Benjamin Lévy

Orchestre national de Cannes, Benjamin Levy – Croisette (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:48 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

The Années Folles (“Crazy Years”) of the title of this release from the Orchestre National de Cannes were the “Roaring Twenties,” and the Croisette is a seaside road and promenade in Cannes, France. Today, the Croisette boasts lifestyles of the rich and famous, but in the 1920s, its atmosphere flavored the French operetta genre. That genre is now almost forgotten, although it was popular even outside France in its day; some of the songs of composer Maurice Yvain showed up in the Ziegfeld Follies revues and film in the U.S. Yvain, like most of the other composers here, is obscure nowadays, although a few “name” composers like André Messager and Reynaldo Hahn wrote operettas as well and are also represented. The operettas fall into 19th century tradition, and there is hardly a hint of the American musical theater or popular song that were beginning to make their way into other forms of French music; the motor rhythms are those of Offenbach, not jazz. The mood is light and even satirical. The biggest representation here goes to Yvain, whose Pas sur la bouche (“Not on the Mouth”) is excerpted several times and whose humor has survived the intervening century. Nearly everything is vivacious and fun, and conductor Benjamin Levy’s cast of singers is enthusiastic, brings the requisite clarity of diction, and doesn’t overplay the humor. Levy and company have done a real service in unearthing this material, much of which seems to beg for live presentation. – James Manheim
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