César Franck. Hulda

CD-Book. Bru Zane Label. French Opera Collection n. 36.

Hulda, completed in 1885, was never staged in César Franck’s lifetime. This gory medieval legend recounts the multiple acts of vengeance its heroine inflicts on the Aslak clan, which slaughtered her family, and on her unfaithful lover Eiolf. Although the imaginary Norwegian setting brings Wagner to mind, the composer continues the tradition of French grand-opéra while adopting the contemporary Verdian idiom. The intensity of the action is reflected in harmonic and instrumental experiments that place Franck in the vanguard of the modernists of his time. The inventiveness of the ballet is matched only by the splendour of the choral writing. How could such a masterpiece have languished in oblivion for so long? Quite simply, because it was deliberately buried by Franck's pupils, who preferred to conserve the image of a composer of ‘pure’ music and to keep for themselves the glory of personifying the French operatic revival. But injustices are made to be redressed, and the team of artists placed under the direction of Gergely Madaras devotes itself to the task with exemplary conviction.

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