 to the former Carmelite convent where Lucille had been incarcerated. Massenet was accompanied by mezzo-soprano Lucy Arbell who was moved to tears when painter and historian Georges Cain recalled the young woman’s tragic fate.
In his far from hagiographic article on Massenet for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Martin Cooper observed that Thérèse lives through her emotions, torn between two men, ‘of whom one stirs her admiration and the other her love’. He quotes Massenet as saying ‘Thérèse is my heart, Jongleur my Ms Arbell was clearly faith’, a curious remark, the other inspiration given the choice that for the character of Thérèse makes. She Thérèse. Born Georgette chooses André, in a Wallace, granddaughter gesture of fidelity and of Sir Richard Wallace, respect for his ideals, Bt, Ms Arbell was over Armand, the enjoying a brilliant sweetheart of her youth career at the Opéra when whom she still loves. If Massenet wrote for her we include La Navarraise the role of Perséphone in the comparison, in Ariane, which was we observe that it is premiered at the Palais Anita’s passionate love Garnier in 1906. For for Araquil that leads Lucy Arbell as Persèphone in Massenet’s Ariane. Along her to commit a violent with Lucille Desmoulins, she was one of the female the first performance inspirations for the title character of Thérèse. of Thérèse in Monte crime without any Carlo, Massenet consideration for her insisted that the decor in the first act should safety or for her political ideals. It is Anita, then, be a faithful reproduction of Bagatelle, a small who follows her heart while Thérèse is guided by pavilion in the Bois de Boulogne which was in her moral principles. Lucy Arbell’s family. Built in 1777 by the Comte Thérèse takes place during the Terror (1793–94), d’Artois, younger brother of Louis XVI, Bagatelle the darkest period of the French Revolution, and had narrowly escaped destruction during the two women inspired the character of Thérèse. Revolution, after which it was bought and restored The first, Lucille Desmoulins, was guillotined in by the Marquis of Hertford in the 1830s. His 1793, eight days after her husband, the lawyer and natural son Sir Richard, Lucy’s grandfather, lived journalist Camille Desmoulins. The execution there until his death in 1890. It was sold to the city order had been signed by a revolutionary of Paris in 1904 and in May 1906, Massenet visited committee which included Robespierre, who
42
Thérèse / La Navarraise