Camille Saint-Saëns. La Princesse jaune

CD-Book. Bru Zane Label. French Opera Collection n. 29.

‘Japan was fashionable, people spoke of nothing but Japan, it was all the rage’, wrote Saint-Saëns of the genesis of La Princesse jaune forty years after its publication. Premiered at the Opéra-Comique on 12 June 1872, the work is set in Holland and relates an amorous conflict: Kornélis dreams only of Japan and – under the influence of a hallucinogenic potion – falls in love with Ming, a fantasy princess. His cousin Léna despairs of this passion and does not dare to confess her own feelings to Kornélis, who nevertheless eventually comes to his senses. The score alternates six numbers – including a splendid duet lasting almost fifteen minutes – with spoken dialogue. Saint-Saëns wrote that the work’s final numbers were among the best things he had done in the theatre. Yet he acknowledged that ‘this innocent little work was received with the most ferocious hostility’. And for good reason: the modernity of the discourse, the rich harmonies and the innovative orchestration were bound to disconcert audiences and critics.

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