Méhul - Uthal

The Guardian 60

Deshayes/Beuron/Bou/Les Talens Lyriques/Choeur de Chambre de Namur/Rousset
(Palazzetto Bru Zane/Ediciones Singulares)

Palazzetto Bru Zane’s exhumation of 19th-century operas continues with Uthal by Étienne-Nicolas Méhul, a leading composer in post-Revolution France getting renewed attention on the 200th anniversary of his death. Composed in 1806 for Paris’s Opéra Comique, it’s only an hour long, and a quarter of that is dialogue, delivered here in suitably melodramatic style by a classy Francophone cast. Méhul’s score is initially intriguing in its dark-tinted, violin-less soundworld, and forward-looking, too – the storm overture, all buzzing violas and wheeling woodwind, isn’t a million miles from Wagner’s Die Walküre. Nothing that follows quite lives up to it – even a celebrated hymn for four bards with the heroine soaring on top. Christophe Rousset’s crisp-sounding orchestra brings the score to life, as do the gleaming soprano Karine Deshayes, tenor Yann Beuron and bass Jean-Sébastien Bou, chewing the scenery as the deposed king. But the chorus of warriors, singing neatly from far back in the mix, are a pushover.