François-Adrien Boieldieu - LA DAME BLANCHE - Trio: "Grand Dieu! que viens-je donc d'entendre?"

LA DAME BLANCHE Opéra comique en 3 actes Composer: François-Adrien Boieldieu Libretto : Eugène Scribe, after Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering and The Monastery First performance : Opéra-Comique (Théâtre Feydeau), Paris, 10 December 1825 PLOT: Scotland, 1759. The White Lady is the ghost who watches over the estate of the counts of Avenel, whose last member supported the Stuarts, was condemned and fled to France. Anna, a young orphan raised by the count, pretends to be the White Lady to stop the wicked steward Gaveston from buying the estate. Georges Brown, a young soldier, turns out to be the long-lost heir; he purchases the estate and marries Anna. Boieldieu’s DAME BLANCHE was one of the most popular operas of the nineteenth century. It was performed 1,637 times between 1825 and 1900, and received its 1,000th performance in 1864. Today, it is almost forgotten. This is a pity, because the opera is charming. Félix Clément said the ingredients of its perennial success were “an agreeable mise en scène; an amiable soldier, easily amorous and not impassioned; situations which one never takes seriously; graceful and varied episodes with a leavening of poetry and sentiment; musical knowledge without pedantry and understandable by everyone, and a perpetual melody in the voices and the orchestra.” No. 5 – Trio : « Grand Dieu ! que viens-je donc d’entendre ? » Dikson has received a letter from the White Lady, telling him to go to the Castle of Avenel, but is too frightened to go. The soldier Georges Brown decides to go instead. Georges Brown: Michel Sénéchal Dikson: Aimé Doniat Jenny: Jane Berbié Conductor : Pierre Stoll Orchestre Symphonique de Paris Paris, 1961