Ambroise Thomas
Ambroise Thomas was born in Metz, France, on August 5, 1811. Between 1828 and 1832 he attended the Paris Conservatory where he won numerous prizes including the Prix de Rome. After his three-year stay in Rome, where he wrote some orchestral and chamber music, he returned to Paris in 1836 and devoted himself to writing operas. The first was La double échelle, produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1837. His first success was realized in 1843 with Mina, and in 1866 the opera by which he is remembered, Mignon, was triumphantly introduced at the Opéra-Comique. Later operas included Hamlet (1868) and Françoise de Rimini (1882). In 1851, Thomas was elected member of the French Academy. In 1871 he was appointed director of the Paris Conservatory, and in 1894 he was the recipient of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. He died in Paris on February 12, 1896.
Mignon represents the French lyric theater at its best, with its graceful melodies, charming moods, and courtly grace of style. Its world première took place at the Opéra-Comique on November 17, 1866. In less than a century it was given over two thousand performances by that company besides becoming a staple in the repertory of opera houses the world over. The opera is based on Goethe’s novel, Wilhelm Meister, adapted by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier. Mignon is a gypsy girl purchased by Wilhelm Meister. She falls in love with him and is heartbroken to discover how he is attracted to the actress, Philine. She tells the demented Lothario of her sorrow and of her wish that Meister’s castle be burned to the ground. Lothario then proceeds to set Meister’s castle aflame. Mignon, caught therein, is saved by Meister and then gently nursed back to health. Meister now realizes he is in love with her and her alone. When the demented Lothario regains his sanity we learn that Mignon is in actuality his daughter and that the castle he has burned is not Meister’s but his own.
Parts of this opera are better known than the whole, and through these parts Mignon remains deservedly popular on semi-classical programs. The Overture makes extended use of two of the opera’s main melodies. The first is “Connais-tu le pays,” (“Knowest Thou the Land?”), Mignon’s poignant first-act aria in which she recalls her childhood in some distant land; the melody is given in the wind instruments after a brief introduction. The second aria is Philine’s polonaise, “Je suis Titania” (“I am Titania”) from the second scene of the second act.
Another delightful orchestral episode from this opera is a suave, graceful little gavotte heard as entr’acte music just before the rise of the second-act curtain.
The Raymond Overture is even more popular than that to Mignon. Raymond was first performed at the Opéra-Comique on June 5, 1851. The overture opens with a spirited section punctuated with dashing chords. A serene transition, highlighted by a passage for solo cello, brings on a light, tuneful air in the violins against sharply accented plucked strings; a graceful countermelody for the woodwind follows. This appealing material is repeated at some length with embellishments and amplifications until a new thought is asserted: a brisk, march-like melody that slowly gains in sonority and tempo until a climactic point is reached in which this march melody is forcefully given by the full orchestra. The strings then offer a sentimental melody by way of temporary relief. But the overture ends in a dramatic and spirited mood with a finale statement of the march tune.